That's Incredible!, Incredible Sunday and Those Amazing Animals


Incredible Sunday (1988-1989)
That's Incredible! (1980-1984)
Those Amazing Animals (1980-1981)
Type: Spin Offs

   A man who can squeeze himself into a tiny cube the size of a milk crate! That's Incredible! A young golf prodigy named Tiger Woods! That's Incredible! Some kids racing to solve the Rubik's Cube first! Okay, not so incredible but it too was on That's Incredible!

   ABC's That's Incredible! was a one hour show hosted by John Davidson, Cathy Lee Crosby and Fran Tarkenton. Every week these three would introduce a variety of film clips and in studio guests all of which featured folks doing or involved with incredible things... or if they were hard up for stuff something as close to incredible as possible. The in-studio Rubik's Cube and video game championships really weren't all that spectacular.

   The show was similar to NBC Real People only Real People was more concerned with funny oddball stories as opposed to That's Incredible!'s amazing stunts, touching human interest pieces and, of course, Pac Man tournaments. It also turned out to be very handy for ABC when TV writers went on strike. While every other show was crippled, That's Incredible was able to continue with new episodes.

   The show was a big enough hit that ABC tried to spin off a companion show called Those Amazing Animals. Same sort of stories only this time it was monkeys solving Rubik Cubes. Okay, that didn't actually happen. The hosts for this show were Burgess Meredith (ironically well known for having played The Penguin on the old Batman TV show), Pricilla Presley (ironically the former wife of "hound dog" Elvis Presley) and Jim Stafford (ironically... he... uh... had pets...). Turns out those animals weren't all that amazing and the show bit the dust after a year. That's Incredible! joined it in 1984.

   Then in 1988, a new version of That's Incredible! popped up on ABC with little fanfare. Incredible Sunday basically highlighted the same sort of stories as the original series. Where That's Incredible! aired in prime prime time, Incredible Sunday aired in the almost prime time Sunday at 7 pm spot. Because he was just so cool, John Davidson was brought back. Hahaha. Almost kept a straight face. His cohosts were replaced though. Christina Ferrare and Tracey Gold took over those spots while Cathy Lee and Fran were left to beg for government surplus cheese just to survive. Well okay, that's last part's not true either. But it would have made for an incredible story for the show. Incredible Sunday could've used a story like that. As it was, the show wasn't all that incredible. If it was, I don't think it would have gotten canceled after a single season... which it was.


Click here to return to main Crossover List



Poobala.com Main Page/ Email Me