The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

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.

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.

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.

NBC was still trying to get their bearings aligned in early 1985.  One midseason replacement which had decent enough ratings against formidable competition was Sara, Chico's submission for the listener vote last year.  Quite a few cast members from Sara went onto much greater things, including a popular Oscar winner, a comedian/pundit, a multi-talented award-winning actress, and everybody's favorite cousin from Mypos.

Kevin Smith gave us "Clerks", a cult classic indie film from 1994. "Clerks" gave us Jay & Silent Bob. Jay & Silent Bob gave us a lot of laughs.... so ABC gave an order for an animated follow-up. Then America gave it a shot... and ABC gave up after a pair of eps, only for the show to become... a cult classic. Join us as we travel the full circle to the Quick Stop.

Not to be confused with Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, this version was a series of specials throughout the 1977-78 television season with little connection to the original.  The positive of this version is a superstar talent got his first national exposure on this show, among other talents who had lengthy careers in television and elsewhere.  A negative is the producer got sued and lost millions because he didn't have everybody's permission to do this show.

Bob Newhart struck gold with The Bob Newhart Show in the 70s and Newhart in the 80s through 1990.  Could Newhart do it again with another self-titled endeavor?  Bob was a clever and funny show, but it didn't have a certain something that both his previous shows had.  Despite quality names as guests including a future Friend, the show was saddled with bad time slots and only lasted a handful of episodes into its second season.

Before Brian Griffin created a series about two oddball roommates on an episode of Family Guy, that premise was used in a short-lived NBC series which paired up a 14-year-old with an ex-Marine in his 40s in a college dorm.  Ratings were amazing for the premiere episode, but the show still lasted only 8 shows.  Find out why in this installment.

It's time to go back to school for the next three installments!  We start with someone who is teaching until he gets his big break in acting, hooking up with seemingly every single lady along the way.  Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher brought some realities teenagers went through (and still go through) at the time, in addition to being a light-hearted comedy.

It's the mid-90s and two startup networks are looking for programming.  A flavor of the month at the time was giving stand-up comics their own shows, see Seinfeld, Life with Louie, and Roseanne, and later The Drew Carey Show and Everybody Loves Raymond.  The new network was UPN and the comic was Richard Jeni, who took a concept from his stand-up show and loosely molded it into a Seinfeld-like TV show.