It was a Thing on TV: An Anthology on Forgotten Television

With the new season of Doctor Who happening right now on Disney+ and the BBC, we look back at one of our earliest episodes in 2020 when we looked at when Doctor Who did a special crossover with EastEnders in honor of the 30th Anniversary of Doctor Who. Also, Noel Edmonds is involved for some reason.

Pilot month resumes with this entry about a lawyer who has a habit of having panic attacks while litigating cases.  The cast was loaded.  It had potential.  Unfortunately, beyond panic attacks, this show had an identity crisis and did not make NBC's fall schedule in 2010.

Yesterday, May the Fourth have been with you.  Because of the unofficial holiday, this installment will cover a facet of the Star Trek universe.  (How many of you checked out after that intentional faux pas?)  The Ewoks were the breakout stars of the 3rd released movie of the Star Wars franchise, while droids were a big part of the series from the start.  Combine the two in separate Saturday morning cartoon franchises, and that means kids will want the toys, adding gobs of money into several coffers.  The cartoons themselves?  Typical disposable Saturday morning fare.

In the newest edition of "The Squared Circle Time Machine" Greg and Dane return to an old WWF Coliseum Home Video recently uploaded onto the WWE Vault YouTube channel. Paul Bearer in this VHS tape selects some of his favorite matches while giving us a tour of an old theater where he and The Undertaker hang out. Also, we get Stan Lane and Gorilla Monsoon not giving two f**ks who's watching this tape!

It's the start of our annual Pilot Month and we're starting off with a pilot two of the three of us didn't see much of, so one of us took one for the team.  There's a kids show with a lion puppet and Marcia Gay Harden is involved.  That's about all we cared for.  It was a CBS Summer Playhouse entry, so it was earmarked for failure.  We promise it gets better from here.

It's our fourth annual Hall of Fame class here at "It Was a Thing on TV" and we induct 17 worthy inclusions to our Hall. They include a non-human, a former James Bond, and someone who wants to know what was in that danish.

None of us take responsibility for selecting this show and putting it on our schedule, which must say how bad this show is.  Two ex-cons produce a TV show about protecting people from scams, which makes sense; who'd know more about the scamming business than two reformed ex-cons?  This show's shelf life was very short and for obvious reasons.  At least a young Marg Helgenberger is in this.

With WrestleMania in Las Vegas this weekend, Greg and Dane look at the last Mania held in Vegas in WrestleMania IX from Caesar's Palace! It's a double main event with the Hulkster returning with Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake to face Money Inc. for the WWF Tag Titles and Bret Hart defending the WWF World Title against Yokozuna! Also, we ask ourselves were there two Doink's? How did Hogan get that black eye? What the hell was that body suit for Giant Gonzalez about? Get ready to put your money dance on and put on a Toga for WrestleMania IX on The Squared Circle Time Machine!

At the height of the professional wrestling boom in the late 1990's, NBC aired a special "exposing" the "secrets" of the industry. Did you know in wrestling, there are good guys and bad guys, and that a guy arranges who wins and who loses? No? Did you also know that signs are planted and given to fans, and that a stunt granny gets pushed by one of the wrestlers every night? Prepare to blow your mind as Greg and Chico discover the secrets!

The 70s were a heck of a time.  Anybody could get their own variety series and a pretty boy teen idol from earlier in the decade could play a undercover cop?  Keith Partridge himself was the lead in this series, a complete 180 to singing and playing the guitar not 5 years prior.  Ultimately, this cop show was handily defeated by another cop show, one which aired for most of that decade.

A couple of years ago on a Live Show we watched Tim Conway in one of the many Dorf VHS tapes play Baseball now in our latest Live Show we see him try to teach us how to play Bingo. Is this one of the most painful things we've ever had to sit through? Get your dabbers ready as we watch Dorf Da Bingo King! Here's a link to download or watch the program if you want to follow along via archive.org - https://archive.org/details/vintage-vhs-dorf-da-bingo-king

As you surely know, the occasional personnel change on a TV show occurs for various reasons, ranging from health issues and death to just going in a different direction.  In 1982, one of television's most popular shows, The Dukes of Hazzard, experienced such a change over salary issues.  Out were the popular Bo and Luke Duke, in were Coy and Vance for a lackluster season, before Bo and Luke returned.

In late 2001, Australian promoter Andrew McManus tried to capitalize on the lack of a strong number two promotion in pro wrestling after the death of WCW with World Wrestling All-Stars. Greg and Dane look at the first pay-per-views from this short-lived promotion, where they discuss Mark Madden's bad commentary, Norman Smiley being awesome, Bret Hart refusing to have Montreal Part II on his watch, Puppet, and, of course, REVOLUTIONAH! REVOLUTIONAH! REVOLUTIONAH! REVOLUTIONAH!

We are a week into the 2025 baseball season.  We chose this very short-lived series from 1983 about minor league baseball as our tribute to America's Pastime.  This series featured an amazing 20 people who appeared on every episode, covering all the bases from the players, the coaches, their partners, and even the mascot.  As one might guess with an entry on this podcast, the series got benched after a brief period of time.

The United Football League kicked off the 2025 season in Houston on Friday as the Houston Roughnecks hosted the St. Louis Battlehawks. In this live show we look at what notable names are in the UFL this season along with some discussion about NCAA March Madness and Opening Day in MLB.

Thanks to the WWE Vault YouTube Channel, Greg and Dane look at this early 1984 Georgia Championship Wrestling House Show from The Omni in Atlanta that was recently unearthed. Among some of the discussion, differences in wrestling crowds then compared to now, Tommy Rich in a mask, Referee Gary Ewing, the greatness of Brad Armstrong and King Kong Bundy as a babyface? You can watch the full show on YouTube at this link. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B-jsn9tXGg

Some shows age like a fine wine.  Others age like bad milk.  This show falls under the latter, a show which would never see the light of day in 2025 but did get 13 episodes in 1988.  Scott Bakula stars in this series as a new hotshot lawyer who has a way with the ladies, a year before Bakula would hit it real big.  In true 1988 "don't give a darn" fashion, there was enough misogyny and quasi-racism to go around.

The 21st century has brought new forms of inspiration for TV shows.  This show is an example of that, taking one social media user's rants about his father as the basis of a comedy series.  In what we believe is beautiful casting, the father is played by William Shatner, whose 94th birthday is coming this Saturday.  With the Shat, you never know what $h*! he may say.

Greg and Dane, in Episode 5 of The Squared Circle Time Machine, do a deep psychological dive into their favorite maniac, Mr. Bob Backlund, who has never eaten Mary Jane! They go back to 1982 when Superstar Billy Graham destroyed his WWF championship belt to his loss to Sheiky Baby in '83 to him holding a cardboard championship belt to cope with his loss and finally to the events after he snapped when he lost to Bret Hart in 1994. Enjoy as we explore The Twisted Mind of Mr. Bob Backlund!

Our second and last entry into our annual foray into shows that were lost in translation takes us to this Japanese import, where a show that started with almost 1000 competitors whittled the competition until one person survived, all while traveling around the world.  Sounds sort of like contemporary shows Beast Games or Squid Game?  Nope.  Over 4 decades ago, Ultra Quiz was the biggest game in Japan.  Naturally, an American version followed.  After one attempt and two shows, the extravagant American version was grounded.

It's Lost in Translation time on the podcast!  To start, we look at the second attempt to Americanize the classic British comedy Fawlty Towers, but with Bea Arthur as the lead.  It followed a stinker of a show.  (Condo, see episode 79.)  However, it also was up against one of the most popular series of the 1980s.  Despite being evicted after 13 episodes, that number is still more than the number of episodes of Fawlty Towers.

In the newest edition of Before the Show, Greg and Mike discuss the shocking heel turn of an invisible man at the WWE Elimination Chamber PLE last week in Toronto. Mike also talks about the recently released Cheers trading card set from Rittenhouse. Then Chico joins us for Segment 2 where they discuss the Sun Belt Gauntlet, Doug Gottlieb's Reign of Error in Green Bay, and the recent passing of George Lowe the voice of Space Ghost before they preview what's to come this week on the podcast. Download this or Dwayne will threaten to take our souls!

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of this PPV, Greg and Dane are bringing you an unauthorized, unsanctioned, and UNCENSORED episode! WCW Uncensored 1995 is a show that has it all! It has a King of the Road match that transcends space and time! A Martial Arts Match! A Boxer vs. Wrestler Match! A Concession Stand Brawl! And most importantly Ric Flair in drag! Get the leather strap ready and prepare for an episode of The Squared Circle Time Machine like no other!

Our celebration of Bryan Cranston's nice birthday continues with a tennis match gone wrong, Linda Hamilton with a frank & vivid illustration of the state of mental health in the mid-1980s, and in the middle of it all? Mystery writer and reluctant true-crime aficionado Jessica Fletcher. It's one of his three appearances on Murder, She Wrote. Can she solve the mystery before another car blows?

In honor of a very nice birthday coming up for Bryan Cranston we honor two guest appearances this week that he did early in his acting career. The first is a 1986 episode of "Airwolf" in a villain of the week turn in which he confronts his ex-girlfriend at a sorority reunion on the Queen Mary! Can the Airwolf crew manage to save the day? In this and the next episode with Mike away, Greg and Chico are joined by an alternate this week in Aaron Sica as he shares his reaction to watching an episode of "Airwolf" for the first time. You can watch this episode of "Airwolf" for free on the Roku Channel at the following link. - https://therokuchannel.roku.com/watch/c06ccc7c174151a6830c05c8839bde70

This coming Monday, Mike is celebrating his birthday (the big 5-0) and he chose this as his Money in the Bank pick, a cult classic about a police inspector with a hair trigger temper, as well as a hair trigger on his very large Magnum gun.  It was good enough to squeak by for two seasons.  As for this selection, trust Mike.  He knows what he's doing.

With love having recently been in the air Greg and Dane go back to 1999 and head to MEMAPHIS TENANASEE! for WWF St. Valentine's Day Massacre as Stone Cold and Mr. McMahon battle in a steel cage match for the WrestleMania XV title shot. Among some of the things discussed are Ken Shamrock's beef with Val Venis over his sister, the birth of Hardcore Holly, Corporation vs. Ministry shenanigans, and Ivory with that damn scarf.

We first talked about this series 472 episodes ago.  (Do the math.)  We felt it was worth a revisit since it can now be seen every Saturday night on Catchy Comedy. In short, this show is the beta version of Robin Hood: Men in Tights, also from the brilliant mind of Mel Brooks.  It couldn't be too bad since it has rerun on A&E, TV Land, Decades, and now Catchy Comedy.  Thus, When Things Were Rotten is hardly a thing that is rotten.

In a podcast first, we found a premise so flimsy that it almost broke the three of us...and this was deemed as okay to air during the family hour (and later on TGIF) on ABC?!  This was a vehicle for the Smolletts, six kids in all, including that one.  The less said about this train wreck, the better.

As a belated tribute to Robert Wagner's 85th birthday, this installment covers a show which ran for a short period of time on ABC, and later shown in full on Lifetime.  Beyond the regular struggles involving viewership, Lime Street also suffered a tragedy involving one of the cast members before debuting, unrelated to the show itself.  

Steve Harvey's a big deal nowadays, but even he had humble beginnings. Take this story of Steve as a widower balancing a 90s video store & three boys with the help of his mother-in-law. Entertaining as it was, time slots were not kind for “Me and the Boys”

Greg and Dane return for Episode 2 of The Squared Circle Time Machine where they look back at the birth of TNA when it was part of the National Wrestling Alliance back in 2002 with their first weekly Pay-Per-View. Among the topics discussed Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, Jackie Fargo, Don West, Flying Elvises and a pair of Wrestling Johnson's. But please make sure we don't forget about Konnan!

As we have said time and time again, a good format for a TV show never really dies, it goes away for a time and returns with a new twist.  In this case, the timeless Neil Simon play The Odd Couple went from the Broadway stage to the big screen, then to the small screen with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.  Less than a decade later, it returned in this form, with Ron Glass and Demond Wilson playing the lead roles.

Before you gear up to watch the seemingly twenty-hour pregame show on "Super Sunday" we look back to 1986 when NBC decided to kill some time during the pregame of Super Bowl XX by literally showing nothing but a black screen for an entire minute!

Our lead-up to "The Big Game" continues with this look at a mid-70s competitor to the NFL, a league which actually got big names to join its league.  Like start-up competitors from the past and the future, the league had a very short life for a number of reasons, one of which is not the dickerod.

"The Big Game" is coming up this Sunday.  By coincidence, this installment is about a Disney made-for-TV movie centered around one of this year's "Big Game" participants, the Philadelphia Eagles.  What happens when Tony Danza goes from being a garbageman to the team's place kicker?  It's an ending only Hollywood could write in more ways than one.

Greg and Dane are back with the first episode of their new wrestling podcast "The Squared Circle Time Machine" here on the IWATOTV Podcast feed. Greg and Dane look back at the first five Royal Rumble's and share some of their favorite memories including Ric Flair's epic title win in '92, Demolition going one-on-one to start the '89 Rumble, and lots and lots of stalling at the early Rumble's! Just don't forget to put that cigarette out!

It's hard to keep a good format down.  A decade after the Robin Ward-helmed version of To Tell the Truth (see episode 139 for more), the show returned with a mix of old and new panelists, the tried-and-true format, but also a total of five hosts, including the pilots.  A formidable reboot lasted 3/4 of a year in a time when game shows as a whole were a dying breed.

Arcade games exploded onto the scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with several shows, animated or otherwise, airing on TV.  Jump ahead to the 1990s and video games left the arcade, going to living rooms everywhere.  One popular franchise, still popular to this day, was and is Mega Man, which had an animated show from the masters of adapting video games to television, Ruby-Spears, the minds behind cartoons like Pac-Man, Saturday Supercade, and Dragon's Lair.

The show covered in this episode shares many of the same traits as episode 531, Bridget Loves Bernie--the trials and tribulations of an interfaith couple, the good ratings, but also the swift cancellation.  Social mores changed quite a bit from 1972 to 1989, meaning this show didn't get the criticism from religious leaders.  What happened?  You'll have to dive into this heaping serving of Chicken Soup to find out.

Falling in love and becoming a couple have long been a staple of television series.  In 1972, CBS, after the overwhelming success of a controversial sitcom in All in the Family, added this show, another controversial entry which was about an interfaith relationship.  Despite superb ratings, the series lasted one year due to said controversy.

Chico's birthday is coming up and he chose this as his Money in the Bank.  In 1982, NBC had an upstart sci-fi drama starring David Hasselhoff and a talking car.  Fast forward 15 years and the franchise now had quintuple the vehicles, with quintuple the drivers.  Do more talking cars mean more success?  (We're covering it.  There's your answer.)

Today, January 14, marks 45 years since the premiere of the original Chain Reaction on NBC.  In honor of this anniversary, we look at the many (three) bonus rounds from this series which ran 5 months, where Fred Grandy once declared, "Ten bucks!"

In our previous episode, episode 528, we covered one of the first shows on a new network, The WB.  This time, we're covering one of the first shows on PAX in 1998, an adaptation of a Canadian board game about movies.  The whole production had one major issue, one which led to the show's demise just over a month after its premiere.

There were a lot of things happening with the wrestling on TV that Greg wanted to do an It Was a Thing on TV Presents to discuss them. But for this edition of presents, Greg brought along a guest as his pal Dane Woychuk comes on to talk about RAW on Netflix, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom, TNA's improved TV coverage in Canada, and AEW being AEW.

When The WB started out, it had two hours on Wednesday night with three funny favorites, but there was a need for a fourth comedy.  It needed something the pushed boundaries but also felt familiar.  It needed something with gags and a storyline.  The WB muscled up to the plate with this 13 episode and done wonder.

Once upon a time, a television network aired a show about Snow White and Prince Charming living in comtemporary times, complete with a family and a magic mirror.  Alas, the enemy in this fairy tale come true was the counter-programming and the absurd premise.  After about a year, the show bit the poison apple and was sent to television heaven.  The end.

Since we'll briefly mention Adam West in our upcoming episode on Thursday, we figured we'd post this outtake from when we covered Lookwell in Episode 55. Needless to say, Greg struggles to try and figure out what the hell FOX was airing in 1991.

The military has long been a staple of comedic television, see The Phil Silvers Show, McHale's Navy, and M*A*S*H.  In late 1976, NBC joined the fray with an insulting, caustic chief petty officer running the ship, portrayed by the most insulting and most caustic comedian playing the role.  

We put a bow on the year 2024 with a look back at the shows which ended this year, as well as those we lost in 2024.  Party on and have a great 2025!

As we do every year between Christmas and New Year's, the three of us look at the news and happenings of the previous 12 months.  This first installment covers The Worst of 2024, the big television happenings over the last 12 months, and our favorite programs which debuted in the past year.