The It Was a Thing on TV Podcast Network

In 1988, the U.S. Men's basketball team finished with a disappointing bronze medal, after having won the gold in almost every other previous Olympiad.  For that reason or because some teams had professional players, the Olympics opened the games to professionals.  The United States loaded up their squad with 11 of the NBA's best, plus Christian Laettner.  The first game was against Angola which, to put it kindly, was slaughtered by the Americans.

As the Olympic Games are ready to start in Paris, the podcast will devote the next two episodes to happenings in previous years.  We start where each Olympics start--the opening ceremonies.  Each Olympic host city has their idea of what would be the perfect opening ceremony.  In retrospect, those ideas, while good in theory, were not for one reason or another.  The ceremonies also gather attention for who participated, and is amplified due to social media, see one specific Tongan athlete who stole the hearts of millions of women.

The 2024 Paris Olympics are coming up. To celebrate, we give you this extended cut of a previous episode we did back in 2021 that started our Olympics series of shows celebrating the Tokyo Olympics. The Olympics Triplecast for the 1992 Summer Olympics on NBC was a Pay-Per-View series of networks where you could watch all the Olympics you could handle. It turns out nobody in 1992 was willing to pay $125 for what you can probably get for about $13.99 on Peacock in 2024.

We put closure on this installment of Marvel month celebrating the release of "Deadpool & Wolverine" with a show that has been described not only as one of the worst shows of the 2000s, but in the history of television.  There isn't much good you can say about a show which, mercifully, lasted 2 episodes.  The best part of this installment of the podcast is the introduction of a new character, thanks to MeTV Toons.

EA Sports College Football '25 is now out digitally (the physical version comes out Friday 7/19) so Greg hitched a one-month subscription of EA Play on PS5 just to play the free trial. Here are some of his reactions to the game so far in this Instant Reaction.

As we continue our Deadpool and Wolverine month, we cover a recent show which rewarded participants for not doing stuff, though they really were doing stuff in a backwards way.  Despite a well-known actor hosting and a certain superhero narrating, the viewers followed in a way consistent with the premise of this show--don't watch.

Every year when we celebrate the United States' birthday, we offer up a patriotic show.  This Independence Day is no different, except the event covered in this episode happened in September 1987, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.  This parade didn't offer much in terms of celebrities, but it gave viewers a look at how things were done in 1787.

Mike shared a little nugget with the other guys earlier this week.  That message became the seed of this Delayed Reaction, reacting to events which happened close to a decade ago.  Dynasty?  Really?

Under normal circumstances, a popular show which lasted 4 seasons would not be fodder for this podcast.  For our Marvel shows leading up to the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, we're making an exception.  Anyway, we think the show got worse once the pizza place part of the premise was abandoned.  Just to reiterate, this is only about the first 2 seasons with the pizza place.

We begin our salute to the upcoming release of Deadpool & Wolverine with a show so bad it almost made Deadpool quit acting altogether. Imagine a run of the mill high school where “another day, another drama” isn’t just a saying, it’s a way of life. It really is an awkward stage and a difficult age when you’re… Fifteen.

(Note: Apologies for some background noise you might hear. Me and Chico recorded on Skype and you might hear a popcorn-ish sound which is the sound of my wood chair creaking. - Greg)