Tank Jobs and Sabotage

[Vee]

I remember Who's the Boss brought in a little kid late in the run to shore up the cute factor with both kids grown and Danny Pintauro setting the sets aflame more and more by the minute. That was a common practice with aging sitcoms in those days.

NBC moved Hannibal to the Saturday death slot in its third season, but it was a miracle they ran a show like that in their procedural/family drama primetime line-up for one year, let alone three.

I'd forgotten that Twin Peaks was up against Cheers on Thursdays - and survived, for a long time, particularly in its first season.

[Khan]

I think it had.  For one thing, Alyssa Milano and Danny Pintauro had grown up, so a lot of the "cute factor" that had helped the show in previous seasons was gone.  (They attempted to recapture it by bringing on that foster kid for Tony and Angela, but it was clear from the beginning that that wasn't going work, so they wrote him out after a few episodes). 

For another, I think the novelty of its' role-reversal premise simply had worn off.  By the final season, Tony was finishing his college education.  It would have been ridiculous for him to remain as Angela's housekeeper after that, lol.

IMO, "Cosby" never gelled the way "The Cosby Show" had.  Each new season felt like a reboot to me.

So you're the one who wrote all those letters to SOD!

But seriously.  I think I read somewhere that CBS changed TJ's time slot at least fifteen times throughout its' eleven-year run.  Between that and not giving them the opportunity to tape a proper series finale, you really get the impression that CBS tried everything they could to kill the show.

Makes me wish they had acknowledged the rainbow-colored elephant in the room and had Jonathan come out of the closet on the show.

Edited February 3, 2024 by Khan

[Vee]

I will never forget the later season episode where for some reason the family had to roleplay as each other for some bonding exercise. Young Jonathan had to take on the role of either Samantha or Mona and well, it's a wonder the soundstages survived the blaze.

[Khan]

LOL!!

I don't think any discussion on "Tank Jobs & Sabotages" would be complete without the ongoing nightmare that was CBS's erratic scheduling of "WKRP in Cincinnati."

[DramatistDreamer]

CBS seems like the most ruthless network in this category, at least as it pertains to primetime?

Charlie & Co—which starred Gladys Knight, Jaleel White and the late greats Flip Wilson and Kristoff St. John— a series that offered promise but never fully got is “legs” underneath it, by Season 2, was put against The Cosby Show, a ratings juggernaut. What were the programming folks at CBS hoping to achieve here? It doesn’t seem like they hoped to achieve success for the fledgling sitcom.

 

[Khan]

I agree.  As wonderful as Gladys Knight and Flip Wilson were and are, CBS must have been out of their minds to think they could lure away even a portion of Cosby's audience. 

What CBS should have done was what FOX ended up doing years later, when they counter-programmed with "The Simpsons."  You figure out which demographic(s) the number-one show in that slot is not catering to and you give that audience their alternative.  It might have been tricky to do in TCS' case, since TCS appealed to a wide swath of the country at that point, but I'm sure there were SOME viewers out there who weren't necessarily cottoning to TCS.  (Hence, "Roseanne.")

[kalbir]

Charlie & Co was one season and done. CBS scheduled it Wednesday 9 pm head-to-head w/ Dynasty, then moved it to Tuesday 8:30 pm head-to-head w/ Growing Pains, then Friday 8 pm head-to-head w/ Webster.

I agree it had a talented cast but CBS somehow did not have a lot of faith in it.

Remember too that CBS struggled with sitcoms from 1982/83, the end of M*A*S*H and the Top 10 fallouts of The Jeffersons, Alice, and One Day at a Time, until 1989/90, when Designing Women and Murphy Brown started showing growth. The only bright spots in that era CBS had as far as sitcoms go were Kate & Allie, which started good but couldn't maintain its momentum as it got overshadowed by the big family sitcoms of that era (The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Who's the Boss, Growing Pains), and Newhart, which was very up-and-down in the ratings and it got overshadowed by the big workplace/friendship sitcoms of that era (Cheers, The Golden Girls, Night Court).

[Khan]

Another example of a "tank job": CBS's "Kate & Allie."  That show was a Top 10 hit before "The Cosby Show," something which isn't mentioned very often in the media, who likes to pretend that the sitcom was all but dead before Bill.  (It was, but the fact that K&A did as well as they did in the ratings in 1983-84 doesn't fit their narrative so neatly, so it gets overlooked).  Toward the middle of their six-season run, however, ratings began to soften.  By the time Allie (Jane Curtin) remarried, at the end of the fifth season, I don't think the show was in the top 30 anymore, although I could be wrong about that.  Nevertheless, in order to push the show closer to its' end, CBS moved K&A from Mondays to several places on the schedule, prompting Susan Saint James (Kate) to quip at one point during an interview on "Late Night with David Letterman" that it's somewhere on the schedule.

Wow, I had no idea, lol!  You know you're toast if you can't compete against "Webster," lol.

It's a shame K&A got overshadowed by those shows, too.  Even as a kid, I thought K&A was much better than WTB or GP.  TCS might have been the juggernaut, but IMO, FT and K&A were better written.

If Danny/Jonathan had had his way, this would have been the theme song:

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[DramatistDreamer]

Okay, I am mistaken, I knew there was a time shift, mid season somewhere. I blame Unsung Hollywood, sometime watching the episode on Flip Wilson they gave the impression that the two shows went up against each other. Perhaps they didn’t mean literally but in a sense that both sitcoms, ostensibly about a Black family, were pitted against each other? Also, Jaleel White auditioned for the role of Rudy Huxtable, when according to Jaleel, Cosby wanted Rudy to be a girl and ultimately got his way. Oh well, the cast was likable (and the theme song was catchy as all get out) but it was a poor effort by CBS. Once the 1970s ended, it seems like CBS’s record with series featuring a predominantly Black cast was spotty at best.

[DRW50]

Now that you mention this it reminds me of Mork & Mindy. Wasn't that moved around a lot, with a second season choice that basically sealed its fate? 

I don't think it would have lasted much longer than it did anyway - I think only the chemistry between Pam Dawber and Robin Williams kept the show working, along with Williams' heavy (at times too heavy) star power - but it didn't help.

I agree with you about Kate & Allie. The show was genuinely very good up to its last season or two, and even with the tinkering and cast departures, was never bad (nothing against the guy Allie married but I do think he clearly stuck out like a sore thumb - and it seemed like he was written out for half of the final season). 

[Paul Raven]

I think you are confused re Charlie &Co.

CBS scheduled it Wed @9 initially up against Dynasty and NBC's new drama Helltown. I guess they were hoping to offer an alternative as NBC did for years with Facts of Lif,. It ran for through Dec but never took off.

It returned 8.30 Tuesday in January  following Melba, the Melba Moore sitcom but they were yanked after one episode.

By the time it returned late in the season Fri @8 it seemed CBS had given up and was just filling the time period.

It never got a 2nd season season or played against Cosby.

EDIT Sorry somehow I missed the other replies!

Edited February 4, 2024 by Paul Raven

[soapfan770]

Wow how did I miss this thread, thanks for starting @kalbir!

One of the first instances I remember this happening was a show I enjoyed on ABC called The Charmings, basically Snow White cursed to the real world 25 years prior to Once Upon A Time. Well lo and behold they even started running advertisements of the evil queen/stepmother causing the show to air against The Cosby Show as its second season faltered and well once it aired against Cosby the show collapsed, plummeted and was cancelled. It was a first for me lol. 
 

I think for some “sabotage” jobs it may be questionable. NBC adding the Torkelsons (a show I liked) and Nurses to their Saturday night line wasn’t meant to sabotage but did tank it except for Sisters. Likewise CBS had faith in that 1992-93 Friday night schedule but it tanked for Golden Palace, Major Dad, and Designing Women.

Now ABC moving Who’s the Boss, Growing Pains, and Perfect Strangers to Saturday nights in the guise of an extending their TGIF nights to Saturdays…? Definitely tank AND Sabotage and I don’t blame them for it.

Same thing with Hotel being moved to Saturday nights.

 

CBS definitely has more modern examples as well with Yes Dear and Rules of Engagement being constantly moved around even though they were lousy shows to begin with. 

[soapfan770]

Another 90s one that came to mind was moving Northern Exposure from Monday nights to Wednesday nights for its final season. Definitely a tank job there.

@kalbir What exactly happened to NBC’s hit Riptide in the mid-80’s?

[DRW50]

I did like Yes, Dear, for a few years anyway, but I remember how often the show was thrown around. Ditto for Rules (I never watched that show). I remember a lot of talk at the time of how much they clearly wanted rid of the shows, especially Rules, which for years just kept getting brought back midseason because CBS had so many comedy flops.

[Paul Raven]

Riptide I would call a timeslot hit. NBC were looking for a compatible show to follow their first breakout hit The A Team. Bare Essence bombed and Remington Steele was moved to Tues @9 and fared better but was still losing to much of A Teams lead in, so in went Riptide with Remington moved to 10pm. Riptide did the job, helped by the fact that 3's Company was fading.

But ABC quickly fought back and Moonlighting took off at9 pm and by season's end was dominate. NBC moved Hunter from Sat night and Riptide was shifted to Fri @8 where it failed and that was it.

In 79/90 ABC decided to move a few hit shows Laverne & Shirley, Fantasy Island and Mork & Mindy to new slots to shore up weak timeslots. Mork got moved up to Sunday against Archie Bunker, reasoning that anew fresh hit would see off the aging Bunker. 

The fight was tight at first but ABC didn't factor in the huge football overruns on CBS which flowed onto 60 minutes , Bunker and the rest of the CBS schedule.

Also Mork had no lead in, a couple of flop sitcoms and an incompatible untried lead out The Associates.

And Mork had the Raquel Welch episode which was a Jump the Shark moment.

Also in Mork's old slot Laverne was not doing as well as expected. By midseason Mork was back on Thurs but never regained the ratings or hype of the first season.