Live whenever you’re hearing it from Southfork Ranch, it’s the season 11 BATTY Awards! Join the stars, the youths, the non-humans, and the dopes for the biggest night in retro TV podcasting! We might not have a choir of 500 people or Oprah on a rooftop, but we do have a random number generator and two Dennises the Menace! #podcast #tv #retrotv #sev…

This holiday season, gather round the ol' fireplace, roast some chestnuts, sip some hot chocolate and join us we go all the way back to our first ever holiday special, and nothing says the holidays like dopey kids, ghosts, leprechauns, and hags! Rankin and Bass weave one of their most complicated stories yet in The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold, and …

In our Season 11 finale, all roads lead to Dallas and Southfork Ranch! That's right. We finally tackle the grandpappy of the nighttime soaps, and we go all the way back to the very first episode. This one has everything you'd expect: oil, scheming, bakstabbing, family feuds, and cowboy hats! It also have a few things you might not expect like groun…

For the 1983-1984 TV season, NBC asked audiences to "Be there!" Audiences had somewhere else to be, and by the end of the season, the network had canceled all nine new shows it had introduced in the fall. What could lead to such a catastrophe? Why wouldn't people want to watch shows about talking orangutans, manimals, ghosts, and more? This week, w…

Using a set of trading card-sized reproductions of TV Guide covers, we wing our way through a new game, The TV Guide Card Game. Like baseball cards, each card features stats and trivia on the back, and Rick uses that to see if Mike can guess the cover subjects. Play along and maybe learn some "fun facts" about some of your favorite BOTNS-era shows!…

Buckle your seat belt and cinch your cardigan because this week we're hitting the mean streets of Bay City with Starsky and Hutch! Things get harry for the boys after someone poisons Starksy with a deadly neurotoxin. As they race against a ticking clock to find the culprit and an antidote, they make time for their emotions and a fair amount of prop…

Season 11 returns with a look at 227, Marla Gibbs' follow-up to The Jeffersons. The sitcom introduced the world to Jackee Harry and a young Regina King, but it also featured the likes of the great Hal Williams and Alaina Reed Hall (Olivia from Sesame Street). In 5 seasons, they covered a lot of ground from kitchen-sink comedy to social commentary t…

Before we get back into the swing of season 11, we present one more encore episode. This time, we look back at Knight Rider, starring one TV's most charismatic stars and David Hasselhoff! We kid the Hoff! Still, a big shout-out to William Daniels as KITT, the talking, thinking, turbo boosting car. Why of all our episodes did we choose Knight Rider?…

In honor of the big Loch Ness Monster search this weekend in Scotland, we offer an encore presentation of one of our favorite early episodes. We once again join Leonard Nimoy on a voyage of mystery and discovery as he searches for answers to Nessie and the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Will he find answers this time? Will he reveal that Amelia E…

For this week's very special oversized bonus episode, Rick and Mike dig deep into their memories and pick their favorite networks for each TV season from the 1980s. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and eventually the fledgling Fox Network all get at shot at the title, but wil one come out victorious? #podcast #tv #retrotv #eighties #list #networks #nbc #abc #cb…

The Old West comes to BOTNS in this season's Retro-Retro episode. Chuck Connors stars as Lucas "The Rifelman" McCain in this half-hour oater from the late fifties and early sixties. In "Ordeal," Lucas and his son Mark find themselves stranded in the desert after their meat salt mining expedition goes awry. Will they make it to safety or end up buzz…

In our second listener poll episode of the season, we look at a seventies variety show forma, and Sonny and Cher beat out Donny and Marie and Captain & Tennille for top honors. We discuss an episode from the post-divorce iteration of the show, featuring guests David Steinberg, Shields and Yarnell, and the great Tina Turner! Witty banter, comedy, mi…

Back in season 5 when we originally covered the classic sitcom MASH, we vowed to return to the later B.J., Potter, Winchester years, and so we have! This time out, Hawkeye's conning himself when he gets a sneezing fit but won't address the root cause. Luckily, for him and us, Potter calls in Dr. Sidney. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #m…

This week, we return to a game we've been playing since the beginning of the podcast: The TV Guide Game! Rick digs into his vast collection of old TV Guides and tries to guess what Mike would watch on a particular night in 1982. Pull out your copy of TV Gude from the between the couch cushions and play along! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eight…

A confident, passionate physics professor witnesses a bank robbery, and it turns his life upside down. Jose Ferrer's minions paralyze him, but they can't keep him down, and they certainly don't expect his greatest creation ever...Exo-Man! Unfortunately, this 1977 TV movie/series pilot from many of the people behind "The Six Million Dollar Man" does…

What do two Mr. Wilsons, a living mannequin, and Mark Twain have in common? Would you believe Dennis the Menace? We peel back the layers of the various Dennisverses to try to find what makes the tyrannical tyke's dark heart tick. Well, we look at a wild episode of the 1980s animated version and throw in the late '50s, early '60s live action version…

In 1987, ABC celebrated Independence Day by combining an evening of variety with a rally for literacy. Oprah and Robert Urich host from St. Louis as the likes of Suzanne Somers, Yakov Smirnoff, Barbara Mandell, Atlantic Starr, and a choir of 500 singers entertain from across the country. In between, filmed segments show the different ways America c…

In a "Rear Windowesque" moment, Jonathan Hart witnesses a possible mur-DAH. Then in his rush to stop it, he collides with a moped and gets...AMNESIA. Sure, he remembers how to hail a cab, how to dress to the nines, how to live a life of luxury, but he doesn't remember his wife Jennifer, his loyal aide-de-camp Max, his dog Freeway, or the mur-DAH. H…

Rick has long espoused the theory that adding "new," "all-new," "brand-new," etc. to the title of a show never works creatively or commercially. This week with the help of the BOTNS Games Lab (TM), we put that to the test in more ways than one as he runs Mike through the paces of "The All-New Game"! Ccan he distinguish shows that had "new" versions…

This week, we venture north to Canada, where resourceful, wise, and perhaps supernatural German Shepherd The Littlest Hobo wanders Ontario in search of humans in need of help. This time, the action centers around an arcade, where he finds a deaf guy, a mime, and a grumpy old man and helps stop a couple of nogoodniks bent on robbing the place. #podc…

In our first listener poll episode of the season, we cover two episodes of the original entertainment news magazine Entertainment Tonight. First up, the series premiere. While the show looks familiar, the hosts might not. Luckily, Burt Reynolds is there to hold the hands the audience and fifty pregnant women. Next, an episode from the classic Mary …

Season 11 is now in session, and it opens with a gavel bang as we take on the original Night Court. We focus our attention on the season 5 episode "Another Day in the Life." If Harry and the gang can make it through 207 cases by midnight, an eccentric tycoon will save an orphanage from foreclosure. Wackiness ensues. We also find time to talk about …

Live on tape from the Spectrum in Philadelphia, we look back at season 10 and dole out another heap of BATTY Awards on the shows and stars that made the season special. As always, we honor everything from outstanding show to outstanding facial hair with a few surprises in between. Plus, we honor a singular figure with the Robert Pine Genius Award! …

In our season 10 finale, Christmas Eve arrives in Walnut Grove...but so does a blizzard! The men must head into the storm in a desperate search for the children, who left school early. Bucolic it ain't! We also cover important topics like religion, paste-eating, and orangutans. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #littlehouseontheprairie #mi…

When Buffy (Tom Hanks) and Hildy (Peter Scolari) accidentally drop a water balloon on Richard Milhous Nixon's car, Kip (Tom Hanks) and Henry (Peter Scolari) get into hot water with the Secret Service, and Kip (Tom Hanks) has a mid-twenties crisis. Could "Waterballoongate" mean the end for the Bosom Buddies (Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari)? #podcast #t…

Will Mike's Fame Game hot streak continue, or will it all fall part? Plus, what do "Slylock Fox," the stone age, produce, and bowling balls all have in common? They appear in this episode! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #games #famegame

This week, we focus on another spoke of the NBC Mystery Wheel with McMillan and Wife, starring Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, and most importantly John Schuck! In "Cop of the Year," Schuck's Sergeant Enright finds himself accused of murdering his ex-wife. He and Mac (with a little help from the great Jon Astin) work to clear his name and find the …

In past episodes, we've encountered vampires, space vampires, Frankensteins, and space mummies, but this time, we sink our teeth into a show featuring another monster! In the cult classic "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," intrepid reporter Karl Kochak finds himself stuck on a singles cruise with Dick Gautier, Nita Talbot, and a werewolf! Will anyone be…

Our Facebook Group voted on a year to cover in our long-running TV Guide Game feature. They ended up in a two-way tie, so this week, we return to the BOTNS Vaults and pull out a TV Guide from 1977. Disney, the Hardy Boys, Ethel Merman, a BOTNS theoretical favorite, and more vie for Mike's viewership. Can Rick guess what he would watch, and if he do…

In this season's listener poll winner, Michael J. Fox and Nancy McKeon lead a cast of thousands in a story of teen romance, school politics, and class warfare that could only be called High School U.S.A.! Plus a robot! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #tvmovie #michaeljfox #nancymckeon #crispinglover #tonydow #toddbridges #thegreatmichael…

This is the one about Garry's Show. In "Go Go Goldblum," Garry Shandling (Garry Shandling) and Jeff Goldblum (Jeff Goldblum) find themselves in quite the pickle. Rick (Rick) and Mike (Mike), on the other hand, don't have any trouble heaping praise on the underappreciated gem It's Garry Shandling's Show. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #i…

In this season's Retro-Retro episode, we return to the silver age of TV and TV's wiliest lawyer--the great Perry Mason in "The Case of the Treacherous Toupee." You read that right. Crime, shenannegans, and a toupee! Plus a young Robert Redford! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #fifties #sixties #perrymason #raymondburr #robertredford #law…

"Imagine if you will a pyramid of Martins." What could this mean? The wizards in the BOTNS Game Labs have done it again, that's what! Can Mike guess the BOTNS-era celebrity Martins (first or last name) and build the pyramid, or will the pyramid crumble like so many misplaced bricks? #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #game #myfavoritemartin…

If you watched NBC in the seventies and eighties (and nineties), you saw Bob Hope smirking, mugging, singing, dancing, flirting, and reading cue cards. "Bob Hope's All-Star Comedy Spectacular" features all that and a who's who of variety TV from Ann-Margret and Charo to Sammy and Dino, not to mention Mac Davis! Join us as we discuss all this and Te…

Before Spider-Man teamed up with Spider-Man and, uh, Spider-Man (let-alone Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Gwen, and Spider-Ham) at the movies, he teamed up with Ice Man and Firestar on Saturday morning TV in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. Not only that, but in "The X-Men Adventure," Spidey and his friends also join forces with the X-Men to defeat a d…

The thumbs, the tension, the balcony--who can forget Siskel and Ebert and their various movie review shows? They helped create a new TV format and defined and dominated it with their winning personalities and unique dynamics. We take a look at an episode fron 1989 and also discuss some of their competitors and imitators.…

We take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to bring you another round of the Fame Game, where Mike has to guess a famous personality (real or fictional) from the BOTNS era based on a series of clues. Will his hot streak continue, or will he crash and burn? Find out! #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #game #famegame #bonusepis…

In the past, we've visited a wide array of locations in the Normal Lear Universe: the Park Avenue penthouse of the Drummond-Jackson family on "Diff'rent Strokes"; the Jeffersons' de-luxe apartment in the sky; the Eastland School on "Facts of Life"; the Chicago projects on "Good Times." Then there's Maude! This week, we head to Tuckahoe as Maude (th…

This week, we once again cater to the 2-11-year-old demographic and discuss the venerable child "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Mister Rogers takes on Speedy Delivery duties for a vacationing Mr. McFeely and plays with elaborate masks. In the Neighborhood of Make Believe, Lady Aberlin wrestles with the eternal question "What is love?" #podcast #tv #…

In our Season 10 opener, Sunny The Easter Bunny braves a grouchy bear, a grouchy duchess, and more to spread joy to the dismal Town. Yet again, Rankin-Bass manage to consolidate and convolute holiday traditions into a single mythology, and yet again Rick and Mike do their best to make sense of it all. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties #eas…

With season 9 and the BATTYs in the rearview mirror but always in their hearts, Rick and Mike catch up on life and some BOTNS-era viewing and look ahead at season 10. Plus a bonus Fame Game. #podcast #tv #retrotv #seventies #eighties

Live on tape from Jim Rockford's trailer in beautiful Malibu, California, the Season 9 BATTY Awards honor the best from season 9 in categories ranging from outstanding non-human and best facial hair to outstanding lead actor and actress and best show! Join us for the excitement as we determine the winners on air!…

In a "rag-tag fleet," the remnants of humanity flee the robotic Cylons and search for a new home...Earth! For our season finale, we discuss the series finale of the original Battlestar Galactica "Hand of God," a show perhaps not remembered as fondly as it should be.

In the short-lived but ambitious cartoon "Thundarr the Barbarian," sword and sorcery meet superscience as Thundarr and his companions wage battle against the forces of evil in the ruins of civilization. With scripts by a bevvy of veteran comics and animation writers and deigns by comics legends Alex Toth and Jack Kirby, just about anything can and …

In this season's look at a TV movie, we take on the deadly menace of the Killdozer! You heard right! An alien consciousness takes over a bulldozer, and six brave men try to stop it before it...killdozes them! Will they prevail, or will the Killdozer?

Join us on a far-away tropical paradise that may or may not also have a freeway infrastructure, an industrial area, banks, pawn shops, and more as Tattoo tries to help a man become a millionaire and Mr. Roarke does battle with...SATAN!

We had big plans to compare The Munsters Today to the original classic Munsters, but in a blow to John Schuck fans everywhere, our plans went awry. Luckily, we discovered the one-off 1973 animated Mini-Munsters, so we look at it, then travel back to 1966 to join Herman and Grampa on a treasure hunt.

Our listeners have spoken again and voted for us to take a ride on The Soul Train. We ride it all the way back to 1977 for a bit of funk, a bit of disco, the Soul Train Scramble, the Soul Train Line, plus performances by The Emotions and Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly. Get on board!

Nothing says New Orleans like Mardi Gras, and nothing says Mardi Gras like ninjas, and nothing says ninjas like Lee Van Cleef and Timothy "Salami" Van Patten facing off against a BOTNS favorite in a shocking heel turn! Join us as we look back at NBC's short-lived attempt at cashing in on the eighties ninja craze The Master.…

Summer in America means baseball, so break out the peanuts and Cracker Jacks. For a few years in the eighties, Major League Baseball made an educational baseball show for kids--The Baseball Bunch. Johnny Bench, the Famous Chicken, the Dugout Wizard, and guest Chet Lemon teach the Bunch about shagging flies, eating right, and more.…