The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

One of the more fascinating and entertaining Saturday morning shows in the mid-70s was The Ghost Busters, starring Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch, who worked together in the 60s on F Troop.  Unrelated to the movie franchise of the same name, it got a second life in the 80s thanks to that movie, but that's another episode.  It was cancelled for a reason we haven't covered thus far on this show, bu...

Greg and Chico are coming at you with the newest edition of Into the Spidey Movieverse this time covering The Amazing Spider-Man from 2012.   A new story, a new Spider-Man, a new love interest and still Uncle Ben can't stop dying. The two go over the movie to see if this entry is as mediocre as most remember it being.   Also discussed are Peter's sick basketball moves, the questionable police meth...

Your Number's Up may be a blip on the map of television history, but it holds a place in our hearts.  Nipsey Russell hosted it!  All the geriatrics in Burbank loved it.  Need we say more?

Jesse Ventura did the improbable in 1998, being elected Minnesota's governor.  Of course, someone had to jump over that story and create a made-for-TV movie.  Unfortunately, little fact checking was done and many creative liberties were taken.  And to add a creepy twist, this aired the same night as one of the most tragic events in pro wrestling history.

Get on up and dance because Greg and Chico are here to deliver their thoughts on the conclusion to the Sam Raimi Trilogy by looking at Spider-Man 3 on this edition of Into the Spidey Movieverse.  The duo discusses the many plots of this movie which include Harry’s amnesia, Mary Jane dealing with rejection, Eddie Brock being a real jerk, JJJ trying to weasel some little girl’s camera and Peter just...

You voted on what show you wanted us to cover this week and we delivered. It's 1984 and NBC is riding high on The A-Team so, of course, they had to capitalize on that trend.  Mix The A-Team with martial arts and you get The Master...sort of.  It didn't work, getting the heave-ho off the schedule after 13 shows. But it did get immortalized somewhat thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

One of our favorite shows from the mid-2000s was MXC:  The Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.  When the show debuted, it started with a bang...or is that an almost snap of someone's neck?  One contestant called Rob Tussin tried making a glorious entrance but it almost ended in catastrophe.  And he jumped right up and continued with the game!

Advertisers will try to sell you most anything.  At the same time, buyers will purchase most anything.  At least one of those statements is true when it came to a chess set related to the hotly-contested 2020 Presidential election.  Yes, there was a chess set dedicated to a Presidential election and it had its own half-hour infomercial!  When we saw this infomercial, we knew we had to talk about i...

Greg and Chico are back to present the second episode of Into the Spidey Movieverse, this time they look at the middle chapter of the Raimi Trilogy in Spider-Man 2.   Greg and Chico share their memories of the sequel along with talking about some of the key plot points of the movie which include Peter's troubles with trying to be Spider-Man while trying to MJ he loves her. Also the duo takes time...

Dan Rather is one of the most respected newsmen in media history.  However on two election nights, Rather went off the rails with some of his commentaries and metaphors.  We look back at some of the highlights from the Election Nights of 2000 and 2004. Election Night Dan Rather Quotes - https://www.liveabout.com/funny-dan-ratherisms-4067687

It's finally here the Director's Cut of one of our favorite episodes. The 1983 NBC TV Movie "High School U.S.A." featuring Michael J. Fox, Nancy McKeon, Anthony Edwards, Crystal Bernard and Todd Bridges leading an all-star cast ...... and Tom Villard. We've got fifteen minutes of new material for this Director's Cut. Just hope Otto's Robot doesn't steal any of your change to use in the soda machin...

We wrap up our Halloween trifecta of shows with some humor, straight from the minds at Saturday Night Live.  In 2016, David S. Pumpkins appeared on a Halloween sketch.  He proved to be so popular that he got his own half-hour special the following year. ANY QUESTIONS?!?!

On the first official episode of Into the Spidey Movieverse as we lead up to “Spider-Man: Far From Home” coming out in December, Greg and Chico look back on the first Spider-Man movie from 2002 directed by Sam Raimi.  They discuss some of their favorite scenes and moments from the film along with talking about giant life-size statues of Spider-Man that you could win at Blockbuster. Also on what ot...

Our Halloween Trifecta of Terror continues with a one-off three-part anthology from 1977 titled Dead of Night.  Overall, it is pretty insignificant, though some big names were involved with it.  However, the first story does star one of our favorites, a young Ed Begley Jr.

We start our Halloween 2021 extravaganza with what might be considered the ultimate short-lived cult classic.  Kolchak: The Night Stalker has been remade several times, became a comic book series, and is a progenitor to similar later shows, but its original series only lasted a season.  With a celeb-laden line-up, what happened?

For the first time on the It Was a Thing on TV Podbean feed, Greg and Chico bring you their monthly podcast from Place to be Nation POP on the Spider-Man movie franchise to get you ready for Spider-Man: No Way Home in December. Greg and Chico in this series will recap and review each of the nine movies released since 2002 that feature either Spider-Man or Spider-Man related characters that have be...

Recently, the 25th James Bond cinematic release hit theaters.  But would you believe there was a James Bond, er, Jimmy Bond to grace the small screen before Sean Connery?  In 1954, the CBS anthology series Climax! had an episode based on the Ian Fleming work Casino Royale.

Simultaneously one of the most brilliant things on TV the last decade and one of the most bizarre, Too Many Cooks aired in the dead of night on Adult Swim.  Within days, it was viral and repeated often.  We offer a live commentary while watching the show and get into details about some of the production, and what happened to some of the actors and actresses.

It's the final edition of the It Was a Thing on TV remastered series and we're closing it with a look back at Episode 20 and the attempts to capitalize on the success of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? back in 2000. We look at It's Your Chance of a Lifetime, Winning Lines and the 2000 version of Twenty-One. The gang talks about the greatness of the Wonderwall on Winning Lines and Mike talks about t...

It only lasted 19 weeks but 1975's Musical Chairs was a landmark television program, as it was the first game show with an African-American emcee, in Adam Wade.  It also had a fun theme song, a great cast of guests, and the cushy time slot after Match Game 75.  It was also recorded at The Ed Sullivan Theater!

This is one show we have been anticipating for some time.  Greg (for 20 or so minutes), Chico, and Mike watch the debut episode of the Legends of the Hidden Temple reboot.  Since it is a live show and we like keeping as much of the show intact as possible, you'll hear the same technical difficulties we experienced.

Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In was TV's most popular show in 1969.  The people behind it tried capitalizing on its popularity with a related show called Turn-On.  There were instant regrets, as ABC turned it off before the first episode aired in full.

We're going to the ballpark for this installment, as some of 1967's brightest Major League Baseball players went against celebrities back in the day on the softball diamond, with some very special celebrities handling the duties behind the mic and two legends acting as managers.

The next-to-last edition of the It Was a Thing on TV remastered series looks at one of ABC's first experiments with summer game shows back in 1990 with Super Jeopardy! and Monopoly. This episode has it all four player Jeopardy! games, stories of when Mike and Chico faced off against form Jeopardy! champions, Monopoly's way too complicated ruleset and the lady who played Lumpy in the Star Wars Holi...

Recently, word came out that American Gladiators is being rebooted...again.  By coincidence, we had this show slotted for this week in our schedule.  We talk about 4 shows which tried riding the coattails of the Gladiators--Knights and Warriors, Blade Warriors, Battledome, and Wild West Showdown.  There are other shows of varying success we mention at the end.  Put on your Spandex and get ready to...