The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the middle of summer and likely scorching hot outside.  To cool you off a bit, we give you a Rankin-Bass special, combining the forces of Rudolph and Frosty.  Together, they and others try to stop a villain from turning the North Pole into his own evil wonderland.  This gets dark sometimes, and this was aimed at children?  And were children willing to sit through 90 minutes to 2 hours of this un-holly and un-jolly special?

Back in 2021 for the Fourth of July we released The Bicentennial Minute a series of segments done by CBS in primetime between July 4th, 1974 to December 31st, 1976 to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the United States. Later, in 2021 we released a Director's Cut with extra material and now in 2026 for the 250th Anniversary of the USA we release the Super Special Longer 2006 Edition.

This updated edition is over two and a half hours with about a half-hour of new material for 2026 including five segments recently unearthed for the first time in a half-century on Major Garrett of CBS News' podcast.

Bicentennial Minutes covered in the 2021 version

"Lucy's Bicentennial Minute" - https://papermoonloveslucy.tumblr.com/post/175503525253/lucys-bicentennial-minute

Betty Ford Bicentennial Minute Materials (Gerald Ford Presidential Library and Museum): - https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0126/1489543.pdf

Press Release for Congressman Butler Derrick's (D-SC) appearance on the Bicentennial Minute on November 12, 1975 (University of South Carolina Library) - https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/derrick/id/89/

April 1975: Janet Leigh (Partial) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tWIoa1lhuk

August 24, 1975: Congresswoman Bella Abzug (D-NY) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsnFrd63j4k

August 31, 1975: Jessica Tandy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUoto1lsX50

January 8, 1976: Laurence Luckinbill - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir6pabr4CD0

January 22, 1976: Gary Lockwood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hai2OxMwl9w

March 9, 1976: Jim Hutton - https://youtu.be/zgwiC4TT9aM?t=499

March 18, 1976: Val Avery - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93s5mXL0WZk

April 2, 1976: Darren McGavin (New to the SSL2026 Edition) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDoMXgmoncg

May 7, 1976: Otto Preminger - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1HwX6TdHbk

May 12, 1976: Mitchell Ryan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TpBK7tZc2k

May 20, 1976: Zubin Mehta - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7bt3SNBOrw

May 27, 1976: Garson Kanin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgxOYH7fHX4

June 4, 1976: Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHDXxzuXBok

July 22, 1976: Will Rogers Jr. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfG8LHyRlNY

December 20, 1976: Emlyn Williams - https://youtu.be/8nUKzWGVWe4?t=1671

December 31, 1976: President Gerald Ford (Last 42 Seconds) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0TB76tc5Tg

Bicentennial Minutes covered in the 2026 SSL2026 Edition courtesy of Major Garrett's "The Takedown"

March 26, 1976: Michael York: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrBhkPOS7xg&t=90s

March 23, 1976: Kitty Carlisle and August 22, 1976: Bert Convy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRlOa_feAfU

September 5, 1976: Vice Admiral Sam Gravely Jr. and March 6, 1976: Brigader General Madelyn Parks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kJAHHb0ito

March 25, 1976: William Holden and August 10, 1976: Joseph Cotten - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztwG6q2ooX0

August 24, 1976: Edith Head and March 19, 1976: Judith Crist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg4z3NxPPXc

Bonus: YouTube user epaddon's compilation of all the surviving Bicentennial Minutes including the surviving Pre-Spring of 1975 Bicentennial Minutes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBDHgs90jiU

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.

A Longhorn Network tradition becomes an It Was a Thing on TV holiday tradition as we watch the University of Texas' live mascot, Bevo, in his natural habitat to muzak of songs from the holiday season. We also share some fun facts about Bevo and the University of Texas while watching Bevo.

You can follow along with us at the following link from the Longhorn Network website. - https://watch.longhornnetwork.com/video/651299

The Little Rascals shorts were very popular in syndication during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, to the extent that NBC ordered an animated Christmas special based on the shorts in 1979. Spanky and Porky have to retrieve a coat that their mother sold with the help of the gang, but all sorts of hilarity ensue. Can the gang get Spanky and Porky's mother's coat back in time for Christmas?

You have had your Thanksgiving dinner.  Now it's time for dessert, the final Thanksgiving parade of the 1980s.  As always, highlights of pop culture from the year make appearances, as well as ads for the must-have items for the holiday season.  In 1989, we also get a weird appearance from The Joker (no Cesar Romero and his orange wedges) plus a troupe of dancing chickens.

Way back when, in the first year of the Podcast back in 2019, we covered the 1983 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Episode 9, and we've done the following year's edition every year since. Given we've now had a set formula for covering these parades since, we decided this year to do a "Revisited" for the 1983 edition.

We got Shirt Tales, Jon Bauman, Yogi Bear, Charley Pride, the Superman balloon that hides in the corner depressed, Woody Woodpecker, a drunken Bullwinkle, Leonard Frey, and Mr. Smith!

Plus, we also get some hot Atari 2600 commercials and some early info on buying VCRs for Black Friday 1983 during the parade! The second part of our Thanksgiving Day Parade Extravaganza will be posted at 12 Noon later today when we discuss The 1989 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Happy Thanksgiving!  (For those outside of the United States, happy Thursday.)  For this holiday, we jump back 43 years to 1981.  What was the hotness that year?  A version of Strawberry Shortcake which was reminiscent to the technology used in Malcolm, for one.  The video game surge started, though it wasn't represented in the parade.  As you prepare to do Black Friday shopping, remember to go to the AT&T phone store and get a Garfield phone.

As we do around these parts for Thanksgiving, we look at at least one Thanksgiving Day parade.  This time, we go back to 1988, to see what were the big shows on Broadway, to see what TV stars would appear on floats, to see what the big gifts of 1988 were, to see what headwear Willard Scott was donning, and to see the grand ending of the parade--Santa Claus!

Every year when we celebrate the United States' birthday, we offer up a patriotic show.  This Independence Day is no different, except the event covered in this episode happened in September 1987, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.  This parade didn't offer much in terms of celebrities, but it gave viewers a look at how things were done in 1787.