The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

Everybody loves the action and fun on Supermarket Sweep.  The show we know and love was quite different in its first season, a bare bones version with some odd additions that didn't last long.  Come for the caviar, stay for Mr. Yuk.

This show was brought to our attention by Greg, as he stumbled across a cameo in the 4th episode.  Open All Night is not a bad show, just short-lived because it aired on Saturday nights.  But that theme song.

1975 was an amazing year for game shows, good and gimmicky.  One of the gimmicky games involved people running around a giant maze, trying to win cash and prizes.  It sounds corny but The Moneymaze is a fun show to watch.

We're back with our second live show, this time while watching the second season premiere of Press Your Luck.

It seems Tony Randall was known for two shows--first and foremost, The Odd Couple, and then Love, Sidney.  We make the case that it was mishandled from the start by NBC but also that some subject matter might have been material not designed for an early 80s home audience.

In the Fall 1987 television season, NBC tried starting primetime half an hour earlier than normal.  The results were generally bad sitcoms and reverting to an 8 PM start time for primetime starting in Fall 1988.  We look at why this block failed and Mike talks about a personal connection with someone from one of the five comedies from this block.

What was Greg's dive down a rabbit hole after recording a few months ago became this very experimental episode.  The Maury staff sure comes up with different ways to describe their DNA and lie detector shows.

Brew up some coffee and enjoy this look at Jim Henson ads from the late 50s and early 60s.  The commercials were to-the-point and were effective.  Sixty years later, they are a blast to watch.

Second Chance had a different premise but was low-rated and given a second chance.  It was stripped of its premise and turned into an average teenage boy sitcom called Boys Will Be Boys.  After 12 episodes of this retooled show, it was cancelled and not given a third chance.

A sitcom with Jim Carrey!  It can't fail...can it?  (Isn't that why we're here?)  The Duck Factory was a comedy about the animation industry with very few animations, a young not-so irreverent Jim Carrey, and an established cast of characters.  What went wrong?