Ratings from the 1990s

[Khan]

Oh, God.  "Meego."  They had to be on some strong-ass drugs to come up with that one.

[Vee]

I'd forgotten about Meego!

I always felt so bad for Gregory Hines.

[Khan]

I wish I COULD forget about "Meego."

[Paul Raven]

Meego is an American science fiction sitcom television series that ran for six episodes from September 19 to October 24, 1997 on the CBS television network as part of its Friday night Block Party program block

Created by Ross Brown, and developed by Thomas L. Miller, Robert L. Boyett, and Michael Warren, the series starred Bronson Pinchot in the title role as an alien masquerading as a human being who, after his spaceship crashlands on Earth, unexpectedly becomes the nanny to a single father's three children.

Sounds like a mix of My Favorite Martian and Mork and Mindy.

 

Meego

[Khan]

If only it had been that good.

[soapfan770]

That was just about it for Miller-Boyett as I believe Meego and an ABC show for the Olsen twins that flopped badly right out of the gate were the last shows they did before they called it quits for good. 

[BetterForgotten]

Miller-Boyett was really a bubblegum factory for generic sitcoms, eh?

I guess Carsey-Werner were opposing producing duo of that era - however, they had the good sense to hire some decent creators from time to time and operated more like an independent film studio vs. factory. 

Edited March 21, 2022 by BetterForgotten

[kalbir]

Let's see, Perfect Strangers, Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step. Those are the ones I remember watching BITD. I think Full House was the biggest hit of all of them.

Urkel crossed over to Full House and Step by Step but there was no Urkel crossover with Perfect Strangers.

[Khan]

Out of all the Miller-Boyett shows that I've seen, only "Bosom Buddies" was really any good -- and that was due more to the casting than to the writing.  Otherwise, their shows were utter crap.

[kalbir]

Did ABC get to the level where Monday Night Football and Home Improvement were basically keeping it afloat?

[Khan]

I don't know about MNF or "Home Improvement," but I know there was a time when "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" was practically the only thing ABC had going for it.

[kalbir]

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was huge from 1999-2002, and in that same era we got Greed and Weakest Link.

[kalbir]

The three highest rated episodes of NBC's 1990s big three.

Seinfeld: May 7, 1998, "The Puerto Rican Day", rating 24.8. May 14, 1998, "The Clip Show", rating 33.6, and "The Finale", rating 41.3.

ER: November 9, 1995, "Hell and High Water", rating 27.8. September 25, 1997, "Ambush" (fourth season premiere), rating 28.5. May 14, 1998, "A Hole in the Heart" (fourth season finale), rating 28.8.

Friends: February 1, 1996, "The One with the Prom Video", rating 21.7. February 8, 1996, "The One Where Ross and Rachel...You Know", rating 21.7. January 28, 1996, "The One After the Super Bowl", rating 29.6. May 6, 2004, "The Last One", rating 29.8.

[kalbir]

All three networks had a primetime mess era in the 1990s.

CBS: Basically the whole decade. Starting when Dallas fell out of the Top 10 in Spring 1987 and ending in Fall 2000, the start of the Survivor/CSI/Everybody Loves Raymond era. There were some signs of life from Fall 1991 to Spring 1994, but it didn't last.

ABC: Starting when Roseanne fell out of the Top 10 in Spring 1996 and ending with the premiere of Who Wants to be a Millionaire in Summer 1999.

NBC: Starting when The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls ended in Spring 1992 and ending in Fall 1994, the start of the Seinfeld/ER/Friends era.

[soapfan770]

I’d say NBC actually had a rough 1991-92 season overall that what they were use to. Except for Cheers, the rest of the Thursday line-up was out of the top 10, with Fox finding younger demo successes by counter programming The Simpsons and Beverly Hills 90210 against the Must See Thursday line-up. 
 

However the early 90’s there appeared to be more balance between the Big 3 at least until 1994 of course.

ABC had a hot Tuesday night with Full House, Roseanne, Home Improvement and Coach while TGIF was more or less a demographic success. Old staples like Growing Pains and Who’s the Boss were left rotting in strange timeslots. I think Who’s the Boss final season aired on Saturday nights. 

Of course CBS owned Sunday and Monday nights in the early 90’s. They tried so hard to rebuild their Thursday and Friday nights but so many shows came and went as nothing worked.