When you set forth to describe a TV show you very often begin with the words “It’s about” “It’s a” don’t you? Well, some TV geniuses figured that out and set to work titling their shows so that you don’t even need to go into detail. You just say the title and you should get a pretty good idea of the content. A good way to cut through the competition that maybe got a little too clever for their own good in coming up with a title. Starting off the title of your TV program with “It’s a” “It’s about” also comes with an implicit enticement that you will have a natural interest in the topic. Did you?
It’s About Time
Two shows so far in TV history were titled “It’s About Time.” The first was a 1954 quiz show that presented dramatizations, phonograph recordings and mixed up headlines as clues to contestants charged with identifying famous historical events. About a dozen years later, the much better known “It’s About Time” aired. In this case, the titular time referred to the dimension that was handing a coupe of astronauts a slap across the face. Their rocket shot upward during the Space Age, but came back down to earth during the Stone Age. “It’s About Time” was actually specifically about escaping the prison of time and getting back to their right epoch.
It’s a Man’s World
Apparently, a houseboat is a man’s world. But not a houseboat where you would expect. Who knew, seriously, that a man’s world was located on a houseboat in Ohio of all places? A houseboat on a river in a midwestern college town. You just know what it’s about in the case of this TV show, right? Skimpy outfits on women, lots of beer and becoming a master of the universe. Except that, well, “It’s a Man’s World” presented a houseboat in a college town on a river in Ohio circa 1962. A critical hit, but not so much a commercial hit.
It’s a Business
Okay, the title tell you what it’s about. But what kind of business is it about? “It’s a Business” was about a business that at one time was the YouTube of American society, but doesn’t get covered on TV or on the big screen very much anymore. Vaudeville around the turn of the 20th century was the business which it was about.
It’s a Living
Twice they tried to make audiences care about a show where waitresses were attempting to eke out a living in a restaurant situated in a posh L.A. hotel. First on ABC and then, three years after cancellation, in the lucrative syndication market. Neither attempt could find a particularly excited audience. The greatest claim to fame of this “It’s” show was foisting upon an unsuspecting public the intensely unappealing character that make Ann Jillian briefly famous in the 80s.
It’s a Miracle
Now, you see a show titled “It’s a Miracle” and the possibilities for what the it refers to are endless. Could this be a show about the celebrity status of anyone named Kardashian. Could the miracle to which “It’s a” refers to be about inexplicable popularity of shows starring repulsive pawn shop owners? Could be anything. And, indeed, either of those topics and more could have wound up on “It’s a Miracle” which was itself a “reality” show about authentic miracles that lasted six season on the religious Pax Network.
It’s a Great Life
What? What’s a great life? Here we have an “It’s a” title that fails to deliver at all on the promise of giving us a shorthand for content. “It’s a Great Life” was a sitcom that aired in the mid-1950s starring a wonderful and criminally underrated and overlooked actor named Michael O’Shea. O’Shea played Denny David who was partners with Steve Connors in trying to get piece back together a sense of normality following their discharge from the Army. In between facing struggles with finding their place in the labor force, they also had to deal with Uncle Earl’s never-ending string of get-rich-quick schemes.
