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Looking back...Primetime Ratings from the 80's


Paul Raven

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Agree.  Plus, she really needed new writers.  Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr. were out-of-touch by the 1980's.

Meanwhile, what is with the ratings for "Kate & Allie"?  No matter what else was going on in each of those weeks, K&A stayed at no. 17.

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Kate & Allie lasted six seasons, with their best finish #8 in their first season 1983/84 (also it's only Top 10 finish). Newhart lasted eight seasons, with their best finishes #12 in their first season 1982/83 (tied w/ The Jeffersons) and in 1986/87.

CBS seemed to struggle with sitcoms from 1982/83 (M*A*S*H ended and The Jeffersons, Alice, and One Day at a Time fell out of the Top 10) until 1990/91 (Murphy Brown and Designing Women entered the Top 10). Of the CBS sitcoms that premiered in the 1980s, Newhart, Kate & Allie, Designing Women, Murphy Brown, Major Dad were the only ones that lasted three or more seasons.

@Soapsuds 1986/87 Week 11 was December 1-7, 1986 if my calculations are correct. This was the week that NBC moved L.A. Law from Friday 10 pm to Thursday 10 pm and the December 4, 1986 episode was Jeanne Cooper's first appearance as Gladys Becker. I see what you did there NBC.

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I know it's just one clip, but the tone of that interview kinda sums up the whole Life with Lucy experience.

The hope that Lucy can recapture the magic, but with an underlying sadness that her time had passed.

Even Lucy's appearance withe heavy makeup and bright wig looks almost like a parody.

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