Khan mentioned Chico and the Man in another thread, and it reminded me of the fact that I never saw this show in syndication. I grew up watching reruns of shows like Good Times, and Sanford and Son (some of my family just loved Fred and laughed and laughed at every episode), and the MTM sitcoms, and the Gary Marshall sitcoms, and the other Norman Lear sitcoms, but I never saw this.

What are other shows that were huge hits at one point, then sort of vanished?

I agree with you about Norman Lear shows. I can't take most of them. I probably like ODAAT the most because of the cast, but the scripts were by turns smug and overwritten, then became pedestrian.

Was Falcon Crest ever reran before SOAPnet?

Yes back when Soapnet was actually pretty good, Falcon Crest ran on it. I think it was replaced with Dallas (which is now replaced with one of those 00's teen shows.) Falcon Crest actually went all the way through several times on that station back when they were airing SIsters, The Colby's, Hotel and Knots Landing when the station first started in 2000.

BTW, I know nobody mentioned it (or probably cares) but I just tonight saw that Step By Step is being played on The Hub. I haven't seen that show in many years. It used to be part of my TGIF when i was a kid.

Yes back when Soapnet was actually pretty good, Falcon Crest ran on it. I think it was replaced with Dallas (which is now replaced with one of those 00's teen shows.) Falcon Crest actually went all the way through several times on that station back when they were airing SIsters, The Colby's, Hotel and Knots Landing when the station first started in 2000.

BTW, I know nobody mentioned it (or probably cares) but I just tonight saw that Step By Step is being played on The Hub. I haven't seen that show in many years. It used to be part of my TGIF when i was a kid.

I know FC was on SOAPnet, but I was asking if it was anywhere prior to that. Dynasty was on FX, Knots was on TNT, and Dallas was on TNN, but what about FC?

Speaking of TNN, The Real McCoys! The ONLY time I've ever seen that show was on TNN back in the day, and I've never seen it anywhere since, even though it ran for 6 seasons, 200+ episodes, and rated fairly high for most of its run.

Edited October 9, 201312 yr by All My Shadows

Yes, like Khan said, FC was on Lifetime IIRC. Dallas aired right along with Knots on TNT's Lunchbox TV before being yanked for whatever reasons. Knots ran its complete series at least two times after that. Then Dallas reappeared on TNN.

I remember reading the blurb in TV Guide about this new channel called fX that would be airing original programming and classic shows like Dynasty. fX had a loft where they'd do a morning show with Tom Bergeron and that's where Joan Collins filmed her, "Hello, I'm Joan Collins and you're watching Dynasty on fX" promo. I was watching one day and during a commercial break one of the fX hosts said that Dynasty was going on hiatus for a little while after that day's episode and of course it never ever came back. I was pissed because I had just finally gotten fX. Same raw deal I later got with SoapNet.

That GoodLife/AmericanLife channel, it was steady changing its name. That's where I used to watch Chico and the Man and those color musical episodes of The Honeymooners

By the way, Dynasty was edited differently on fX than it was on SN. On SN, I noticed little pieces here and there cut.

Whomp, I read Khan's post and forgot that he'd already answered my FC question. Sorry, Khan!

Yes, Goodlife (might have been AmericanLife by then) also aired the color Honeymooners. Even before all of those previous shows I mentioned earlier, they also had some extremely rare, short-lived stuff like The New Dick Van Dyke Show (which I LOVED), Down to Earth, One Big Family, Apple's Way, and The Jimmy Stewart Show. Also some variety shows on Saturdays, including Tony Orlando and Dawn, Leslie Uggams, and Jimmy Durante with the Lennon Sisters. There was also a ridiculously 80s Canadian crime/mystery drama called Diamonds. IIRC, this had to have been like 2001-2002ish.

Another popular show that I haven't seen in syndication since the 90s is Blossom. I'd like to see if again to see it holds up well, as I did enjoy watching it during its original run (well, until Finola Hughes' character brought along that annoying little girl with her).

Wow AMS, I wish I could have caught all of those old random shows. By the time I got Time Warner cable in NY, AmericanLife had already dropped all of those shows including Flamingo Road.

Oh Lord Virginia, little Sarah Roberts from OLTL! She was so cute and they had her doing an English accent. You could barely understand her, she was working so hard, bless her heart, "Ehoh Blwossim!", spittin' and poppin' those big cheeks. They dropped that [!@#$%^&*] in the very next episode, accent GONE.

Not only that, MSW is a huge hit in international syndication too. Just about every country I've visited still reruns the show.

Yes, I must admit that, wherever I go, be it Australia, England, Japan, or Russia...Jessica Fletcher is solving murders within an hour. Angela Lansbury is so filthy rich because of that show, so smart to buy the program midway through its run.

I'm surprised no one mentioned thirtysomething or China Beach.

I believe thirtysomething was exttremely popular on Lifetime... in the 90s. Ellen's sitcom even had an episode revolving around a joke about it and someone taping over an episode or something (I think.) But yeah--as others have said, dramas don't seem toget much love in syndication, period, which is too bad. We recently started getting MeTv and it cycles through some good shows but a lot of ones I don't really watch (I was surprised to finally see Emergency on there, though, with such a young Randolph Mantooth.

Yes, I must admit that, wherever I go, be it Australia, England, Japan, or Russia...Jessica Fletcher is solving murders within an hour. Angela Lansbury is so filthy rich because of that show, so smart to buy the program midway through its run.

It airs on a basic cable station here in Canada, "ZoomerTV" (which is aimed at sorta 50 year olds and plus--it was reformated from themulti-faith station Vision TV) daily, right after The Waltons and right before Eastenders (from two years back.)

Ooh Head of the Class! Always wanted to see that one again.

I loved when the Hub has Wonder Years but they stopped it some time last year.

The Hub just started airing Step By Step this week. I made a point to TiVo it. Blast from the past!

Here's a couple more to add: Silver Spoons, Webster, and Diff'rent Strokes. I remember Silver Spoons aired a couple episodes on the weekend on one of the cable networks last year.

I'll take some Valerie/Hogan family and Gimme A Break, please. With a side dish of Small Wonder for kicks 'n giggles.

I effing *love* that Roseanne, The Nanny, and Golden Girls continue to live on so well in syndication!

Me-TV has said they would be airing Barnaby Jones and Quincy in the future. Looking forward to that.

I always wanted to see In Search Of again. Granted, like Robert Stack's Unsolved Mysteries or Jack Palance's Believe It or Not, things would be dated, solved or explained differently somehow since it's so many years later but it would make for a nice look back.

When I was a kid in the 70s, Tom Baker's Dr. Who was airing in the US. I don't remember seeing it since.

Before Antenna TV started airing Barney Miller and Benson, I don't think those had been aired much. I had bought the BM series on DVD and within a year Antenna announced it would be on.

If you were not already aware, a very nice boxed set of In Search Of has been released, including the Mitch Pileggi reboot.

Speaking of Mitch, is the X-Files run anywhere? I have not seen the SyFy channel in forever. I do not even know where it might be located on my satellite system.

I've never seen X-Files anywhere. I hadn't thought of that until you mentioned it.

I don't really see Magnum PI anywhere that often either, even though it was a big hit. Or Simon and Simon.

I think I need to clarify a statement I made earlier in this thread. When I said the majority of Norman Lear's '70's sitcoms don't rerun well, I didn't mean they weren't successful in reruns. I meant they just don't hold up in terms of quality. Specifically, as I've said before, acting styles on those shows tend to be obnoxious -- which is to say nothing of the writing.

IIRC, back when Lifetime was starting out and was a true "woman's channel," they ran FC in the mornings.

Lifetime did have Falcon Crest. It also broadcast Flamingo Road in the late evening, and if I remember correctly, went through both seasons at least twice.

I concur with everyone regarding the Norman Lear shows. With the exception of Mary Hartman and One Day at a Time, I did not care for them even in their original run. Actors screaming their lines at one another never appealed to me. I also loathed the audience baiting of Garry Marshall's shows in which actors were met with thunderous, show stopping applause every time they walked onscreen, not to mention the audience "oooohing" and "ahhhhing" like a Greek chorus commenting on the action. For me, this was worse than canned laughter.