Episodes
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As listeners may know, we love our Quinn Martin-produced shows. In this episode, we go back to one of his earliest crime drama efforts, with a lead who would be the biggest movie star by the end of the 1970s. Dan August had all the hallmarks of a great series, but there was one key item missing--viewership. Come for Burt Reynolds and non-comedic Norman Fell, stay for an astounding number of quality guest stars.
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James Bond was probably at its most popular in the late 1970s. NBC, seeing an opportunity to right the ship after many unsuccessful shows to end the decade, jumped on the Bondian spy bandwagon with A Man Called Sloane which, like the Bond movies, had numerous attractive females, working both for the good guys and the bad ones. What had promise quickly bottomed out in the ratings, making this a 3-month wonder.
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Missing episodes?
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As faithful listeners may know, Greg and Mike enjoy their trading cards. Greg has opened junk wax packs in the past. Mike prefers more recent (and more expensive) cards. This week, Mike's favorite series, Allen and Ginter, dropped its 2024 series of cards, which contain not just athletes, but celebrities and oddball subsets. Enjoy as Mike rips open a 24-pack hobby box of the 2024 Allen and Ginter series.
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Today is Halloween, and to commemorate the event, we went back to a very short-lived show. Even nowadays, there have been shows where ghosts inhabit a house but can only be seen by select individuals. NBC tried this in 1989 with Eric Idle. Within a month, Nearly Departed was wholly departed from the network.
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The late 80s was an era where the syndicated sitcom ruled the airwaves, primarily on FOX and independent affiliates, also primarily on the weekends. One such show starred podcast favorite Diana Canova, a single mother who worked at a record label. Despite being on the air for two seasons, very little of this show exists online. Maybe viewers didn't have the heart to record and retain Throb?
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Over the years, we have talked about revivals and sequels, which are almost never as successful or popular as the original. This is another case of that. Update a beloved franchise without any of its original cast and give that show an undesirable time slot, and it is bound to fail quickly. After less than a dozen episodes, this update of Kojak enjoyed its last lollipop, quickly going to dustbin of bad TV updates.
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In this installment, we look at another show which was rated as one of the worst shows of all-time. Was Me and the Chimp justifiably the 46th worst show ever? Maybe if audiences went bananas over the ridiculous plot, we wouldn't be talking about this show almost 53 years later.
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Daytime games in the 80s were a strength of NBC. CBS had a stable roster of shows, though the block was only two hours compared to three at NBC. For some reason, CBS canceled the venerable $25,000 Pyramid for this show. This show did not live up to expectations, so much so that its replacement was the same show it replaced.
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NBC tried spinning off one of its most successful shows from the 80s, the drama Hill Street Blues, into a comedy/drama Beverly Hills Buntz. The first episode brought great ratings, but that was thanks to a cushy time slot. Naturally, the audience didn't carry over after moving to a not-so-cushy time slot and the show ended with 4 episodes still in the can.
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It's time for another Revisited episode. This time, we're looking at a show that, in recent months, has appeared on-demand and airs with regularity on a FAST channel. We're checking in again with The Ropers and questioning whether it truly is one of the 50 worst shows in TV history. You be the judge, but we think it does not deserve that moniker.
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Numerous successful scripted television shows made their way to Saturday mornings in the mid-70s, like I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan's Island, and Star Trek. The Partridge Family got the same treatment in 1974, but with a catch--it's set over 200 years in the future. Also, some key components in the Partridge Family universe were missing. If you see the show image, it looks awfully similar to a venerable Hanna-Barbera series, and for good reason.
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The New York Mets had a nutty last week and a half going from Atlanta to Milwaukee to Atlanta to Milwaukee as they clinched in a playoff spot in dramatic fashion on the last day of the regular season and advanced to the NLDS in a thrilling three-game Wild Card round.
Greg shares with Mike in this delayed reaction his thoughts regarding the week that was and at the end, they look at the upcoming Division Series match-ups.
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We're back with another batch of goofy and bizarre hometown commercials.Here is the line-up for this installment of Hometown Commercials:
Unique Creations: https://youtu.be/9T_GZeZyYqUShift It: https://youtu.be/1gYE5TyijxEWest Palm Loan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XHUGEVMa8IZachary’s Night Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvyS8dY2kQABeacon Plumbing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M2F4-QRUdwReckon and Reckon Plumbing: https://youtu.be/HS7yCO9_h_ELowell “The Hammer” Stanley: https://youtu.be/lF7FhuhyA8cBryan Wilson, The Texas Law Hawk: https://youtu.be/HL3MxAH-kDIPete Ellis Ford: https://youtu.be/J3Ezn8eLfm8Fast Eddy: https://youtu.be/9nyS-B7_MyYPaolini’s Pizza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edPBN4GghvYStewart Olds Nissan Suzuki: https://youtu.be/otGuj7Z73bgComet Burgers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBSCrOa-aUMChina Star: https://youtu.be/Ez0jnbeOe_IFrankie & Johnny’s: https://youtu.be/XI7jC57GuZMN.Y. Men’s Clothing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usAzhVErnEgLincoln Carpeting: https://www.youtube.com/watchExcalibur Sports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3IqqycBy-o -
The FBI was a stalwart on ABC's line-up from 1965 through 1974. The network kicked the tires on a new, updated version of their venerable classic in 1981 with this show, which featured contemporary storylines and a more diverse cast of characters. Audiences weren't buying what ABC was selling, as this new version lasted merely a season.
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Almost five years ago, we started this podcast. Now, we are celebrating our 500th episode by going back to an early favorite of ours and revisiting it, mostly for the caliber of guest stars that we didn't recognize back then. Enjoy as we go back to one of the biggest flops in television history, as we prepare to do the next 500, leading to show 1000.
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30 years ago FOX shook up the TV landscape when they grabbed the NFL's NFC television package from CBS. In the process, several CBS stations in NFC markets not wanting to lose out on football jumped ship to FOX and set up a domino effect around the country changing many TV viewers' habits. Some of these changes are still being felt in various markets years later.
Below is a list of links used in this episode, or are relevant to this topic:
KCNC/KUSA/KMGH packages (including the Big Switch on KCNC): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSzqDUOqv75_35MMJd0I4WXyn0TjKg3uK&si=yFrpwVnQ7C6hJpdH
KUSA story on The Big Switch featuring Denver Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCbThe00R3k
Virgil Dominic explains WJW's switch to FOX: https://youtu.be/LNnezBc9Kfk
FOX coming to WJW.: https://youtu.be/-mZr3EkhBVs
WOIO switches to CBS: https://youtu.be/1hmNZALP6sY
WCIX/WFOR swaps with WTVJ, full playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJvbbUTw-Ipy-iKzqb9z24uN4Ftxe_DbK&si=9Co39ZbA5OIk61tZ
CBS comes to WGPR, Fox comes to WJBK, including credits for “The New Dance Show”: https://youtu.be/73n7LdMpIzY
Fox comes to WGHP, ABC comes to WNRW, UPN comes to WUPN: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrGrNOGRw2-8T5xcCw1SardvoPhdlkcWn&si=UpZ6VoA3ddrbvwLl
WTVW Affiliation Switch from ABC to FOX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O48lNDnjqSE
WNDU segment on WSJV and WBND switching between FOX to ABC (ft. Tom Rinaldi): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Baxpw1cNeWY
NBC comes to WCAU: https://youtu.be/5SBdyozNvJM
WCAU “25 Years After the Big Switch Some Viewers Still Confuse NBC10 With CBS”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiPhJJfp1wM
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We've talked about this in some past episodes and in this special edition of "It Was a Thing on TV Presents" before the week we celebrate out 500th episode we talk about TV Guide's 50 Worst Shows of All-Time List from 2002.
We talk about why some shows deserved or didn't deserve to be on the list and we add some shows that were either neglected or should be added since TV Guide published the original list back in '02.
We'll revisit this topic again in a few weeks when we rerank the shows and stay tuned throughout the episode because we might ask you listeners to help us out in the rerankings.
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In 1988, the film Alien Nation was a theatrical release. That spawned this televised adaptation of that film. While only running for a single season, the franchise showed it had popularity and staying power, as televised movies and other forms of media appeared after this show's demise.
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