The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

1977 was a big year in science fiction movies, thanks to two little movies called Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Those films might have been the big winners that night, but The 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards also gave us one of the most memorable performances in history.

Doctor Who has had its fair share of successful spinoffs.  One whose pilot aired but didn't get picked up was K-9 and Company in 1981 at the Beeb.  It looked good and they brought back Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith for it, but something happened...

It's the second edition in the remastered series of our early episodes. This time we go back at Episode 3 where Mike and Greg looked at two of Glen Larson's 1983 outings Manimal and Automan. Listen as Greg enjoys the greatness of Simon McCorkindale and his Falcon as Mike shakes his head while they visit a little place called ZIPPERS?!?! BTW, Cursor is still a little pervert.

With today being the 109th Anniversary of the sinking of the legendary ship, we take a look at S.O.S. Titanic. A made-for-TV movie that aired on ABC in 1979 which until it's Blu-ray/DVD release last year hadn't been seen by many in it's original broadcast length. It's a star-studded TV movie featuring David Warner, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Cloris Leachman, David Janssen and Susan St. James (UH-OH!)...

Does this remind you of anything?  Does this remind you of many things?  Mark Goodson's last original format, TKO was a little bit of a number of shows, from Jeopardy! to Blockbusters to Couch Potatoes.

We at It Was a Thing on TV are happy to announce we are improving the audio quality of some of our early episodes. So if you've started listening to us recently, it's a good chance for you to hear how the show has evolved to what it is now. For the first remastered episode, we go back to the second episode of the podcast when we covered Mr. Smith. This episode is historic as it's the first appeara...

It's time for some revisionist history on a sci-fi channel with The Amazing Screw-On Head.  A star-studded cast couldn't get this out of pilot stage.  Maybe it was ahead of its time?

Pilot Month 2 continues with a show submitted just based on its ridiculous open.  It may have been the most entertaining part of The Nerd, a pilot for NBC done in 1989 which aired on the network.  It didn't air in 1989, though.

As an Easter gift to you our fans, we present our third Director's Cut episodes originally released on Place to be Nation POP for you to enjoy. This time we bring to you the Director's Cut of The Video Game Show, Part 2. We've added fifteen minutes of additional material in this episode as we go in-depth on some of the questionable choices for helmets in ABC Monday Night Football on Super NES alon...

A favorite movie of ours from 2001 was Not Another Teen Movie.  So what happened when Comedy Central tried bringing it to the small screen six years later?  It was an unorganized mess which was nowhere as entertaining as the movie.  One plus is it had numerous stars, in 2007 and in the future.

If you took a short nap back in 1979, you likely missed this two episode wonder.  It was like Superfriends became a live action show with a horrible laugh track.  If you thought the laugh track was bad, wait until you hear about the production values.

It's the second of our two wrestling themed episode this week. In 1986, the World Wrestling Federation held the sequel to the first WrestleMania and tried to top that event's success holding it in three different venues and jamming it with celebrities all over the place. Join us as we talk about the color commentary of Susan St. James (UH-OH!) and the expert boxing judging of G. Gordon Liddy.

It's a week of wrestling episodes, starting off with a very special episode of Quantum Leap where Sam leaps into a wrestler's body in the deep south and takes one for the (tag) team.

Married with Children lasted over 10 years and 259 episodes in the United States.  When it was exported to the UK as Married for Life, it lasted 7 episodes, utilizing the same scripts as the original version, modified with British references.  Talk about another show which got lost in translation.

This is our first of two "Lost in Translation" episodes, covering popular shows which failed in other countries.  This time, we look at the import from the UK, Coupling, which was to be the next big thing after Friends, but was off the schedule after just 4 episodes.

This leprechaun story was one of the first viral YouTube videos, from back in 2006.  This story got significant media attention and was soon spoofed on shows including Key and Peele and South Park.  Was it really a leprechaun?  Find out in this St. Patrick's Day special!   Bob and Dan (BAD) Radio Dallas: "Dan Finds The Leprechaun" - https://www.theunticket.com/dan-finds-the-leprechaun/ The REAL St...

It looked good on paper.  Minus Dorothy, it was, for the most part, its predecessor.  But hoo boy, Urkel roflstomped The Golden Palace into foreclosure.

Happy Mario Day this Wednesday!  (Get it, MAR10?)  We pay our respects to this non-holiday by looking at the unforgettable Super Mario Bros. Super Show!  One of us never watched this on Fridays for reasons. Just a note there were some audio issues during the recording of this and the next episode with hot mics, they've mostly been fixed in post, but they'll show up at a few points here and there.

It was to be Paul Reubens' bounce back role after Pee Wee's Playhouse was cancelled.  You Don't Know Jack is but a blip in TV history, a deviation from what TV audiences were used to seeing.  Mike used his Money in the Bank on this and by the end of this episode, he regrets selecting this show.

Tim Conway is a legend but it seems he's only best known for The Carol Burnett Show and Dorf on Golf.  One of his post-Burnett flops is Ace Crawford...Private Eye, a detective show in a similar vein to Police Squad!, but with a horrible laugh track.

To Tell the Truth is seemingly eternal, having been on television every decade since the 1950s.  We look at the 80s version, which didn't last long despite some quality central characters and visits from numerous old friends on the panel.  We also make a plea for Betty White to get on a game show before she turns 100.

This show tried to be something at first, but then the format changed halfway through its only season.  Apparently the only power Matthew Star had was to become a footnote in history. But hey, at least we got Louis Gossett Jr. on this show.

There have been numerous attempts at football outside of the NFL season.  None exist any longer.  A recent attempt in 2019 was the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which we remember fondly. Listen as we blame the owner of Chico’s favorite hockey team for the demise of the league. 5 Ridiculous Stories from the last days of the AAF (FlemLo Raps) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZI0Sam7gGI

We continue the President's Day theme by looking at a commercial for an inaugural keepsake.  There's something about a gold plated commemorative plate of Barack Obama which we find odd.

We thought Lil' Bush would be a fair topic for a President's Day episode.  Boy, were we wrong.  For the most part, this aged like bad cheese.  What seemed like a good idea in the 2000s ended up having a very short shelf life, running on one-note political gags from 15 years ago.  We apologize in advance.