TV Moments That Changed The World

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Should Know

Episode: “TV Moments That Changed The World”

Hosts: Josh Clark & Chuck Bryant

Release Date: January 1, 2026

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Overview

This episode explores television moments that had a profound impact on culture, history, and society. Rather than just recalling nostalgic TV favorites, Josh and Chuck consider how specific televised events and shows shaped public perception, changed behaviors, launched movements, and, in a few cases, even helped change the world. The tone is classic SYSK: engaging, humorous, candid, and occasionally self-deprecating, as the hosts move between historic milestones and their own pop-culture experiences.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Defining Power of Television (03:49)

• Chuck opens by declaring, “TV made modern culture more than anything else, I think, in the entire world. I would argue more than the Internet.” (03:49)
• Josh reacts: “Ooh, interesting.” (04:11) but agrees to follow the thesis.

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1. The Birth of Broadcast TV: The 1939 World’s Fair (04:29)

• April 30, 1939: TV’s “public debut” at the RCA Pavilion during the World’s Fair in Flushing, NY.
• RCA seized the moment to market TVs (then luxury items) by arranging entertainment to actually broadcast.
• NBC (National Broadcasting Company) created to supply programming.
• Memorable quote: “You can have all the TVs in the world, but if you don’t have anything to watch on it... You’re gonna sit there like a jackass and look at a blank tv.” — Chuck (05:57)
• First presidential television broadcast: Franklin D. Roosevelt kicks off the Fair.
• About 2,000 viewers witnessed the historic moment via signal relayed from mobile broadcast trucks. Newness led RCA to display a transparent TV model so people didn’t think it was a trick. (07:46)

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2. Color Television Arrives: Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (07:58)

• Walt Disney’s role: Personally pitched NBC to launch his show in color, prompting mass sales of color TVs.
• Chuck: “If necessary, I'll stand on my head in Macy's window.” (09:15) — Disney’s rumored plea to NBC.
• Anthology show began as “Disney’s Wonderful World,” became “Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” in 1961.
• Debut episode in color: September 24, 1961—“An Adventure in Color.”
  • Included the “Spectrum Song” and the first appearance of Ludwig Von Drake.
• Josh: “It must have knocked the coonskin caps off of all the little kids sitting at home.” (11:53)
• TV sales soared after the show’s launch; cultural moment marked America’s embrace of color TV.

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3. The First Televised Commercial: Bulova Watch (17:36)

• July 1, 1941: First official TV commercial airs during a baseball game (Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Phillies).
  • A 9-10 second spot: “The world runs on Bulova time.”
  • Approximately 4,000 viewers; cost only $9 to run.
• Evolution from radio-style program sponsorships to the standalone commercial.
• Chuck: “If you call that [previous sponsorship] an ad, you're just being contrarian.” (20:29)
• Notable stat: If Bulova bought the same ad time in the 2025 Super Bowl (“the big game”), it would cost $2.35 million (24:10).

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4. Televised Tragedy and Global Philanthropy: 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (24:56)

• December 26, 2004: 9.0 earthquake triggers tsunami; ~230,000 deaths across 14 countries.
• 24/7, weeks-long news coverage galvanized international donations.
• Chuck: “99 different countries donated and 13 of those countries had never donated for a natural disaster relief before. It got to everybody.” (26:48)
• Research found a direct, measurable link between TV coverage minutes and donations—one extra minute equated to a 16–20% spike in online giving.
• Josh: “A classroom lesson in the impact that media can have—the positive impact.” (28:05)

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5. The Vietnam War: Television Turns the Tide (28:19)

• TV ownership explodes: 9% in 1950, 93% by 1966.
• Vietnam becomes the first “television war”: journalists with handheld cameras bring graphic, unfiltered images directly to homes—contrast with propagandist WWII footage.
• Chuck: “If you turned on the news ... you would see terrible coverage that was not flattering at all to what the United States was doing in Vietnam.” (31:56)
• Result: Growing anti-war sentiment, mass protests, pressure on elected officials, and accelerated withdrawal.

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6. The Rise (and Problems) of Reality TV: Cops (37:28)

• Debuted March 11, 1989, on Fox—instrumental in making Fox a “Big 4” network.
• Pioneered reality TV by following police without scripts or stars—“the groundwork for reality TV.” (39:19)
• Sparked immediate criticism for reinforcing racist stereotypes:
  • More likely to associate Black and Latino suspects with violent crime, far beyond actual crime rates.
  • Influenced public opinion—viewers more likely to perceive Black Americans as criminals.
• Canceled in 2013 following decades of criticism, but revived on other networks/narrowcasting services; still airs as of 2026.
• Also cemented the ‘Florida Man’ trope by filming many segments in Florida.

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7. A Nation United: The Miracle on Ice (1980 Winter Olympics) (44:15)

• Feb 22, 1980: US Hockey Team (amateurs) defeats dominant USSR team in Lake Placid—iconic Cold War showdown, watched by millions.
• Josh’s memory: “I have a very distinct memory of being in my parents’ bedroom ... watching this match on the little black and white TV and knowing as a little eight-year-old, like what a huge, huge deal this was.” (47:29)
• Al Michaels’ legendary call: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” (50:24)
• The event is remembered as a symbolic blow for democracy over communism, transcending sports and entering national mythology.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |-----------|-------|---------| | 03:49 | “TV made modern culture more than anything else, I think, in the entire world. I would argue more than the Internet.” | Chuck | | 05:57 | “You’re gonna sit there like a jackass and look at a blank tv.” | Chuck | | 09:15 | “Fellas, I want this deal. If necessary, I'll stand on my head in Macy's window.” (on Walt Disney’s NBC pitch) | Chuck | | 11:53 | “It must have knocked the coonskin caps off of all the little kids sitting at home.” | Josh | | 19:05 | “The ad cost Bulova $9.” | Chuck | | 28:05 | “A classroom lesson in the impact that media can have—the positive impact.” | Josh | | 31:56 | “If you turned on the news ... you would see terrible coverage that was not flattering at all to what the United States was doing in Vietnam.” | Chuck | | 47:29 | “I have a very distinct memory ... as a little eight-year-old, like what a huge, huge deal this was.” | Josh | | 50:24 | “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” | Al Michaels (via Chuck) |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Birth of TV / World’s Fair: 04:29–07:46
• Color TV & Disney: 07:58–14:12
• First TV Commercial (Bulova): 17:36–24:30
• 2004 Tsunami & Philanthropy: 24:56–28:14
• Vietnam War on TV: 28:19–33:09
• Reality TV & Cops: 37:28–43:44
• Miracle on Ice: 44:15–51:26

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, nostalgic, a mix of personal anecdotes and historic context.
• Occasional wry asides and playfully self-mocking exchanges.
• Intentionally highlights the complex, not-always-positive impact of TV moments.

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Conclusion

Josh and Chuck illuminate how TV moments can ignite change—sometimes for the better (raising billions for disaster relief, catalyzing social movements, showcasing national pride), sometimes for the problematic (enforcing stereotypes, exploiting the vulnerable), but always giving a mirror to and magnifying modern life. Their trip through TV’s most world-shaping flashpoints is both thought-provoking and quintessentially Stuff You Should Know.

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Note: For episodes covering omitted TV moments (e.g., the Moon Landing), listen to “How Going to the Moon Works” (2019) in their vast back catalog.

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Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Josh Clark]

Guaranteed Human.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hey, everybody. We're hitting the road again starting in January 2026, picking up again in April 2026. And eventually Canada will tell you year dates too.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. We're gonna do at least three legs. And the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the paramount theater on January 27th. We're gonna go back to our beloved Seattle at the Fairmount Theater there on the 28th, and then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep. And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry. You can get all the info you need and buy tickets atstuffyou should know.com, click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road.

[Evan Ratliff]

Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link? Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with the story of entrepreneurship in the AI Age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, shell game on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Clark]

I didn't really have an interest in being on air. I kind of was up there to just try and infiltrate the building. From the underground clubs that shaped global music to the pastors and creatives who built the cultural empire, the Atlanta Is podcast uncovers the stories behind one of the most influential cities in the world. The thing I love about Atlanta is that it's a city of hustlers, man. Each episode explores a different chapter of Atlanta's rise, featuring conversations with Ludacris, Will Packer, Pastor Jamal Bryant, DJ Drama, and more. The full series is available to listen to now. Listen to Atlanta is on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to Stuff youf Should Know, a production of iHeartradio.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. And Jerry's here, too. And this is the first episode of the two.

[Josh Clark]

I thought there was already another episode out.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes, this is the first one. Chuck I think this comes out on 1 1.

[Josh Clark]

Really?

[Chuck Bryant]

26.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm pretty sure. Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

I thought we had already crept into 26, but that's no matter because it's still 25 for us.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, there's some weird time stuff that's going on. We're essentially straddling two years right now. And I'm wearing a silver space suit because of that.

[Josh Clark]

All that to say if we're a little loose, it's because this is our last recording sesh of the year. And so we're closing this out or opening up the next year with a good old fashioned top 10. That's not a 10, like, just like the old days.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. We're finishing up 20, 25 and stuff. You should know fashion, right?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Just like we did in probably 2010.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, probably. Chuck, if you'll allow me to begin.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, boy. It's just a classic old school opening. Chuck, do you have a tv?

[Chuck Bryant]

Have you ever seen tv?

[Josh Clark]

I knew it was coming. Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

It was either that or Webster's defined tv.

[Josh Clark]

Right? Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

One of the two. I've seen tv, too. Not only have I seen atv, I've watched what's broadcast on TV as well. Multiple times throughout my life.

[Josh Clark]

Same.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's funny, we chose this Moments that changed the world. TV moments that changed the world. And as you're kind of researching this, you realize, like, for better or worse, man, TV is like. It made modern culture more than anything else, I think, in the entire world. I would argue more than the Internet.

[Josh Clark]

Ooh, interesting.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I'm just gonna say it.

[Josh Clark]

All right. I'm not gonna argue. I'm not in an arguing mood.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, people who disagree just follow us on this journey into TV moments that change the world. And maybe your opinion will be changed. Either way, I don't fall to you.

[Josh Clark]

All right, great.

[Chuck Bryant]

So let's start at the beginning, when, like, the day that TV really kicked off in earnest. There was a day that this happened. It was April 30, 1939, in Flushing, New York, on Long Island. And if you are familiar with that date in that area, you may know that this was the 1939 World's Fair. And this is where TV got its start, where it was really kind of unveiled to the public at large.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. Not the 1940 World's Fair. HowStuffWorks.com, because there was not one.

[Chuck Bryant]

No.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So, you know, TV had been around for a bit, but it wasn't super widespread at this point. I feel like we talked about this a lot lately for some reason.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes. Stuff is just really clicking these days. I'm not sure why it really is.

[Josh Clark]

But they had broadcast limitations. They could only broadcast for a limited number of miles. Like out a limited number. Number of miles. But by the time that World's Fair came along, they were like, hey, this is a chance to make a really big splash. The RCA Corporation, the Radio Corporation of America, which also then led the way in TVs. They were putting out some pretty good televisions at the point, but they were luxury items. And again, they didn't have the most regular broadcasting going on, but they knew that this World's Fair was a chance to make a super big splash.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. So, yeah, this is where they were going to start selling TVs to the public. The problem is you can have all the TVs in the world, but if you don't have anything to watch on it.

[Josh Clark]

Good point.

[Chuck Bryant]

What are you going to do? Nothing. You're going to sit there like a jackass and look at a blank tv. So luckily, RCA thought of this and they founded NBC, the National Broadcasting Company, to start broadcasting stuff. So they brought the whole thing together, the broadcasting and the TVs themselves. And they debuted it on April 30, 1939, when they, I think, created the world's first live television broadcast of Franklin Roosevelt kicking off the 1939 World's Fair.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. And we did mention this one in another episode, but he was, you know, sort of the first president, daddy of tv, granddaddy of tv. And like you said, he opened it up there and, you know, NBC had gotten there and they had their, you know, now antiquated TV technology all lined up. It was just pretty whiz bang at the time.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

And they sent signals through these mobile broadcasting trucks, which, I mean, it's pretty amazing that in the 1930s they had the technology to even accomplish that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

So it was pretty impressive still to this day, and broadcast that signal out to about 2,000 viewers, which seemed like a big number at the time, I imagine.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm still impressed with news vans.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

Of the time. Which is our time.

[Josh Clark]

I'm impressed with news vans of today.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's what I mean.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

I didn't get it across very well. Yeah, yeah. So one thing I saw, I was looking up pictures of this 1939 World's Fair, the RCA pavilion. Apparently they built one of their televisions within. Transparent, I guess, glass or something like that, maybe plastic. So you could see the Internal working part, so that people wouldn't think it was just some sort of trick.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, wow. Interesting.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's how new it was.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Oddly, since we're recording our Christmas episode, I feel like this pause before the next one is gonna include, like, Jingle Bells and things.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

But it's not going to. We're just simply moving on to another one, which is Disney's Wonderful World of Color. I'm sure you like. I grew up watching. I guess by the time we were watching it in the 70s, or me in the 70s and you likely in the 80s, it was called the Wonderful World of Disney.

[Chuck Bryant]

I watched Walt Disney Presents, I think is what it was for me.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, okay. So I guess, yeah. Since I'm only a year older than you. I was watching the Wonderful World of Disney. Cause this show had some title changes. But the reason we're talking about this at all, it's because of the advent of color television, which Walt Disney himself really got behind and was like, hey, I want to be the dude that kind of brings this to the masses.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Because just like how you could have TVs, but nothing to broadcast. You could have color TVs, and if you weren't broadcasting in color, what's the point? And again, this was an issue for rca, and by then, of course, they had NBC. And NBC was rolling pretty well. But Walt Disney's anthology series had started years before, and it was on abc. ABC wasn't broadcasting in color. So Walt Disney personally held a meeting with NBC and said, we want to do this. Apparently, it's.

[Josh Clark]

What did he say?

[Chuck Bryant]

He said, fellas, I want this deal. If necessary, I'll stand on my head in Macy's window.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And all the executives said, you don't have to do that. It's a pretty good idea. So why are you being weird?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, but he was just that enthusiastic about the whole thing. But he personally went and pitched the idea to NBC. And the reason why, again, is NBC was the first network to broadcast in color. And so Walt Disney really kind of pushed this through because NBC would have broadcast in color either way. But Walt Disney wanted to do it in, like, high style.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure. And this is a TV show that launched in 1954 and ran for 34 seasons, obviously at first in black and white. And like I mentioned earlier, you know, the name changes, I guess they had one, you know, between my birth and your birthday. Because it was initially called Disney's Wonderful World. And then Magical World of Disney. And then when the color debuted, he was like, we really Want to be sort of obvious with this. So let's call it Disney's Wonderful World of Color. But we still haven't even said what this was. I mean you mentioned anthology series. It was like a variety show essentially. They had cartoons and stuff. I remember when I was a kid that the Davy Crockett TV show and it says in this Houseworks article, it launched the coonskin cap craze and I have a picture of little five year old me with a musket and a leather vest and a coonskin cap on my head. So I was into that.

[Chuck Bryant]

I had one too, but I don't have a picture of it, so I can't prove it.

[Josh Clark]

I can probably dig that up and throw it up on the Instagram maybe to align with this. So I'll try and find that.

[Chuck Bryant]

You gotta.

[Josh Clark]

I gotta.

[Chuck Bryant]

So there were also like a lot of documentary programming, right? And you would think like okay, hard hitting Frontline esque documentaries. No, not at all. It meant that they would go and film stuff under various themes at Disneyland. They were essentially big ads for Disneyland. He used that big time. And I mean they were well produced and interesting, sure. But they really went to that. Well quite a bit in every episode. Not in the first episode though. Instead the first episode, and this is the moment that changed the world as far as color TV goes. It was on September 24, 1961. And it was. The episode was two parts and the first one was an adventure in color. And it really was a bit of an adventure. Like it was a bunch of little segments that really kind of showed off what you can do with color TV and just must have knocked the socks off. Knock the coonskin caps off of all the little kids sitting at home.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. And it also featured something called the Spectrum Song which kind of explained what was going on. Cause I guess they felt the need to explain color to people who had gone around their entire lives seeing real life in color. But I guess like you said, it was a pretty whiz bang thing to see it on your TV for the first time. So they went to great lengths to probably over explain that. And this is also when we got the debut of Professor Ludwig von Drake from the Disney duck world.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, he was kind of an eccentric inventor. His self written bio was he's an eminent psychologist, renowned color expert, etymologist, the most sought after lecturer in the world. He is undoubtedly the outstanding genius of the century. So he was fairly egotistical, but he was also funny and he became beloved. And this is where he came from. That first adventure in color half and then the second half was a theatrical release featuring Donald Duck. Because all of these, like, Disney cartoons that we just, you know, take for granted today used to have to go to the theater to see them. But when you went to the theater to see them, they were in color. You saw them on tv, they were in black and white. Now you could see them in color on TV without leaving the comfort of your home.

[Josh Clark]

What was their deal with the ducks? Was that, I mean, I guess it's just like any other cartoon animal, but they really leaned into the ducks.

[Chuck Bryant]

It was a great excuse to draw something without pants.

[Josh Clark]

Ah, okay. That makes sense. I never got into any. I was a little old for, like, DuckTales and all that stuff.

[Chuck Bryant]

That was a good show.

[Josh Clark]

So, like, Donald Duck was my only, I guess, exposure. My only duck exposure. His little feathered fanny. Oh, sorry. Sorry, listeners in England. I know what that means there.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. Yeah. Nice catch. To be perfectly honest, I was a little old for DuckTales 2, but I still watched it.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, well, you know, we all regress.

[Chuck Bryant]

I never progressed, I think.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, come on.

[Chuck Bryant]

So just like Disney probably promised RCA and NBC, they started selling color TVs like hotcakes, thanks to, in large part, the Wonderful World of Color. Disney's Wonderful World of Color, to be exact.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. And that feels like a great time for a break, huh?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes, it does.

[Josh Clark]

All right, we'll be right back, everybody.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hey, everybody. We're hitting the road again, starting in January 2027, picking up again in April 2026, and eventually Canada will tell you year dates, too.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. We're going to do at least three legs. And the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the paramount theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th, and then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep. And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry. You can get all the info you need and buy tickets atstuffyou should know.com, click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road.

[Evan Ratliff]

Hi, Kyle, could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan, just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able.

[Josh Clark]

To do that yet.

[Evan Ratliff]

My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. There's this betting pool for the first.

[Josh Clark]

Year that there's a one person billion dollar company which would have been like unimaginable without AI.

[Chuck Bryant]

And now will happen.

[Evan Ratliff]

I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, hey, Evan.

[Josh Clark]

Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on.

[Chuck Bryant]

Adoption rates for AI agents in small to medium businesses.

[Evan Ratliff]

Listen to Shell game on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Announcer]

You know the shade is always shadiest right here. Season six of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Gisele Bryant and Robyn Dixon is here, dropping every Monday as two of the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac. We're giving you all the laughs, drama and reality news you can handle. And you know, we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or shady with us each and every Monday, I was going through a walk in my neighborhood. Out of the blue, I see this huge sign next to somebody's house.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Podcast Announcer]

The sign says, my neighbor is a Karen.

[Chuck Bryant]

No way.

[Podcast Announcer]

I died laughing. I'm like, I have to know. You are lying. Humongous, y'.

[Josh Clark]

All.

[Podcast Announcer]

They had some time on their hands. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, so you might think that we're going to. In chronological order, we are not. We're going to go back in time a little bit from the debut of color TV, but after the World's Fair in 1939, two years after. And we're going to go to. You know, I never found out what network this was on. Did you?

[Josh Clark]

No, that's silly. Let's just call it ESPN.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay, so on ESPN, in 1941, on July 1, this is a moment that changed the world. Some people who are watching the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Philadelphia Phillies essentially saw the first television ad ever.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it was either 9 or 10 seconds long. It depends on the source that you cite. But it was pretty short and all it was. And I know we've talked about this before because I have seen this before, and I can't think of any other reason why I would have. But it is a scene of a bull of a clock face just sort of superimposed over a map of the United States. And it had the phrase over the top of it, like a chiron. The world runs on Bulova time. And about 4,000 people saw this ad, and I imagine they were like, what the heck is this? Why am I hearing about Bulova?

[Chuck Bryant]

And why do I suddenly feel like buying a Bulova watch?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, probably.

[Chuck Bryant]

What's super quaint and sweet is that the ad cost Bulova $9.

[Josh Clark]

That's crazy. The whole thing, even for the time. That's crazy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, even at the time, that's $195 today. So that was quite a sweet deal.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

And what it did was show like, this is a. We can do this. We can advertise to people. And it's not to say that there were just no ads on TV before the Bulova ad, but they just followed a completely different format. So much so that the Bulova ad is pretty safely considered among historians as the first actual TV commercial.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, and that's for a couple of reasons. You did mention some other ads, but before that, it was like, you know, this program is sponsored by whatever. And that was just the ad. It was an actual TV commercial in between content. The first ad, I guess, if you count that stuff, was in 1930, the year TV debuted. Really? And it was a furrier man. It seems like it would have been from, like, 1830, but it was a furrier in Boston called IJ Fox Furriers, who sponsored the CBS orchestra. It was a program called the Fox Trapper. So that, you know, that's kind of how ads went up until 41.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And that was the radio format. It was essentially they just took the format that had been pioneered on radio and now they were doing it on tv. That's not really an ad. If you call that an ad, you're just being contrarian. Right.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

There were still even other ads, but they were illegal. Because it wasn't until 1941 that the FCC started issuing licenses to run commercials on broadcast networks. But that means that the ads before them were illegal. I could not find any mention of what these ads were for, but I got the impression that they were just experimentation networks, kind of on the sly figuring out how to do it as they went along. So again, Bulova is the first actual TV commercial that was legal and that was also produced with the intent, the sole intent, to sell a particular product on air. That was it. That space of air was filled up by an ad. That was the first time ever.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. And I know if we mentioned this before, but for those who aren't familiar with our canon in the old days of stuff, you should know our boss, Conal Byrne, who commissioned the whole show to begin with and changed our lives. Thank you, Connell. He came up to us at one point after we had been doing it a while and said, hey, people are running ads on podcasts now and we need to get into this. And we were like, no way, no how. We're not gonna foul up our show by selling it. And then eventually he said, well, you know, if we can sell this thing, it'll make the company money. And on down the road, maybe this just becomes your job. I don't know if he said that, but the writing was kind of on the wall and maybe this can just become the only thing you do here and you won't be writing articles for housetofworks.com anymore. And we went, hmm, tell us more.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, you make a good case here. Yeah. Hey, Chuck, real quick, speaking of our canon, so for all of you listeners out there, it's a little behind the scenes peek. We have like, I think including short stuff in the neighborhood of 2,300 episodes. It doesn't really get it across when you say 2300. We have a ton of episodes in our back catalog and we like, people write in all the time and they're like, you should do this episode. We're like, we did like seven years ago. And it's like a lot of people just have no idea the episodes we've done. So we're trying to figure out how to get it out there better.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure. That's the reason we mentioned this. We've been sort of putting our heads together at iheartmedia. Cause like you said, a lot of people don't. You know, I think itunes serves up about 300. But here's a little trick. If you're on your podcast player, for itunes, on your iPhone, if that's how you listen when you scroll down through like the first five episodes, there's a little button there that Sundays, see all 2,000 plus episodes. And if you click on that, they're all there and you can scroll through. But you know, a lot of people don't know that. A lot of other players don't. You know, who knows? How many they display. But it's a frustration for us. And so it's just a gentle reminder that there are literally thousands of these episodes out there.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, they're all. Also, I think you said on the iHeartRadio app and stuffyou should know.com has the vast repository and a pretty good search function. And one of the ways we figured out, like, we could probably. Like, we could probably do a lot better about mentioning episodes, like, specifically when they come up in another episode, like a new episode. But I feel like we're gonna have to do a lot better than we normally do, which is, like, didn't we do some episode on something related to this? Yeah, we gotta figure it out. But we will, because there's just a bunch of great episodes just sitting there waiting for people to discover.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. And with that, we move on to.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, wait, yes. We have to do the super bowl comparison. You have to do it if you talk about the Boulevard.

[Josh Clark]

Do we really?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes.

[Josh Clark]

All right, you take it away then. I refuse to take part.

[Chuck Bryant]

So if you write or talk about the Bulova ad, it's basically incumbent upon you to compare that ad cost, the $9 cost, to what it would have cost had they run it on a Super Bowl. And so for the 2025 Super bowl, if Bulova had run this, they would have paid $2.35 million for those 10 seconds.

[Josh Clark]

Amazing.

[Chuck Bryant]

Quite a deal. That's right there. I just kept us from being sued.

[Josh Clark]

Well, I don't even think we're even. I think we're supposed to say the big game, aren't we?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, like, we're supposed to not buy into that.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, I gotcha. All right, moving on to the next one on the list is the. That was a good segue, too, because we can't talk about, like, our old episodes and then say, also, there was a devastating tsunami in 2004 in the Indian Ocean.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

Because that happened. And we, you know, if you're actually. You don't have to be much of a certain age, but on December 26, 2004, there was an undersea earthquake about a 9.0 magnitude that set off this incredible tsunami in the Indian Ocean. I mean, we've done episodes on tsunamis and earthquakes, and we've talked about all this before, but it was about 100ft tall, traveling at 500 miles an hour. Not much advance warning, and was one of the most devastating tragedies in human history. It killed close to 230,000 people in 14 countries. It also sparked the biggest rail disaster in history when it completely wiped out a train traveling along the coast of Sri Lanka. And we mention all this because the only positive that came out of this was the media's reaction, which sparked the incredible amount of philanthropy and aid and giving in its aftermath.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Because the, the. I was reading a study on this. It was called Media Coverage and Charitable giving after the 2004 tsunami. It was by Philip H. Brown and Justin Minty.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And there's. They said like the media coverage was unprecedented. Like it didn't. The world didn't forget about it in like three days.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

It was 24 hour coverage of this disaster for weeks on end. Right. And because these images were broadcast around the world and because it was so mind bogglingly devastating, people just opened up their pockets. I saw 99 different countries donated and 13 of those countries had never donated for a natural disaster relief before. It got to everybody.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And there are I think about 195 countries in the world.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Which it's kind of like do better. Other 96 countries.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I imagine the countries that didn't give have their own issues. Had their own issues going on, you know.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, now I feel bad.

[Josh Clark]

No, don't feel so bad. But they have done studies, that 2006 study that you referenced, they said that the Catholic Relief Charities got a million dollars in three days, which would turn out to be small beans in the long run, but over three days that's quite a haul. Save the Children got more than $6 million in four days. The Lutheran World Relief raised more money in a week than it does in a year. And the AP found that 30% of American families donated in the first two weeks. And just from the United States there was about 1.6 billion. And estimates around the world were about $14 billion raised.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And just to kind of go over the power of the media, one thing I left out here is that that same study found that one extra minute of coverage on television equated to an increase in Internet donations by 16 to 20%. So like this, this the impact, it's just essentially like a, A classroom lesson.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

In the impact that media can have. The positive impact that media can have. And that's, I mean that's, that is definitely something to TVs credit.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

You want to move on to. Well, move backward to Vietnam.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Again, we're jumping all over the timeline and we're in Vietnam right now because I guess we should talk a little bit about pre Vietnam and as far as media coverage go because before that World War II and certainly the Korean War. What you got as far as media coverage was highly sort of curated and regulated. Government mediated film reels. You would get news updates, they would play in movie theaters. By the time we got to Vietnam, they had handheld cameras you could literally take to the front lines. And it really changed the way war coverage went and as a result, the way people felt about the war. Because World War II, everyone was, they were pretty rah rah and you got these rah rah films. So morale was big in America. They were like, hey, this is great, we're fighting the Nazis.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Another huge factor was that by 1966, 93% of American homes had a TV. And just 13 to 16 years earlier, in 1950, it was 9%. Yeah. So TV was firmly established in the American psyche. You remember in, in wonder years, whenever they sat down and had dinner, they always had the TV on, showing Vietnam coverage. Yeah, that's what it was like.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

And so the fact that everybody had TVs, the fact that now there was like cameras that you could easily allow a journalist to embed with, and the idea that the government really shouldn't control propaganda, shouldn't control the news like that created this atmosphere where the broadcasters were willing to show like really heart rending, unflinching stories of what the soldiers fighting for the United States were doing in Vietnam and what was being done to them. And it really shaped America's view of that war.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I mean, it definitely made the mood and how we saw the war like, pretty dour. But people, you know, going into Vietnam, there were a lot of people already, like before even the coverage started, that were like, what are we doing in Vietnam again?

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

It wasn't like World War II, where the, where the Nazis were trying to, you know, take over the world. And so, you know, this just made everything worse, but, you know, worse in a positive way because it was showing the reality of things. It wasn't government controlled. I'm sure there were, you know, just countless meetings behind the scenes in the Oval Office where they were like, we're getting crushed by the reality of this war and how it's being depicted in the media. I'm sure they were, you know, pretty upset about losing control of that narrative.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, no, they definitely were. And later on, I think the Iraq War was another. Considered another television war. Certainly the Gulf War, the first one was, but, and, and the government kind of learned from losing control over the narrative in Vietnam, but they weren't able to regain control. Yeah. And so the. The sentiment toward Vietnam and the United States just kept getting worse and worse, and protests were getting bigger and bigger. There was like a very healthy anti war movement. And essentially because the public was. Was feeling this way, their public sentiment was that way toward Vietnam. And because if you turned on the news, the evening national news, you would see, like, terrible coverage that was not flattering at all to what the United States was doing in Vietnam.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Elected officials basically had no choice but to listen to people. And it definitely led to the earlier. Probably an earlier withdrawal than the United States may have otherwise taken.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And, you know, change the way that it went moving forward because, you know, the writing was on the wall at that point for the. For the US Government. They were like, we've. We can't go back to World War II. As much as they wanted to kind of control that narrative, the American people at that point would not have it moving forward. So it really kind of changed the whole relationship of how any kind of conflict is covered.

[Chuck Bryant]

It did. So now they've struck a balance between allowing reporters to embed and just relying on those national news reporters to disseminate the propaganda. Because if you watch embedded coverage, for the most part, it is fairly. Yeah, rah rah. Even if it's not overtly rah rah, because the American public's a little more savvy than that. It's still nothing like the coverage was of Vietnam, from what I understand.

[Josh Clark]

Well, yeah. And just the way wars are fought now, there's not like a front line like you had back then. So I remember watching the Gulf War, and it was just all those, like, you know, black and white shots of bombing things from thousands of feet above, you know.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And then the beginning of the Iraq war. Remember, it was shock and awe.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And it was like it was produced essentially for tv. The initial attack on Iraq, that's so gross to.

[Josh Clark]

I don't know. I'm not going to editorialize, but to name something like that, like, hey, that sounds pretty awesome.

[Chuck Bryant]

You know, I think it was either Rumsfeld or Cheney who came up with that. And I'm not surprised either way, for sure.

[Josh Clark]

Should we take another break?

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, gosh, I wasn't expecting that. Sure.

[Josh Clark]

All right, we'll take another break and finish up with a couple of more moments that change TV history right after this.

[Chuck Bryant]

Foreign. We're hitting the road again, starting in January 2026, picking up again in April 2026. And eventually Canada will tell you year dates, too.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. We're going to do at least three legs. And the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the Paramount Theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th. And then finally back at Sketchfest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep. And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry. You can get all the info you need and buy tickets atstuffyou should know.com, click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road.

[Evan Ratliff]

Hi Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able.

[Josh Clark]

To do that yet.

[Evan Ratliff]

My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co founder after hearing a lot of stuff like this from over OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

[Josh Clark]

There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one person billion dollar company which would have been like unimaginable without AI. And now will happen.

[Evan Ratliff]

I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award winning podcast Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, hey Evan.

[Josh Clark]

Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on.

[Chuck Bryant]

Adoption rates from for AI agents and.

[Josh Clark]

Small to medium businesses.

[Evan Ratliff]

Listen to Shell game on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Announcer]

You know the shade is always shadiest right here. Season six of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Gisele Bryant and Robin Dixon is here dropping every Monday. As two of the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac. We're giving you all the laughs, drama and reality news you can handle. And you know we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or Shady with us. Each and every Monday, I was going through a walk in my neighborhood. Out of the blue, I see this huge sign next to somebody's house. Okay, the sign says my neighbor is a Karen.

[Chuck Bryant]

No way.

[Podcast Announcer]

I died laughing. I'm like, I have to know. You are lying. Humongous Y', all, they had some time on their hands. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Josh Clark]

All right, we're going to move on to another show, but we should mention that the original House of Works article included, of course, the moon landing, which was a huge TV event, but we covered all of that. In which episode?

[Chuck Bryant]

We have an episode on that. It's called How Going to the moon works from 2019. And it was a really interesting episode that really covered in depth the lunar landing.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. Part of the 2300 episodes plus.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

But we're not going to talk about that. We're going to talk about a TV show that we've talked about here and there before called Cops. Because Cops is. And I know I mentioned this in that other episode, whatever it was, it was a show that I used to watch with more regularity than I like to admit.

[Chuck Bryant]

Now I think everyone watched it a lot.

[Josh Clark]

Well, it was never, and I'm not excusing it, but it was never like appointment tv. In fact, I don't even know when it came on. This was just in my younger channel surfing days, where it was like, you're surfing around. Cops was on. I would watch Cops and I was never like, yeah, yeah, go, go. But, you know, I found it probably entertaining and amusing. And now that I'm a little older and no more, I was, you know, slightly embarrassed that they were sort of exploiting many times people who had mental illness and who were suffering through poverty and addiction. And so I'm not so proud of that. But I'll admit that I watch my fair share of Cops.

[Chuck Bryant]

I watched it, too. So Cops changed the world in two ways. And this, this moment was March 11, 1989, which is when it debuted on Fox. This is just three years after Fox premiered, nine months before the Simpsons even premiered. Cops started on Fox, and it helped make Fox the fourth network. It was just such a huge show right out of the gate. And the two ways that it changed the world is one, it set the groundwork for reality tv. Yeah, you can make a pretty good case that it was one of the. It may be the originator of reality tv. There weren't scripts, there wasn't any star. There wasn't any narrative or plot lines. It was just like, here's some cops and here's a crime that they're going to fight. We don't have a script. We just generally know what's going on which ostensibly is the basis of any reality show.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I think, you know, what we should do an episode on at some point is. I can't remember the name of it now. Cause it just came to me. But I think kind of the first real reality show was that one where they followed the American family around in the 70s maybe.

[Chuck Bryant]

Wasn't it PBS or British or something?

[Josh Clark]

I think it was pbs. And then they made a fictional account of that as a movie. Not like four or five, six years ago. That was pretty good too. I think James Gandolfini was in it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay. I would have guessed Peter Sarsgaard as the dad.

[Josh Clark]

It was really good, though. Anyway, that really kicked off reality TV. MTV's Real World didn't come out till 92, but cops certainly laid the groundwork for kind of like trashy reality tv, you know?

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Yes. The other effect that it had on the world was it really reinforced unfair racial stereotypes.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Among white Americans toward black Americans, people of color in general in the United States. It was an enormous show. It drew like 8 million viewers each week. That's a crazy amount of people. It peaked in the 90s, but even from the first episode, civil rights groups were like, whoa, wait a second here. Like, a lot of these criminals are black. And this is way disproportionate to reality. I thought this was a reality show. And the Cops producers, Barbara Langley Productions, were like, well, it's reality ish. You know, like, it's not the actual portrayal of reality. It's a skewed toward entertainment version of reality. So just settle down. And the civil rights groups are like, we're not settling down. That actually makes it even worse.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I mean, the Cops loved it because they were portrayed as heroes. It was a great recruiting tool for police officers. And, you know, I guess we have some stats from the Marshall Project. They did a analysis in 1994. Most of the officers, on balance, were white. Suspects were more likely to be black or Hispanic. As far as the numbers go, they found that while sexual assault, robbery and murders account for just 13% of all crime, in 1994, at least it was 43% of what you saw in Cops. I don't remember a lot of sexual assault and murder, though. Like, everything I saw on Cops were like robberies and drug arrests or just, you know, dui. Being drunk out in public. Stuff like that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Or a dude hiding under a kiddie pool.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, he was probably drunk or on drugs, right? Yeah, that's what I remember. I don't remember, like, more serious Crimes. So I was kind of wondering about that stat.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I don't remember that either. They also found that same study found that the show was far more likely to associate black and brown people than whites with violent crime. They were black and brown people were 40%. There was a 40% chance compared to a 13% chance for whites. So it was like. It wasn't just civil rights groups, like, sensing there's something off about this. Like, people conducted actual studies and found also that a viewer of Cops was likelier to maintain the racial stereotype that blacks are typically criminals than a person who didn't watch Cops. So it had a really large impact. And yet, despite that, this is 94 that that study came out, it wasn't until 2013 that Fox was finally like, okay, fine, fine. Yes, okay, we'll cancel the show. We've made our money over 25 seasons. And thanks to civil rights organization Color of Change, Fox dropped it. And that was the end of Cops forever, right?

[Josh Clark]

No, no, no. It was picked up by Spike TV. They ran it until 2020. And then after 2020, with all the, you know, sort of light shined on police brutality, they said, you know, maybe it's just not so good to run this anymore. But Fox Nation stepped up and brought it back in 21, and it is still going in its 37th season. The other thing it did was sort of create the idea of the Florida man, because they started, I believe they debuted in Broward county and shot a lot there over the years. And they shot. I think they shot in more than 100 cities in the end. But a lot of their content was shot in Florida and kind of sort of reinforced this whole Florida man thing.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I don't know that that's skewed.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. All right, fair enough.

[Chuck Bryant]

Let's finish up Chuck on, like, a truly happy moment. Well, depending on which nation you're from, the USSR or the United States. If you're from the United States, this is a really good high point for your country in 1980 and the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, to be exact. And there was this one event that America was really the unlikely winners in, and it was men's hockey.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. This is during the height of the Cold War. So the US and the Soviet Union, you know, it was just. It was all you heard about if you were a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s. It was such a big deal. The Soviet Union won the Olympic gold medals in ice hockey in 56 and then 64 68, 72 and 76. So they ran the Olympics basically from the mid-60s to the mid-70s. And then 1980 came along and you had a US hockey team. And first of all the Soviet hockey team, I believe there was a player, Fedisov, who said later on that was probably the best team that the Soviet Union had ever put together. So they were the drago and we were a little rocky because the American team at the time, this is before they allowed pro players to play in the Olympics. There's a bunch of college kids and they were, I mean, to call them underdogs was a massive understatement.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, and a lot of the credit goes to the coach of the Olympic men's team, Herb Brooks, who was the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey coach, Kurt Russell.

[Josh Clark]

Oh yeah, yeah, he played him in the movie.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, I thought that was Emilio Estevez.

[Josh Clark]

Well done.

[Chuck Bryant]

So the United States did not, despite how it ended, they did not get off on a very good footing. There is an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden a few days before the 1980 Olympics, same month and everything, and the Soviet Union and the United States played in this exhibition match and the Soviets really, you could use the word walloped pretty effectively in this case. The Soviets won 10 to 3. So it did not look like the United States men's hockey team was going to produce much in the Olympics that year.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, you don't see a lot of double digit scores in hockey. If you're not familiar with hockey, you know you see a lot of like 2 to nothing, 3 to 2. Once you score over 10 goals, it's a big, big deal. So the Americans weren't even supposed to advance that much in the Olympics, but they had a bunch of comeback wins, had a lot of close calls that they won. And they got into the medal round and faced the Soviets who up to that point in the Olympics had outscored their opponents 51 to 11. So on February 22, 1980, and I know I've mentioned this before, but I actually watched this match as a. I guess I wasn't even nine yet. It was right before my ninth birthday. Oh yeah, I wasn't even that into hockey, but we were an Olympic family, right. And I remember I have a very distinct memory of being in my parents bedroom for some reason, which I usually wasn't much allowed in because it was, I don't know, it was the 70s, it was like, don't go in my bedroom. But we had this little black and white tv. I guess my dad was watching Other stuff out there on the larger console tv. But I remember being in their bedroom and watching this match on the little black and white TV and knowing as a little eight year old, like what a huge, huge deal this was.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And you said something that I think kind of applied to a lot of the nation. Hockey was not really a thing. Nothing like it is now in the United States. States. Like you had to live in a place where your rivers froze over every year to, to, to like hockey. It was a very regional sport. Yeah. And yet like you said, the entire United States tuned in for this match because it was the evil Soviets.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And like our, to our younger viewers or listeners, like you don't. You can't imagine what they told us about the Russians. Like essentially, if you were a kid in the 70s, 80s, probably 60s too, you were basically taught that if you ever cross paths with anybody from the Soviet Union, they would slash your throat just as soon as you look at you. Like, that was essentially what people thought of the Soviet Union at the time and vice versa. So there was the big bad Soviets, who were just this huge juggernaut of a team, and the Americans, the ragtag underdog Americans standing up to these, these, this evil empire. And that's why everybody tuned in.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it was, I remember very. Just having the distinct feeling it was communism versus democracy, really.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right, right. Which is. Yeah, which is, I think what happened in that, that super bowl with the Falcons versus the Patriots. Same thing. Oh, man.

[Josh Clark]

My, my darkest day as a Falcons fan.

[Chuck Bryant]

Maybe that was rough.

[Josh Clark]

It was either that or losing to the jets last week.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, man, I can't talk about it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay, I won't.

[Josh Clark]

Very sad. Season ticket holder here. So Americans, of course, came back and won. And I remember our goalie, Jim Craig skating around after. Wrapped up in the American flag. And that was my first real taste of understanding what it was like to be an American. And again, a different time where, you know, it was the Cold War and it felt like a real win for democracy in a weird way.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. So a lot of people, I think basically everybody calls that game the Miracle on ice.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And the reason why is because the commentator who was calling the hockey game, Al Michaels, who as far as I know had only called one hockey game previously at the Sapporo Winter Olympics years before, he did a magnificent job. And as the time is running out in the third period, America staged a comeback and scored two goals. And they were up four to three with several seconds left. And remember, this Soviet team was good enough that they could score a goal and tie within a few seconds. So the Americans are just skating around the ice trying to keep the puck away from the Russians, and Al Michaels is counting down the seconds. And I think with about 4 seconds left, when it became clear that the Soviets weren't going to be able to score a goal, he goes, do you believe in miracles? Yes. And if you watch it today, you just get just amazing chills. Just even the last like 30 seconds of that game. It's really neat, for sure.

[Josh Clark]

I wonder if before the game, Al Michaels was like, it's a puck, Al. It's a puck. It's a match. It's not a game. And if anyone brings up icing, just you explain it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Just pretend it doesn't exist.

[Josh Clark]

Exactly.

[Chuck Bryant]

So ESPN called it the most famous hockey game ever played. Yeah, for sure. Sports Illustrated ranked it in 1999 as the top sports moment of the 20th century. It was a big deal. And again, I would, I would strongly urge you to, if you don't go watch the whole match, watch at least the third period or watch the last couple minutes and several minutes after that where they're. Yeah, they're celebrating. It's just. You can just feel like the whole country going crazy.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Pretty incredible. And if you're ever, you know, at a dinner party in a group of people and they're talking about when the U.S. beat the Soviets for the gold medal, you can be the actually guy, because that was not the gold medal match. I think a lot of people remember it that way because it was such a big deal. But that was, I guess, a bronze round. And the US Went on to win that gold against Finland.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep. Two days later.

[Josh Clark]

Pretty great.

[Chuck Bryant]

Pretty great, everybody. So that's it. Those are the only moments that changed the world in the history of tv. All the rest of them were pretty ho hum.

[Josh Clark]

That's right.

[Chuck Bryant]

You got anything else?

[Josh Clark]

I got nothing else, sir.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right. I think this is a pretty Good start to 2026, don't you?

[Josh Clark]

I think it's great.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay. Chuck said great. That means it's time for listener mail. Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

You know what? Let's start off the year without a listener mail and just make a push to remind everyone that we're still kicking off. Pretty soon, in a few months, It'll be year 18 in April, and we always are two still looking to grow the show. And we don't do it much, but if you could rate and review the show, that means a lot. If you could tell friends and family like, hey, there's this podcast been around forever and we like it. We may or may not be Golden Globe nominated. We don't know at this point because we're going to find out next Monday. But yeah, go out and spread the good word. And we look forward to seeing everybody on the road this year in the United States and Canada.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, we're going to be on the road this month, in January, also in April, and then Canada this summer. So you can get tickets and info@stuffyou should know.com and if you want to say Happy New Year or whatever, you can send us an email. We love that. You can send it to stuff podcastheartradio.com.

[Evan Ratliff]

Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit.

[Josh Clark]

The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.

[Evan Ratliff]

You listen to your favorite shows.

[Josh Clark]

Foreign.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hey everybody, we're hitting the road again starting in January 2026, picking up again in April 2026. And eventually Canada will tell you year dates too.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. We're going to do at least three legs and the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the Paramount Theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th, and then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep. And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry, you can get all the info you need and buy tickets@stuffyou should know.com, click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road.

[Evan Ratliff]

Hi Kyle, could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast Shell Game on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Clark]

Greatness doesn't just show up. It's built. One shot, one choice, one moment at a time. From NBA champion Stephen Curry comes shot ready. A powerful, never before seen look at the mindset that changed the game. I fell in love with the grind.

[Chuck Bryant]

You have to find joy in the.

[Josh Clark]

Work you do when no one else is around. Success is not an accident. I'm passing the ball to you. Let's go. Steph Curry redefined basketball. Now he's rewriting what it means to succeed. Shot Ready isn't just a memoir. It's a playbook for anyone chasing their potential. Discover stories, strategies, and over 100 never before seen photos. Order shot ready [e-mail] don't miss Stephen Curry's New York Times bestseller Shot Ready, available now.

[Podcast Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Josh Clark]

Guaranteed Human.