The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

In the Fall 1987 television season, NBC tried starting primetime half an hour earlier than normal.  The results were generally bad sitcoms and reverting to an 8 PM start time for primetime starting in Fall 1988.  We look at why this block failed and Mike talks about a personal connection with someone from one of the five comedies from this block.

Second Chance had a different premise but was low-rated and given a second chance.  It was stripped of its premise and turned into an average teenage boy sitcom called Boys Will Be Boys.  After 12 episodes of this retooled show, it was cancelled and not given a third chance.

A sitcom with Jim Carrey!  It can't fail...can it?  (Isn't that why we're here?)  The Duck Factory was a comedy about the animation industry with very few animations, a young not-so irreverent Jim Carrey, and an established cast of characters.  What went wrong?

For now, we wrap up our look at pilots with a very bizarre one from 1990, where a dead cop's soul enters the body of a bulldog.  Poochinski is a weird pilot you have to see at least once.  You can view the complete pilot at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LytgLZDzzAY.

Considered by some to be the best show which never made it to TV, Lookwell is a brilliant cop show spoof done by Lorne Michaels, Robert Smigel, and a young Conan O'Brien.  You can view this pilot at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBQ3HbB0c8Y.

This is exhibit A on why classic shows should not be rebooted.  Mr. Ed was piloted in 2004 for FOX but like almost anything on FOX, this show had an edgy FOX twist.  Also, the computer graphics in this show were horrible, even for 2004.  You can see this pilot at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze5IBEMoUR0.

We continue our look at pilots with the NBC entry from 1990, Where's Rodney?, where Rodney Dangerfield plays a confused teenager's confidant.  You can see this pilot with commercials at https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6kk335.

In honor of 420, we present you with submission #420.  The High Court with Doug Benson was like any other court show with a marijuana twist.  Blink and you missed it because it went up in smoke fast.

In an episode which is sort of timely with Easter just happening, we look at a world where puppets and humans coexist on Greg the Bunny.

(Please note, this was an April Fools Day joke.  98% of what you hear in this episode is fake.)

While searching for material on a previous episode, we stumbled upon information about a very brief BBC comedy from 1980 capitalizing off of the popularity of Doctor Who and The $1.98 Beauty Show.  Combine the two and you get a series in which nothing outside of blurbs of the episodes exists, Rip Taylor in Time.