The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

In anticipation of the upcoming Amazon Prime series, this episode takes a look at the "blink and you'll miss it" television version of one of the breakout movie hits of 1992.  A League of Their Own had a handful of characters reprising their roles in one-off appearances and its TV fate may have been set in stone by a certain organization.

Norman Lear's 100th birthday celebration continues with possibly his most obscure series, airing for just 5 episodes in 1977.  A Year at the Top followed the Faustian formula of selling one's soul to the devil for instant success.  Audiences gave it a month at the bottom of the ratings.

This week, we're celebrating Norman Lear's 100th birthday by looking at two of his less successful shows.  We start with Lear's adaptation of a play about a seedy hotel with even seedier residents, Hot l Baltimore.  Most of the players were relative newcomers, and three went on to much greater success in the decades that followed.

What if Merlin the Magician lived in the 20th Century instead of during Arthurian times?  In 1981, CBS gave us an answer to that question when Merlin lived in San Francisco and owned an auto repair shop.  It appears CBS had faith in the series, but it went up against difficult competition from the start.

The Fourth of July is coming early next week.  To celebrate, we look at one of our favorite episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, where the gang puts on a wrestling event with a little support from Rowdy Roddy Piper's character.

Another Marvel movie will be released soon as we celebrate the return of Thor, so it's time for more entries related to actors and actresses in the MCU.  We go back to 1980 for Stephen J. Cannell's first series, with Jeff Goldblum and Ben Vereen playing detectives in the short-lived but fondly remembered Tenspeed and Brown Shoe.

Early in COVID times, a lot of odd shows came down the pipe to entertain audiences stuck at home.  Gary Busey, Pet Judge was one of them.  Take fake court cases, presided by a fake judge, complete with fake plaintiffs and defendants, and throw in an obviously fake court reporter and...hilarity ensues?

FOX was the newcomer on the block in 1987, specifically when it came to primetime programming.  They threw a lot of stuff against the wall, to see if much stuck.  Women in Prison was one such program that just didn't click.  But that theme song!

It's viewer request time again!  You wanted us to watch this sort-of spiritual successor to High School U.S.A. (Episode 158) and we did!  Why did this movie about a summer camp originally air in the not-so summer month of February 1985?  We know why it reran in July 1985, besides it was summer.

It's the mid-80s, the Cold War rages on, and a comedian from Soviet Russia makes it big with appearances on Carson and on the stand-up circuit, and as a semi-regular on Night Court.  In 1986, he got his own vehicle, What a Country!  Listen to who was cast as the macho ex-Marine turned principal.