It Was a Thing on TV: An Anthology on Forgotten Television
664 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 days ago - ★★★★ - 5 ratingsPartially an oral history of obscure TV shows, partially an oral version of MST3K, and partially a thorough episode guide, It Was a Thing on TV is an anthology podcast about obscure, forgotten, and odd TV shows, commercials, televised events, and almost anyone and anything else that was on television. For the most part, the subjects we cover are from the United States and Canada. We’re just three guys with a love for television. New episodes are generally every Monday and Thursday, sometimes more often.
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Episodes
Episode 103–The Paul Lynde Show
October 26, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 72.2 MBPaul Lynde is one of the all-time legends of television from his zingers on The Hollywood Squares to playing Uncle Arthur on Bewitched. In 1972 after the cancellation of Bewitched, producer William Asher gave Paul his own self-titled sitcom based on a play that he had performed years earlier. Despite playing against type, he managed to make the best of it, sadly everything else around him didn't work, we look at the reasons why.
Episode 102–The Alfred Hitchcock Presents contest on Nick at Nite
October 24, 2020 04:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBNick at Nite was a staple of our childhood's back in the 1980's and 1990's. One popular show on the early Nick at Nite lineup was Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It was so popular that the powers that be at Nick at Nite decided to run a marathon on Halloween Week 1990 along with a contest for the viewer to guess how many people kick the bucket during said marathon to win a murder mystery cruise. Also, you're probably wondering why Wink Martindale is involved in this based on the image right? ...
Episode 101–The Episode of Punky Brewster where Punky and Henry went to the 1984 NLCS
October 22, 2020 04:00 - 44 minutes - 41.2 MBIn honor of the World Series, we look back at a classic baseball episode of one our favorite shows on the podcast. In 1984, the Chicago Cubs went to their first postseason in almost 40 years and a new NBC sitcom set in the Windy City capitalized on Cubs Fever. In this classic episode of Punky Brewster, Henry has to battle crazed fans, radio call-in contests and scalpers all in an effort to get Punky to see the Cubbies in the playoffs. Also how does someone from one our previous entries get i...
Episode 100–Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour Revisited
October 19, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 79.3 MBIt Was a Thing on TV proudly celebrates it's 100th episode! In honor of this occasion we're going back to where it all started as we revisit The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour. We know more about this topic from the reruns on BUZZR than we did around this time a year ago when we started. We look at the different celebrities that appeared on the show, the contestants and many memorable moments over the show's nine months on the air. Also, we've sprinkled many fun audio easter eggs over the...
Episode 99–Kamelion on Doctor Who
October 15, 2020 04:01 - 44 minutes - 41.2 MBDoctor Who has had many memorable characters in it's almost 60-year history on the BBC. However, not every character can be Sarah Jane Smith, Amy Pond or even K-9. Meet Kamelion, a robot who's apparently not a robot. A character so bad he only appeared in two televised Doctor Who serials but has since appeared in many spin-off Doctor Who books and audio dramas in which some of the plots of them will leave you confused. On a serious note, our co-host Mike recently had a serious trip to the h...
Episode 98--Hometown Commercials
October 01, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 56.7 MBWho doesn't love a good hometown commercial? They're goofy, they're low-budget, they're corny, and often they're viral. We look at over a dozen such ads. Greg also raves about The Sega Channel and Mike talks about his run-in with presumably the star of one of these ads. Commercials in this episode, in order: Right Price Furniture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BdDpV5eI94 Ieuter and Secor Insurance Agents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l0ZmTLdy-A TCI Cable Brookhaven: https://www...
Episode 97--Saturday Night Live: The Doumanian Season
September 28, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 70.3 MBEvery bad show has a bad season, it seems. We will cover such bad seasons in future episodes. For now, we are dedicating an entire show to one such season, Saturday Night Live's 6th season. Almost nothing from the show's 5th season carried over, and it showed.
Episode 96--Utopia
September 24, 2020 04:00 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBIt's another social experiment gone wrong, in multiple ways. Utopia didn't last two months and it cost FOX $50 million in just acquiring its rights. Surely some heads rolled. And what's the deal with the cartoonist as host?
Episode 95--Kid Nation
September 21, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 67.5 MBA world run by kids--no curfews, unlimited candy, and no homework...right? Here's a social experiment from 2007 which sought out to see how 40 children would run their own society, CBS' entry Kid Nation.
Episode 94--Into the Sanfordverse, Part 2
September 17, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 76.1 MBBefore returning you to your regular universe, we have two more visits in the Sanford and Son family--the very short-lived series which replaced the parent show, titled Sanford Arms, and an early 80s attempt to revive the franchise in Sanford.
Episode 93--Into the Sanfordverse, Part 1
September 14, 2020 04:00 - 50 minutes - 46.6 MBOver the next two episodes, we will explore the three spinoffs of Sanford and Son, as well as the show which caused Sanford and Son to end. In part one, we look at the first spinoff, Grady, as well as the show which effectively killed the mothership, The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour. This episode and the next may have low volumes. Some of our microphones acted really weird when we recorded. We're sorry about that.
Episode 92--The worst Monday Night Football game ever from 2007
September 10, 2020 04:00 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBThe NFL season starts tonight! (Who knows how long it will last...) In celebration of the start of the new season, we look at what is considered the worst Monday Night Football game, a 2007 affair between the Miami Dolphins and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Though Miami had a forgettable team that year, that wasn't the primary reason this game was bad.
Episode 91--Double Dare (1985)
September 07, 2020 04:00 - 43 minutes - 40.1 MBIt's not the Double Dare from 1976 which was previously covered, nor is it the Double Dare on Nickelodeon a year later. This Double Dare was a cop show in the vein of Miami Vice which lasted just over a month on CBS, starring TV's Wiseguy and the guy who is as cool as the cool side of the pillow.
Episode 90--Golden Balls
September 03, 2020 04:00 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBFrom the era of Deal or No Deal, we get a game of luck, truth telling, psychology, some memory, and lots of balls. 2/3 of us didn't like it. If you like it, you likely will really enjoy Golden Balls. It was popular for a brief period of time, but quickly faded away to obscurity. Link to weirdest Split or Steal round ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8
Episode 89--Learning the Ropes
August 31, 2020 04:00 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBWhen late 80s family sitcoms and wrestling overlap, the end result is the short-lived Canadian entry Learning the Ropes, starring Lyle Alzado. We also determine the Canadian equivalents of TV shows it seems everything goes back to.
Episode 88--AfterMASH
August 27, 2020 04:00 - 53 minutes - 48.7 MBM*A*S*H is one of television's most popular shows ever, yet its spinoff AfterMASH lasted less than a season and a half. Was it too derivative from the parent show's plot? Did it just run its course?
Episode 87--College Comedies of 1979
August 24, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 73.9 MBWe're going back to school with three shows from early 1979, which tried capitalizing off the success of Animal House. All three were busts, though each show produced quality future talent. Also in this show, Mr. Whipple typecasting and ZIPPER?!
Minisode 2--Mr. Microphone
August 22, 2020 04:00 - 17 minutes - 15.6 MBAs an homage to the recent Omnibus podcast episode about Ronco, we look at commercials for what is likely Ronco's most popular product, Mr. Microphone. Greg's dad also proposes new rules to football.
Episode 86--Playboy's Roller Disco and Pajama Party
August 20, 2020 04:00 - 44 minutes - 41.2 MBJoin two of the top playboys from the 1970s, Hugh Hefner and Richard Dawson, for a night of roller skating, disco music, and tastefully done Playboy photo shoots in this 1979 special which epitomizes the late 70s nicely.
Episode 85--The Third Annual Collegiate Cheerleading Championships from 1980
August 17, 2020 04:00 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBLike many things in the 70s and 80s, minor happenings were turned into celebrity-laden events for television. It happened to collegiate cheerleading in 1980, infusing it with such personalities as Magic Johnson, Catherine Bach, and...Willie Shoemaker?
Episode 84--Steve Martin's The Winds of Whoopee
August 13, 2020 04:00 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MBThis episode is shorter than usual because under half of it is online and it is more of a retrospective than anything. But really, that title is why we're here.
Episode 83--David Letterman Shows Within the Show
August 10, 2020 04:00 - 36 minutes - 33.8 MBWho doesn't enjoy late night television's comedy bits between the monologue and the first guest? We like them so much, we are devoting episodes to such segments which we affectionately call "shows within the show." Our first look at late night shows within the show is David Letterman, running the gamut from a troubled teen who is clearly not a troubled teen, to a spoof of one of the most popular and controversial shows of the day.
Episode 82--Blind Justice
August 06, 2020 04:00 - 53 minutes - 48.8 MBIn 2005, ABC was breaking new ground with Desperate Housewives and Lost. Another show in the mix which absolutely bombed was the Steven Bochco police procedural Blind Justice. This is the first show where all three of us gave up on it. It's that bad.
Episode 81--Tribute to Regis Philbin
August 03, 2020 04:00 - 50 minutes - 45.9 MBAs we mentioned in episode 80, while we were recording that episode, word broke that Regis Philbin passed away. We felt we should honor the television legend both by looking back at one of his more forgettable shows, The Neighbors, but also by offering up our memories and favorite Regis moments, including Regis on Password Plus with someone from a previous entry.
Minisode 1--Taskmaster US
August 02, 2020 04:00 - 13 minutes - 12.6 MBThe CW will start airing reruns of the amazing UK version of Taskmaster, starting on Sunday, August 2. It isn't the first appearance of the creative competition show. Comedy Central had a series of 8 episodes in 2018 which quickly disappeared. If it's so good, what happened?
Episode 80--The Noel Edmonds Show
July 30, 2020 04:00 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBIn 1986, Bruce Forsyth wasn't the only UK entertainer to be imported by ABC. For one week, UK legend Noel Edmonds had his own self-titled talk show following Nightline. Even throwing out a gaggle of superstar guests didn't get the show a longer run.
Episode 79--Condo
July 27, 2020 04:00 - 44 minutes - 41 MBTwo families tied together through relationships struggle with each other on an ABC sitcom in the early 80s. Where have we heard that? Soap, but also this entry from people who brought you Soap--the McLean Stevenson vehicle Condo. Could this series have gotten a popular emcee his iconic hosting gig?
Episode 78--The Hollywood Game
July 23, 2020 04:00 - 32 minutes - 30.2 MBFrom a listener request, we look at the very short-lived CBS entry from summer 1992, The Hollywood Game, where your knowledge of movies past and present could pay off handsomely.
Episode 77--The WTF stories of Unsolved Mysteries
July 20, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 58.9 MBEverybody loves Unsolved Mysteries. In honor of the recent reboot on Netflix, we look at a dozen of the more bizarre stories from the original series including stories involving a magic rock, lightning strikes, and a death chair.
Episode 76--Xavier: Renegade Angel
July 16, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 88.6 MBThis show is likely the most bizarre show we will cover. Greg took copious notes on each of the 20 episodes of this Adult Swim series which makes Aqua Teen Hunger Force look straight-laced. Warning: The language is inappropriate occasionally in this episode.
Episode 75--Video Power
July 13, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBVideo Power--is it a video game cartoon or a video game game show? ¿Porque no los dos? This might be the only show we will cover which can be classified as a show in two different genres, while keeping the general premise intact. Video Power contestant interview: https://lakupo.com/grblitz/video%20power.htm
Episode 74--Password All Stars and Password in 1975
July 09, 2020 04:00 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBPassword is a timeless classic which came off as dated in 1974. What's a show to do? Raise the stakes, upgrade the set, and for a brief while in 1974 and 1975, turn it into a celebrity tournament. These changes didn't help, as the show was off the air by mid-1975.
Episode 73--The first episode of 20/20
July 06, 2020 04:00 - 39 minutes - 36 MB20/20 has been a television staple for over four decades. Its start was a different beast than the 20/20 we have seen for years, from a graphic expose to words and their definitions to Claymation animations.
Episode 72--Go
July 02, 2020 04:00 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBGo was in the death slot of Noon and had a very short life, despite being a exciting, action packed game. All 3 of us look at how the game was played with the assistance of Funko Pop dolls. (You wish this episode was a video podcast.) Also bad impersonations of Johnny Olson.
Episode 71--Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation
June 29, 2020 04:00 - 47 minutes - 43.1 MBIn May, our first live show was on the Dark Side of the Ring installment about Herb Abrams. On this episode, we go a bit deeper into this feeble attempt to topple the WWF (now WWE) empire.
Episode 70--The Nutt House
June 25, 2020 04:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MB14 years after prior installment When Things Were Rotten, Mel Brooks returned to TV with The Nutt House. It had Mel Brooks behind it. It had Cloris Leachman. It had Harvey Korman. Yet it lasted all of 5 episodes.
Episode 69--When Things Were Rotten
June 22, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 58.2 MBMel Brooks is a legend, both for his work in film and on television. He had something in Fall 1975 with When Things Were Rotten, but it had rotten luck and a rotten time slot versus two powerhouse shows plus it might have been a little ahead of its time.
Episode 68--The Game Show Finales of June 20, 1980 and The David Letterman Show
June 18, 2020 04:00 - 54 minutes - 50.4 MBThis week 40 years ago saw the temporary ends of three game shows, each of which would return to TV by 1987. That week also saw the birth of a legend, though he made his mark in late night. We look at the three NBC game show finales of June 20, 1980 and their replacement, The David Letterman Show in this timely installment of the podcast.
Episode 67--Break the Bank (every US version)
June 15, 2020 04:00 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MBThree completely different shows, one title--Break the Bank. One was good, one was basic, and one was a mess. And how does one Mrs. Mickey Kennedy Branson play a role in all of this?
Episode 66--We Got it Made
June 11, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBWe Got It Made was a dog of a show in 1983-84 that NBC tried to get people to watch by having the cast show up on NBC broadcasts. Yet, it got a second season for the Primetime Starts at 7:30 block in 1987.
Episode 65--Supermarket Sweep, Season 1 in 1990
June 08, 2020 04:00 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MBEverybody loves the action and fun on Supermarket Sweep. The show we know and love was quite different in its first season, a bare bones version with some odd additions that didn't last long. Come for the caviar, stay for Mr. Yuk.
Episode 64--Open All Night
June 04, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 56.2 MBThis show was brought to our attention by Greg, as he stumbled across a cameo in the 4th episode. Open All Night is not a bad show, just short-lived because it aired on Saturday nights. But that theme song.
Episode 63--The Moneymaze
June 01, 2020 04:00 - 43 minutes - 39.7 MB1975 was an amazing year for game shows, good and gimmicky. One of the gimmicky games involved people running around a giant maze, trying to win cash and prizes. It sounds corny but The Moneymaze is a fun show to watch.
Live show 2--Press Your Luck, 2nd season premiere
June 01, 2020 02:35 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBWe're back with our second live show, this time while watching the second season premiere of Press Your Luck.
Live Show 2--Press Your Luck, 2nd season premiere
June 01, 2020 02:35 - 1 hour - 62.5 MBWe're back with our second live show, this time while watching the second season premiere of Press Your Luck.
Episode 62--Love, Sidney
May 28, 2020 04:00 - 32 minutes - 29.4 MBIt seems Tony Randall was known for two shows--first and foremost, The Odd Couple, and then Love, Sidney. We make the case that it was mishandled from the start by NBC but also that some subject matter might have been material not designed for an early 80s home audience.
Episode 61--Primetime starts at 7:30
May 25, 2020 04:00 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBIn the Fall 1987 television season, NBC tried starting primetime half an hour earlier than normal. The results were generally bad sitcoms and reverting to an 8 PM start time for primetime starting in Fall 1988. We look at why this block failed and Mike talks about a personal connection with someone from one of the five comedies from this block.
Episode 60--Maury episode titles
May 21, 2020 04:00 - 50 minutes - 45.8 MBWhat was Greg's dive down a rabbit hole after recording a few months ago became this very experimental episode. The Maury staff sure comes up with different ways to describe their DNA and lie detector shows.
Episode 59--Wilkins Coffee Commercials
May 18, 2020 04:00 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBBrew up some coffee and enjoy this look at Jim Henson ads from the late 50s and early 60s. The commercials were to-the-point and were effective. Sixty years later, they are a blast to watch.
Episode 58--Second Chance/Boys Will Be Boys
May 14, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 78.5 MBSecond Chance had a different premise but was low-rated and given a second chance. It was stripped of its premise and turned into an average teenage boy sitcom called Boys Will Be Boys. After 12 episodes of this retooled show, it was cancelled and not given a third chance.