Is this Toyota ad an homage or a rip-off?

Is it intentional that this Toyota Corolla ad is a ripoff of a commercial from the 1970s in which someone cut a diamond in the back of a car to prove how smooth the ride was? I want to say it was for a Ford or a Chrysler. What was more memorable was a "Saturday Night Live" spoof of the original ad featuring Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner in which a newborn was circumcised by a rabbi in the back seat of the "Royal Deluxe II."

Here are Ellen DeGeneres' live Toyota spots

Found the two "live" commercials Ellen DeGeneres did on her show for the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. The first is above; you can watch the second by clicking here. From what I read, it was DeGeneres' idea to hearken back to the live-on-tape commercials of old, and at the beginning of the one above, she riffs briefly on all of the old talk show hosts, each of whom would tell viewers "about his favorite brand of cigarettes." In DeGeneres' hands (as long as she doesn't cry about dogs during the same show), the gambit surely works. One, because she's such a deft comedienne, and two, because, unlike endorsers in days of yore, it's more likely that the live pitch-person actually believes in the product. Oh, and there's a third thing--that the commercial is way intrusive. My only question is ... what would David Letterman endorse? Saatchi & Saatchi helped, but make no mistake, this is DeGeneres' show.