It Happened One Year

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

With Election Day right around the corner, It Happened One Year finally gets around this season to discussing the biggest news story of 1984 - the Presidential election between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale! Sarah & Joe being the political nerds they are go deep into the Democratic primaries, discussing Ted Kennedy's reluctance, Gary Hart's late surge, Jesse Jackson's implosion, and Mondale's emergence, which leads directly into his desperation choice of a running mate - the first woman to feature on a major party ticket, Geraldine Ferraro! Campaign ads, other potential veeps, the debates, and the stunning outcome all factor in, as the hosts desperately try to avoid talking about the onrushing 2024 election. 

The first presidential ticket to feature a woman was formed in 1984, when Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, and history was made! In 2024, with another historic Election Day bearing down, It Happened One Year transports you to the great beyond, as a coalition of female political figures gathers in hopes of aiding a current candidate to gain the title of Commander in Chief! Written by Sarah & Joe, Ferraro! is the fifth scripted episode in the show's history, and features dozens of performers from that illustrious group - the Mighty IHOY Players! Listen to the trailer now, and tune back in on November 1st for full epic tale!

Despite being a classic of the American theater and winning a rare Pulitzer along the way, Sarah & Joe were largely unfamiliar with Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, but that has all changed! It Happened One Year once again wanders into the rare live theater corner and kicks around the musical painting biopic for good and all. Along the way there's some discussion of what makes a good musical, what are particularly bad musical-to-movie adaptation, and not nearly as much singing as you'd expect!

101 episodes and nearly three years later, It Happened One Year is finally talking Muppets again! Given the rousing success of Season One's breakdown of 1994's felt properties, it was only natural that Sarah & Joe would tackle that beloved classic from '84 - The Muppets Take Manhattan! From its sorrowful place as the final, big screen Jim Henson Muppet outing to the singularity of its setting and vibe in the franchise canon, from the outstanding bunch of cameos to the solid batch of songs, all corners of Manhattan Melodies and the gang's tribulations in dragging their college show to Broadway are discussed!

Despite the Paris games wrapping up, Olympic fever still grips It Happened One Year, as it's time to cover the glittering Los Angeles Summer Games of 1984! Sarah & Joe tackle some of the biggest stories and stars of those contests, including the rise of women's American gymnastics, fronted by Mary Lou Retton, the record-setting run (and jumps) of Carl Lewis, the controversial collision of Mary Decker and Zola Budd, the amazing streak of Edwin Moses, and much more! Then, as season three of the show has now stretched across multiple sports' years, the hosts again tackle predictions for the onrushing NFL season - with particular emphasis on the hometown Bears burgeoning chances!