kalbir

Well it was the time before HIV.

November 3, 1975 The Price is Right expands to 1 hour. The Price is Right moved from 10:30 am ET to 10 am ET, now head-to-head with Celebrity Sweepstakes and Wheel of Fortune. First week at 1 hour its middle of the pack.

Then season 5 got corporate with Lotus Point, ventured into James Bond/action thriller territory with Wolfbridge, and also got glamorous. I think going corporate and glamorous was a response to Dynasty blowing up and becoming a pop culture phenomenon. Dallas also got corporate and glamorous.

I would say the other comparable drama series to ER is Dallas. Dallas ran 14 seasons. ER ran 15 seasons. Both shows had three seasons as the #1 show. Dallas 1980/81, 1981/82, 1983/84. ER 1995/96, 1996/97, 1998/99. Dallas was the highest-rated drama across the broadcast networks for 5 seasons (1979/80 to 1983/84). ER was the highest-rated drama across the broadcast networks for 7 seasons (1994/95 to 2000/01). Dallas was a Top 10 show for 7 seasons (1979/80 to 1985/86). ER was a Top 10 show for 10 seasons (1994/95 to 2003/04). Both shows had a breakout star in Larry Hagman and George Clooney respectively. Dallas was Larry Hagman's career resurgence that became his second signature role or some may say his career-defining role. ER was George Clooney's career breakthrough after years of jobbing and it lead to him becoming a Hollywood A-lister.

Great, thanks again. The Price is Right 1 hour trial week was mid-range I'd say. CBS scheduled the 1 hour trial week 10:30-11:30 am ET, head-to-head with Wheel of Fortune and High Rollers.

The Price is Right going strong. No wonder CBS expanded it to 1 hour. @JAS0N47 Do you have game show ratings for September 8-12, 1975 (The Price is Right 1 hour trial week) and November 3-7, 1975 (The Price is Right expands to 1 hour)? Thanks in advance

George Clooney was the breakout star of ER and ER was his career breakthrough after years of jobbing. In the off-season he starred in movies and when his ER contract was up, he left to focus on his film career. I say it was Oceans Eleven that cemented George Clooney as a Hollywood A-lister. Friends seems like it will live on forever in syndication, DVD, streaming, but ER seems to have been forgotten in those mediums.

Hahaha, yes.

Abby was all about the come up. Even though Abby was considered the villainess, I believe she loved her children and wanted what was best for them.

Would we consider Abby the breakout character in the vein of JR and Alexis? I don't think Abby became a pop culture phenomenon like JR and Alexis though.

@JAS0N47 Thank you for the answers.

Bill Bell also preferred 30 minutes. We know from the 1980s ratings thread that Y&R had a post-expansion slump. I don't know if this was answered earlier, but how long did Bill Bell write for Days after it expanded to 1 hour? Also did Susan Flannery depart from Days around the time it expanded to 1 hour?

ER was the highest-rated drama across the broadcast networks from 1994/95 to 2000/01 and three of those seasons (1995/96, 1996/97, 1998/99) it was the #1 show. ER was the first drama since Dallas to have three seasons as the #1 show. Fun fact, the #1 seasons of Dallas (1980/81, 1981/82, 1983/84) and the #1 seasons of ER are each separated by 15 years. ER 15 season run places it as NBC's third longest-running primetime drama, behind Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order. Interestingly all premiered in the 1990s.

Well it was Bradley's first full year. Also it was the year B&B's time slot rival Reilly Days took off. Not to mention the year of OJ.

Also Fox became a legitimate network this season, thanks to them getting NFL broadcasting rights and established affiliates in major media markets. As far as Fox programming goes, 1994/95 was the peak season of Melrose Place. I don't hold the Seinfeld/ER/Friends era in high regard. NBC was fortunate that both CBS and ABC had primetime mess eras and that's how they were able to get away with scheduling garbage shows at Thursday 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm that still finished among the Top 10. 1994/95 ABC was good with Home Improvement, Grace Under Fire, NYPD Blue but their one-time biggest hit Roseanne was weakening. ABC fortunes would change with the sale to Disney in 1996 and the start of their primetime mess era. Poor CBS, 1994/95 was the start of another primetime mess era. It was back to Murder, She Wrote being their only hit. It's so funny that Murder, She Wrote premiered in 1984/85, the best and most pivotal season of the 1980s, and was still going in 1994/95, the most pivotal season of the 1990s. CBS primetime mess era would continue with the sale to Westinghouse in 1995 and arrival of Les Moonves.

Taking @Khan descriptions above and seeing how they apply to each network's line up of dramas that premiered in the 1980s which had runs of 5 or more seasons. Murder, She Wrote (12); Falcon Crest (9); Magnum, P.I. (8); Simon & Simon (8), Cagney & Lacey (7), Jake and the Fatman (5). I think that description fits this list. Dynasty (9), MacGyver (7), The Fall Guy (5), Hotel (5), Moonlighting (5). Moonlighting seems like the only one that fits this description. Thirtysomething and China Beach fit this description but they got four seasons each. L.A. Law (8), Hill Street Blues (7), Hunter (7), St. Elsewhere (6), Matlock (6), Remington Steele (5), The A-Team (5), Miami Vice (5), Highway to Heaven (5), In the Heat of the Night (5), Quantum Leap (5). I would consider L.A. Law innovative as well.

@will81 Thanks for the additional info.

@Maxim You'll love seasons 2 and 3. Those were the peak of the series for me.

1975 a pivotal year in daytime: Another World, Days, As the World Turns expand to 1 hour. How to Survive a Marriage ends. Ryan's Hope premiere. The Edge of Night moves from CBS to ABC. Wheel of Fortune premiere. The Price is Right expands to 1 hour.

Somebody at Lorimar must have liked Barry Jenner as he was on all three CBS primetime soaps. He was on Falcon Crest for two episodes in 1989. For me and many of my generation (1990s teens), Barry Jenner will forever be Lieutenant Murtaugh of Family Matters.

Hahaha.

The Val/Gary/Abby triangle ushered in Knots Landing peak era and drove so many storylines for years. The triangle worked not because of the triangle itself (let's keep it real here, Gary was no prize) but because of the character arcs it lead to. Val moved on with her life after losing her first love, Gary manned up, and Abby got the come up that she was all about.

Saw that. Thank you. Yeah, there was way too much garbage time.

NBC had four attempts at a primetime soap (Flamingo Road, Bare Essence, The Yellow Rose, Berrenger's) but none worked. CBS struggle with sitcoms began with the end of the M*A*S*H and the Top 10 fallouts of The Jeffersons, Alice, One Day at a Time. Newhart and Kate & Allie were bright spots but they got overshadowed by the big NBC/ABC sitcoms. Designing Women and Murphy Brown started showing growth at the end of the 1980s and became hits in the early 1990s. Major Dad had brief success in the early 1990s. Also with ABC dramas, MacGyver ran 7 seasons and China Beach ran 4 seasons but neither showed growth. Of note is that MacGyver was ABC's longest-running drama that premiered in the 1980s which was not produced by Aaron Spelling.

@soapfan770 Yeah, that seems right. Sticking to 1980s primetime for the big three. CBS began the decade riding high, got complacent in the middle of the decade, and was an absolute mess by the end of the decade. ABC began the decade still good, then had a mess era in the middle of the decade, but rebounded by the end of the decade. NBC began the decade an absolute mess, had a comeback then rode high in the middle of the decade, and ended the decade still going strong but getting a little complacent.