2 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Of course familiarity and attraction didn’t just affect those aging CBS sitcoms—Three’s Company was still very well deep into the Priscilla Barnes era.

True, lol. Ironically, I think "Three's Company" actually improved once Suzanne Somers (and Jenilee Harrison) left, even though, by all accounts, Priscilla Barnes was handed a very raw deal on that show.

Of course, I'm also the only viewer on the planet - and certainly, the only African-American viewer - who thought "Good Times" actually got better once John Amos was fired, so I'm probably not the best judge here, lol.

Edited Sunday at 07:19 PM1 day by Khan

CBS must have known that those aging sitcoms on Sunday had a shelf life but it was difficult to tamper with.

In 82/83 they made the first move by introducing Gloria with Sally Struthers which finished 18th but was cancelled. I guess the whole show never gelled and it felt old fashioned and too dependent on the Bunker connection w/o using it. There seemed to be BTS issues.

Gloria displaced One Day At A Time which moved to 9.30 with The Jeffersons, rather than Alice the new 9pm lead in. That seemed to work OK with TJ finishing 12th down from 3rd and ODAAT finishing 16th down from 10th. Not bad considering they were another year older, but dropping nonetheless.

The real loser was Alice displaced from Sunday and moved to Wednesday a night CBS had struggled with for years. Alice had to do all the heavy lifting, surrounded by new shows and up against 2 strong competitors The Fall Guy and Facts of Life. Within weeks Alice was dropped and taken off the schedule. There was no room elsewhere.

Not a good position for last season's No 5 show to be in. Later in the season it was Monday night after MASH finished up but didn't work and CBS did better with MASH repeats. Then it went to Sunday @8 as CBS moved Bunker to Mondays. Again the ratings were soft.

CBS moving Archie Bunker to Mondays where it flopped.

So by the end of the season Bunker, Gloria were gone and Alice was weakened. Goodnight Beantown was introduced into the mix and didn't take off.

CBS Sunday was going into freefall.

10 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

There seemed to be BTS issues [with "Gloria"].

IIRC, Carroll O'Connor was furious for two reasons: 1) CBS moved production of "Gloria" from CBS Television City to Universal Studios (which, to me, was a mistake, as it seems most of the Lear/Embassy shows suffered once they relocated to Universal with their cheap-ass lighting and canned-sounding laugh tracks); and 2) he, along with the rest of the "Archie Bunker's Place" staff, including Norman Lear, was shut out, in favor of Dan Guntzelman and Steve Marshall, who had worked previously on "WKRP in Cincinnati." All that, plus CBS' decision to cancel ABP without giving them an opportunity to tape a proper series finale, had O'Connor vowing never to work again for CBS (although, he would, years later, when CBS picked up "In the Heat of the Night").

In a way, Linda Lavin was right: "Alice" was aging and probably lasted a season or two longer than it should, but all those scheduling changes did weaken the show, too.

Looking at that week Father Murphy was #27 beating Happy Days and Laverne& Shirley.

Those sitcoms were weakening finishing 18th and 20 th for the season. But Father Murphy was the first show that provided any sort of competition. In Wk10 of the 81/82 season FM took the time period ranking #20 while HD was #30 and L&S #23 which I think was the first time ABC had lost that time period with regular programming since 1976.

So no small achievement for NBC and Father Murphy. FM again won its timeslot in Wk 18.

But NBC decided to move the show to Sundays @7 to fill that difficult timeslot. The momentum was lost as FM performed poorly up against 60 Minutes and Bret Maverick didn't do as well against ABC on Tues.

NBC returned Father Murphy to Tues @8 for 82/83 but it performed poorly and was replaced by The A Team which became a hit and finally beat Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley on a weekly basis.

Had NBC not moved Father Murphy it might have grown further and provided NBC with another much needed hit show.

TV Ratings January 16-22, 1984

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Soapsuds

"Webster" in the Top 20!?!?! Jesus. We were doing entirely too much cocaine back then.