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 PM2 days 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 Monday at 11:58 PM1 day by Soapsuds

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

3 hours ago, Khan said:

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

The competition was Dukes of Hazzard 26th and NBC's new show Master which was an instant flop in it's debut 50th. CBS seemed happy to let Dukes wither away. They were lucky the competition was pretty soft.

Webster regularly outrated lead in Benson but ABC held onto that combo until midseason of 84/85 when webster became the lead in and Benson got moved to 9pm.

Airwolf debuted in a 2hr episode Sunday taking advantage of the Superbowl/60 Min lead in.

16-30 for that week

16. TV Bloopers NBC Mon 8-9

17. Riptide NBC Tues 9-10

18. Seduction of Gina CBS Tuesday Movie 9-11

19. Foul Ups, Bleeps and Blunders ABC Tues 8-8.30

20. Cheers NBC Thurs 9-9.30

21. Benson ABC Fri 8-8.30

22. Silver Spoons NBC Sat 8.30-9

23. Matt Houston ABC Fri 10-11

24. Scarecrow & Mrs King CBS Mon 8-9

25. Hill St Blues NBC Thurs 10-11

26. Dukes of Hazzard CBS Fri 8-9

27. AfterMASH CBS Mon 9-9.30

28. Fantasy Island ABC Sat 10-11

29. Diamonds Are Forever ABC Sunday Movie 9-11

30. Newhart CBS Mon 9.30-10

Proof that the '80's were a messed-up decade: More people watching Silver. [!@#$%^&*]. Spoons than were watching "Newhart."

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by Khan

1 hour ago, Khan said:

Proof that the '80's were a messed-up decade: More people watching Silver. [!@#$%^&*]. Spoons. than "Newhart."

Ricky Schroder vs Bob Newhart

The ratings tanked rather quickly for Silver Spoons.

It's a shame Ricky turned into sh!t and looks like sh!t.

6 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

The ratings tanked rather quickly for Silver Spoons.

Well, the drugs were bound to wear off sooner or later.

Was it some very special episode of Silver Spoons or something LOL? God I hated that show as a kid and despise it even more as an adult.

Season by season rankings:

1982-83: #50

1983-84: #54

1984-85: #74

1985-86: #70

The final season was in syndication and only lasted one season.

Not sure about Webster’s popularity aside from it being a Different Strokes clone.

10 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

It's a shame Ricky turned into sh!t and looks like sh!t.

He’s an awful washed up has been who hasn’t worked in over a decade with a so-so career at best now yet throws him out like he was some big thing. Co stars Jason Bateman and Alfonso Ribeiro have been wayyy far more successful.

3 hours ago, Khan said:

Well, the drugs were bound to wear off sooner or later.

LOL!!! Not for everything though. While both Silver Spoons and Webster died miserably in syndication, Charles in Charge thrived for years very mysteriously.

19 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

CBS seemed happy to let Dukes wither away. They were lucky the competition was pretty soft.

Strange. People complained about the “fake Dukes” season but it still rated decently. The originals returned and the ratings dropped. The formula was getting stale, perhaps CBS should have moved it to Saturday nights? Probably would have at least done something having an established show on that night as opposed to CBS throwing everything and the kitchen sink to make it work.

On 2/8/2026 at 2:18 PM, Khan said:

, by all accounts, Priscilla Barnes was handed a very raw deal on that show.

Poor Priscilla. Terri was good addition but the formula was getting stale. She has always had good things to say about the rest of the cast and has remained good friends with Joyce and even Jenilee, but has been very open on how badly the producers and directors treated her.

9 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Poor Priscilla. Terri was good addition but the formula was getting stale. She has always had good things to say about the rest of the cast and has remained good friends with Joyce and even Jenilee, but has been very open on how badly the producers and directors treated her.

Unfortunately, I don't think she was alone.

We know already about Norman Fell's suspicion that they delayed officially cancelling "The Ropers" on purpose in order to avoid bringing him and Audra Lindley back to "Three's Company." But Joyce DeWitt has talked at length about the misogyny she suffered at the hands of NRW, right down to not even being told the truth about whether they had planned to spin off Jack (which they did, with "Three's a Crowd"). Dave Powers, too, talked about how Jenilee Harrison in particular suffered during her time there, as she was thrown into a very tense and awkward situation with no experience or support from anyone. And even though I still think Suzanne Somers (and her husband and manager) overplayed their hands in trying to get her a substantial raise and part ownership of the show, I do believe how NRW and ABC responded to those demands - not just firing her, but reducing her final appearances to cameos (taped on a separate set and then inserted into episode tags, without a proper goodbye scene) in order to "punish" and demean her, and then suing her or threatening to sue anytime she played a character that even resembled Chrissy Snow a little bit in subsequent pilots for other networks - was juvenile. (Again, I'm not saying they didn't have good reason to fire her. I just think they could've been more professional about it).

9 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Not sure about Webster’s popularity aside from it being a Different Strokes clone.

Ironically, that isn't how the show's creator, Stu Silver, intended the show to be. He created "Webster" as a modern-day Tracy/Hepburn comedy for Alex Karras and Susan Clark, who had a deal for their own show with ABC. Then, Emmanuel Lewis impressed ABC executives with his appearance in a Burger King commercial. IIRC, the network snapped him up immediately, with the idea of creating a show around him. Instead of creating that show for him, however, they decided to add him to "Webster" - or "A (Whole) New Ballgame," as it was dubbed originally. Naturally, Karras and Clark were upset by the network's decision, as what became "Webster" was not what they had signed up for; and for a long time, there was tension among the three, until someone (forget who) basically told the grown-ups in the room to stop taking their frustrations out on the child. (Besides, I doubt a show starring just Karras and Clark (and Henry Polic II) would've lasted beyond a half-season anyway, lol).

9 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

While both Silver Spoons and Webster died miserably in syndication, Charles in Charge thrived for years very mysteriously.

As did "Mama's Family" and (God help us) "Out of This World." But, like I've always said, the bars for quality and for success were much, much lower for first-run syndication shows in the '80's than they were anywhere else, lol.

...also, Its A Living and Too Close For Comfort-- and with lesser results, 9 to 5. Syndicators waited too long with The New WKRP, they should've gone them syndication route 5 years earlier than they did and add them to the syndication package of the original like Fame or Mama's Family did.

4 minutes ago, Spoon said:

and with lesser results, 9 to 5.

Poor Sally Struthers. I don't know which was more humiliating for her to do: the "9 to 5" revival, or those correspondence schools commercials. ("Do you want to make more money? Sure, we all do!")