4 hours ago, kalbir said:

The breakout success of The Cosby Show saved both sitcoms as a genre and NBC primetime line up. It also lead to NBC Thursday dominating primetime for the better part of the next 20 years (I consider NBC Thursday dominance from the start of The Cosby Show until the end of Friends). It was the breakout success of The Golden Girls the following season that lead to NBC having the sitcom game on lock for the rest of the decade.

For that, I give credit and thanks to Brandon Tartikoff and Grant Tinker. Those two CARED about the network they ran and the shows they placed on their lineup.

After doing some digging I think that TV Guide mention of Our House at #14 for the first half of the 86-87 season was either a fluke, misprint, or maybe someone at TVG was a big Deidre Hall fan Lol? Because this doesn’t mention Our House at all:

On 1/4/2026 at 12:12 PM, Soapsuds said:

From January 3, 1987

@soapfan770 Our House's numbers were boosted by it's premiere following The Cosby Show. It ranked #2 for the week 28.7/45 following Cosby #1.

That was Thursday of course and NBC placed it there to get as much sampling as possible before it went up against 60 Minutes. The second episode aired Sunday and ranked #19 14.6/26. 60 Minutes was #8.

So Our House earned that #14 place on the strength of those early ratings that boosted the average. In the first official week of the season OH was #41.

Thanks @Paul Raven for the explanation.

I wonder Our House would have done a much better job is a more visible timeslot.

Perhaps 9PM on Wednesdays to have it pared with the family friendly Highway to Heaven? NBC sitcoms in that hour struggled.

I guess Our House was NBC's determined attempt to provide some competition to 60 Minutes which was untouchable in that 7pm timeslot.

I think they wanted to provide an alternative that would capture the demos that 60 Minutes didn't reach eg kids 2-11. young women etc. I would imagine it was quite successful in that regard.

The list of shows that the opposition tried Sunday @7 through the 80's was a long one

Those Amazing Animals Code Red Father Murphy Believe It or Not Voyagers First Camera Silver Spoons

Punky Brewster Disney Incredible Sunday Life Goes On

Programming for that slot was restricted by regulations-either Current Affairs, which 60 Minutes had a hold on or children centered-hence the opposition shows.