This reunion special that brought together an hour of clips from the 1980-1984 television show, "THAT'S INCREDIBLE!" was seen by very few people when it aired at the very end of the ratings season on ABC in 2002, but surely opened up a floodgate of memories to those who were lucky enough to catch it.
Cathy Lee Crosby, Fran Tarkenton and John Davidson were drug out of obscurity and chronic unemployment to present this collection of memorable clips from the show's four seasons.
Inter-twined with archived footage, the three hosts dabble in lame bickering amongst each other, extremely embarrassing dialogue complete with laugh track and bizarre updates with people who were featured on the show back in its initial run, including some old guy with a keen eye and sharp aim for knife throwing.
But putting all that junk aside, it's the showcasing of clips that will interest most people who tuned in to watch this special.
They showed the guy who used to do all those bizarre stunts like playing a piano on downhill skis, teetering a chair on it's hind two legs on the ledge of a tall building overlooking the city of Paris, or enjoying a 'dining experience' mid-air with parachutes attached to himself and the table.
They showed a very young Tiger Woods putting a golf ball, and a rather demonic-sounding Alicia Witt reciting an entire Shakespeare excerpt at an extremely young age.
Who could forget Yogi Kudu who could fold his entire 6-foot tall body like a contortionist into a tiny box? Or how about Sylvia Brown who conducted a rather eerie seance in the middle of the night in a Wal*Mart attempting to make contact with a lost soul and coaxing him to go on through to the "other side".
But the clip that brought back many memories (and some tears) was the story of Leslie Lemke, the retarded boy who proved to be an idiot savant simply by hearing bars to pieces of music and being able to play the exact same piece on a piano. He was given up for adoption at birth, went blind from glaucoma, suffered from severe brain damage and yet was taken in by a kind old nurse and her husband who encouraged him to craft his special "gift" into a beautiful talent.
In the middle of the random "dog playing basketball/surfing" stories, to the "world's longest domino chain", "THAT'S INCREDIBLE!" also appreciated the inspiring and uplifting side of life by profiling lives like that of Leslie Lemke.
It's a shame that this show isn't on anymore. It was the precursor to stuff like "RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT", "REAL TV" and "GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS", but it didn't just focus on "gross out" stunts and mindless garbage like setting the record for how many nails one man may swallow. There would never be another show like it, and 20 years later, it looks like there never will be.
On the lighter side, a remarkable story that would make the perfect selection for an episode of "THAT'S INCREDIBLE!" would be how John Davidson's face has defied gravity to look older than Fran Tarkenton's... in a bad "face lift" sort of a way.
Cathy Lee Crosby, Fran Tarkenton and John Davidson were drug out of obscurity and chronic unemployment to present this collection of memorable clips from the show's four seasons.
Inter-twined with archived footage, the three hosts dabble in lame bickering amongst each other, extremely embarrassing dialogue complete with laugh track and bizarre updates with people who were featured on the show back in its initial run, including some old guy with a keen eye and sharp aim for knife throwing.
But putting all that junk aside, it's the showcasing of clips that will interest most people who tuned in to watch this special.
They showed the guy who used to do all those bizarre stunts like playing a piano on downhill skis, teetering a chair on it's hind two legs on the ledge of a tall building overlooking the city of Paris, or enjoying a 'dining experience' mid-air with parachutes attached to himself and the table.
They showed a very young Tiger Woods putting a golf ball, and a rather demonic-sounding Alicia Witt reciting an entire Shakespeare excerpt at an extremely young age.
Who could forget Yogi Kudu who could fold his entire 6-foot tall body like a contortionist into a tiny box? Or how about Sylvia Brown who conducted a rather eerie seance in the middle of the night in a Wal*Mart attempting to make contact with a lost soul and coaxing him to go on through to the "other side".
But the clip that brought back many memories (and some tears) was the story of Leslie Lemke, the retarded boy who proved to be an idiot savant simply by hearing bars to pieces of music and being able to play the exact same piece on a piano. He was given up for adoption at birth, went blind from glaucoma, suffered from severe brain damage and yet was taken in by a kind old nurse and her husband who encouraged him to craft his special "gift" into a beautiful talent.
In the middle of the random "dog playing basketball/surfing" stories, to the "world's longest domino chain", "THAT'S INCREDIBLE!" also appreciated the inspiring and uplifting side of life by profiling lives like that of Leslie Lemke.
It's a shame that this show isn't on anymore. It was the precursor to stuff like "RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT", "REAL TV" and "GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS", but it didn't just focus on "gross out" stunts and mindless garbage like setting the record for how many nails one man may swallow. There would never be another show like it, and 20 years later, it looks like there never will be.
On the lighter side, a remarkable story that would make the perfect selection for an episode of "THAT'S INCREDIBLE!" would be how John Davidson's face has defied gravity to look older than Fran Tarkenton's... in a bad "face lift" sort of a way.