Shattered bones and month-long coma not included – The Further Adventures of Evel Knievel

I can see having an action figure and motorcycle that you can jump off of things, and Mr. Knievel’s persona was certainly well-suited for those activities. Just watching this commercial for these doohickeys makes me want to build some ramps on my living room floor:

It’s the items in the lower right-hand corner that are a bit odd. Mine rescue? Arctic wilderness? Jungle explorer? Huh? I can understand the impulse to “expand the brand,” but those things might have been a bridge too far.

I’ll say this for Knievel — he had a set of balls. Here’s the Caesars Palace crash that made him famous, and it’s not for that faint of heart, especially if you don’t want to see a man’s legs flopping around grotesquely:

I say again — jungle explorer? “Dr. Knievel, I presume.”