E.T. And Henry Thomas Return To Sell Xfinity Cable Service, Make GenXers Cry

As I was watching the new 4-minute video for Xfinity where E.T. returns the house of a now-middle-aged Elliott (Henry Thomas) and enjoys the virtue of voice-activated remotes and fast internet service, I inevitably thought two things: 1) This video is awesome! It brings me right back to my childhood!, and 2) Damn you to hell, Comcast, for using one of the ’80s most beloved movie icons to sell cable service! All the while, tears were welling up in the corners of my eyes.

In the video, Elliott’s kids find E.T. wandering the backyard of the house where their dad grew up and now lives. E.T., not knowing what else to do, says “Ell…i…ott?” Elliott introduces his old buddy to his family and says “A lot has changed.” One of the kids shows him the internet and E.T. mocks the kids “mind blown” gesture. He gets knocked over by a dinosaur he sees in a set of VR glasses. But the family has offline fun, too, stuffing his face with a Reese’s Pieces cupcake and playing in the snow the next day. Then the whole family snuggles together to watch holiday movies.

That’s when the selling is over and the waterworks kick in; Elliott sees that E.T. is sad, which is when the wrinkly guy shows Elliott a hologram of his own family, and goes “Hooooome.” The rest is what you’d expect, except Elliott’s kids help the little dude get back to his ship with the rousing nighttime bike flight, backed by John Williams’ soaring score, that likely made every GenXer watching start to bawl their eyes out.

The video aired during NBC’s coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and on other Comcast-owned cable channels, and with the onslaught of Disney+ publicity, we get why Comcast would want resurrect one of Universal Pictures’ most beloved movies to remind viewers that they have a lot to offer besides fast internet.

But, given how we’ve seen characters from our childhood used poorly to sell 2020s tech (The Muppets on those awful Facebook Portal ads are a big example), Comcast could have screwed this up very badly. Instead, they kept the selling part relatively short and decided to tug at the heart of every person who saw E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial when it was first released in 1982 (I saw it for my 11th birthday on a sneak preview week, before it went into wide release). Will that make people stop cutting the cable cord? Who knows? But at least it’s a reminder that Disney isn’t the only company that will let you relive your childhood.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial On Hulu