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

It Was a Thing on TV Instant Reaction--Doctor Who: The Star Beast

The first of the three Doctor Who specials for the 60th Anniversary aired on the BBC and Disney+ this past weekend. Chico watched the first of the specials and pops on in this Instant Reaction about the return of David Tennant and Catherine Tate to the TARDIS. Did RTD's first episode back as Executive Producer of Doctor Who recapture the magic from his first stint? You'll have to listen to find out. Meep, Meep.

Episode 431--Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death

We cap our celebration of the Doctor Who 60th anniversary with a look at “The Curse of Fatal Death”, a Red Nose Day special from 1999. The Doctor’s looking to settle down but can’t stop regenerating, the Master is rebuilt with Dalek spare parts, and it’s all going down on a planet with a special form of communication. The BBC got some amazing talent for this one-off that foresaw a lot of things.

Minisode 29--Leon Lett’s Thanksgiving ’93 blunder

We hope you have enjoyed your Thanksgiving as you prepare to watch some Thanksgiving night football.  Thirty Thanksgivings ago, Leon Lett committed one of the most boneheaded plays in NFL history.  Oddly enough, less than a year earlier, Lett previously committed another one of the most boneheaded plays in NFL history, on the biggest stage of them all.

Episode 430--The 1982 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

The holiday tradition at the podcast now starts its trek going back in time, starting with the 1982 edition of The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  How does it compare to what we have seen from later in the 80s and why are so many kids expressing their emotions?

Episode 429–The 1987 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

It's an It Was a Thing on TV tradition like no other.  Every year since 2019, we have looked at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in chronological order, starting with the 1983 parade.  We're up to the 1987 parade.  What characters will star in this parade?  What products will advertisers shove down our throats?  And did Charlie Brown ever get a growth spurt!

Episode 428--The missing episodes of Doctor Who

"Doctor Who" has had a storied history these past 60 years, but thanks to the economics of television at the time, it - much like that of any TV show at the time - is sketchy at best. But recently, the BBC has ramped up efforts to find and restore episodes long lost to tape wiping by any means necessary. We look at how this piece of TV history is being preserved and what is still missing media.

Episode 427--Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord

By the mid 1980s, Doctor Who had emerged as one of the BBC’s longest-running brands, but even then it was getting long in the tooth. In 1986, they tried something big - a season-long arc, resulting in “The Trial of a Time Lord”. Will the Doctor be brought to justice? Will audiences be brought to watch?

Episode 426--Time Express

Vincent Price wanted to bring Doctor Who to the States, with an American version.  When that failed, he decided to make his own version aboard a train.  Time Express was a limited series, starting while Supertrain was still airing.  Both shows got derailed in May 1979.

Episode 425--The Stranger

Doctor Who was an instantaneous sensation that, in 1964, the ABC in Australia commissioned a show similar to yet different from The Doctor.  Thought to be lost for decades, The Stranger found its way to the Internet in 2019.  Judge for yourself as we continue our tribute to the Doctor's 60th anniversary.

Episode 424–Class

Our tribute to Doctor Who continues with an entry that picks up where it all began. Join the students of Coal Hill Academy as they team up with an alien prince and the teacher/warlord he’s psychically tethered to as they protect the school from otherworldly threats for all of 8 episodes. “Class” is in session.