Battle of the Network Shows

The Old West comes to BOTNS in this season's Retro-Retro episode. Chuck Connors stars as Lucas "The Rifelman" McCain in this half-hour oater from the late fifties and early sixties. In "Ordeal," Lucas and his son Mark find themselves stranded in the desert after their meat salt mining expedition goes awry. Will they make it to safety or end up buzzard food? Find out on this exciting episode of Bat...

In our second listener poll episode of the season, we look at a seventies variety show forma, and Sonny and Cher beat out Donny and Marie and Captain & Tennille for top honors. We discuss an episode from the post-divorce iteration of the show, featuring guests David Steinberg, Shields and Yarnell, and the great Tina Turner! Witty banter, comedy, mime, and music. The only things missing are puppets...

Back in season 5 when we originally covered the classic sitcom MASH, we vowed to return to the later B.J., Potter, Winchester years, and so we have! This time out, Hawkeye's conning himself when he gets a sneezing fit but won't address the root cause. Luckily, for him and us, Potter calls in Dr. Sidney.  #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #mash #alanalda  

This week, we return to a game we've been playing since the beginning of the podcast: The TV Guide Game! Rick digs into his vast collection of old TV Guides and tries to guess what Mike would watch on a particular night in 1982. Pull out your copy of TV Gude from the between the couch cushions and play along!  #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #tvguide #tvguidegame #games  

A confident, passionate physics professor witnesses a bank robbery, and it turns his life upside down. Jose Ferrer's minions paralyze him, but they can't keep him down, and they certainly don't expect his greatest creation ever...Exo-Man! Unfortunately, this 1977 TV movie/series pilot from many of the people behind "The Six Million Dollar Man" doesn't even live up to its potential as a cheap Iron...

What do two Mr. Wilsons, a living mannequin, and Mark Twain have in common? Would you believe Dennis the Menace? We peel back the layers of the various Dennisverses to try to find what makes the tyrannical tyke's dark heart tick. Well, we look at a wild episode of the 1980s animated version and throw in the late '50s, early '60s live action version for good measure, and, yes, that includes a livin...

In 1987, ABC celebrated Independence Day by combining an evening of variety with a rally for literacy. Oprah and Robert Urich host from St. Louis as the likes of Suzanne Somers, Yakov Smirnoff, Barbara Mandell, Atlantic Starr, and a choir of 500 singers entertain from across the country. In between, filmed segments show the different ways America celebrates and provide testimonials from adults who...

In a "Rear Windowesque" moment, Jonathan Hart witnesses a possible mur-DAH. Then in his rush to stop it, he collides with a moped and gets...AMNESIA. Sure, he remembers how to hail a cab, how to dress to the nines, how to live a life of luxury, but he doesn't remember his wife Jennifer, his loyal aide-de-camp Max, his dog Freeway, or the mur-DAH. How will this calamity affect the Harts' marriage,...

Rick has long espoused the theory that adding "new," "all-new," "brand-new," etc. to the title of a show never works creatively or commercially. This week with the help of the BOTNS Games Lab (TM), we put that to the test in more ways than one as he runs Mike through the paces of "The All-New Game"! Ccan he distinguish shows that had "new" versions from those that didn't? #podcast #tv #retrotv #se...

This week, we venture north to Canada, where resourceful, wise, and perhaps supernatural German Shepherd The Littlest Hobo wanders Ontario in search of humans in need of help. This time, the action centers around an arcade, where he finds a deaf guy, a mime, and a grumpy old man and helps stop a couple of nogoodniks bent on robbing the place. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #littlesthob...

In our first listener poll episode of the season, we cover two episodes of the original entertainment news magazine Entertainment Tonight. First up, the series premiere. While the show looks familiar, the hosts might not. Luckily, Burt Reynolds is there to hold the hands the audience and fifty pregnant women. Next, an episode from the classic Mary Hart-John Tesh era. This one has 1986 written all...

Season 11 is now in session, and it opens with a gavel bang as we take on the original Night Court. We focus our attention on the season 5 episode "Another Day in the Life." If Harry and the gang can make it through 207 cases by midnight, an eccentric tycoon will save an orphanage from foreclosure. Wackiness ensues. We also find time to talk about the various cast changes, the pronunciation of Rei...

Live on tape from the Spectrum in Philadelphia, we look back at season 10 and dole out another heap of BATTY Awards on the shows and stars that made the season special. As always, we honor everything from outstanding show to outstanding facial hair with a few surprises in between. Plus, we honor a singular figure with the Robert Pine Genius Award! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #awards...

In our season 10 finale, Christmas Eve arrives in Walnut Grove...but so does a blizzard! The men must head into the storm in a desperate search for the children, who left school early. Bucolic it ain't! We also cover important topics like religion, paste-eating, and orangutans. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #littlehouseontheprairie #michaellandon #melissagilbert #victorfrench #blizzar...

When Buffy (Tom Hanks) and Hildy (Peter Scolari) accidentally drop a water balloon on Richard Milhous Nixon's car, Kip (Tom Hanks) and Henry (Peter Scolari) get into hot water with the Secret Service, and Kip (Tom Hanks) has a mid-twenties crisis. Could "Waterballoongate" mean the end for the Bosom Buddies (Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari)? #podcast #tv #retrotv #eighties #sitcom #bosombuddies #tomhan...

Will Mike's Fame Game hot streak continue, or will it all fall part? Plus, what do "Slylock Fox," the stone age, produce, and bowling balls all have in common? They appear in this episode! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #games #famegame  

This week, we focus on another spoke of the NBC Mystery Wheel with McMillan and Wife, starring Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, and most importantly John Schuck! In "Cop of the Year," Schuck's Sergeant Enright finds himself accused of murdering his ex-wife. He and Mac (with a little help from the great Jon Astin) work to clear his name and find the real killer. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #roc...

In past episodes, we've encountered vampires, space vampires, Frankensteins, and space mummies, but this time, we sink our teeth into a show featuring another monster! In the cult classic "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," intrepid reporter Karl Kochak finds himself stuck on a singles cruise with Dick Gautier, Nita Talbot, and a werewolf! Will anyone believe him? Will anyone stop the man-beast? Will an...

Our Facebook Group voted on a year to cover in our long-running TV Guide Game feature. They ended up in a two-way tie, so this week, we return to the BOTNS Vaults and pull out a TV Guide from 1977. Disney, the Hardy Boys, Ethel Merman, a BOTNS theoretical favorite, and more vie for Mike's viewership. Can Rick guess what he would watch, and if he does, will he celebrate in Jim Crockett's Victory Ga...

In this season's listener poll winner, Michael J. Fox and Nancy McKeon lead a cast of thousands in a story of teen romance, school politics, and class warfare that could only be called High School U.S.A.! Plus a robot! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #tvmovie #michaeljfox #nancymckeon #crispinglover #tonydow #toddbridges #thegreatmichaelzorek #highschoolusa #teencomedy  

This is the one about Garry's Show. In "Go Go Goldblum," Garry Shandling (Garry Shandling) and Jeff Goldblum (Jeff Goldblum) find themselves in quite the pickle. Rick (Rick) and Mike (Mike), on the other hand, don't have any trouble heaping praise on the underappreciated gem It's Garry Shandling's Show. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #itsgarryshandlingsshow #garryshandling #jeffgolodbl...

In this season's Retro-Retro episode, we return to the silver age of TV and TV's wiliest lawyer--the great Perry Mason in "The Case of the Treacherous Toupee." You read that right. Crime, shenannegans, and a toupee! Plus a young Robert Redford! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #fifties #sixties #perrymason #raymondburr #robertredford #lawyers #courtroomdrama  

"Imagine if you will a pyramid of Martins." What could this mean? The wizards in the BOTNS Game Labs have done it again, that's what! Can Mike guess the BOTNS-era celebrity Martins (first or last name) and build the pyramid, or will the pyramid crumble like so many misplaced bricks? #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #game #myfavoritemartin #martin  

If you watched NBC in the seventies and eighties (and nineties), you saw Bob Hope smirking, mugging, singing, dancing, flirting, and reading cue cards. "Bob Hope's All-Star Comedy Spectacular" features all that and a who's who of variety TV from Ann-Margret and Charo to Sammy and Dino, not to mention Mac Davis! Join us as we discuss all this and Texaco! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #...

Before Spider-Man teamed up with Spider-Man and, uh, Spider-Man (let-alone Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Gwen, and Spider-Ham) at the movies, he teamed up with Ice Man and Firestar on Saturday morning TV in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends . Not only that, but in "The X-Men Adventure," Spidey and his friends also join forces with the X-Men to defeat a deranged cyborg with a personal connection to one...