In the 1980's, Shadoe Stevens was retained to devise an advertising strategy and branding campaign for a 14 store electronics chain known as the Federated Group. He created and played a character named Fred Rated in a series of commercials that were a mix of Saturday Night Live and Monty Python. Over a period of six years, he and a small team of artists: Chris Culverhouse, Chuck Cirino, Michael Hill, Dave Nichols, and Ed Freeman, created over 1,200 different commercials.