In this 1999 return to the big game for Apple -- it last backed the Super Bowl in 1985's "Lemmings" -- the voice of Hal from "2001: A Space Odyssey" calmly engages in a little fearmongering about the looming Y2K bug.

The year 2000 after all had everyone worrying that computers -- particularly Windows-powered computers -- that stored years as just two digits might regard 2000 as the equivalent of 1900.

"Hello, Dave," Hal says, addressing the mission commander from the Stanley Kubrick sci-fi classic. Dave isn't shown (we the viewers are stand-ins for Dave); all we see is Hal's glowing red computer eye, which comes to dominate the screen in an ominous slow-pan close-up show. "You're looking well, today. Dave, do you remember the Year 2000, when computers began to misbehave?... The human programmers never taught us to recognize the year 2000. ... Only Macintosh was designed to function perfectly."

The ad, via TBWA/Chiat/Day, closes with the logotype of Apple's tagline at the time -- "Think Different" -- though the delightfully candy-colored new iMac, then just six months old, got no screen time.

Apple at one point said it had changed its mind about running this ad in Super Bowl XXXIII, sending Fox back into the market, but the spot wound up appearing on game day nonetheless.

Director: Mark Coppos.

BRAND: Apple

YEAR: 1999

AGENCY: TBWA/Chiat/Day

SUPERBOWL: XXXIII