If you miss the McDonald's mascot Mayor McCheese made popular during the 1970s, head to bringbackthemayor.com to combine your powers with other fans suffering from Mayor McCheese withdrawal. There isn't much suffering going on though, judging from the number of signatures on the petition and number of "likes" on the Facebook page: 2529 and 145 respectively at the time of this writing.

As for what happened to Mayor McCheese, he was phased out after TV producers Sid and Marty Krofft won a lawsuit against McDonald's for copyright infringement on the grounds that McDonald was a ripoff of their show, H.R. Pufnstuf. Mayor McCheese = H.R. Pufnstuf with a burger-for-a-head, sort of. McDonald's wasn't exactly subtle in their imitation of H.R. Pufnstuf; the Kroffts had been asked to do an ad campaign by McDonald's ad agency Needham Harper & Steers in 1970, but were told it had been canceled before McDonaldland commercials debuted in 1971—commercials brought to life with the help of former employees of the Kroffts. The Kroffts sued in 1973 and the case wasn't settled until 1977.

Mayor McCheese isn't legally banned from appearing again, though. In a recent interview, Marty Krofft explained, "When we settled with them, which was not for a ton of money, they had a right to use those characters." [via Metafilter]

And for your viewing pleasure, here are some video clips featuring Mayor McCheese.

McDonaldland Song

McElection

1970 McDonaldland 'Say Cheeseburger' Commercial

1970 McDonalds Breakfeast Commercial

Did you grow up during the heyday of McDonaldland? Do these videos bring back joyful memories? Or was your tender child brain forever scarred by Ronald McDonald and friends?