The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

The 2000 edition of "Super Sunday" pitted the St. Louis Rams and the Tennessee Titans in the first Super Bowl of the new millennium. TV viewers were treated in-between action with commercials for Budweiser, trucks, and many dot-com companies! Most of which came and went less than a year following the game. We'll go over some of them in this episode.   Microsoft "Flight Annoucement" - https://adlan...

Before two victories in "The Big Game", before almost all of his Pro Bowl nominations, and before his current squeeze (you know who), Travis Kelce looked for love on a reality program.  Catching Kelce didn't catch on with viewers and neither did Kelce's catch on the series.  What would Taylor say?

We are a week away from The Big Game and, as always, we have some good content lined up.  First up, in a similar spirit to The Flintstones and The Jetsons, Hanna/Barbera created a cartoon about the work and home lives of a family.  This time, as you'd expect this week, the husband was a quarterback on a football team.  Where's Huddles? aired in Summer 1970, then in non-primetime reruns the followi...

Steven Bochco, the genius behind hit shows including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and Doogie Howser, created Cop Rock, which was labeled as being revolutionary and potentially changing the landscape of television.  Despite tons of promotion, the show ran 3 months and has been deemed one of the biggest failures in television history.  Not only do we cover the series as always, but we will feature o...

In an era where game shows were goofy, outrageous, and random, this game show was the goofiest, most outrageous, and the most random.  The Cheap Show was ridiculous, messy, and...well...cheap.  Sorry for the short episode.  There isn't much multimedia out there, nor is there much information about it.

In 1984, history was made after Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman to be on a major party Presidential ticket.  Possibly piggybacking on this historic occasion, the people behind Soap developed a show about a female President trying to balance her work life with running the most powerful country in the world.  After a short run, this entry didn't get a second term, and its replacement became...

By the time you hear this, Chico will have celebrated his birthday.  As is tradition around here, Chico gets to pick a special birthday topic.  He selected this movie which could only be acquired at your local Chuck E. Cheese's redemption center in 1999.  And it's for the best you could only get it there.

In the mid-to-late 2000s, VH-1 was looking for a comedic complement to its highly successful Best Week Ever.  One such complement was this show, created by some names who would go on to bigger and better things, where the home audience decided which short series did not cut the mustard, and which ones would see another week because...they were acceptable (dot) tv.

In television history, there have been several attempts at becoming a viable competitor to ABC, NBC, and CBS.  Some have succeeded (FOX), while others were not so lucky (MyTV, PAX).  In this installment, we turn the clock back to the mid-60s where a mogul in the warehouse industry started his own network which had a name change before going to air, aired one series in its existence, and lasted a m...

After covering the passing of a character in episode 443, we look at the more tragic side of what happens when someone on a show passes away in real life.  This episode gets into some potentially disturbing topics.  Listener discretion is advised.

This week, we're taking a look at what happens when deaths occur on TV shows.  To start, we look at a handful of incidents where a character dies in a TV show, why the character dies, and how a show handles such an occurrence.  This episode does not talk about actual actor passings; we will cover that subject on Thursday.

In the fourth edition of It Was a Thing on TV Presents: Before the Show, Mike and Greg discuss the recent news of the merger between the USFL and the XFL as the new version of the United Football League (UFL). They also discuss "Steamboat Willie" and the OG Mickey Mouse entering the public domain along with the really bad horror attempts with Mickey along with Greg recently getting a PS5. Then, Ch...

Timing can and very might have been the reason The Tim Conway Show did not have a longer life, even going from an hour to a half an hour for season 2.  As is most anything with Tim Conway, it was entertaining.  The rest of the cast was great.  Unfortunately, the variety show was a dying breed in 1980.

Happy 2024!  We start the new year with a show that debuted 30 years ago this week.  It only ran the typical 13 episodes.  Comparisons were made to more successful shows on TV at the time, though at least one of us saw a very raw version of a show which would become a hit two seasons later with one of the show's performers.

We wrap up 2023 by talking about some of the people who made bad decisions this year, a selection of our favorite shows of the year, and looking back at those who we lost.

History was made on Thursday Night as Kansas State and NC State played in the first-ever Pop-Tarts Bowl! Hilarity ensued as the winning team not only won a trophy with Pop-Tarts sticking out but the game's mascot a six-foot tall Pop-Tart was eaten at the end of the game! Mike, Greg and Chico saw this and had to share their reaction to this incredible moment!

As is tradition on this podcast, we look at the news, events, and happenings in 2023 to close out the year.  In this part, we cover the news and some of the shows which ended in 2023.

In 1985 and 1986, David Letterman presented two special episodes of Late Night with David Letterman around the holiday season highlighting short films by various celebrities. We analyze these short films and offer our commentary in this holiday episode of It Was a Thing on TV.   1985 segments "PMS - Premenstrual Syndrome" (Andrea Martin/Catherine O'Hara) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwLTCayIe...

Today is the 40th Anniversary of Tom Poston's mini-coma at the Super Match on The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. In honor of this moment we present an outtake between episodes of a taping in 2020 as Mike gives some play-by-play of this legendary moment. This outtake was heard in Episode 100 but this is the first time we are presenting this by itself.

In our annual episode where you pick the topic, we gave you 3 shows from which to choose.  The show with the most votes was this one, a one-season classic about an Old West bounty hunter avenging his father's death, with science fiction and steampunk elements.

Our mini-tribute to the new Aquaman cinematic release comes to an end with this series which was marine-adjacent about the last survivor from an underwater civilization.  Four TV movies were made, with decent enough ratings to merit a series, one that lasted an additional 13 entries.

In theaters soon is a new Aquaman movie and in honor of its release, we have two special episodes dedicated to it.  First, we start with a pilot which should have made it to air but the timing may have been horrible, plus the price tag on the pilot was astronomical.  Greg spent his hard-earned money to see this pilot and offers up a thorough recap.

In honor of what would have been Bob Barker's 100th birthday on the 12th of December, we talk about one of his lesser-known ventures. In 1980, both ABC and NBC had popular reality shows in the forms of That's Incredible! and Real People, respectively.  CBS wanted a piece of this reality action.  The result was a show somewhat based on a title which was successful for the network for almost 20 year...

It's the final voyage with the OG Trek crew as the Federation and Klingon Empire are close to intergalactic peace. However, Kirk and the Enterprise crew must deal with Klingon Christopher Plummer and a potential traitor on board the ship. Join Greg and Chico as they head second star to the left and straight on til morning.

One of our current favorite shows from the past is The New Liar's Club, a reboot of the popular game from the late 1970s.  The game's the same but the caliber of celebrities was very much Canadian because, as Greg would say, John Barbour's son did all the casting for the show.  Maybe all the money was spent getting a Rolls Royce in the show's open...