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

[Khan]

Exactly.  "Cosby" didn't exactly put an end to the way family sitcoms had been produced before; it just added an upwardly mobile, African-American family to the mix.  "Roseanne," on the other hand, was the first sitcom of any era to show what it REALLY meant to be a family in America.  That's why I always gravitated toward "Roseanne" more than I did toward "Cosby."  Even though I'm African-American, "Roseanne" just did a better job of depicting families like mine and my peers'.

Edited Saturday at 05:52 PM by Khan

[soapfan770]

I think it was mentioned in the 90’s ratings thread, but ABC was trying to replicate TGIF on Saturday nights in the fall of 1991 and give NBC a a run for its money. It backfired in spectacular fashion. 
 

Thank god that show ended when it did. The world didn’t need to see Alex P. Keaton turn into a rabid Rush Limbaugh listener in the 90’s. 

[kalbir]

@soapfan770 Of all the big 1980s family sitcoms, Family Ties embodied Reagan-era ideals the most so its quite telling that the final season was also the season Reagan left office.