It Was a Thing on TV: An Anthology on Forgotten Television

Tomorrow (August 16th) marks the 25th anniversary of the premiere episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on ABC. The gang shares their memories and expectations leading up to the first episode while looking at some of the questions from the premiere.

Some of the questions in the premiere seemed easy in 1999 while some questions that looked hard in 1999 would be considered easy in 2024.

As we continue our Deadpool and Wolverine month, we cover a recent show which rewarded participants for not doing stuff, though they really were doing stuff in a backwards way.  Despite a well-known actor hosting and a certain superhero narrating, the viewers followed in a way consistent with the premise of this show--don't watch.

Mike shared a little nugget with the other guys earlier this week.  That message became the seed of this Delayed Reaction, reacting to events which happened close to a decade ago.  Dynasty?  Really?

The Brits seem to try just about anything when it comes to game shows.  Case in point, this entry from just over a decade ago, a primetime endeavor which combined game show elements with Henson Alternative puppets.  The end result was That Puppet Game Show, which ran for only 8 episodes.  Even though it aired overseas, listeners on the other side of "the pond" can watch it on a semi-frequent basis.

We close the door on yet another pilot month with this amalgamation of pieces and parts from various game shows from the Bob Stewart family, mixed with the theme from a past and future Stewart show, and add a shuffleboard table for good measure.  The end result was Twisters, a truly unique concoction that didn't make NBC's schedule in late 1982/early 1983.

As we have said in the past, Jay Wolpert is the master of the overly complex but unique game show format.  In this show, two people build a team of players with the end goal of winning that captain $10,000 and making some fast friends.  Apparently, NBC passed this up for a show that John Davidson predicted would be on for a very long time.

1982 was a time of flux at NBC in the daytime.  Game shows were out earlier that year minus Wheel of Fortune, replaced with soaps and sitcom reruns.  NBC had a pilot that was part-game, part-psychological analysis with Let's Get Personal, hosted by a familiar face to NBC game show watchers, but also with an acting troupe of three big names around these parts.  

In the newest "Best of" we go back to one of our early episodes from January of 2020.

What do you get when you have the king of the wacky Game Show produce a spoof of beauty contests? You get Rip Taylor, barrels of confetti, and a $1.98. Take a journey back as we look at "The $1.98 Beauty Show".

In honor of the 80th birthday of Canadian TV personality and host of former entry To Tell the Truth from 1980 (episode 139), we present another show hosted by Robin Ward, one which looked incredibly dated, plus had a miniscule budget.  Guess what the answer is and you might take home hundreds of dollars Canadian on Guess What!

In honor of the 60th anniversary of Jeopardy! this past Saturday, we talk about how one of the greatest players in the show's history almost didn't happen.  A somewhat lenient response and a rule change allowed Ken Jennings to become the show's all-time wins leader and eventually the host of the show.