Los Angeles, CA -- Late night television wouldn't be the same if it hadn't been for an event that happened 20 years ago: The airing of the very first infomercial.

According to infomercial historian Steve Dworman, the first glorified commercial was for the Herbalife multi-level marketing company and aired sometime in the fall of 1984.

However, the new advertising genre didn't really take off until 1985, when a crop of real estate gurus decided to make infomercials about their money-making systems.

Since then, products have become the mainstay of infomercials and Dworman says the history is filled with highs and lows.

One particularly horrible flop of an informercial starred Dolly Parton and promoted a new line of cosmetics made by Revlon: The problem was, no one wanted to look like Dolly Parton.

Another big loser was a hair straightening product called Rio Hair, which inadvertently made people lose their locks.

Dworman shares other informercial secrets in the book, "$12 Billion of Inside Marketing Secrets Discovered Through Direct Response Television Sales" (SDE Publishing).

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