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.
The 2nd Annual Pop-Tarts Bowl saw Iowa State defeat Miami in the last few moments but the real fun was just beginning. Game MVP Rocco Becht had to choose which three of the Pop-Tarts Bowl mascots would be cooked to be eaten. Mike and Greg came on following the game to give their live reaction to the cooking along with providing play-by-play to the end of the Bengals/Broncos game. Remember "FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS!"
For the first time on the podcast, we look at a Hallmark Christmas movie. In this 2013 TV movie, Alicia Witt plays an NYC store owner who gets proposed to by the man of her dreams but when she's sent to the airport by herself to meet her family a series of accidents happen and hilarity ensues. Will she find love with the man she believes is her brother or will she stay with the snooty rich fiancee? I think you already know the answer to that question. Merry Christmas everybody!
We're a few days away from Christmas and we thought it would be appropriate and timely to look at commercials for the must-have gift of 1989, an item celebrating its 35th birthday this year--the Nintendo Game Boy. Here are the commercials in this episode, with links: Original GameBoy with Tetris - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-ej_8XBwmI Super GameBoy - https://youtu.be/50qlX1kF2Vc Donkey Kong - https://youtu.be/s4dinHwO2nU Super Mario Land - https://youtu.be/yyZ65k3vpSU Tetris/Qix - https://...
In what is a first, we present our first instant minisode. Chico was sent a video of a creepy Folgers commercial from 15 years ago. After bringing it to everybody's attention, a decision was made to cover this immediately, instead of waiting until Christmas 2025. Who knew the addition of one word could turn this commercial from heartwarming to creepy?
We have seen this time and time again--a network reboots a series which ran for a considerable amount of time, only for it to flop badly. This time, the victim is Family Affair, which The WB felt was worthy of rebooting over 30 years after the original show ended. Against tough competition, this version quietly whimpered away after a half year.
It took over 500 episodes, but we are finally talking about what many consider to be the worst television show of all-time. A man's deceased mother gets reincarnated into a 1928 automobile, communicating with her son through the radio. That's the premise. Jerry Van Dyke passed up being Gilligan for this. If all the above isn't unbelieveable enough, one of the world's biggest entertainers did a cover version of the theme song.
We gave you three selections in our Viewer's Choice vote, and this is the show that came out on top. We have another spinoff show from a popular parent show. Also, we have another spinoff show that got amazing ratings in its premiere season, which fell off in the second and final season. In early 1980, audiences were flocking to see Flo. By 1981, audiences were telling it to kiss their grits.
Years ago, we did our first installment on TV-themed trading cards, focusing mainly on cards from the past. With the resurgence in the popularity of trading cards, we decided to do a second volume, focusing on trading cards, specifically those over the last decade. Some of the biggest franchises offer cards, so you can own a piece of those shows or an autograph of one of the stars.
In 1968, the song Harper Valley PTA was a number one hit for Jeannie C. Riley. In 1978, the song was the inspiration for a movie with the same title, starring Barbara Eden. Three years later, this show came into being with Eden at the helm, about the battles Eden's character had with the PTA of a fictional Ohio town called Harper Valley.
The year is 1989 and the Max Headroom fad, for the most part, has come and gone. Next up for Matt Frewer is a comedy where laughter is sometimes the best medicine. Doctor Doctor ran two abbreviated seasons, followed by a full final season. The show tackled some very sensitive yet timely topics during its run including AIDS and homophobia, but went away quietly after a ratings nosedive.
Happy Thanksgiving! (For those outside of the United States, happy Thursday.) For this holiday, we jump back 43 years to 1981. What was the hotness that year? A version of Strawberry Shortcake which was reminiscent to the technology used in Malcolm, for one. The video game surge started, though it wasn't represented in the parade. As you prepare to do Black Friday shopping, remember to go to the AT&T phone store and get a Garfield phone.
As we do around these parts for Thanksgiving, we look at at least one Thanksgiving Day parade. This time, we go back to 1988, to see what were the big shows on Broadway, to see what TV stars would appear on floats, to see what the big gifts of 1988 were, to see what headwear Willard Scott was donning, and to see the grand ending of the parade--Santa Claus!
In 1987, the signals of both WGN and WTTV in Chicago were overtaken by two brief unknown signals, both showing an unknown figure wearing a Max Headroom mask. To this day, there are more answers than questions about these incidents: Who did this? How did they do it? Why did they do it? To this day, these brief interruptions remain one of the biggest mysteries to occur on U.S. broadcast television. WMAQ Max Headroom Prank on Mark Giangreco - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KePTSntPRtM...
One of the biggest pop culture sensations in the 1980s was an omnipresent personality for the computer generation named Max Headroom. Not only was Max Headroom a talk show host, a soda pitchman, and visible on different mediums in the latter half of the 80s, but this phenomenon even got a scripted television show which ran over two seasons, a show about a post-apocalyptic dystopia reminiscent of 1984.
As listeners may know, we love our Quinn Martin-produced shows. In this episode, we go back to one of his earliest crime drama efforts, with a lead who would be the biggest movie star by the end of the 1970s. Dan August had all the hallmarks of a great series, but there was one key item missing--viewership. Come for Burt Reynolds and non-comedic Norman Fell, stay for an astounding number of quality guest stars.
James Bond was probably at its most popular in the late 1970s. NBC, seeing an opportunity to right the ship after many unsuccessful shows to end the decade, jumped on the Bondian spy bandwagon with A Man Called Sloane which, like the Bond movies, had numerous attractive females, working both for the good guys and the bad ones. What had promise quickly bottomed out in the ratings, making this a 3-month wonder.
As faithful listeners may know, Greg and Mike enjoy their trading cards. Greg has opened junk wax packs in the past. Mike prefers more recent (and more expensive) cards. This week, Mike's favorite series, Allen and Ginter, dropped its 2024 series of cards, which contain not just athletes, but celebrities and oddball subsets. Enjoy as Mike rips open a 24-pack hobby box of the 2024 Allen and Ginter series.
Today is Halloween, and to commemorate the event, we went back to a very short-lived show. Even nowadays, there have been shows where ghosts inhabit a house but can only be seen by select individuals. NBC tried this in 1989 with Eric Idle. Within a month, Nearly Departed was wholly departed from the network.
The late 80s was an era where the syndicated sitcom ruled the airwaves, primarily on FOX and independent affiliates, also primarily on the weekends. One such show starred podcast favorite Diana Canova, a single mother who worked at a record label. Despite being on the air for two seasons, very little of this show exists online. Maybe viewers didn't have the heart to record and retain Throb?
Over the years, we have talked about revivals and sequels, which are almost never as successful or popular as the original. This is another case of that. Update a beloved franchise without any of its original cast and give that show an undesirable time slot, and it is bound to fail quickly. After less than a dozen episodes, this update of Kojak enjoyed its last lollipop, quickly going to dustbin of bad TV updates.
In this installment, we look at another show which was rated as one of the worst shows of all-time. Was Me and the Chimp justifiably the 46th worst show ever? Maybe if audiences went bananas over the ridiculous plot, we wouldn't be talking about this show almost 53 years later.
Daytime games in the 80s were a strength of NBC. CBS had a stable roster of shows, though the block was only two hours compared to three at NBC. For some reason, CBS canceled the venerable $25,000 Pyramid for this show. This show did not live up to expectations, so much so that its replacement was the same show it replaced.
NBC tried spinning off one of its most successful shows from the 80s, the drama Hill Street Blues, into a comedy/drama Beverly Hills Buntz. The first episode brought great ratings, but that was thanks to a cushy time slot. Naturally, the audience didn't carry over after moving to a not-so-cushy time slot and the show ended with 4 episodes still in the can.
In celebration of the Mets reaching the NLCS, Greg decides to open some of his junk wax packs to share with Mike and Chico. Enjoy the talk about Tom Candiotti, Todd Zeile and Glenn Braggs.
It's time for another Revisited episode. This time, we're looking at a show that, in recent months, has appeared on-demand and airs with regularity on a FAST channel. We're checking in again with The Ropers and questioning whether it truly is one of the 50 worst shows in TV history. You be the judge, but we think it does not deserve that moniker.
Numerous successful scripted television shows made their way to Saturday mornings in the mid-70s, like I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan's Island, and Star Trek. The Partridge Family got the same treatment in 1974, but with a catch--it's set over 200 years in the future. Also, some key components in the Partridge Family universe were missing. If you see the show image, it looks awfully similar to a venerable Hanna-Barbera series, and for good reason.
The New York Mets had a nutty last week and a half going from Atlanta to Milwaukee to Atlanta to Milwaukee as they clinched in a playoff spot in dramatic fashion on the last day of the regular season and advanced to the NLDS in a thrilling three-game Wild Card round. Greg shares with Mike in this delayed reaction his thoughts regarding the week that was and at the end, they look at the upcoming Division Series match-ups.
Thursday, October 3rd marked the 41st Anniversary of the premiere of the short-lived 1983-84 NBC game show "Go" from Bob Stewart Productions. To mark the occasion this edition of "The Best of It Was a Thing on TV" goes back to Episode 72 when we discussed it back in the Summer of 2020.
We're back with another batch of goofy and bizarre hometown commercials. Here is the line-up for this installment of Hometown Commercials: Unique Creations: https://youtu.be/9T_GZeZyYqU Shift It: https://youtu.be/1gYE5TyijxE West Palm Loan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XHUGEVMa8I Zachary’s Night Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvyS8dY2kQA Beacon Plumbing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M2F4-QRUdw Reckon and Reckon Plumbing: https://youtu.be/HS7yCO9_h_E Lowell “The Hammer” Stanley: ht...
