First Run Comedies In Syndication

[Markxxx]

I am trying to get a list of first run comedies that aired in Syndication.

I don't mean shows like "Mama's Family" or "It's a Living" that started out on network TV and had a healthy run in first run syndication, but rather those like on WTBS like "Down to Earth." What were the other TBS comedies of the 80s? I think there was one about an ice cream place and another about a football player. Or other first run syndicated comedies like "Small Wonder" ( I HATED that show LOL)
and "The Munsters Today"

 

[ShawnHill1]

There were quite a few in the 1980s into in the early 90s in particular. Of course they became more of a dying breed by the mid-90s, thanks to the expansion of Fox's primetime schedule (they expanded to seven nights a week by 1993) and the creation of the WB and UPN. Now, as far as sitcoms in first-run syndication...I would have mentioned Charles in Charge, but that show started on CBS, and then after a year hiatus, went on for four years in first-run syndication (IMO, the syndicated shows were better than the CBS episodes). And, ironically enough, most of the first-run sitcoms in syndication from that era came from the MCA/Universal Television library. Off the top of my head, there was...

Out of This World
The Munsters Today
The New Leave it to Beaver (originally on Disney, then on TBS; after the series ended, reruns were put into syndication)
Harry and the Hendersons
What a Dummy
She's the Sheriff
Learning the Ropes (with the late football great Lyle Alzado)
Bustin' Loose (with Jimmie Walker)
Throb

Those are just some I can think of right now.

 

[imhomerjay]

The New WKRP in Cincinatti as well.

Although Too Close for Comfort started on network TV, it was one of the better first-run syndication shows, into its final incarnation as the Ted Knight show, sadly cut short by his death.

 

[Obtuse1]

Lest we forget "The New Monkees" and "The New Gidget"...though we'd like to.

 

[mleach]

and there was What's Happening Now.

The show was around for a few years even though Rerun ( Fred Berry ) left the show after the first season
I think and Danielle Spencer ( Dee ) was hardly seen on the show at all during its run. And many say those two were the best part of the original Whats Happening.

 

[Tim L]

Three more:

You Can't Take it with You (Harry Morgan)

Marblehead Manor (Paxton Whitehead, Bob Fraser, Michael Richards)-Both 1987-88

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (Animated I know but still a sitcom-With Tom Bosley (1972-74)

 

[bhayes1016]

What were the other TBS comedies of the 80s? I think there was one about an ice cream place and another about a football player.

"Rocky Road" and "Safe at Home".

 

[DToTheJ]

You Can't Take it with You (Harry Morgan)

Marblehead Manor (Paxton Whitehead, Bob Fraser, Michael Richards)-Both 1987-88

I remember, at least in New York on WNBC/4, these two shows, as well as She's The Sheriff and I think Throb were aired every weeknight in rotation at 7:30 PM. I believe the promotion was "Primetime starts at 7:30" or something rather...

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (Animated I know but still a sitcom-With Tom Bosley (1972-74)

This may have been before my time, but if I recall, this was an ABC series.

 

[mbatchelor]

The last season of "Punky Brewster" was first run syndication (87-8).

 

[Ultimajock]

...there was also something called "Please Stand By," about a family trying to run an independent TV station in the middle of the New Mexico desert. I watched every week because I had a hopeless teenage crush on Marcie Barkin http://www.axisboulder.com/mbgbio.htm but the show itself fell apart after a few episodes into its one season...

...and how can anyone forget "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"/"Forever Fernwood" and "Fernwood 2nite"/"America 2nite"?...

 

[KML0224]

I seem to remember "Small Wonder" in the mid-80s, aired locally by channel 20 here in the Hartford metro (CW these days). There was also "Kids Incorporated" which aired on channel 61 here (FOX these days). I know that the latter show featured Martika, who later went on to score a Billboard #1 single in 1989 with "Toy Soldiers". If I'm not mistaken, K.I. also had a run on Disney a few years later. Yeah, I know it was more of a singing show, but they did do a sketch from time to time.

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

"Primetime starts at 7:30 (6:30 in Chicago and Denver)"

You Can't Take it with You (Harry Morgan)

Marblehead Manor (Paxton Whitehead, Bob Fraser, Michael Richards)-Both 1987-88

I remember, at least in New York on WNBC/4, these two shows, as well as She's The Sheriff and I think Throb were aired every weeknight in rotation at 7:30 PM. I believe the promotion was "Primetime starts at 7:30" or something rather...

Twenty years ago this fall WNBC-TV and the NBC-owned stations -- there were five others -- along with WCAU-TV in Philadelphia (a CBS O&O in 1987), all checkerboarded first-run sitcoms at 7:30/6:30 CT and MT. The shows were Marblehead Manor, She's the Sheriff, You Can't Take it With You, Out of This World, and a revival of We've Got it Made. Only She's the Sheriff and Out of This World survived the season.

Throb debuted in 1986 and was on at least WNBC here in New York and WRC-TV in D.C.; I'm not sure if the other NBC O&Os carried it.

 

[Kurt Toy]

You Can't Take it with You (Harry Morgan)

Marblehead Manor (Paxton Whitehead, Bob Fraser, Michael Richards)-Both 1987-88

I remember, at least in New York on WNBC/4, these two shows, as well as She's The Sheriff and I think Throb were aired every weeknight in rotation at 7:30 PM. I believe the promotion was "Primetime starts at 7:30" or something rather...

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (Animated I know but still a sitcom-With Tom Bosley (1972-74)

This may have been before my time, but if I recall, this was an ABC series.

It was a spin-off of ABC's "Love, American Style", where the cartoon was first shown, but WTYFGH was syndicated.

 

[Joey1986]

I seem to remember "Small Wonder" in the mid-80s, aired locally by channel 20 here in the Hartford metro (CW these days).

If anyone's interested in seeing Small Wonder again, go to youtube.com. In the search box type in "Small Wonder" and you'll get some episodes (sorry, not all 96 of them, but it's better than nothing if you're as big a fan of the show as I am). BTW, the last time the show aired in the U.S. was 1996. L.A.'s KTTV Channel 11 (a Fox affiliate) was the last station to air it. I hope the show comes out on DVD someday (over the summer, I wrote a business letter to 20th Century Fox about it). Now, if it were to actually happen, that would make my heart beat twice.

"She's a smaaaaaall wonder..."

 

[tlyle]

Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom - You had to laugh every time Marlin Perkins sent Jim Fowler into harms way with animals.

 

[Braves2005]

Starting From Scratch with Bill Daily and Connie Stevens
One Big Family with Danny Thomas
What A Country! with Yakov Smirnoff
Dusty's Trail
Ozzie's Girls
Life With Elizabeth
How To Marry A Millionaire

 

[tlyle]

Wasn't Dusty's Trail the "Gilligans' Island" of the west with Bob Denver as the star?

 

[Braves2005]

Wasn't Dusty's Trail the "Gilligans' Island" of the west with Bob Denver as the star?

Yes, it is.