Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 13-9: HBO

*We hope you enjoy our look at the earlier days of Home Box Office! And by the way, I miss when it was referred to as Home Box Office! Happy 2026 as well!

*Books we reference in this episode: Tinderbox by James Andrew Miller and It's Not TV by Felix Gillette and John Kobin.

*HBO went live in 1972 (November 8; New York Rangers vs. Vancouver Canucks, NHL game) and is still going...for now. Showtime launched July 1, 1976.

*The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton/Hazelton TV market, where HBO launched, was ranked as the 59th biggest in the most recent Nielsen list.

*Foreman-Frazier I is indeed the "Down goes Frazier!" fight. Howard Cosell made that call when George knocked out Joe in the second round.

*Here is the Mental Floss article on HBO. Item 10 mentions Ghostbusters.

*Not Necessarily the News aired 1982-1990, debuting as a special before becoming a regular series.

*Vintage HBO program guides are available on ebay, but they seem quite expensive--at least, the asking prices are high!

*"Heart Attack" by Olivia Newton-John peaked at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

*Rollover (1981) is an Alan Pakula thriller that opened at number one but was considered a commercial and critical flop.

*Four Friends (1981) is directed by Arthur Penn and earned good reviews but didn't do well at the box office.

*Some Call Them...Freaks (1981) is remembered by many who saw it, but there isn't a lot of information about it. It's director Greg Stanton's sole IMDB credit and writer Frederick Drimmer's sole IMDB credit.

I did find this listing on the great HBO database site: HBO ran a sequel in 1982, P.T. Barnum & His Human Oddities, narrated again by Richard Kiley. Did the same team produce it? I don't know. It doesn't appear on IMDB. Here is the description from the original HBO program guide:

Special. In this sequel to “Some Call Them Freaks,” Richard Kiley hosts an account of the career of showman PT Barnum—and the wide assortment of human oddities he collected. Meet Anna Swan, the 7’5½” tall woman; the minuscule: 25” Tom Thumb; Madame Clofullia, the bearded lady, and Albert Sprague, the thinnest man.

*Click here for the 20th anniversary special that premiered on CBS.

*Please enjoy our video playlist for this episode with promos, clips, and I think just about everything we cover on the podcast! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them!

Episode 13-9: HBO

This week, we take a special look at the early days of Home Box Office, better known as HBO. Long before The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones, and all those other shows, Home Box Office started as a gamble during the fledgling days of the cable TV industry with a smattering of movies, hockey, basketball, comedy specials, concerts, and polka competitions. As it expanded, the movies got better, boxing and Wimbledon became their go-to sports, the comedians and concerts grew bigger, and polka danced away. We follow the timeline to around 1985 and give special attention to HBO originals like Not Necessarily the News, HBO Magazine, and Yesteryear, as well as the documentary Some Call Them...Freaks.

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Check out this episode!

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...

 

Retro retro TV news #2

*Yesterday we linked to a Sitcoms Online article detailing changes to the Antenna TV and Rewind TV schedules. It's nice to see some "new" (really returning) series from the 1970s and 1980s, but it's not so cool to see the older shows get dumped. granted, Antenna has aired the likes of Father Knows Best and The Jack Benny Show for a long, long time, but I think there should be a place for them on TV.

*Last week I had a great time revisiting one of my all-time favorite books: This comic digest reprinting 1960s Dennis the Menace stories. Of course we talk about Dennis in this episode here.

This digest has a lot of great and hilarious Dennis adventures, including an epic in which he visits his grandfather in Bethlehem...Pennsylvania!

*A New Year's tradition is The Twilight Zone, and SyFy starts its marathon 5:00 AM EST December 31. it runs until Friday morning. Heroes & Icons starts its own marathon at 8:00 PM EST on Wednesday, and it will run until 6:00 AM EST on Friday.

 

Top Ten #386: Special "Is it really the most wonderful time of the year when That's My Mama is leaving Tubi again?" Edition!

1) Presents: Did anyone get some nice DVD or Blu-Rays this year? I mean, come on, they're still a thing, and I enjoy getting them!

2) Holiday cheer and warmth and giving: Of course giving beats getting, right? We hope all of you are enjoying a happy holiday season.

3) New Year's Day: The turning of the calendar brings resolutions, goals, and Guy Lombardo! Yes, Guy Lombardo! Everyone still remembers Dick Clark, but Lombardo was a staple of the holiday, too.

4) Toys: Hey, remember, we released a new bonus episode on Christmas Day! I shared a photo of this in our Facebook group, but here's another one of my favorite childhood toys. I didn't mention it on the podcast because I did not remember any TV ads:

5) United Negro College Fund Parade of Stars: Go back 40 years ago in time, and you will see that on the telethon Lou Rawls welcomes LeVar Burton, Robert Guillaume, Lola Falana, Gregory Hines, Danny Cooksey...Wait, a minute. Lola Falana?

6) Lost Horizon/Buck and the Preacher: Back in 1975, broadcast premieres of theatrical films was a big deal. On December 28, these two made their network debuts on NBC and ABC, respectively.

7) David Susskind: "How to Be a Jewish Son" was the theme of the episode 50 years ago this weekend, with the host welcoming guests Mel Brooks, David Steinberg, and George Segal. Surely it's a sobering, academic discussion.

8) Antenna TV/Rewind TV: The diginets announced their January schedule changes. New or returning: One Day at a Time, Sanford and Son, Mork and Mindy, and more. Some shows are moving from Antenna to Rewind. See the link for details!

9) Tannis Valelly: Happy 50th birthday to the former Janice from Head of the Class! I believe a Weekly Reader poll once named her only the fourth-most-annoying character on the series.

10) College football bowl games: 40 years ago today, we got the Sun Bowl and the Aloha Bowl! I miss the Aloha Bowl, maybe because a young Rick watched Penn State (kind of slumming it, to be honest, after a down year) in the second edition of the game. Below is a clip from the 1985 Sun Bowl and a promo for the 1989 Aloha Bowl:

Happy Boxing Day!

 

Credit to the Weird Hollywood Facebook page for the photo. You can hear us talk about this special on this episode.

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Bonus--Toy Ads!

 *Merry Christmas and Happy Even to everyone! Happy holidays to all who celebrate everything!

*We hope you enjoy this week's look at some vintage toy ads.

*Super Powers lasted 1984-1986 and was based on the DC Comics characters. A season of Super Friends was Galactic Guardians.

*Super Joe was on shelves from 1977 to 1978 but was apparently killed off by Kenner's Star Wars line.

*Babe Ruth was in the 1924 Harold Lloyd film Speedy.

*Touche was from Gabriel Games, which also produced Othello and Trouble.

*Minnesota Fats was known as "New York" Fats until The Hustler came out with a character named Minnesota. The real-life Fats (Rudolf Wanderone) adopted the new name to cash in, claiming the character from Walter Tevis' original novel was based on him.

*This week's video playlist contains the ads we mention on the podcast! We also include a few other things we talk about and an epic compilation of Atlanta TV ads from 1985.