It Happened One Year

While an especially bad year for celebrity deaths, 1994 was particularly devastating on the field of comedy, taking a big group of super talented folks from us, and many at far too young an age. Sarah & Joe, in typical fashion befitting longtime death pool participants, focus on the positives, and try to celebrate the joy brought to us all from these major figures in the field. Batman TV actor Ces...

It may be a new year for the world, but it's still 1994 around these parts! Sarah & Joe take a quick look at the life and times of famed actor and pitchman Telly Savalas, who left behind quite the body of interesting work 28 years ago! Almost certainly best remembered for his massive hit detective show of the 1970's Kojak, Savalas' lengthy career before and after is explored, through discussions o...

It is the eve of the Major League Baseball strike - August 11th, 1994 - and acting commissioner Bud Selig sits alone in his offices, as solitary as an oyster. With the work stoppage looming and the season in jeopardy, he is visited by the ghost of former commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, warning him that the only chance of averting this crisis comes in the form of three spirits, who hope to infor...

It wasn't all hand-over-fist success stories back in 1994, no sir! There were also ego driven flights of fancy and wild money-making schemes that backfired royally! Sarah & Joe dive deep into this pack of '94 boondoggles, including the Steven Spielberg theme restaurant Dive!, Joseph Heller's Catch-22 sequel Closing Time, the Canadian Football League's ill-advised expansion into America, and Fox's...

A show centered squarely in 1994 shouldn't often try to influence modern decision making, but the ongoing Supreme Court crisis cannot be ignored here at It Happened One Year! Sarah & Joe take us along separate, parallel journeys through court history, as Sarah details the life and times of '94 appointee Stephen Breyer, his early life, education, judicial career, and opinions opposite Joe's journey...

It's further adventures in audio chaos as It Happened One Year looks at the life and career of 1994 baby Saoirse Ronan! From her near-miss casting in the Harry Potter series to her many Academy Award nominations, Ronan's place as darling of the indie circuit is discussed, along with Sarah & Joe's speculation as to if/when she will finally land in a major Hollywood franchise and make that sweet fra...

Ostensibly designed to discuss three large news stories in the general vicinity of 1994 - Michael Fay's walloping adventure in Singapore, the epic showdown between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan at the Lillehammer Olympics, and the violent dissolution of John and Lorena Bobbitt's marriage - this entry in the IHOY catalog spends the most time gushing over the sheer genius of one "Weird Al" Yankov...

Gather up your literature cronies, put the kettle on, and cozy up to a roaring fire as Sarah & Joe invite you to quite possibly the only book club episode this season! 1994 featured plenty of popular book releases - with the usual suspects topping the sales charts, such as John Grisham, Stephen King, and Robert James Waller. When choosing a subject for this read-along episode, the hosts debated th...

Did you ever think how breathtakingly loopy it would be to grab one of your dumb buddies and attempt to circumnavigate the globe using only human power? No engines, no sails - nothing! Just spit and sweat and gumption! Well, that's basically what two intrepid, inexperienced British lads chose to do, setting off from Greenwich, London on July 12th, 1994! Sarah & Joe contemplate the many obstacles a...

The 1994 Broadway season was highlighted by the industry-shaking arrival of the stage adaptation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast - an otherwise unremarkable show which nonetheless changed the way musicals got made from that point forward. Previous successful movie-to-stage musical transformations of the '80s and '90s - including Kiss of the Spider Woman, Nine, Grand Hotel, and Little Shop of Horr...

While sitting at the 49'er Drive-In Theatre in Valparaiso, Indiana waiting for Jungle Cruise to begin, Sarah & Joe made the ill-fated decision to find all the news items and notable firsts that took place in the Hoosier State in 1994. The result? This brief, chaotic thirty-fourth episode of It Happened One Year!  The 78th Indianapolis 500 is given a hearty look, along with season recaps for the In...

It Happened One Year famously broke down NBC's cross-sitcom promotion of November 3rd, 1994, "Blackout Thursday", way back in Episode 13, but then wondered, what were the counter offerings on that fateful night of television? This unearthed the insane ABC pairing of the legendary high school drama My So-Called Life and the elderly courtroom antics of Matlock - which brought up a lot of questions....

In direct opposition to the earlier episode covering forgotten wonders, this week It Happened One Year heralds the heavy hitters, the master blasters, the success juggernauts that emerged in 1994! Sarah & Joe have much debate over the title of this episode, before launching into an extended, uncomfortable look at Sex.com and the adult website industry, before pivoting to safer tech spaces like Ama...

To commemorate this week's brand new Halloween special on Disney+, It Happened One Year is taking a look at the status of Jim Henson's Muppets circa 1994, through the lens of that year's projects Muppet Classic Theater and the comedy album Kermit Unpigged! Sarah & Joe breakdown what works and doesn't in this era, following the impact of Jim and Richard Hunt's deaths, and how MCT was indicative of...

It's a psychedelic, mud-splattered trip back to the music festivals of yore, as It Happened One Year covers the landmark concert sequel Woodstock '94 from Saugerties, NY, in this groovy thirtieth episode! Sarah & Joe compare and contrast various elements from the original 1969 concert and the disastrous 1999 version with the somewhat overlooked middle show, from the lineups to the amount of availa...

It's another dealer's choice, and it's Sarah's birthday, so you can probably guess how this one turns out! To celebrate her big day, the hosts discuss the now-classic Disney animated offering of 1994 - Savannah Hamlet, a.k.a. The Lion King! A comprehensive trip through '80s and '90s Disney flicks is taken, touching on everything from The Black Cauldron to Hercules, with significant time spent comp...

Things get mad highbrow this week on It Happened One Year, as Sarah & Joe wander down the unfamiliar avenues of the art world and the famed, low-tech thefts of 1994! Come along as they discuss the retrieval of the long lost, largely forgotten, considered possibly mythical Raphael painting "Madonna and Child with Lamb" or "Madonna With the Hay," with no few Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and singer/a...

The comprehensive tragedy of the early '90s Buffalo Bills culminated with their fourth consecutive championship game loss in Super Bowl XXVIII against the Dallas Cowboys in January of 1994. So monumental is this event that Sarah & Joe are not podcasters enough to handle it alone, thus It Happened One Year is bringing in special commentators to share the excitement! Western New York natives abound...

In a transitional year across the spectrum of world events, politics, entertainment, and sports such as 1994, certain voids naturally open up and rare chances present themselves. Two groups who absolutely capitalized on these lucky opportunities are the seemingly disparate entities of the NBA's Houston Rockets and the G.O.P. of the American political structure! Sarah & Joe discuss how Michael Jord...

It Happened One Year delivers its landmark twenty-fifth episode, looping all the way back to the premiere with a deep dive into the late F. Lee Bailey's career! Sarah & Joe talk O.J. yet again (including wild speculation about who may have committed the murders, if the Juice is to be believed), and then delve into the Bailey case history for a look at the famed Sam Sheppard trial, the "Boston Stra...

In a year as jam packed with classic entertainment and landmark inventions as 1994, some things were bound to fall through the cracks of history – but Sarah & Joe are here to thrust them back into the limelight in this heroic twenty-fourth episode! Come along as the hosts whirl from personal favorite films (Love Affair, The Fantastic Four) to TV shows (Saved by the Bell: The College Years, Herman’...

Wrapping up this tour of '94 born luminaries is the tale of former Chicago Bears quarterback and local media punching bag Mitchell Trubisky! From the mysterious circumstances surrounding the Bears drafting the Tar Heel hurler in 2017 through his being named the Nickelodeon's Valuable Player in his final game with the team (a playoff loss to the Saints this past January), Sarah & Joe go deep into C...

The second piece of a valiant effort to highlight some 1994 babies rolls out with model/media personality Courtney Stodden, best known for marrying the considerably older Doug Hutchison back in 2011 (when he was 51 and Courtney was all of 16) and for their role in the somewhat-ongoing apology tour of Twitter figure/celebrity Chrissy Teigen. Sarah & Joe struggle to use the correct pronouns (Courtne...

A misguided belief that three 1994 babies could be covered in a single episode brings us to the first in a trio of episodes, also centered on a misguided belief! Child of '94 Fredrick Brennan is in the spotlight as we explore his major contribution to society - the nightmarish imageboard 8chan - and its most infamous members, the hyper conspiracy-trolling, insurrection-inspiring, downfall-of-ratio...

The gang from Police Squad! pulled it together one final time in the spring of 1994 to supply a third film in the Naked Gun series, right before O.J. effectively torpedoed the whole franchise! Sarah & Joe take an extensive look at the entire Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker catalog, from the Kentucky Fried Movie through to the 21st century knock-offs of the genre, while also exploring the mysteries of the N...