kalbir

If they had, we might not have gotten Dr. Kimberly of Melrose.

Head-to-head w/ Cheers and Night Court. The Colbys had no chance of succeeding. Aaron Spelling must have been losing his clout w/ ABC by 1985/86, as he was down to only four shows on the network: The Love Boat (which would end in spring 1986), Dynasty, Hotel, The Colbys. You'd think the ABC primetime schedulers would've placed Dynasty and The Colbys back-to-back on Wednesdays, as the audiences for both shows were the same. For whatever reason Aaron Spelling didn't insist on that.

So at some point in the last 25 years Keemo

True. The Jabot/Newman corporate battles were more for the Jack/Victor feud.

Bill Cosby used his clout with NBC to get A Different World the lead out time slot from The Cosby Show and NBC agreed because they were so indebted to Bill Cosby for saving their primetime lineup. The fortunes of A Different World were clearly tied to that of The Cosby Show.

You're welcome re blog post. When I started the thread and saw the list of time slot hits that were Friends/Seinfeld lead outs, some of those shows I had no memory of at all. A Different World is probably the ultimate time slot hit. Five seasons as The Cosby Show lead out, and four of those seasons in the Top 5. A Different World fell out of the Top 10 when The Cosby Show fell out of the Top 10, and it fell out of the Top 30 when it longer had The Cosby Show as its lead in.

CBS at least tried in primetime, with Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0) and David Lim (SWAT). His mother is Indonesian and Dutch.

Earlier in the thread we talked about the numerous time slot hits that were Friends/Seinfeld lead outs. NBC's Must-See TV Comedy Thursdays: The "Hammock" Shows | The Barrel of Forty (terrencemoss.blogspot.com) I liked this blogger's comment that NBC could've aired test patterns as Friends/Seinfeld lead outs and they would still finish in the Top 10.

The Victor/Jack conversation in today's show had me thinking about a couple things from the past. While Victor can't normally stand Jack and Billy, he respected their father John Abbott. I don't know if Bill Bell ever explored this, but I wonder if Victor's respect of John Abbott was because of John's business acumen or that John was the good father that Victor didn't have and Victor tried to be. Another thing I wonder if Bill Bell ever explored, Victor maybe being jealous of Jack for having a normal family life for most of his childhood, which Victor never had. Yes Dina abandoned her family, but Jack at least had John, Ashley, Traci, and Mamie, whereas Victor had nobody.

CBS for it's impact on the genre, but I will admit that ABC and Days had a bigger impact in terms of soaps being a part of pop culture.

Knots Landing had one season in the Top 10 (1984/85), one season in the Top 15 (1983/84), two seasons in the Top 20 (1982/83, 1985/86), four seasons in the Top 30 (1979/80, 1980/81, 1986/87, 1988/89), and six seasons below the Top 30 (1981/82, 1987/88, 1989/90 to 1992/93). Also remember that Knots Landing had time slot competition from critically acclaimed Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law, and a brief period it had time slot competition from Top 10 sitcoms Cheers and Night Court. If Knots Landing was able to last further into the 1990s, it would've been clobbered by ER. CBS's attempt at new primetime soaps in the 1990s (2000 Malibu Road, Angel Falls, Hotel Malibu, Second Chances, Central Park West, Four Corners) didn't work and CBS hasn't attempted a primetime soap since.

1985/86 was the season that the primetime soaps started to decline. Lots of factors I think: viewer fatigue, strategic counter-programming, sitcoms making a comeback, weak lead ins.

Jane Wyman (born 1917) and Susan Flannery (born 1939) are of different generations, so that casting doesn't really work. Y&R's original messy wealthy matriarchs Dorothy Green (born 1920), Jeanne Cooper (born 1928), and K.T. Stevens (born 1919) were age-appropriate to be the matriarch on a 1980s primetime soap. I thought Cynthia Watros should've been a Patty recast in 2013 instead of the new character Kelly which was a waste of her talent.

Yeah, CBS really did Angela Lansbury dirty in 1995/96 after the way she carried the network's primetime lineup over the previous decade. That season CBS's only Top 10 show was 60 Minutes. 1995/96 was also the season where CBS tried to be young and cool with the "You're On" promos but that didn't work so the following season they went to "Welcome Home". Murder She Wrote and Crazy Like a Fox were the only new CBS shows of 1984/85 that returned for 1985/86, and they both were in the 1984/85 Top 10. Crazy Like a Fox was a time slot hit, as it was done once it no longer had Murder She Wrote as it's lead in. I would've loved to be a fly on the wall in the Dallas producers office when the 1985/86 final ratings showed Murder She Wrote ahead of Dallas. Three seasons in the Top 5 (1985/86, 1986/87, 1992/93), five seasons in the Top 10 (1984/85, 1987/88, 1988/89, 1991/92, 1994/95), three seasons in the Top 15 (1989/90, 1990/91, 1993/94) cannot be just from the 50+ audience alone.

Same here.

@Soapsuds I think this thread is for acting ability, not glow ups LOL

That's ABC for you, the network that gave us Luke and Laura.

Agree with you. Social issues have to be handled responsibly, otherwise the storylines become shock plot devices. Case in point, a writer can't have a rape storyline without treating it as the crime that it is and dealing with the medical aspect and emotional aftermath.

During the NBC 20 year dominance of Thursday night, The Cosby Show was #1 for 5 consecutive seasons (1985/86 to 1989/90), Cheers #1 for 1 season (1990/91), Seinfeld #1 for 2 seasons (1994/95 and 1997/98), ER #1 for 3 seasons (1995/96, 1996/97, 1998/99), and Friends #1 for 1 season (2001/02).

@Khan commented in another thread that the primetime soaps tended to avoid social issue storylines (I hope I'm not misinterpreting your comment Khan; also I didn't want to derail the other thread). I know viewers of the 1980s big four didn't expect to see Bill Bell-style social issue storylines, but of the social issue storylines attempted by the 1980s big four, which were good and which were not so good?

Going back to NBC Thursday night dominance of 1984-2004, ER was the only one of the 10 pm dramas to crack the Top 10. Hill Street Blues was in its fifth season in 1984/85 which was the last season it was in the Top 30 (Hill Street Blues best finish was 21st in 1982/83), and it's time slot changed in December 1986 to Tuesday 9 pm. Hill Street Blues ended May 1987. L.A. Law pilot in September 1986 was aired on a Monday and the series premiered as part of NBC's new Friday night lineup in October 1986. The A-Team moved from Tuesday 8 pm to Friday 8 pm, Miami Vice moved up 1 hour to 9 pm, and L.A. Law at 10 pm. That Friday lineup didn't work (The A-Team fell below the Top 30 and it was cancelled, Miami Vice fell out of the Top 10) and in December 1986, L.A Law got moved to Thursday 10 pm, where it would remain until it's end in May 1994. L.A. Law best finish was 12th in 1987/88, tied w/ Moonlighting.

Beverly Hills 90210 was such a big part of my teen years yet I somehow don't feel nostalgic for it and have a longing to rewatch it. The first four seasons were the best. I lost interest early in the 5th season and never went back to it.

NBC was so indebted to Bill Cosby for saving their primetime lineup that they gave A Different World the lead out time slot from The Cosby Show, thus Family Ties moving to Sunday where it got clobbered by Murder She Wrote. Family Ties was 2nd in 1986/87, dropped to 17th in 1987/88 after the time slot change, and was below the Top 30 in its final season 1988/89.

In contrast to CBS primetime being a mess from 1986/87 to 2000/01, we saw NBC Thursday dominating primetime from 1984/85 (the start of The Cosby Show which revived both the sitcom genre and NBC primetime on the whole) to 2003/04 (the end of Friends). It's crazy how NBC's Thursday night dominance lasted 20 years.

Lets be real here, CBS was a mess in primetime from 1986/87 season (when Dallas fell out of the Top 10) to 2000/01 season (the start of Survivor and CSI). The only Top 10 drama series CBS had in that era were Murder She Wrote and Touched by an Angel. Sure CBS had these drama series with 3+ season runs that launched between 1985 and 1999: The Equalizer, Beauty and the Beast, Jake and the Fatman, Wiseguy, Tour of Duty, Northern Exposure, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, Picket Fences, Walker Texas Ranger, Diagnosis Murder, Chicago Hope, Nash Bridges, JAG, Early Edition, Promised Land, Family Law, Judging Amy, but none of these shows were ratings-grabbers or pop culture phenomenons.