The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

Continuing with the magic theme from the last installment, our birthday boy Chico has selected this show as his annual Money in the Bank.  Instead of Bill Bixby as a master magician/crime solver, it is Hal Linden.  The results were similar--one season and done, but this has a place in our hearts.

To start 2026, we look at a show which many consider one of the best one-season wonders in television history.  What happens when you get a playboy who lives in a plane and drives a white Corvette, performs magic, and solves crimes?  You get The Magician, an enjoyable series from 1973-4.

Happy holidays!  Our gift to you this holiday season is a television movie from 1977, which was a carbon copy of the Christmastime favorite It's a Wonderful Life, but gender-swapped.  Included in the cast is one of our favorite names, as well as the person Warren Beatty said is the best in Hollywood at something.

Last year, we went over TV Guide's 50 Worst Shows of All-Time list from 2001 and thought about which shows should be removed from the list and what shows we would add from the last 20+ years since the list was released.

This year, Mike, Greg, and Chico present their re-rankings of what they think are the 50 Worst Shows of All-Time based on what they kept from TV Guide's 2001 list and what shows they added from Part 1.

For new listeners, you can listen to Part 1 of this special from last year at this link. - https://www.itwasathingontv.com/e/it-was-a-thing-on-tv-presents-tv-guides-50-worst-shows-of-all-time-list-part-1/

As happens in the TV business, having a successful TV movie equates to a run as a series.  This is no different, holding its own versus some huge 1985 competition.  The later series?  Not so much, against that same competition.  Robert Blake starred as a tough but fair priest in a tough and not-so-fair portion of Los Angeles, trying to make Hell Town not so hellish.

In honor of our annual Star Trek Day, we have that moment when Jadzia Dax was an up-and-coming model working for someone whose assistant was Will Riker. Because it’s the 80s, it’ll be a melodramatic rise to the top. Lucky for her, she’s got the world’s top teenage fashion model in her corner. We go inside the world of two “Paper Dolls” and why they managed to… fold… so quickly.

You’ve heard many stories about Elvis… his music, his moves, his crappy movies, but have you listened to the one where he invites Miss Tennessee to a kung fu movie and then starts a relationship? In 1981, Stephanie Zimbalist was the beauty queen, and Don Johnson was her King in a made-for-TV tragedy about the last few years of his life.

In this installment, we have yet another revival whose shelf life was incredibly short.  Was it because of the competition?  Was it because all the major characters were played by new actors?  Was the original series too fresh in the minds of viewers?  No matter the answer, The Case of the Quickly Cancelled Show got a swift verdict from viewers and CBS executives.

In the newest "Best of", we go back to Episode 82 when the gang covered this ABC drama from Steven Bochco from 2005 that was his big follow-up to "NYPD Blue".

It's about a NYC Police Detective who gets shot, he becomes blind, and he solves crimes! That's the show, everybody! But hey, it's the first episode we covered that has future show HoFer Rena Sofer in it! That counts for something, right? RIGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTT?

One of the more successful imports in the 60s and 70s was The Avengers.  An American version was bound to happen, and it did from the genius that was Quinn Martin.  The leads were played by a name mentioned on this podcast a bit the last few weeks, Granville Van Dusen, and Morgan Fairchild.  CBS took a pass, but the Avengers franchise (non-MCU version) lives on to this day.