Partially 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.
In 1989, Betty White got to do something on the final episode of Super Password which many people wanted to do and Bert Convy accidentally did--destroy "The Magic Toaster", aka the device which held a check and the password to win that check.
Greg and Chico watch the premiere episode of the new HBO Max show "Peacemaker" from the twisted mind of James Gunn and starring an invisible man. In the first episode, Peacemaker is fresh off his mission in "The Suicide Squad" where he has to deal with his father, Amanda Waller's squad, Vigilante's voicemails and a crazy lady who he hooked up with at a bar.
A note Chico's stream on the Stream Lounge App was a minute and eleven seconds longer than on Greg's end so if you're starting you stream to follow along you can either do it before the start or at the 1:11 mark.
It's Chico's birthday and he played his Money in the Bank submission on this show from the mid-80s. Take the rapidly-growing 80s sport of laser tag, throw in some budget special effects, some rubber monster suits, a plot plucked straight out of The Last Starfighter, and a banging 80s soundtrack, and you get... something that was gone after one season despite turning a profit. Watch as we attempt to break down the demise (and as we try to wrap our collective heads around the allure) of this largely-lost 80s kids show.
Today would have been the 100th birthday of the legendary Betty White. In tribute to that milestone, we present Pet Set, a light-hearted show where Betty talks with celebrity guests about their animal companions, and talks with other guests about animal-related topics like saving the tigers and talented animals.
Nickelodeon's coverage of the NFL Wild Card was one of the big surprises of 2021 and ended up being a fun broadcast. Like last year we're live watching all the fun as the slime cannons are back in full force!
Greg watches the start of the second half of the 49ers/Cowboys game with Mike joining about a half-hour in as they watch this game go down to the wire with a final playcall that had both of them scratching their heads.
But let's all appreciate the fact we now have a NVP award winner named after a character on a show that we've covered on this show!
We're back with our second (and likely last) edition of the pinball machine show. We talk about 9 more TV-themed pinball machines, mainly from the last 15 years.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. CBS' ratings were languishing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, so they spent a lot of money to acquire almost every major sporting event of 1990, plus the Winter Olympics of 1992 and 1994. Most of the events weren't that thrilling, the return on investment wasn't what was expected, and the Dream Season of 1990 was closer to a nightmare.
We've seen it before--a star almost immediately gets a new show after the end of a popular show. Shirley Hemphill of What's Happening! was in just this position after the end of that show. She rebounded with One in a Million with podcast favorites Richard Paul and Carl Ballantine for all of 13 episodes.
Remember when FOX started airing college football games and took both a pro approach (in its personnel in front of the camera) and an amateur approach (with every other aspect)? We do. We're near the end of the bowl season and look back at a tumultuous 4 years of BCS coverage on the network.
"The Book of Boba Fett" the long awaited spin-off of "The Mandalorian" from Robert Rodriguez has finally premiered on Disney+.
In this live show Greg and Chico do a livewatch of the first episode on their first broadcast through the Stream Lounge app on PC. You can follow along to this Live Show (after at botched first attempt) by synching your Disney+ stream of the first episode at 0:05 and then hitting play when you reach the 4:10 mark of the episode.
We'd also like to thank the good folks at Stream Lounge for allowing us to do this livewatch. You can go to their website at www.streamlounge.io to watch other livestream broadcasts.
