Members DaytimeFan Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 High Society was promoted as the American AbFab...hell the characters even had nicknames akin to Eddie and Patsy (Ellie and Dot!)...and the problem was the show just sucked and didn't have a hint of the desperation/wickedness that AbFab did. Cybill, on the other hand, was rife with Cybill and Maryann's desperate plans and wicked schemes and it had enough charm to stand on its own. Plus, Christine Baranski clearly knew she had the part of a lifetime on her hands and played it for all it was worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted October 15, 2013 Author Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 Was the show cancaled because of the feuding? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sheilaforever Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 You mean CYBILL? I thought it was skewing too old and was therefore cancelled but maybe DaytimeFan knows more!? :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted October 15, 2013 Author Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 Yes. I thought it was from feuding, but then I thought ratings too. Wikipedia just says that Cybill claimed CBS was upset by the character's feminist views and open sexuality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sheilaforever Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 What reallllllly sucked was that there was an over the top cliffhanger ending - on a sitcom!? And we never got any conclusion on that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Y&RWorldTurner Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 The show was never a ratings hit, and outside of the first season, it never ranked in the top 30 for overall seasonal ratings again. Christine Baranski MADE that show. It sure as hell wouldn't have lasted past season 2 without her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MissLlanviewPA Posted October 15, 2013 Members Share Posted October 15, 2013 Okay, I have been waiting to get my hands on this thread for awhile, so here it goes: 1. Punky Brewster--There were several local stations that apparently showed it over the years (never in my area, though), but it's only significant national syndication run was on the former Family Channel (post-CBN, pre-Fox Family and ABC Family) from 1993-1996. I remember this because that's how I first saw the show at age 4 in the fall of 1993--20 YEARS AGO. Holy crap, I feel old. But luckily, I have all 4 seasons on DVD, so I can watch it whenever I want now. 2. Murphy Brown--Okay, this one will take some time. From what I understand, this show WAS big on local stations during its' original run, and it DID have at least two different runs in reruns nationally--on Lifetime i the late 90s/early 2000s, and again on Nick at Nite from January or February of 2005 (I remember this because the first season of MB came out on DVD at about the exact same time, and I got it for my 16th birthday that February--I also got Faith Ford's cookbook around the same time, too ) to--well, I'm not sure how long, but it was a long while, and it actually got a BIG push when it first got there, a LOT of promotion by N@N--and it played concurrently on TV Land for a long time, too, it's just that the time slots got worse and worse for it as time went on. And I have to say one thing about the whole "dated" aspect of it: I will not deny that there are many MANY topical jokes that would go over many peoples' heads nowadays (I personally love them--but then again, I'm a Nostalgia Queen ), but Diane English had her own defense in the bonus interviews of the 1st season DVD. She pointed out how Bush Sr. was about to become President when the show premiered in 1988, and that people like Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney figured in as heavily back then as they did at the time the DVD set came out (in 2005). Her exact quote? "All the players are the same." Now, of course, that may have had more to do VERY fortunate timing as to who was president when the first season was released on DVD than anything else, but still--it's a good point to be made. In any case, I think the "dated" label is sad, because there are actually plenty of funny scenes that, IMO at least, ARE timeless (Murphy giving birth to Avery stand above all the rest, but there are also scenes like when Frank imagined he was dead, cremated, and then ashes were spilled out and vacuumed up ), and I wish they were more readily available, if not in reruns or on DVD, then on YouTube at least. Which brings me to the DVD issue: The official reason given for the remaining 9 seasons not being released on DVD is that: 1. The sales for season 1 were poor (I have it, damn it!), and 2. The music rights (all that Motown music!) would become increasingly more and more difficult to secure. The latter, I think, may play a bit more of a role here than even any so-called "datedness" the show exudes, which is a shame, because again: 9 more seasons, over 200 episodes left gathering dust. All the more reason to show it in reruns, DAMN IT! GAH. Sorry, I just had to let that all off my chest. I love and miss this show, and I've always wanted to watch it from beginning to end. Last but not least (for now): 3. thirtysomething This show WAS in reruns for sometime--first on Lifetime in the 90s, then on Bravo (EARLY Bravo at that) in 2001, with Candace Bushnell (SATC author, of all people) giving introductions/commentaries on inbetween scenes (I was a wee 12 year old when I fell in love with a tape of two episodes of my mom's during the original run, and yes, I saw a few episodes on Bravo). But again, all 4 seasons are on DVD now, and I have the first two. I can't wait to watch the rest. That's all for now. I have more shows to discuss later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaytimeFan Posted October 18, 2013 Members Share Posted October 18, 2013 The ratings were never that great for the show, but it was a passable hit for CBS given how its primetime lineup was doing in the 90s. The feuding between Cybill and Christine (which was more Cybill resenting Christine's success on what she felt was her star vehicle, the exact opposite reaction Jennifer Saunders had to Joanna Lumley's huge success (and BAFTA and Emmy wins) as Patsy on AbFab) was another issue, but the biggest problem was between Cybill and Chuck Lorre, who Cybill turned on and had fired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members frequentsoapfan Posted October 18, 2013 Members Share Posted October 18, 2013 It's been awhile since I've seen Gilligan's Island rerun Someone mentioned Friday Night Lights doesnt rerun. It's actually rerunning on some channel called Pivot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Khan Posted October 18, 2013 Members Share Posted October 18, 2013 Reading about all these little-seen shows makes ME want to put together some cable channel -- or at least something you can download online or on Roku. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members applcin Posted October 18, 2013 Members Share Posted October 18, 2013 Between the official Roku channels and the private ones, they have some nice goodies on there. In terms of the "on demand" (not live-streamed) channels, there's not too many complete seasons, much less complete series. There are people uploading basically what they have in their own collections. It's funny that I mentioned "In Search Of" and "Believe It Or Not" the other week because I have since found some of those episodes on a private Roku channel. The In Search Of episodes were uploaded by someone who had taped them off of the History Channel. Roku recently added the B/W channel, for old black and white shows and that's live-streamed. Some of the usual redundant suspects are there--Dennis, Beaver, Gunsmoke, Stooges, etc. but also some lesser-played stuff like My Favorite Martian, the earlier Dragnet years, Annie Oakley, Abbott & Costello, Car 54, Howdy Doody, Space Patrol, Peter Gunn, Addams Family and so on. There's one channel that has a few classic The Bold & The Beautiful episodes and I found a Classic TV channel that has a mishmosh of 70s stuff, including one 1978 episode of General Hospital. Gilligan's Island just started airing on Me-TV to some folks' surprise because Warner Brothers is apparently somewhat reluctant to deal with the over-the-air channels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MissLlanviewPA Posted October 18, 2013 Members Share Posted October 18, 2013 There was a long period of time after TV Land dropped it in the late 90s/early 2000s were Family Affair was virtually nowhere to be found. It's on MeTV now, though. Designing Women's cable runs have been pretty spotty the last several years, pretty much ever since Lifetime dropped it around 2004 or so. Major Dad. I remember that show from when I really young (it was on from 1989-1993--I was 4 when it went off the air--some of my memories go WAY back ), but it's barely been rerun at all. It's that show, in fact, that introduced me to Beverly Archer. She'll always be Gunny to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted February 14, 2014 Members Share Posted February 14, 2014 It looks like MeTV is starting to rerun Love American Style tonight--four episodes, starting with the pilot (which led to Happy Days.) I'll give it a shot, simply because I've never seen it before, and have always been curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members All My Shadows Posted February 14, 2014 Members Share Posted February 14, 2014 Love American Style was once part of their regular schedule, but I believe this is only a Valentine's Day marathon airing tomorrow night. Kinda like how they had The Doris Day Show on Christmas Eve (complete with a new voiceover promo from Doris). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted February 14, 2014 Members Share Posted February 14, 2014 Ah, too bad. We only started getting the station last year, and I often forget to check when they rotate new shows in and out. And yes, it's tomorrow, which makes sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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