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

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!

In 1987, the signals of both WGN and WTTV in Chicago were overtaken by two brief unknown signals, both showing an unknown figure wearing a Max Headroom mask.  To this day, there are more answers than questions about these incidents:  Who did this?  How did they do it?  Why did they do it?  To this day, these brief interruptions remain one of the biggest mysteries to occur on U.S. broadcast television.

WMAQ Max Headroom Prank on Mark Giangreco - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KePTSntPRtM

One of the biggest pop culture sensations in the 1980s was an omnipresent personality for the computer generation named Max Headroom.  Not only was Max Headroom a talk show host, a soda pitchman, and visible on different mediums in the latter half of the 80s, but this phenomenon even got a scripted television show which ran over two seasons, a show about a post-apocalyptic dystopia reminiscent of 1984.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.