The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

Remember when FOX started airing college football games and took both a pro approach (in its personnel in front of the camera) and an amateur approach (with every other aspect)?  We do.  We're near the end of the bowl season and look back at a tumultuous 4 years of BCS coverage on the network.

Jesse Ventura did the improbable in 1998, being elected Minnesota's governor.  Of course, someone had to jump over that story and create a made-for-TV movie.  Unfortunately, little fact checking was done and many creative liberties were taken.  And to add a creepy twist, this aired the same night as one of the most tragic events in pro wrestling history.

One of our favorite shows from the mid-2000s was MXC:  The Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.  When the show debuted, it started with a bang...or is that an almost snap of someone's neck?  One contestant called Rob Tussin tried making a glorious entrance but it almost ended in catastrophe.  And he jumped right up and continued with the game!

We're going to the ballpark for this installment, as some of 1967's brightest Major League Baseball players went against celebrities back in the day on the softball diamond, with some very special celebrities handling the duties behind the mic and two legends acting as managers.

Recently, word came out that American Gladiators is being rebooted...again.  By coincidence, we had this show slotted for this week in our schedule.  We talk about 4 shows which tried riding the coattails of the Gladiators--Knights and Warriors, Blade Warriors, Battledome, and Wild West Showdown.  There are other shows of varying success we mention at the end.  Put on your Spandex and get ready to take down some larger than life figures in this installment.

2:43 Knights and Warriors
32:50 Blade Warriors
40:11 Battledome
1:09:34 Wild West Showdown
1:26:36 Acknowledging other shows

Last year, we gave you the 3rd Annual Collegiate Cheerleading Championship with Magic Johnson, Jayne Kennedy, Catherine Bach, and Gallagher.  We're back with the championships from a year later with John Davidson, Marilyn Michaels, Mary Ann Mobley, Andy Gibb, and Victoria Principal.

YouTube link via FuzzyMemories - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9C_IW48a-M

In 1979, your run-of-the-mill baseball doubleheader between the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox turned into one of the most infamous promotions in sports history, leading to chaos, arrests, a White Sox forfeit, and many shards of vinyl on Comiskey Park's field.  In this episode, we revisit Disco Demolition Night.

Super Disco Demolition: The 40th Anniversary Compilation (Fuzzy Memories) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqDkBM9vxw8

Local News Coverage of Disco Demolition Night (stellamasters) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpQfCcsqQ0E

CSN Chicago 30th Anniversary Disco Demoliton Night Retrospective from 2009 (SoxDrawer) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97lgR41qZC8

The Olympic Triplecast wasn't the only big flop in 1992.  Reebok ran an ad campaign with two highly touted athletes, only for one to not make it to Barcelona. One ended up eventually winning gold four years later though and hey at least it sold a lot of Reebok Pump's.

Our games continue with men battling bears in bear-themed competition.  That's it.  We talk about other things like Bil Dwyer and Matt Vasgersian because...it's just men battling bears.  Did you know Honey Bump is a bear?  IMDb says so!

The Olympic Games have started, and we start our games by bringing you athletes and normal people competing against animals in two FOX specials--Man vs. Beast.  Come for Olympic runners going against jungle animals, stay for little people battling an elephant in a test of strength.