Well, here we go again. This time, I'll be discussing the Top 10 history of the National Broadcasting Company.
NBC has had success, failure, major success, and then major failure. In the 1950-51 season, it had the highest-rated show with "Texaco Star Theater," which averaged an incredible 61.6 rating! (this was before they changed the rating systems). Throughout the 1950s, NBC was mostly second in the networks, even after ABC become a full-fledged major network. It would not have a #1 show until the 1961-62 season, with the western "Wagon Train." Another popular western during the 1960s on the peacock network was "Bonanza," which was in fact, one of the first full-color shows on television, and also ranked #1 from 1964-65 to 1966-67. During the late 1960s, NBC hit #1 again with "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," which was the #1 show for two consecutive seasons (1968-69 and 1969-70). The network continued its success in the early 1970s with such hits as "The Flip Wilson Show" (the first variety show hosted by an African-American), "Ironside", "Adam-12", "Sanford and Son", "The NBC Mystery Movie", and "Chico and the Man".
However, by 1975, NBC started to slump, mainly due to the rise of ABC. The 1978-79 season marked the first (but certainly not the last) time in the network's history that NBC failed to have a show in the top 10. In fact, the low point in NBC came in the 1981-82 season, when it failed to have a show even in the top 20!
Luckily, NBC found a top 10 hit in "The A-Team" in the 1982-83 season, and was NBC's most popular show the following season as well. In 1984-85, two situation comedies, the debuting "Cosby Show" and the third-season show "Family Ties" broke into the Top 10, and in the following season, these shows would rank #1 and #2 respectively (with "The Cosby Show" ultimately ranking or sharing #1 for five consecutive seasons). In the 1985-86 season, "Cheers," which had struggled in its first two years, and hit the top 20 in the previous season, became a top 10 show, along with the debuting "Golden Girls," and "Miami Vice." Perhaps the most successful point for NBC during this period came in the 1986-87 season, when all four of its Must-See TV sitcoms ranking in the top 10: "The Cosby Show", "Family Ties", "Cheers", and "Night Court". Cosby, Family Ties, and Cheers ranked #1, #2, and #3, respectively, and Cosby & Family Ties had ratings of 34.9 and 32.7, respectively! No other show has come even CLOSE to getting those ratings, primarily due to the increasing competition from newer networks and cable television.
NBC's success continued throughout the late 1980s with such hits as "A Different World" (originally a spin-off of "The Cosby Show"), "ALF", and "Empty Nest", but by the early 90s, the network was no longer in the top spot, with "Cheers" being the only Top 10 NBC show during the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons, the latter season being Cheers' last on the air. However...
NBC would bounce back in the mid-1990s with such shows as "Seinfield" (which took over Cheers' timeslot on Thursday nights, and was the #1 show during its final season, 1997-98), "Frasier" (a spin-off/sequel of "Cheers"), "ER", "Friends" (which was a top 10 hit during all ten seasons on the air), "Caroline in the City", "The Single Guy", "Suddenly Susan", "The Naked Truth", "Fired Up", "Veronica's Closet", "Union Square", and "Jesse". However, most of these shows wouldn't last as long as the Must-See sitcoms of the 1980s, and "Union Square," in fact, was canceled after only 13 episodes because the audience from "Friends" didn't hold over to Square.
In the early 2000s, NBC had top 10 hits like "Law & Order", "The West Wing", "Will & Grace", "Leap of Faith" (which was canceled after only SIX episodes despite tying at #9 with "Will & Grace" in 2001-02), and "The Apprentice", but after "Friends" ended its run in the 2003-2004 season, NBC as not had even ONE show in Top 10.
Despite having such hot sports events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl, NBC overall has been going downhill since then. Some of its shows even ranked lower than The CW's shows (and that's a MINOR network, mind you). In fact, former NBC Universal President/CEO Jeff Zucker once said that he believed NBC could no longer be #1.
In conclusion, I believe we should find Brandon Tartikoff's remains and clone him. Either that, or find someone like him, because we need another man like him to turn the peacock network around.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
The Top 10 History of CBS
Okay, I lied. I'm going to do THREE more posts on the top ten of the "big four" of the U.S. television networks, since in recent years, Fox has broken through into the top ten, but I'll get to that later. For now, I'm going to talk about the network that has pretty much dominated network television for most of its history, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
From 1951-52 to 1975-76, with a few exceptions, CBS has had the #1 show in television. In fact, on several occasions, CBS has had nine of the Top 10 shows on TV. Now, THAT'S dominance!
I Love Lucy, The Jack Benny Show, Arthur Godfrey, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The $64,000 Question, I've Got a Secret, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Gunsmoke, The Danny Thomas Show, Have Gun Will Travel, Perry Mason, The Andy Griffith Show, Candid Camera, The Beverly Hillbilles, The Lucy Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Petticoat Junction, Gomer Pyle USMC, Hogan's Heroes, Green Acres, Family Affair, Mayberry RFD, Here's Lucy, Hawaii Five-O, Medical Center, All in the Family, Mannix, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, The Waltons, M*A*S*H, Kojak, The Jeffersons, Rhoda, and Good Times were among the many Top 10 hits for the "Eye" network during this period of time. In fact, "All in the Family" was the #1 show for five consecutive seasons (1971-72 to 1975-76), a record that has since been broken (I'll get to that later).
By the mid-70s, however, ABC started to break through and become #1, but by the early 1980s, CBS was back on top with such shows as "60 Minutes," "Alice," "Dallas," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "One Day at a Time," "House Calls", "Magnum P.I.", "Simon and Simon," and "Falcon Crest." But the success couldn't last forever...
In the 1984-85 season, CBS had seven of the top ten shows (actually top 11, since Falcon Crest and Crazy Like a Fox tied for #10), but in the following season, it only had three of the top 10 shows (Murder She Wrote, 60 Minutes, and Dallas). This was due to NBC's resurgence (which I will get into next time), as well as ABC's comeback after a slump in the mid-to-late-80s. CBS would come back in the early 1990s with such shows as "Murphy Brown," and "60 Minutes" returned to the top for three straight years (1991-92 to 1993-94), but CBS's fortunes changed forever after FOX won the rights to broadcast the National Football Conference of NFL football. As a result, many long-time CBS affiliates switched to FOX, leaving CBS with some low-rated stations in numerous markets (such as Atlanta, Milwaukee, and especially Detroit).
"Touched by an Angel" proved to be CBS's most popular show during the late 1990s, but the network would return to dominance in 2000 with "Survivor." And that's all I'm going to say about "Survivor" in this post. Other popular shows in the early 2000s for CBS included "Everybody Loves Raymond," and the first of numerous versions of "CSI." By 2005, "Raymond" was off the air, and since then "Two and a Half Men" has proven to be the network's most popular comedy, though it has only cracked the top 10 only once (2008-09) in its run. Since the 2000s, Fox and CBS have been dueling it out for first place.
I'll look at the rise, fall, rise, and major fall of the peacock network next time.
From 1951-52 to 1975-76, with a few exceptions, CBS has had the #1 show in television. In fact, on several occasions, CBS has had nine of the Top 10 shows on TV. Now, THAT'S dominance!
I Love Lucy, The Jack Benny Show, Arthur Godfrey, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The $64,000 Question, I've Got a Secret, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Gunsmoke, The Danny Thomas Show, Have Gun Will Travel, Perry Mason, The Andy Griffith Show, Candid Camera, The Beverly Hillbilles, The Lucy Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Petticoat Junction, Gomer Pyle USMC, Hogan's Heroes, Green Acres, Family Affair, Mayberry RFD, Here's Lucy, Hawaii Five-O, Medical Center, All in the Family, Mannix, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, The Waltons, M*A*S*H, Kojak, The Jeffersons, Rhoda, and Good Times were among the many Top 10 hits for the "Eye" network during this period of time. In fact, "All in the Family" was the #1 show for five consecutive seasons (1971-72 to 1975-76), a record that has since been broken (I'll get to that later).
By the mid-70s, however, ABC started to break through and become #1, but by the early 1980s, CBS was back on top with such shows as "60 Minutes," "Alice," "Dallas," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "One Day at a Time," "House Calls", "Magnum P.I.", "Simon and Simon," and "Falcon Crest." But the success couldn't last forever...
In the 1984-85 season, CBS had seven of the top ten shows (actually top 11, since Falcon Crest and Crazy Like a Fox tied for #10), but in the following season, it only had three of the top 10 shows (Murder She Wrote, 60 Minutes, and Dallas). This was due to NBC's resurgence (which I will get into next time), as well as ABC's comeback after a slump in the mid-to-late-80s. CBS would come back in the early 1990s with such shows as "Murphy Brown," and "60 Minutes" returned to the top for three straight years (1991-92 to 1993-94), but CBS's fortunes changed forever after FOX won the rights to broadcast the National Football Conference of NFL football. As a result, many long-time CBS affiliates switched to FOX, leaving CBS with some low-rated stations in numerous markets (such as Atlanta, Milwaukee, and especially Detroit).
"Touched by an Angel" proved to be CBS's most popular show during the late 1990s, but the network would return to dominance in 2000 with "Survivor." And that's all I'm going to say about "Survivor" in this post. Other popular shows in the early 2000s for CBS included "Everybody Loves Raymond," and the first of numerous versions of "CSI." By 2005, "Raymond" was off the air, and since then "Two and a Half Men" has proven to be the network's most popular comedy, though it has only cracked the top 10 only once (2008-09) in its run. Since the 2000s, Fox and CBS have been dueling it out for first place.
I'll look at the rise, fall, rise, and major fall of the peacock network next time.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Top 10 History of ABC
For this post, and the next two, I've decided to give you a history of Top 10 shows on the "big three" networks of the United States. Today, I'm starting with the alphabet network, ABC-TV.
Although ABC had a top 10 show in the 1950-1951 season (that being "The Lone Ranger," #7), the year in which Nielsen began its television ratings system, it wasn't considered to be a 'major' network until its merger with United Paramount Theaters in 1953. It first post-merger top ten hit was "Disneyland," an anthology series hosted by Walt Disney that was partially used to promote his then-new California theme park. Disneyland was in the top 10 for the 1954-55 (#4) and the 1955-56 (#6) seasons. ABC's biggest season in the 1950s was the 1958-59 season, which had four top ten shows in "The Rifleman" (#4), "Maverick" (#6), "The Real McCoys" (#8), and "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" (#10). The following season (1959-60), ABC had seven shows in the top 20.
Despite its successes, ABC was still #3 in the ratings throughout the 1950s and most of the 1960s. In the mid-1960s, "Bewitched" was a top ten hit in its first three seasons (#2 in the 1964-65 season, tied for #7 in the 1965-66 season, and tied for #7 in the 1966-67 season), "Batman" had two of the top ten spots in its initial 1965-66 mid-season run, and "The Fugitive," "Combat," and "Peyton Place" were top 10 hits in the 1964-65 season. However, soon afterwards, ABC would drop out of the top 10 until the debut of "Marcus Welby, M.D." in the 1969-70 season, in which it ranked #8. The following year, it became the first ABC show to rank #1 in the full season ratings. Other top 10 shows during the early 70s for ABC were the "Movie of the Week," and "The F.B.I."
However, the network didn't really get to the top until the mid 1970s, with such shows as "Rich Man, Poor Man," "Laverne & Shirley," "The Bionic Woman," "The Six Million Dollar Man," and the "Monday Night Movie" being top 10 hits in the 1975-76 season. In 1976-77, "Happy Days" was the #1 show, and the network had six other top ten hits in "Laverne & Shirley" (#2), "The ABC Monday Night Movie" (#3), "Charlie's Angels" (#5), "The Six Million Dollar Man" (#7), and "The ABC Sunday Night Movie" and "Baretta" tied at #8. "Laverne & Shirley" ranked #1 in the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons, and ABC's peak of popularity during the 70s came in the 78-79 season with such shows as "Three's Company" (#2), "Mork & Mindy" and "Happy Days" (both tied at #3), "Angie" (#5, midsason), "The Ropers" (#8, midseason), and "Taxi" (#10).
But ABC made several dumb decisions in the 1979-1980 season which cost them the top spot. The first was moving several Top 10 shows into new time slots, most of which failed (in fact, both "Angie" and "The Ropers" were canceled at the end of the year, and "Mork and Mindy" was almost canceled had it not moved back into its familiar timeslot, and going back to the slapstick stories which had made it a hit in the first place). Another dumb move was the firing of Kate Jackson from "Charlie's Angels," from which the show never truly recovered. But despite this, nearly half of the top 30 shows on network television were on ABC. Oh, by the way, the number one show on network TV during this season? "60 Minutes" on CBS.
ABC was no longer #1 on TV, but was still a solid #2 during the early 1980s (due to NBC being rock bottom at #3). However, by 1984, despite having the #1 show in "Dynasty," ABC had no other Top 10 shows. It wouldn't be until 1988-89 in which ABC would have a show in the upper regions of the Top 10, with "Roseanne" being #2. The following year, "Roseanne" tied #1 in the ratings with "The Cosby Show" on NBC, which had been the #1 show in the past four years.
ABC was still near the top during the early 90s, with such shows as "Roseanne," "Home Improvement," "Full House," "Coach," "Grace Under Fire," and "NYPD Blue," but the network started to slip again in the mid-90s, around the time Disney purchased the network (I'm not bashing Disney...yet). ABC would not reach the top again until the end of the century with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", but its success would be short-lived, as the show burned itself out by 2001, and was off the network by 2002, leaving ABC with few hits. However, it turned around by the middle of the 2000s decade, with the success of such shows as "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Dancing With the Stars." However, by the end of the decade, the only top 10 hit for ABC was "Dancing With the Stars," although all three of the aforementioned shows are still on the air. (I will go on the record here...I haven't really watched any of those three shows, as I haven't really watched primetime programming nowadays)
And that's it for now. Tomorrow (for sure), I will go into the top 10 history of CBS.
Although ABC had a top 10 show in the 1950-1951 season (that being "The Lone Ranger," #7), the year in which Nielsen began its television ratings system, it wasn't considered to be a 'major' network until its merger with United Paramount Theaters in 1953. It first post-merger top ten hit was "Disneyland," an anthology series hosted by Walt Disney that was partially used to promote his then-new California theme park. Disneyland was in the top 10 for the 1954-55 (#4) and the 1955-56 (#6) seasons. ABC's biggest season in the 1950s was the 1958-59 season, which had four top ten shows in "The Rifleman" (#4), "Maverick" (#6), "The Real McCoys" (#8), and "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" (#10). The following season (1959-60), ABC had seven shows in the top 20.
Despite its successes, ABC was still #3 in the ratings throughout the 1950s and most of the 1960s. In the mid-1960s, "Bewitched" was a top ten hit in its first three seasons (#2 in the 1964-65 season, tied for #7 in the 1965-66 season, and tied for #7 in the 1966-67 season), "Batman" had two of the top ten spots in its initial 1965-66 mid-season run, and "The Fugitive," "Combat," and "Peyton Place" were top 10 hits in the 1964-65 season. However, soon afterwards, ABC would drop out of the top 10 until the debut of "Marcus Welby, M.D." in the 1969-70 season, in which it ranked #8. The following year, it became the first ABC show to rank #1 in the full season ratings. Other top 10 shows during the early 70s for ABC were the "Movie of the Week," and "The F.B.I."
However, the network didn't really get to the top until the mid 1970s, with such shows as "Rich Man, Poor Man," "Laverne & Shirley," "The Bionic Woman," "The Six Million Dollar Man," and the "Monday Night Movie" being top 10 hits in the 1975-76 season. In 1976-77, "Happy Days" was the #1 show, and the network had six other top ten hits in "Laverne & Shirley" (#2), "The ABC Monday Night Movie" (#3), "Charlie's Angels" (#5), "The Six Million Dollar Man" (#7), and "The ABC Sunday Night Movie" and "Baretta" tied at #8. "Laverne & Shirley" ranked #1 in the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons, and ABC's peak of popularity during the 70s came in the 78-79 season with such shows as "Three's Company" (#2), "Mork & Mindy" and "Happy Days" (both tied at #3), "Angie" (#5, midsason), "The Ropers" (#8, midseason), and "Taxi" (#10).
But ABC made several dumb decisions in the 1979-1980 season which cost them the top spot. The first was moving several Top 10 shows into new time slots, most of which failed (in fact, both "Angie" and "The Ropers" were canceled at the end of the year, and "Mork and Mindy" was almost canceled had it not moved back into its familiar timeslot, and going back to the slapstick stories which had made it a hit in the first place). Another dumb move was the firing of Kate Jackson from "Charlie's Angels," from which the show never truly recovered. But despite this, nearly half of the top 30 shows on network television were on ABC. Oh, by the way, the number one show on network TV during this season? "60 Minutes" on CBS.
ABC was no longer #1 on TV, but was still a solid #2 during the early 1980s (due to NBC being rock bottom at #3). However, by 1984, despite having the #1 show in "Dynasty," ABC had no other Top 10 shows. It wouldn't be until 1988-89 in which ABC would have a show in the upper regions of the Top 10, with "Roseanne" being #2. The following year, "Roseanne" tied #1 in the ratings with "The Cosby Show" on NBC, which had been the #1 show in the past four years.
ABC was still near the top during the early 90s, with such shows as "Roseanne," "Home Improvement," "Full House," "Coach," "Grace Under Fire," and "NYPD Blue," but the network started to slip again in the mid-90s, around the time Disney purchased the network (I'm not bashing Disney...yet). ABC would not reach the top again until the end of the century with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", but its success would be short-lived, as the show burned itself out by 2001, and was off the network by 2002, leaving ABC with few hits. However, it turned around by the middle of the 2000s decade, with the success of such shows as "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Dancing With the Stars." However, by the end of the decade, the only top 10 hit for ABC was "Dancing With the Stars," although all three of the aforementioned shows are still on the air. (I will go on the record here...I haven't really watched any of those three shows, as I haven't really watched primetime programming nowadays)
And that's it for now. Tomorrow (for sure), I will go into the top 10 history of CBS.
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