Diehard television fans and fans of weird things in general will enjoy It Was a Thing on TV: An Anthology on Forgotten Television. Twice a week, Mike, Greg, and Chico discuss the strange aspects of television. They cover the shows, segments, and tie-ins that seem more like a TV executive’s fever dream than a series attempt to top the Neilsen ratings.
Mike and Greg took the time to answer a few questions about how topics are chosen and other miscellaneous television ephemera.
How did you get involved with It was a Thing on TV?
Greg: The idea of the show basically came from a Discord group. Remember a couple of years back, the big boom in trivia apps, like HQ and all that. Mike had a Discord for all the different trivia apps. In between any of the games, we’d do some stuff to pass the time and one of the things I would do would be going down a rabbit hole on YouTube looking for old television stuff. One of the things I found on YouTube was a video from a YouTube series called 13 Week Theatre about a sitcom on Fox called Second Chance.
Isn’t that the one with Matthew Perry before he was Chandler?
Greg: The premise of the series was another actor played the older version of Matthew Perry died in a skyway accident in the year 2011, so he gets to heaven and meets St. Peter. It’s decide if he’s going to go to heaven or hell. And they decide, “Oh well, you’re not quite good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell. So what we’re going to do is send you back to 1987 to help your younger self get into heaven. The joke with Gaddafi is Gaddafi get sent to hell in the year 2011 before he met Matthew Perry’s older self.
Mike, how did you get involved?
Mike: Greg, correct me if I’m wrong, about 2017 we talked about doing a podcast about oddball movies.
Greg: Oh, yeah. We did. Maybe 2017, 2018. I forgot about that.
Mike: That sort of morphed into this.
How long have you been doing It Was a Thing on TV?
Mike: Since October of 2019.
You review a lot of terrible TV. Are there any requirement to be considered for inclusion?
Greg: Usually two seasons or less.
Mike: Generally, though, we had shows that lasted 11 seasons.
Greg: That’s a special case.
Mike: That’s a very special case.
Greg: That’s Mystery Diners.
Mike: No. Get it right.
Greg: Charles Stiles Mystery Diners.
I have not listened to that one yet.
Greg: The first thing you need to do after this is search Ralph the Movie Maker Mystery Diners before listening to the episode. That’s how I actually discovered it because, a month into doing the podcast, I saw a thumbnail that said, “Mystery Diners, Worst Show Ever.” I thought worst show ever. That’s a bit extreme. I have to check this out. I was like “Oh my god, this is amazing. I have to let Mike and Chico know that this exists.”
How would you describe Mystery Diners, Mike?
Mike: Kind of Bar Rescue-ish. Heavily scripted, number one. There’s a natural pattern in every episode that really gives away that it’s scripted.
Greg: Also, Charles Stiles Mystery Diners does not have the personality of Jon Taffer.
I know you keep a list of things to cover. How long is this list currently?
Greg: It’s at over 2,000, but I think we’ve said when we get to number 2,100 we’re going to stop for a bit.
Mike: Or at least prioritize them. The ones that are really good we’ll add on. We’ve got more than enough topics at this point.
Greg: At this point, unless a show gets canceled. Now, we can add it on. I think once we get to 2,100 we’re good. We were actually going to stop at 2,000, but there’s a show we’re going to do in November that has a certain submission number I assigned to in advance, so we couldn’t stop at 2,000.
Mike: It’s ever growing. We tried, or at least this year, the shows that were bad in 2020, we put on our year end show for pretty much that reason. The sole exception being Personal Injury Court.
What is the goal of It Was a Thing on TV?
Greg: It’s to shine a light on these shows because, if you really stop to think about it, what podcast in the world is going to talk about a sitcom that aired on ABC from 1981 like Open All Night that pretty much nobody, except for diehard David Letterman fans remember.
Mike: And then it turns out to be a semi-enjoyable show. There’s a lot of shows that fall under that. We’ve done newer shows. We did the Cool Kids. We absolutely loved that show and then it got replaced by WWE Smackdown.
How would you describe the podcast to someone who’s never listened to it before?
Mike: A podcast about, I use the term lost TV or forgotten TV. That may or may not be the case. We sort of reach all sorts of different areas. Whether it’s forgotten. Whether it’s cult TV. Whether it’s lost TV. Whether it’s unappreciated TV or just flat-out bombs. We cover, I don’t want to say anything and everything, but that’s the best way of phrasing it. This is not going to be a podcast where we talk about Friends. Generally, if it’s a halfway decent show, you’re not going to hear about it. We may allude to it or may make connections to it, but we’re not going to flat-out dedicate an episode to a good show.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Greg: We’re doing two episodes for the Superbowl week coming up.
Mike: Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Not to steal Chico’s line, but subscribe, ring our bell on YouTube, and don’t forget to review us five stars or I’m coming over to your house with my prosthetic leg and I’ll beat you over the head.
It Was a Thing on TV is available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released Mondays and Thursdays with the occasional extra episode or mini-episode released on other days. All episodes can be found on the official website.
