From the Houston Business Journal comes news that burger franchise Carl's Jr. will be opening over 100 stores in Texas, with several planned for the Houston area.  Although it's not yet known how many Carl's Jr.'s will be opened or where they'll be located, hamburger enthusiasts are already starting to salivate.

Aside from their purposely ostentatious menu items -- such as their Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger with onion rings underneath the patties and their Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger which weighs in at 1,140 calories and 85 grams of fat -- Carl's Jr. is also known for their flamboyant and hilarious commercials.  So while we wait for the good folks at Hardee's to decide which lucky corner of Houston will get that first Carls' Jr., let's have a look back at some of their best commercials throughout the years.

Flat Buns: The baselessly controversial commerical featuring a sexy teacher with "flat buns" that advertised Carl Jr.'s new patty melt. 

Paris Hilton: The now infamous commerical featuring Paris Hilton that was compared to *shudder* soft-core porn.

Mechanical Bull: The eyebleach remedy to the commercial above, featuring a much more attractive woman lasciviously riding a mechanical bull. Oh, yeah. It's for some kind of western cheesebu......huh? I'm sorry, this is incredibly distracting.

Choking Dogs: And now for something completely different.

Fake Restaurant: And then there are the current commericals wherein Carl's has set up an entirely fake restaurant, charging customers $16 for a burger before revealing Candid Camera-style that they're eating a much cheaper Carl's burger instead.

David Hasselhoff: Of course, no list of Carl's videos would be complete without the worst advertisement for their burgers ever.

The first of the restaurants aren't scheduled to open until at least the end of 2009, so start looking for these and more Carl's Jr. commercials to hit your TV around the holiday season.

--- Katharine Shilcutt