A fun and freewheeling look at the many events big and small, famed and forgotten from a single calendar year
Episodes
25 minutes ago
25 minutes ago
It's that time again, folks - It Happened One Year has (nearly) reached the end of another season, and so it's time to again honor those lost in the subject year. Listen as Sarah & Joe discuss a wide range of celebrities who said goodbye some forty-one years ago now, including Richard Burton, Peter Lawford, Ethel Merman, Indira Gandhi, Truman Capote, Francois Truffaut, Jackie Wilson, Count Basie, James Mason, and many more!
Friday Mar 21, 2025
Friday Mar 21, 2025
And now, the conclusion! The police are after the culprits, the press has caught the oddball details, and the conflict is coming to a head!
Written & Directed by Joe Cetta
Cast
Michelle Auffrey/additional - Sarah Rusakiiwicz
Freddie Auffrey - Dane Bower
Karl Daigle - Brent Hutchins
Karen Daigle - Lana Cooper
Patrolman Anne Dandy - Kristin Mann
Sgt. Furrier - Bear Savo
Judge Membrino/additional - Joe Cetta
Vito Vitale/Bailiff/Jack/additional - David Munchak
Rocky Cannavino - Bill Randall
Radio Margaret - Jo-Elle Munchak
Officer Rodriguez - Krispy
Attorney Henshaw - Matthew Hinton
Michelle P. - Jennifer Nack
Michelle R./Atomic Scientists/additional - Angie Buonincontro
Courtroom Assistant Marsha - Dina Udomsak
Stenographer Alice - Shannon Hosey
Reporter Hildy - Matt Moran
Reporter Gail - Graceann Dorse
Reporter Howard/additional - The Batman
David Wittman/additional - Adam Carpenter
Irving R. Levine/additional - Dave Gardon
Additional voices - Danielle Harris, Michael Buonincontro, Jerron
Dead Milkmen - Bill Honchell
Dead Kennedys - Kate Langan
Heaven 17 - Reid Mosley
Friday Mar 14, 2025
Friday Mar 14, 2025
Should the government allow as Christian a symbol as a nativity on town property? Some crusading figures in Fitchburg, Massachusetts sure didn't think so. And the events that followed grew into a local scandal and international punchline in 1984, with the nativity in Monument Park the new epicenter for this ideological battle! Vandalism, kidnapping, chicken throwing, and social commentary abound, and now, It Happened One Year brings you the whole approximate tale with its sixth fully-scripted production!
Written & Directed by Joe Cetta
Cast
Michelle Auffrey/additional - Sarah Rusakiiwicz
Freddie Auffrey - Dane Bower
Karl Daigle - Brent Hutchins
Karen Daigle - Lana Cooper
Patrolman Anne Dandy - Kristin Mann
Sgt. Furrier - Bear Savo
Judge Membrino/additional - Joe Cetta
Vito Vitale/Bailiff/Jack/additional - David Munchak
Rocky Cannavino - Bill Randall
Radio Margaret - Jo-Elle Munchak
Officer Rodriguez - Krispy
Attorney Henshaw - Matthew Hinton
Michelle P. - Jennifer Nack
Michelle R./Atomic Scientists/additional - Angie Buonincontro
Courtroom Assistant Marsha - Dina Udomsak
Stenographer Alice - Shannon Hosey
Reporter Hildy - Matt Moran
Reporter Gail - Graceann Dorse
Reporter Howard/additional - The Batman
David Wittman/additional - Adam Carpenter
Irving R. Levine/additional - Dave Gardon
Additional voices - Danielle Harris, Michael Buonincontro, Jerron
Dead Milkmen - Bill Honchell
Dead Kennedys - Kate Langan
Heaven 17 - Reid Mosley
And tune back in next week for the conclusion!
Friday Mar 07, 2025
Friday Mar 07, 2025
A relic from the days of yore! It Happened One Year finally rolls out its episode about the New York mafia of the 1980s, recorded so long ago we still thought there was a chance Donald Trump might go to prison! Ah, those innocent days! Sarah & Joe - at the tail end of Memorial Day weekend, 2024 - tackle a variety of mob related antics from 1984 and the surrounding days, including Rudy Giuliani's RICO takedown of organized crime (a story which was very fresh in the news again nine months ago), Big Paul Castellano's murder, the rise of John Gotti, Joe Columbo's Italian American Civil Rights League, Joe Profaci's descendants, the extensive crimes of Roy DeMeo, The Godfather's Albert Ruddy, The Sopranos in pop culture, Russell Bufalino, mob tours in Chicago, and much more!
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
Tuesday Feb 25, 2025
"We have Jesus. We will hang him unless the police leave five cases of Budweiser here January 1st." This was the anonymous ransom demand left at the scene of the nativity heist that made international news out of Fitchburg, Massachusetts in December of 1984. But the identity of the culprits and their true motives were a mystery to law enforcement and the rosary-clutching public. Was the objection on religious grounds? Was it someone with a vendetta against the Fitchburg police? Or was it all a light-hearted prank that got out of hand? The fourth and final scripted episode from It Happened One Year for 1984, Three Minutes to Midnight imagines the daring crimes and colorful figures involved in this semi-forgotten incident, brought to life by dozens of members from the Mighty IHOY Players! Tune back in March 14th & 21st for the epic, two-part tale!
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
Tuesday Jan 21, 2025
For the first and only time this season, It Happened One Year is doing a fabled Road Episode - this time the show's first from outside the country! Recorded Christmastime in the Notting Hill area of London, England, Sarah & Joe tackle the coincidentally Chicago-set Sidney Sheldon thriller 1984 adaptation The Naked Face, starring Roger Moore, Rod Steiger, Elliott Gould, Art Carney, Anne Archer, and Navy Pier, baby! Come for the breakdown of the melodramatics - touching quickly on Roger Moore's career and life, with appearances by Scaramanga himself Christopher Lee, Harry & Sally, the local Tesco - and wrap up with some truly mediocre impressions. Look, it was a recorded on a long vacation at the end of a long day, it was bound to be a little odd, even by IHOY standards.
Friday Dec 20, 2024
Friday Dec 20, 2024
Having largely dealt with 1984's Christmas season last year, It Happened One Year had to dig deep to unearth the Xmas episode topic this time around, and what better place to turn than to the cabbage patch itself! Sarah & Joe take a look at the big ABC special that aired December 7th, 1984 - The Cabbage Patch Kids' First Christmas, discuss the casting and bizarro plot, and attempt to track backward into Cabbage Patch lore to figure out what the hell is going on here. Along the way, the visit the oddball Cabbage Patch event center Babyland, chat about the connected books and records of the franchise, give some quick love to the Garbage Pail Kids, and quickly shout out last year's epic scripted episode Jingle Hell.
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Monday Dec 09, 2024
After trudging through many years of popcorn entertainment and bikini skydiving thrillers, It Happened One Year finally tackles highbrow, award-winning cinema in the form of the glorious biopic Amadeus, and you are there! Listen as Sarah & Joe recall hazy memories of watching the film in decades past, debate whether the film justifies its runtime, breakdown the near-casting and complex adaptation from play to opera to play to film, and ultimately discuss whether Mozart's music did indeed have too many notes.
Monday Nov 18, 2024
Monday Nov 18, 2024
The old standard returns! It Happened One Year is once again looking at what aired on November 3rd in 1984, checking in over a year since exploring ABC's programming! This time, Sarah & Joe delve into the hard-boiled, sexy, action dramas that were Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Airwolf, and Cover Up! Along the way, much discussion is made about Stacy Keach's mustache, how Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine found himself flying that helicopter, the tragedies and controversies of Cover Up, the poor adult audience subjected to early '80s television, and of course, the glorious return to It Happened One Year of show favorite, Bubba Smith.
Friday Nov 01, 2024
Friday Nov 01, 2024
Geraldine Ferraro is dead. So are Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Pat Nixon, Lady Bird Johnson, and all the members of the Female United Politicians of America, but that isn't going to stop them from lending their assistance to the 2024 Presidential campaign on Earth, from their gathering place at the Radisson Valhalla Inn & Suites located on the celestial plane. President Biden's alarming debate performance has the group worried about the future of democracy, and so they take a trip through history to the 1984 Election, to see what can be learned from the first time a woman featured on a major party ticket.
It Happened One Year presents its fifth fully scripted, full cast episode, featuring this supernatural take on the election year frenzy. Be sure to vote next Tuesday, but first come along for this wonky look at the great beyond!
Story by Sarah Rusakiiwicz
Written by Sarah and Joe
Directed by Joe Cetta
Cast
Geraldine Ferraro - Lana Cooper
Eleanor Roosevelt - David Munchak
1984 Geraldine Ferraro - Sarah Rusakiiwicz
Walter Mondale - Matt Moran
Jackie Kennedy - Kristin Mann
Pat Nixon - Angie Buonincontro
Lady Bird Johnson - Alex Ferrer
Bella Abzug - Jo-Elle Munchak
Betty Freidan - Shannon Hosey
Joan - Jennifer Nack
Martha Mitchell - Monica Mauricio
Edith Wilson - Danielle Harris
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Sam McChuri
William Henry Harrison - The Batman
Charles Manatt/Mario Cuomo - Nick Perfetto
John Zaccaro - Joe Cetta
Mark the Announcer - Jon Deiner
Cathy the Announcer - Kristen Gaydos
Gloria Coppernotch - Nancy Cohen
Redbook Interviewer - Becky Schmidt
Dave Wizardsleeve - Duke Tumbleweed
Irving R. Levine - Dave Gardon
Katie Porter - Abigail Perfetto