Spring has sprung and with it a whole new crop of Throwback Thursday show moments. This week we focus on March 21-27.
This means we have many important series premieres to talk about — shows that have left a deep cultural impact on TV viewers today. This week, we’re spotlighting the long-running medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy as well as newcomer What We Do in the Shadows. And who can forget, The Office which changed the comedy TV game forever?
Rounding out the week of throwbacks we also have major character development milestones from Fringe, Torchwood, and iZombie.
Fasten your seatbelts…it’s going to be a bumpy ride through TV history.
Major TV Moments:
How Everyone Came to Torchwood (Torchwood Season 2 Episode 12, “Fragments”) (March 21, 2008)
The Torchwood Season 2 episode where we learn how each member of the team came to be at the organization, all while they are trying to escape the rubble of a building, remains one of the best. It is the episode before the season finale and it leaves us in a good mindset for the subsequent heartbreak about to happen.
It’s a fun little way to explore each character’s backstory — which up to this point we knew little to nothing about any of them outside of their jobs. We know that Jack stole his name from a soldier and that Ianto joined Torchwood to hide his cyberman girlfriend.
However, the finer details of what paths led each of them to become members of the team we know, and love, isn’t revealed until this particular episode. It’s fun to see Toshiko be a huge tech genius before being recruited, or that Owen’s wife’s demise makes him a prime candidate for being the team doctor/medical personnel.
Fauxlivia’s Pregnancy and Birth (Fringe Season 3 Episode 18, “Bloodline”) (March 25, 2011)
Alternate timeline Olivia is similar to the current timeline Olivia in many ways. Season 3 serves to illustrate just how similar, yet different, these two versions of the same woman really are.
During “Bloodline” the story focuses on Fauxlivia who is now back in the correct timeline. She is subjected to a battery of tests regarding pregnancy and survival of the fetus considering her sister’s baby died in the womb.
This leads her to have an accelerated pregnancy and birth all within one episode of TV. The son she gives birth to, Henry, is a result of her and Peter having a relationship. Later on, Henry is completely erased from the timeline.
Introducing Enzo (iZombie Season 4 Episode 5, “Goon Struck”) (March 26, 2018)
One of iZombie‘s Season 5 antagonists is Enzo Lambert. However, he doesn’t first appear in Season 5, in fact, he is first introduced at the start of Season 4.
As fans of the show know, anyone associated with Fillmore-Graves has an 87% chance of being bad news. Enzo definitely falls into that bad news category.
From the first moment, he arrives, he is a major antagonist to Liv and Clive. Neither characters see eye to eye and thus they are always at odds. From the very beginning, Liv knew she couldn’t exactly trust Enzo.
TV Premieres:
GREY’S ANATOMY
This has been a very exciting time for TV premieres within the last 20 years. In the 2000s alone our TV landscape has produced so many great shows that have a lasting impact.
The year 2005 gave us Grey’s Anatomy and The Office, and TV viewers have been hooked on these programs for the last 16 years. The 2000s/2010s also gave us remarkable shows like The Bachelor — which has been going for 19 years now! — Deadwood, as well as the recent hit, What We Do in the Shadows.
However, there are even classic TV programs that have been around for many decades which came out this week and fans still talk about to this day. Two very popular soap operas got their start this week, The Young and the Restless (1973) and The Bold and the Beautiful (1987).
Then there are the classic action shows Cagney & Lacey and Quantum Leap that have sealed their pop culture impact pretty solidly considering they are shows from the ’80s.
Here are a few TV shows that premiered this week in TV History:
- 1973 – The Young and the Restless
- 1980 – Nightline
- 1982 – Cagney & Lacey
- 1986 – Perfect Strangers
- 1987 – The Bold and the Beautiful
- 1989 – Quantum Leap
- 1991 – Clarissa Explains It All
- 1999 – Tenacious D
- 2000 – Making the Band
- 2002 – Chalk Zone
- 2002 – The Bachelor
- 2002 – George Lopez
- 2004 – Deadwood
- 2005 – Grey’s Anatomy
- 2005 – The Office
- 2006 – Hannah Montana
- 2010 – Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution
- 2010 – Victorious
- 2012 – Duck Dynasty
- 2012 – Doc McStuffins
- 2015 – The Late Late Show with James Corden
- 2019 – What We Do in the Shadows
TV Finales:
Psych Season 8 Episode 10, “The Break-Up” (March 26, 2014)
Shawn and Gus go on one final case as Psych came to an end with “The Break-Up” back in 2014. The greatest thing about this episode, besides all the callbacks to long-running jokes and tropes, is that in the end, it shows just how much Lassiter respects Shawn.
These two characters have spent the entire series at odds with each other — Shawn getting on Lassiter’s nerves more often than not. However, when Shawn admits to him on tape that he isn’t a psychic and that all this was mere luck, Lassiter destroys the tape to protect Shawn from being arrested.
“The Break-Up” is one of the show’s highest-rated episodes and with good reason. It’s a beautiful character study of how this whole cast has learned from and grown with each other over the years. Even though this is the end it certainly doesn’t feel like it.
Tell-Tale TV Archives:
This week in our archives we found the announcement we made back in 2015 telling everyone that The X-Files was going to be returning. It was only a short-lived return, but a highly anticipated one none-the-less.
Then in 2017 we sat down and talked with Amber Nash about her role on the show Archer. Read her interview for more insight into that role and many others.
Finally, last year in 2020 we were just starting to live life in lockdown. To combat that we came up with a list of binge-worthy dramas on Netflix.
2015
2017
Amber Nash Talks ‘Archer: Dreamland’ and Poovey’s New Journey [Exclusive Interview]
2020
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What are some major TV premieres, finales, or moments you remember? Sound off in the comments below and your choice just might be featured in a future Throwback Thursday column.
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The post ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ ‘The Office,’ and ‘Deadwood’ — Throwback Thursday first appeared on Tell-Tale TV.