We gave you three selections in our Viewer's Choice vote, and this is the show that came out on top.  We have another spinoff show from a popular parent show.  Also, we have another spinoff show that got amazing ratings in its premiere season, which fell off in the second and final season.  In early 1980, audiences were flocking to see Flo.  By 1981, audiences were telling it to kiss their grits.

Years ago, we did our first installment on TV-themed trading cards, focusing mainly on cards from the past.  With the resurgence in the popularity of trading cards, we decided to do a second volume, focusing on trading cards, specifically those over the last decade.  Some of the biggest franchises offer cards, so you can own a piece of those shows or an autograph of one of the stars.

In 1968, the song Harper Valley PTA was a number one hit for Jeannie C. Riley.  In 1978, the song was the inspiration for a movie with the same title, starring Barbara Eden.  Three years later, this show came into being with Eden at the helm, about the battles Eden's character had with the PTA of a fictional Ohio town called Harper Valley.  

The year is 1989 and the Max Headroom fad, for the most part, has come and gone.  Next up for Matt Frewer is a comedy where laughter is sometimes the best medicine.  Doctor Doctor ran two abbreviated seasons, followed by a full final season.  The show tackled some very sensitive yet timely topics during its run including AIDS and homophobia, but went away quietly after a ratings nosedive.

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.