It was busy. Oh god...the line is BUSY!

God, there were so many 900 numbers for kids to call from the late 70's on up through the 80's. I often wonder how many kids were allowed to actually call as per parents permission or just called and the parents ended up with a nice little surprise on their phone bill after little Billy called the number 15 times without their knowledge?

Not that I would know anything about that or anything.

Can you even call 900 numbers with a cell phone? I have not even thought about that.

Anyone remember Dial-A-Joke? Or how about the scary Halloween stories?

you had to call 6 times to get the free action figure, and then send a copy of your phone bill with the calls circled. of course i know this because i called one time.

the call didn't even begin a story, it just cut in wherever the loop was at. so you didn't get the whole story without listening longer. and the address and figure info were rattled off fast, making it difficult to write down

I called one of those "scary Halloween stories" once when I was a kid. The story was so non-scary, I never called them again.

I remember my little brother called those numbers a lot (There wasn't a lot to do in rural Michigan in the summer in the 1980s). My parents were less than pleased when they got the phone bill that month, IIRC.

Good thing that kind of rampant wasteage of money via calling stuff is gone.

He-Man: "Hello caller! Would you like to hear about my latest battle with Skeletor?"
Caller: "Actually, I want to talk about your sword"
He-Man: "Sure. What do you want to know?"
Caller: "How big is it? Is it longer than 9 inches? I bet it takes both hands to hold it."
He-Man: "Absolutely! And I love swinging it around!"
Caller: (breathing heavily) "Oh, God...yes...telll me more!"
He-Man: "Teela's always begging me to use my sword, but I bet she can't handle it!"
Caller: "(moans loudly) Please tell me you let Man-At-Arms use it...oh yessss...."
He-Man: "His huge hands were made to handle my sword! Such a firm, strong grip! But gentle and loving at the same time!"
Caller: "(loud moaning) OH FUCK! BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!"
He-Man: "Yes! That's the spirit!"
Caller: "Ummm...I gotta go...um...clean up...I spilled something..."
He-Man: "Sure! Next time I'll tell about the time Beast Man had me chained up in a dungeon!"
Caller: (whispering) "Oh thank you, Sweet Baby Jesus!"

i remember those ads for those 900 hundred numbers including the one for freddy and also one for woody woodpecker. those things just proved advertizers were doing any thing to get kids to buy their stuff.

FuryofFirestorm:

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! YOU'VE...YOU'VE CREATED A WHOLE NEW KIND OF EROTIC FANFICTION! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALLLL!

Seriously though, I'm both impressed and disgusted. Good job. Now go get some therapy.

What? no...i live for this.

$2.00? Doesn't 1980's monopoly money translate into like, $20.00 in today's money? Or something like that... Either way, holy crap that's an expensive phone call, even by today's standards...

FuryofFirestorm: You win an internet. Several of them.

Everyone else playing loses an internet.

@FuryofFirestorm: Thanks for making me laugh so hard... I really needed it.

@furyoffirestorm i am absolutely impressed, good job mate.

Damn you FurryofFirestorm you beat me to the puch. Wait was there a Super Friends line and or a She-ra phone number.

Just to jog some memorys in the Who Framed Roger Rabbit video game you have to call a phone number to get the rest of the way threw the video game.

So how does this work, do we pay FuryofFirestorm now or will he send us a bill?

I seem to remember calling a G.I. Joe one at some point. Of course, in retrospect, a young boy talking to Shipwreck on the other end of the line probably wasn't such a great idea.

I wonder if there's an archive anywhere of the audio from these sorts of call in lines. Now that would be fun to get a hold of.