The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

Demond Wilson's first post-Sanford and Son role was in this series, as a husband who abandoned his wife and family for seven years and was legally declared dead.  Not only was Wilson back on TV after a short time away, but baby, he's back for his family.

Ellen Cleghorne was a groundbreaking talent when she was on Saturday Night Live.  The WB gave her her own show, which was gone in months.  Was the problem that Cleghorne! was on The WB, or was it something else?

CBS' most hyped show in 1987-88 was Frank's Place, about an academic who inherits a New Orleans restaurant.  There was so much publicity for it that its two main stars hosted CBS' series of unsold pilots in Summer 1987.  Despite the hype and critical acclaim, it was done in a season.  There was one big name who admits to liking it and recording it.

We are a week away from The Big Game and, as always, we have some good content lined up.  First up, in a similar spirit to The Flintstones and The Jetsons, Hanna/Barbera created a cartoon about the work and home lives of a family.  This time, as you'd expect this week, the husband was a quarterback on a football team.  Where's Huddles? aired in Summer 1970, then in non-primetime reruns the following year.

In 1984, history was made after Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman to be on a major party Presidential ticket.  Possibly piggybacking on this historic occasion, the people behind Soap developed a show about a female President trying to balance her work life with running the most powerful country in the world.  After a short run, this entry didn't get a second term, and its replacement became one of the iconic sitcoms of the 1980s.

In the mid-to-late 2000s, VH-1 was looking for a comedic complement to its highly successful Best Week Ever.  One such complement was this show, created by some names who would go on to bigger and better things, where the home audience decided which short series did not cut the mustard, and which ones would see another week because...they were acceptable (dot) tv.

Timing can and very might have been the reason The Tim Conway Show did not have a longer life, even going from an hour to a half an hour for season 2.  As is most anything with Tim Conway, it was entertaining.  The rest of the cast was great.  Unfortunately, the variety show was a dying breed in 1980.

In 1985 and 1986, David Letterman presented two special episodes of Late Night with David Letterman around the holiday season highlighting short films by various celebrities. We analyze these short films and offer our commentary in this holiday episode of It Was a Thing on TV.

1985 segments

"PMS - Premenstrual Syndrome" (Andrea Martin/Catherine O'Hara) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwLTCayIeSw (Uploaded by Darian Glover)

"Angst on a Shoestring" (Bette Midler) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Jfs8bK6WQ (Uploaded by Darian Glover)

"Dress Cool" (Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band ft. Dave) - https://youtu.be/eTRc_IIMtk4?si=qba3H9i_xS-K6aYf&t=92 (Uploaded by the Letterman YT Channel)

"The Making of You Wouldn't Believe Our World" (Harry Shearer ft. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Marcia Strassman" - https://youtu.be/eTRc_IIMtk4?si=qba3H9i_xS-K6aYf&t=92 (Uploaded by Darian Glover)

"But I'm Happy" (Michael Keaton ft. Ron & Clint Howard) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq88ORPeQAQ&t=183s (Uploaded by the Letterman YT Channel)

1986 segments

"Feelin' In Love" (Dave ft. Paul Shaffer and Hal Gurnee) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGaNgZyUUU (Uploaded by Darian Glover)

"My Day With the Stars" (Jonathan Winters) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7LMSRFBKAE (Uploaded by Darian Glover)

"Chris Elliott: A Television Miracle) (Chris Elliott ft. George Takei, Don King & Dave) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKqko5ZvMA (Uploaded by Darian Glover

"Diane Sawyer's Shocking Expose" (Diane Sawyer ft. Mike Douglas & Andy Rooney) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rweOsVEfI_M&t=146s (Uploaded by the Letterman YT channel)

"The Ice Man Hummeth" (Michael J. Fox ft. Howie Mandel) - https://youtu.be/56lk7cp5Umg?si=O_9gQ6ZDQey2fb5Z&t=93 (Uploaded by the Letterman YT channel)

Almost a decade after the animated version we covered in episode 417, there was a live-action version of Police Academy, 8 years after the franchise's last nationwide theatrical release.  Unlike the animated show, personalities from the Police Academy movies made appearances.  After a season, the powers that be opted to put these cops on desk duty.

(NOTE: We couldn't photoshop the Police Academy logo in the 90's TV so we had to use the Widescreen TV logo and filtered the Police Academy logo as if you were watching a VHS tape on an HDTV.)

In the 70s, Sherwood Schwartz had an idea to introduce a couple with a multiethnic group of kids. The ahead-of-its-time idea was revisited in the mid 80s, but would anybody watch it? And what happens when nobody watches it? On this episode, we break down the strange case of “Together We Stand”…. Or “Nothing is Easy”.