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

[Franko]

CBS tried twice between 1993-95. The first, "Dixie's Fixins," would have had Dolly playing a cooking show hostess. Once that one bit the dust, it was "Heavens to Betsy," which had six episodes filmed but apparently never aired. It appears to have been partially reworked into the 1996 TV movie "Unlikely Angel."

 

Variety, March 30, 1994:

HOLD THE COOKING SHOW: Dolly Parton’s plan to play a cooking show hostess in the fall CBS sitcom “Dixie’s Fixin’s” has been sent back to the kitchen. Parton is now fixing to star in “Heavens to Betsy,” created by David Babcock (“Herman’s Head”) and inspired by a song Parton wrote.

Stuart Sheslow, the Sandollar TV prexy who has reshaped the series with partner Gail Berman in conjunction with Disney TV’s Dean Valentine, said that Parton will now play a singer whose big chance to open for Siegfried & Roy is spoiled when she gets killed instead. Up in heaven, she’s given a choice: Go to hell, or go back to her old hometown, where she was a troublemaker named Hurricane Betsy, and redeem herself.

“She can go to hell or make amends, and she chooses to run this local choir of misfits,” said Sheslow, who maintained that “Dixie’s Fixins” was unfixable. A script was turned in by “Married … With Children” vet Ellen Fogel, but rejected. “She worked hard, but missed,” he said. “David went to work on this thing and hit a home run. She gets to play an angel with a dirty face, and she gets to sing.”

Ironically, the plot line is similar to a pilot idea that didn’t fly, in which Parton would have played a gospel singer. “This is a concept she’s been trying to develop for four or five years, but that other script was more dramatic, and nothing like this one,” Sheslow said.

[Paul Raven]

Dolly is such a talent but those sitcoms sounded awful. From what I saw of the variety show I recall the Dixie's Diner sketches were simply not funny and they tried a little bit of everything when a less is more approach might have worked.

2 decades earlier Judy Garland had the same issues with her weekly show-too much interference and change of direction. All the blame was laid at Judy of course.

The 87-88 season was the first to use the Neilsen Peoplemeters and the immediate change was lower ratings all round. So comparing- say Dallas' ratings from the previous season wasn't exact as a different system was in use.

Variety published a list of primetime shows and their rankings in households, women and men 18-34/18/49.

Most shows ranked similarly but there were some interesting deviations

Murder She Wrote 

#10 in households

#47 W 18-34     #33 W 18-49     #49 M 18-34    #33 M18-49

Dallas

#18 in households

#26  W18-34    #33 W 18-49    #47 M 18-34   #45 M 18-49

Falcon Crest

#33 in households

#36 W 18-34    #35 W 18-49     #61 M18-34    #60 M 18-49 

thirtysomething

#36 in households

#10 W 18-34   #13 W 18-49    #18 M18-34     #22 M 18-49

I can supply other figures if anyone is interested.

 

 

[soapfan770]

Yikes at those sitcom ideas as well. Dolly deserved so much better for sure. 
 

I feel like the 1987-88 was definitely the height of all those cheesy family sitcoms that are embarrassing to look back on (I.e. Growing Pains, Hogan Family, Alf, Perfect Strangers, Just the Ten of Us, Mr. Belvedere.) complete with all of those “very special episodes”. Major yikes. I’ll admit I did enjoy The Charmings at the time growing up but it was obviously doomed to fail going up against first ADW and then later Cosby.

The following 88-89 season would set the tone though for most 90’s sitcoms thankfully. 

[kalbir]

1980s family sitcoms are very much products of their time and many of them have not aged well at all.

As for sitcoms in 1988/89, it was after effects of the writer's strike that caused a lot of them to feel off and the breakout success of Roseanne was a sign that times and tastes were changing.

Edited March 3, 2023 by kalbir

[Paul Raven]

The 87/88 season was the first time that CBS had ever finished in 3rd place.

Early in the season longtime CBS programmer Bud Grant was axed and Kim Le Masters took over.

Going into the season CBS had had new shows everynight at 8pm. (bar Sunday)

Mon Frank's Place, Tues Houston Knights (new to the timeslot) Wed Oldest Rookie, Thurs Tour of Duty, Fri Beauty and the Beast, Sat My Sister Sam.

They had 2 new hours Tuesday Jake & Fatman/Law & Harry McGraw, Wiseguy Thurs and Legwork  (CBS second attempt at giving Margaret Colin a series) Sat.

Nothing worked and they began shuffling series around and decided to introduce a comedy block on Tues 8-10 which bombed- Trial& Error/My Sister Sam/Coming of Age/Frank's Place

Magnum was ending as was Cagney & Lacey and the soaps were another year older.

The Monday night schedule didn't take off once football ended as had been the case.

NBC held on to 1st place but had only 2 hits My 2 Dads and Different World, both of which were reagarded as timeslot hits. In the Heat of the Night boosted Tuesdays following Matlock and taking advantaged of Moonlighting's production troubles.

They introduced the concept of 'designated hitters' 3 series that would air individual episodes scatttered around the schedule. The feeling was that it was a gimmick to get some publicity for shows that would otherwise bomb if they were conventionally scheduled.

They were 'Mama's Boy' which never went beyond 4 episodes and Beverly Hills Buntz and Bronx Zoo which both flopped once they played as regular series.

ABC secured 2nd place thanks to world Series/Superbowl and Winter Olympics.

They had some success with Hooperman and thirtysomething but everything else flopped until later in the season when Wonder Years,China Beach and Heartbeat were introduced. Moving Growing Pains to Wed and Perfect Strangers to Fri boosted those nights.

Dolly was the big failure of the season .

Going into 88/89 ...

Would NBC manage to coast at #1 or introduce some new hits?

Would ABC be able to build on their late season surge?

Would CBS get out of 3rd and rebuild a tattered schedule?

Stay tuned...

 

 

[Soapsuds]

For the week ending November 18, 1984

 

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Dallas- Unable to handle her role as J.R.'s spy, Sly requests a few months off from work. Bobby fails to persuade Pam to abandon the salvage mission and accept Mark's death. Miss Ellie treats Clayton to a night at a hotel and later surprises him with new bedroom furniture. Clayton admits he feels uncomfortable at Southfork with the shadow of Jock's memory. Cliff fears Pam is headed for a nervous breakdown. J.R. spots Mandy at the Oil Baron's Ball and wants to meet her. He is later surprised to see Mandy with Cliff. J.R. announces that Bobby and Jenna will marry in a month and Pam is devastated by the news. Dynasty- Dex and Adam discover McVain killed Mark Jennings and framed Alexis for it. Alexis is released from jail. Alexis is stunned to see Amanda in her penthouse. Knots Landing-Val and Gary try to reunite Mack and Karen. Abby worries that Val will tell Gary of the babies true paternity. Abby complains to Scott Easton about the babies. Cathy and Joshua have a romantic dinner. Greg wins the election and becomes senator. Falcon Crest-Angela is shocked when she finds out that Francesca has evidence that she's Angela's half-sister and legal heir to one third of Falcon Crest. Angela also exploits it, at her advantage by making a deal with her to buy her half-sister's third in control to gain more of Falcon Crest than Chase. When Julia's at Lucas Crosby's home, she tells him she's tired of running and being afraid somebody will recognize her. When she goes to the police to turn herself in, they don't believe she's Julia Cumson. Emma helps Chase finds evidence that Buzz Whitehead had been bought off into lying to the F.A.A. investigator, and Senator Silverlake was forced into suspending Chase's license. Cole resuscitates his love with Melissa, as the two were in an opening relationship with each other, however, Greg will try to wreck their relationship.

[kalbir]

As for our two rookie hits that week:

The Cosby Show - How Ugly Is He? (episode 9): Denise has a new boyfriend, David James, but is reluctant to bring him home. She fears that Cliff will, as always, make fun of the boy and ruin her chances with him. Cliff and Clair are initially impressed with David until he expresses some unwanted opinions about medicine and the law at dinner.

Murder, She Wrote - Lovers and Other Killers (episode 6): While lecturing at the University of Seattle and meeting up with her old friend Dr. Edmund Gerard, Jessica becomes convinced the young man she hired as her secretary is not a killer, even though evidence points towards him.

Edited April 9, 2023 by kalbir

[DRW50]

I was listening to this Timothy Busfield interview as I was curious as to his thoughts on Trapper John. Terry Gross very snottily says no one watched the show by the time he joined, to which he basically agrees, and he said he was kind of hoping the show would not stay on much longer when he joined as it wasn't going to define his career and he was able to get good training about acting on television. (it's about 6 minutes in)

https://freshairarchive.org/segments/timothy-busfields-experience-medical-tv-shows

Do you think Trapper John's final season was bad enough to explain the ratings drop, or had it just reached a natural end, and felt out of place in a mid '80s lineup? I did not realize until now just how much turnover they had at the end of the show either. I can't even find any opening credits for the last episodes, sans Gregory Harrison. Their credits feel so harshly dated. The awful red bleed of 1-6 seems like it's trying to turn viewers into killers (I do like that the 6 theme is slowed down - the original gives me a headache), and Casio keyboard season 7 has tied the later Facts of Life years as the most '80s theme I've ever heard.

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[soapfan770]

@DRW50 LOL at that final season score.

I don’t remember much myself about Trapper John MD except when the show came on it definitely/usually bed time for myself and brothers on a Sunday night. 

That said I have to imagine the show like so many other holdouts and leftovers from the 70’s came to either their natural or forced conclusions there in 1985-1986. 1985 was when CBS dumped all its holdout sitcoms. Love Boat and Benson ended in ‘86, as did Different Strokes. Trapper John fell out the top 20 after the 1982-83 season and hovered at the bottom of or out of the top #30 for 83-84 and 84-85. Changing times and tastes along with those cast changes probably did it in. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by soapfan770

[j swift]

I'd stay awake for the opening with the shot of Gregory Harrison in the shower, and then turn it off and go to sleep wondering why the hospital paid so little that the residents had to live in an RV in the parking lot.

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Edited March 10, 2023 by j swift

[Paul Raven]

Trapper John played in the same timeslot for years (till the end). CBS never moved it to freshen up Sunday nights or boost another night. So it was one of those shows that flew under the radar till it ran out of steam.

[Planet Soap]

Life has come full circle because now some primetime shows pulling in numbers like 3-4 million which is around the audience Y&R  and B&B pull in.

[kalbir]

Trapper John, M.D. was a Top 20 show in its first four seasons (peak was 15th in 1981/82) but it fell from 18th in 1982/83 to 30th in 1983/84 then 29th in 1984/85. I say the fall in 1983/84 was due to the weakening of the Sunday comedy block lead ins. 1984/85 new lead ins Murder, She Wrote and Crazy Like a Fox helped stabilize it. 1985/86 got counterprogrammed by movies and big budget miniseries. January 1986 CBS sent it to Tuesday where it was no match for ABC, then got pulled from the schedule, and the remaining episodes were burned off in the summer.

It's funny that Trapper John, M.D. premiered the same season as Knots Landing and was higher rated than Knots Landing in its first four seasons, yet Knots Landing lasted twice as long as Trapper John, M.D.

[Paul Raven]

I guess the difference is in the demos.

A lot of those primetime viewers would be younger, more urban and wealthier than Y&R viewers and thus more desirable to advertisers.

[Soapsuds]

1985-1986 season

 

 

 

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Edited March 15, 2023 by Soapsuds