kalbir

Another Aaron Spelling ABC show that might be considered a time slot hit, Hotel. Fall 1983 Dynasty moved up an hour to Wednesday 9 pm and Hotel premiered as the lead out. 1983/84 Dynasty finishes 3rd and Hotel finishes 9th. 1984/85 Dynasty finishes #1 but Hotel drops to 12th, tied w/ Cheers. 1985/86 Dynasty drops to 7th, tied w/ The Golden Girls, and Hotel drops to 22nd, tied w/ NBC Monday Night Movie. 1986/87 Dynasty drops to 24th, tied w/ Highway to Heaven, and Hotel falls out of the Top 30. 1987/88 Dynasty moved to Wednesday 10 pm and Hotel moved to Saturday 10 pm then Thursday 9 pm; both finish below the Top 30 and Hotel is cancelled.

When looking at the 1990s ABC comedies, Home Improvement lead out resulted in what might be considered a time slot hit, Grace Under Fire. Grace Under Fire premiered Fall 1993 and was given the Home Improvement lead out Wednesday 9:30 pm. 1993/94 Home Improvement finished 2nd, its highest finish ever, and Grace Under Fire finished 5th. 1994/95 Home Improvement and Grace Under Fire move to Tuesday 9 pm/9:30 pm. Grace Under Fire moves to Wednesday 9 pm for the last six episodes of the season. Home Improvement finishes 3rd and Grace Under Fire finishes 4th. 1995/96 Grace Under Fire remains Wednesday 9 pm and finishes 13th. 1996/97 remains Wednesday 9 pm then moved up to 8 pm but falls out of the Top 30. 1997/98 moves to Tuesday 8 pm but still below the Top 30 and is cancelled. In the 1990s, Roseanne lead out resulted in one time slot hit, Room for Two, which was discussed before.

They could have used clips from the 1980s/1990s classics that we saw in 2020. We're 6 months away from the anniversary week (March 27-31, 2023).

To this day, The Day After is still the highest rated made for TV movie on the broadcast networks ever.

@slick jones You reminded me of this track

The 8th season finale was interrupted in the Eastern and Central time zones by news coverage of Tiananmen Square. I wonder how many complaints CBS affiliates got.

The 12th season finale was interrupted in the Eastern and Central time zones by news coverage of Tiananmen Square. I wonder how many complaints CBS affiliates got.

You're referring to the Bill Bell years, correct? I wasn't alive then so for me Days is best known for the supercouple era and Reilly's sci-fi era.

Let's discuss scripted shows on CBS/ABC/NBC that got the label of time slot hit and whether they deserved that label or not. A show I initially labeled as a time slot hit was Crazy Like a Fox. It premiered mid-season 1984/85 and replaced The Jeffersons and Alice on CBS's Sunday lineup, becoming the new lead out to Murder, She Wrote. Crazy Like a Fox benefitted from being the lead out to Murder, She Wrote and finished 10th, tied with Falcon Crest. Murder, She Wrote finished 8th. Murder, She Wrote and Crazy Like a Fox were the second and third highest rated new scripted shows of 1984/85. Unfortunately, Crazy Like a Fox could not hold on to the Murder, She Wrote audience in Fall 1985 as ABC and NBC counter-programmed with big budget miniseries, notable examples being The Long Hot Summer on NBC and North & South on ABC, plus ABC also had the World Series. January 1986, CBS premieres their Sunday Night Movie and Crazy Like a Fox is moved to Wednesday 9 pm, head-to-head with Dynasty, where it's clobbered. CBS had to have known that being head-to-head with Dynasty (which was still a Top 10 show at that point) was a death knell. April 1986, Crazy Like a Fox is moved to Saturday 8 pm for its final four episodes. Strategic counter-programming lead to the Top 10 fallout and time slot changes lead to cancellation. A clear time slot hit was Anything but Love. It premiered mid-season 1988/89 when ABC redid their Tuesday lineup, moving The Wonder Years to 8:30 pm from Wednesday 9 pm, Roseanne down from 8:30 pm to 9 pm, and Anything but Love at 9:30 pm. As we all know Roseanne was the breakout hit of 1988/89, finishing 2nd. Anything but Love benefitted from being the lead out to Roseanne and finished 10th. Fall 1989, Anything but Love is moved to Wednesday 9:30 pm and finishes below the Top 30. Anything but Love would remain on Wednesday in 1990/91 and its final season 1991/92 and it also finished below the Top 30 in both those seasons. NBC probably had the most time slot hits of any network as discussed before: A Different World, Empty Nest, all those Thursday 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm shows at the height of Friends/Seinfeld/ER.

September 24, 1987 The Cosby Show rating 31.5 and A Different World rating 31.3. They were the top 2 shows that week. This was also A Different World highest rated episode overall.

That's the feeling I get from this move. Remember Passions didn't even last a year on DirecTV.

Promo for season 2 premiere at 4:32. Promo for season 3 premiere at 9:25. This season had an episode that reached #1 (Night of the Headless Horseman), and the highest rated episode of the series (Simon Says, Color Me Dead got a 30.4 rating). Promo for season 4 premiere at 0:34 Promo for season 6 premiere at the start Promo for season 11 premiere at 6:04

It was early in Bradley's run, maybe that's why it feels like a lull. I always felt the Belief storyline was Bill Bell's last hurrah for B&B before he passed the reigns to Bradley.

Three CBS soaps introduced new villains cut from the JR mold, and all four had parental issues plus their mothers were played by Golden Age Hollywood actresses.

The CBS Sunday sitcom block of 8:30 pm One Day at a Time, 9 pm Alice, 9:30 pm The Jeffersons was a success in 1979/80, 1980/81, 1981/82. Those years also saw Alice and The Jeffersons earn their highest finishes: Alice 4th, tied with M*A*S*H, in 1979/80 and The Jeffersons 3rd in 1980/81. The block began weakening in 1982/83, when new sitcom Gloria replaced Alice in the lineup and One Day at a Time at 8:30 pm, The Jeffersons moved up to 9 pm, and One Day at a Time moved down to 9:30 pm. Alice was initially moved to Wednesday 9 pm then to Monday 9 pm. Gloria finished 18th but was still cancelled, The Jeffersons dropped from 3rd to 12th, tied with the first season of Newhart, and One Day at a Time dropped from 10th to 16th. Alice dropped from 5th to below the Top 30. 1983/84 CBS moves Alice back to Sunday, this time at 8 pm, One Day at a Time moves back up to 8:30 pm, The Jeffersons remains at 9 pm. Midseason Alice is moved to 9:30 pm and One Day at a Time is moved to Wednesday 8 pm. The Jeffersons dropped to 19th. One Day at a Time fell out of the Top 30 and was cancelled. Alice moved up to 25th, tied with CBS Tuesday Movie, Webster, Knight Rider, Hardcastle and McCormick. 1983/84 also saw the weakening of the lead out to the Sunday comedy block Trapper John, M.D.; it was a Top 20 show in its first four seasons (peak was 15th in 1981/82) but it fell from 18th in 1982/83 to 30th in 1983/84. 1984/85 was the end of the Sunday comedy block. New drama Murder, She Wrote took over 8 pm and finished at 8th, the highest rated new scripted series that season not named The Cosby Show. The Jeffersons and Alice were at 9 pm/9:30 pm until midseason, and then got moved to Tuesday 8 pm/8:30 pm, where they were clobbered by The A-Team and then cancelled. New drama Crazy Like a Fox premiered midseason Sunday 9 pm and benefitted from the Murder, She Wrote lead in to finish 10th, tied with Falcon Crest. Unfortunately, Trapper John, M.D. did not retain much of the Murder, She Wrote and Crazy Like a Fox lead ins and it finished at 29th. I pinpoint the end of M*A*S*H in Spring 1983 and the weakening of the Sunday comedy block that same season as the start of CBS's struggle with sitcoms, and that struggle continued through the remainder of the 1980s.

Revisiting a 1990s R&B classic album on the 25th anniversary of its release.

Come on now, give EB credit for still boxing at 81 🤣

February 8, 1980 episode "Second Thoughts". Recaps of Dallas - Television of Yore

In the 1990s B&B really pushed the envelope moreso than Y&R when it came to love scenes. Some of them looked like they belonged in the type of movies that aired on cable during the wee hours.

@Vee In the Ava Gardner episodes, there are great scenes where Laura calls out Ruth and puts her on blast.

Knots Landing isn't the type of soap we'd expect to see a messy wealthy matriarch but Ava Gardner as Ruth Galveston was everything. It's so funny that she preferred villainess Abby over the more virtuous Laura as the ideal mate for Greg.

@Faulkner Days is an interesting case study in soaps. Started out as a Bill Bell show but it's best known for the supercouple years and Reilly sci-fi years.

We often point out the similarities between the early years of B&B and 1970s Y&R but how about similarities between the early years of B&B and Y&R at around the same time? It was mentioned earlier in the thread that Katie being the shy insecure sister because of her acne was similar to Traci being the shy insecure sister because of her weight. Another comparison I thought of could be Caroline/Brooke rivalry similar to Ashley/Nikki rivalry. Caroline/Ashley, both from wealthy families. Brooke/Nikki, both from working class backgrounds. Some differences though. Caroline was a clear-cut heroine but Ashley (at least ED's 1982-1988 version) wasn't, and Brooke was a clear-cut vixen but Nikki wasn't. Also Caroline to me didn't initially come across as goal oriented the way Ashley initially was and I felt Brooke was always on the lookout for a come up more so than Nikki was (and oddly enough Nikki got the come up with her marriage to Victor).

Probably sometime next spring, after the 60th anniversary.

Queen Elizabeth passes away almost 1 1/2 years after Prince Phillip's death and in the year that marks the 70th anniversary of her ascension to the throne after the death of her father King George, the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, and the 20th anniversary of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother's deaths. King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla, I cannot wrap my head around that.