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.
Famous TV chefs include Julia Child, "The Galloping Gourmet" Graham Kerr, and "The Frugal Gourmet" Jeff Smith. One chef whose legacy is as good as the above people but wasn't as big of a name is Art Ginsburg, who went by the moniker "Mr. Food." We spend this installment looking at the career of this underrated icon, as well as some of the secrets to his 90-second cooking segments.
I'll trade you my Fonzie for your Vinny Barbarino! We offer a primer to TV trading cards, a smattering of shows which made their way to cardboard, and what types of cards are available nowadays.
From 1961 to 1989, CBS affiliate WBNB-TV served TV audiences in the U.S. Virgin Islands with an eclectic mix of programming. Sadly the station went dark permanently due to Hurricane Hugo, but the station's legacy lives on YouTube thanks to an ex-employee who saved various clips from the station.
YouTube Channel of Ex-WBNB Employee Matt Locker
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw88tiXi8FAPoHMUagJfqsg
Who didn't love cartoons and video games in the early 80s? Pac Man was successful. But the anthology with cartoons of Pitfall, Space Ace, and Kangaroo? Not as much. We talk about the cartoon cavalcade called Saturday Supercade in this installment.
The 1980's was the age of MTV and Miami Vice. So naturally the star of Miami Vice, Don Johnson would try his hand at music with an album called Heartbeat.
The song from the album of the same name would be featured on MTV and it's one of the weirdest music videos we've ever seen.
Follow along to the video at this link as we do a live watch of it. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CR4lSORZ_Q
When is a right answer not a right answer? When it's a trap! That was the original premise of Trivia Trap. Once that format was viewed as flawed, most of the game changed. It didn't help; the show was gone in 6 months.
Oh Madeline had plenty of quality guests, the versatile and multi-talented Madeline Kahn, and had its moments. It also had three unique theme songs and was revamped in its sole season. It was Carsey-Werner's first TV series, before they hit it big a year later with The Cosby Show.
When we found out Nickelodeon was simulcasting the NFL Wild Card game between the Saints and the Bears, we knew this had future entry written all over it.
And the broadcast was everything we hoped it would be. Join us in a live watch of the second half as we see how many Nickelodeon shows Nate Burleson can punch on your bingo card.
Everybody knows about the current version of Jeopardy! and some remember the original version. We're not talking about those shows. We talk about the nighttime version from 1974-5 and, to a great extent, the 1978-9 NBC version.
Also in this episode...
* The 1977 CBS Jeopardy! pilot
* Password Plus' frequently changing time slot
* Arte Johnson meets Bobby Riggs
When the worst shows of all-time are mentioned, The Ropers makes that list with frequency. Is it justified? We state our cases that it was an average show and that there are many shows worse, and we have covered a lot of them.
