It Happened One Year

"You'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984!" With this is awkward-ass phrase, the era of Super Bowl commercials fully began, and home computers took over the world. Sarah & Joe cover the impact of this short Ridley Scott directed spot, take a trip down internet-laden memory lane, and go over some of their favorite Super Bowl commercials - with many cameos from Budweiser, McDonald's, Groundhog Day, wrestlers, Mean Joe Greene, David Letterman, and the walking horror that was Puppy Monkey Baby.

Just in time for the Super Bowl, It Happened One Year is heading back to the gridiron to talk a little football! Sarah & Joe very quickly discuss the Super Bowls surrounding 1984 - both blowouts - before transitioning into rare collegiate sports talk in the form of Heisman Trophy winner and future Buffalo Bills great Doug Flutie! The Boston College legend's Hail Mary to defeat Miami is possibly the most famous play in college football history, and one of the defining moments of '80s sports, and it leads into the larger discussion of Flutie's pro career - with stops along the way in Chicago, Calgary, Edmonton, Buffalo, San Diego, and many more locations! Cameos abound from the likes of Frank Thomas, Tom Brady, Teen Mom's Farrah Abraham, Duke Ellington, the Cameo website, Pokemon Go, and political debate icon Ken Bone. Then the hosts look back at their predictions for the current NFL season from August - both in an overall sense and in a local Chicago Bears way - and take some swings at guessing this year's championship game.

An obvious pick by Sarah for topics - when Hulk Hogan fully emerged as a huge pop culture icon in the decade at Madison Square Garden in January of 1984! Just in time for this year's Royal Rumble, It Happened One Year finally enters the wrestling arena and talks a little leg-dropping and camel-clutching! Sarah & Joe break down the lives and careers of Hogan and the Iron Sheik, their glancing and not-so-glancing personal interactions with pro wrestling over the years, and discuss whether 1998's Brawl For All was the worst thing to ever happen in the history of sports. Along the way are cameos from Muppets From Space, the Gawker trial, Marvel Comics, the Shah of Iran, Thunderlips, and many more!

It's Christmas Eve 1984, and the battle scars from the prior year's Cabbage Patch carnage still sting for employees and customers alike. The utter mayhem of '83 lives in legend at the Viewmont Mall in Scranton, PA, and everyone is anxious to avoid a repeat this holiday season. Surely, it can't get that bloodthirsty, that vicious, that diabolical again, can it? What fresh hell awaits the mall denizens of 1984? Jingle Hell, that's what! It Happened One Year presents its third fully scripted, full cast episode, chronicling the comic carnage that befalls the mall's various toy store staff, mall security guards, local teens, and families trying to get a picture with a very inebriated St. Nick. Carve up the roast beast and call in the kids smoking in the garage - the newest IHOY gift for humanity has arrived, just in time for Christmas! Written by Lana Cooper Directed by Joe Cetta Cast Doug - Bill Randall Robin - Shannon Hosey Pete/Mike 'Burnout' Burns - David Munchak Al - The Batman Jennifer - Sarah Chrissy/Corey - Lana Cooper Grandma Joanie - Nick Perfetto Matt 'The Mall Rat' Rattanski - Joe Greg - Dane Bower Lisa - Yams McChuri Bridget - Angie Buonincontro Mall Santa/Billy - Bear Savo Carol - Jennifer Nack Phil the Photographer Elf - John Kozempel Bob McCann - Brent Hutchins Julie - Alex Ferrer Sam - Duke Tumbleweed The Narrator - Brack Reed Mall Announcer - Jon Deiner Additional Voices - Dave Gardon, Susie Cetta

Upon the discovery of their existence, It Happened One Year had no choice but to reconvene before the holiday and discuss the brain-melting lunacy of 1984's top TV holiday specials - Mr. T & Emmanuel Lewis in A Christmas Dream and Scrooge's Rock 'N' Roll Christmas starring Jack Elam. Sarah & Joe's wildly different opinions about this yuletide fare serve as a backdrop to an episode clearly recorded on the fly, whenever a spare moment could be grabbed, to some unconventional IHOY effect.

Jacob Marley was dead to begin with (he always is!) and It Happened One Year is there to pick up the slack, in what was originally conceived as the show's holiday episode, before the hosts got carried away and kept recording Christmassy things (tune in next week!). Herein, Sarah & Joe get into all things Cratchit in order to discuss the acclaimed 1984 movie version of A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott, Frank Finlay, David Warner, and Susannah York. This opens up the larger conversation of best film Scrooges, best family versions, best musical versions, best TV versions, and much, much more. It's a Dickens-ophile's dream! Rising up in the debate are the likes of Alastair Sim, the Muppets, Reginald Owen, Albert Finney, Mr. Magoo, Basil Rathbone, Bill Murray, Patrick Stewart, Jim Carrey, Henry Winkler, and many more! Then - after all the "God Bless Us, Everyones" have been tossed around like Christmas crackers - the hosts perform that most IHOY of rituals - playing a trivia game for the listeners. Enjoy!

It's Christmas Eve 1984 at the Viewmont Mall, and tensions are running high. Employees cower in fear of the shopping onslaught ahead. Customers prepare to do battle for the season's coveted gifts. And children hope to get on Santa's lap with last minute pleas to the big guy. But nothing goes as planned. It Happened One Year presents its third fully scripted, madcap episode, this time written by great friend of the show Lana Cooper and featuring a cast of dozens! Listen to the new trailer now and come back for the big show on December 20th!

This Thanksgiving, it is best to remember what we truly have to be thankful for - '80s pop music and the advent of music videos. With the inaugural VMA Awards on MTV in September and the November release of her landmark second album Like a Virgin, Madonna fully took the world by storm in 1984 and staked her claim as THE star of the decade, and It Happened One Year is there! Sarah & Joe break down their earliest memories of the songs and the videos, the movies and the mania, and try to get in the 1984 mindset of what it possibly must've been like experiencing that summer/fall circa Madonna.

The somber topic of celebrity death leads down an avenue to discuss television comedy in this straight-from-the-headlines It Happened One Year. Andy Kaufman's 1984 death (or grand hoax) leads Sarah & Joe to discuss his career, from Saturday Night Live to Taxi to wrestling, before pivoting into the seemingly evergreen popularity of Friends and the shocking loss of Matthew Perry. How and why sitcoms can remain relevant and even grow in fame decades after they air is discussed, along with the impact of celebrity deaths, why this feels so decidedly different, and the general places Taxi and Friends hold in the eternal television landscape.

As has become a yearly tradition, It Happened One Year is taking a look at a single night of programming from the topic's television season, and so it begins with ABC's November 3rd shows! T.J. Hooker, The Love Boat, and the long forgotten Finder of Lost Loves comprised Saturday night entertainment on the Alphabet Network, and Sarah & Joe are there! Listen as they question strange props, guest casting, theme songs, hairdos, Gavin MacLeod's career decisions, Aaron Spelling's thematic empire, Heather Thomas' acting instincts, who the hell Connie Sellecca is, why anyone knows Charo's name, and much much more!