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.
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