Long Lived Network Shows That Quickly Died in Syndication

[cd637299]

I wish that Antenna or This or someone would try Carson's Comedy Classics, just to see if it would stick......I love just watching Carnac.

I think I saw a YouTube clip from CCC featuring Carnac, and a reference to Elliott Janeway....tooooooo topical/dated! But then again, Google is now our friend.

cd

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Night Court
The Love Boat
Ironside
The FBI
Mission: Impossible
Mod Squad
Hill Street Blues
Lou Grant
St. Elsewhere
Marcus Welby MD
Medical Center
Trapper John MD
77 Sunset Strip
Dallas
Dynasty
Knots Landing
Beverly Hills 90210
Melrose Place
Northern Exposure
Empty Nest
Blossom

90210 still airs on Soapnet.

Before Soapnet, BH90201 aired on FX for a while, Dramas don't have a good record in OTA syndication but seem to better on cable

 

[nomadcowatbk]

After "Wings" left the NBC line-up in the mid tolate '90's, the only place I can ever recall seeing it in syndication was on USA, but only if you were home from work that day. I don't recall ever seeing it in syndication any where else. That would also hold true for both "One Day At A Time" and "Alice".

Wings never aired in local syndication, it went to straight to USA
Evening Shade is another sitcom that went straight to cable after it's network run (Pat Robertson's Family Channel) but that only lasted 4 seasons with undesirable demographics

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Surprised nobody mentioned 'The Cosby Show'. When that series went into syndication about halfway through its original network run, many people were expecting it to become the 'next big thing' in syndicated sitcom reruns, as successful as shows like 'M*A*S*H' and 'Cheers' had been(or 'Seinfeld' and 'Friends' would be). Instead, the Huxtables barely made a ripple in reruns, and in markets such as San Francisco, the series had a short run in the 'prime access' spot(in fact, in SF, the reruns aired on KPIX, a CBS affiliate, late in the afternoon, becaue the station had a nightly 'Evening/PM Magazine' in the early-evening time slot).

maybe not in SF, but Nick@Nite milked Cosby dry when it aired it, it's still on KMCI 38 in Kansas City during the afternoon

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Webster
Designing Women
Good Times
Eight Is Enough
Rhoda

Designing Women aired for a while on Lifetime

 

[nomadcowatbk]

A lot of shows have bombed in local syndication but have become hits on cable

Shows that have had the star of them become a major movie star or continuing TV star seem to air in syndication for a long time (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) while shows where the stars don't do anything made after they end have harder time lasting (Growing Pains, Perfect Strangers). Shows with memorable characters also last a long time in syndication (Urkel on Family Matters, The Fonz on Happy Days)


"Step by Step" hasn't been picked up by anyone since it left ABC Family after a long time

 

[TexasTom]

Will and Grace

"Will and Grace" was a late night staple on the Tribune stations for quite a few years, but does seem to have faded now.

 

[TexasTom]

Webster
Designing Women
Good Times
Eight Is Enough
Rhoda

"Designing Women" is currently running twice per weekday (5:00 PM and 10:30 PM) on KFWD here in Dallas/Fort Worth. It's had a pretty good run, I'd say...

"Good Times" also continues to do reasonably well in a number of cities, typically in areas that have relatively large African American populations. So neither of those shows would be considered flops in syndication.

"Rhoda", on the other hand...that one died quickly.

 

[Mr. Mike]

Although it was tried several times, WKRP never seemed to last very long in syndication or on cable. It would run about a year or two and then drop off, at least in the Memphis area. Also, I don't remember seeing Newhart (80's) in syndication anywhere in the Memphis area, and its runs on cable have always been short.

I would say that wouldn't be the case for WKRP in syndication, at least in the St. Louis area. IIRC, for a long time it was a staple of KPLR's lineup, usually airing at either 10:00 or 10:30pm throughout much of the 1980s and early 1990s. Infact, Channel 11 was airing WKRP in the wee-late hours as recently as late 1998 or early 1999.

 

[CleveFan]

CleveFan- You may be right that Golden Girls was less than a hit in syndication to local stations, but it has done very well on cable - primarily Lifetime. A few years ago , it became a huge hit on college campuses and with young adults in general. That was only possible thru reruns considering today's young adults were barely out of diapers during the show's original run.

I believe it currently runs on Hallmark.

The Golden Girls did a lot better on cable than in local syndication. I was just only thinking about shows that had a short life on local rather than cable. Some of those shows do better in cable because they can serve a niche audience better than local.

I remember seeing WOIO/WUAB in Cleveland pulled Will and Grace, The Bernie Mac Show, and Sex and the City from prime access or the 11pm slots and moved them to weaker slots after poor ratings.

 

[azumanga]

Marcus Welby was seen on Lifetime very briefly when Lifetime first started running reruns of shows in the mid and late 1980's...

Marcus Welby was on [WILX Lansing] til about the same time, and later WWOR had him in place of a show affected by Syndex rules. WWOR also had the two mentioned Jack Webb productions as well as Dragnet 1967-70 on the lineup.

I think Goodlife Television (now ALN) carried Marcus Welby in the 1990s as well, after it left WWOR.

The 60s Dragnet was also one of Nick-at-Nite's most-popular shows -- it moved to WWOR in 1995 after it was dropped by Nick-at-Nite.

Both JULIA and THE BILL COSBY SHOW (the 1969 version in which he played a high school gym coach) tanked in syndication too.
There was some rumbling that audiences didn't want to see black sitcoms. Actually they didn't want to see unfunny black sitcoms.

Though these shows were part of CBN Cable's lineup during the 1980s.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Sitcoms that appealed to kids that usually aired on independents in the early evening hours after cartoons like Full House, Family Matters, Brady Bunch were successful in local syndication but with mixed success on cable. Some of these shows are still on cable now while others disappeared after their first local syndication reruns. A lot of shows had short runs in local syndication but longer runs on cable while others had long local syndicated reruns but short runs on cable. A lot of long running shows don't/didn't appeal to the demographics that watch the channels and in the hours when syndicated shows all like kids in the early evening on independent/Early Fox/UPN/WB/CW/ stations. Some shows just become outdated quickly or aren't as viewable as reruns. A lot of shows develop new audiences after their network reruns on local syndication or cable. Brady Bunch didn't become a pop culture icon until syndication

 

[Ultimajock]

...does anybody recall ever seeing Police Woman in syndication?...

 

[BobbyNBC10]

In my area, KRBK-TV (now KMAX-TV ) 31 Sacramento -Stockton (now a CW station) and WWOR did in the 1980's.

 

[jwk1979]

Eight Is Enough

WATE-TV 6 in Knoxville aired "Eight Is Enough" daily at 4:00 PM in 1982. It only ran for a few months or so before WATE pulled it from their afternoon schedule. I don't recall seeing it on TV again until the late '90 when FX aired it for a while.

 

[jwk1979]

I've seen syndicated reruns of "One Day at a Time" and Alice run for several years during the mid-to-late '80s in one of the local markets I grew up in (Peoria/Bloomington, IL). But I think by 1990 those syndicated reruns of those series were off my local stations of that time.

I don't think "One Day" has been anywhere on reruns since its E! run in the late '90s--and also around 1999 the former TNN (in its pre-The National Network/Spike glory days) started airing "Alice" reruns for at least a year or two. (This was in the midst of when TNN was adding country/rural-related sitcom/drama reruns to their lineup e.g. "Dukes of Hazzard," "Dallas"--and IMO TNN SHOULD HAVE BEEN where reruns of "Andy Griffith" went rather than TV Land in 1999).

I don't recall seeing either "Alice" or "One Day At A Time" in the local markets I've lived in in Syndication (Knoxville and Nashville). I do remember when "Alice" ran on the former TTN, but I don't recall "One Day At A Time" on E!.

 

[jwk1979]

WGN and TBS should've kept Andy Griffith. I hate it when TV Land cuts the show to ribbons by leaving out scenes. Like the ep. where Barbara Eden (pre-Jeannie) plays a manucurist in Floyd's Barber Shop, and they leave out the part of her figure walking down the street. This never happened when Chicago's Very Own Channel 9 or Super 17 Atlanta had AndyGriffith or when the reruns were on CBS in the AM's.

I don't think it was TV Land that actually cut scenes from Andy Griffith but the Distributors and Syndicators of Andy Griffith that cut most of the scenes. Andy Griffith is still every night on channel 30 in Nashville and the versions they show have scenes cut out from them. At least TV Land added the epilogues back to the end of Andy Griffth when they got the rights to TAGS after they had been cut years earlier from the package that were being shown in most markets, even the ones shown on WGN and WTBS.

 

[BRNout]

WGN and TBS should've kept Andy Griffith. I hate it when TV Land cuts the show to ribbons by leaving out scenes. Like the ep. where Barbara Eden (pre-Jeannie) plays a manucurist in Floyd's Barber Shop, and they leave out the part of her figure walking down the street. This never happened when Chicago's Very Own Channel 9 or Super 17 Atlanta had AndyGriffith or when the reruns were on CBS in the AM's.

I don't think it was TV Land that actually cut scenes from Andy Griffith but the Distributors and Syndicators of Andy Griffith that cut most of the scenes. Andy Griffith is still every night on channel 30 in Nashville and the versions they show have scenes cut out from them. At least TV Land added the epilogues back to the end of Andy Griffth when they got the rights to TAGS after they had been cut years earlier from the package that were being shown in most markets, even the ones shown on WGN and WTBS.

I don't know about that - seems like TV Land (like their other Viacom brethren) does a lot of chopping in order to shorten the shows. This permits the inclusion of extra ads.

 

[MattParker]

TVLand chops shows and they still run long (and, as a result, they keep getting further and further off the posted schedule throughout the day). I'd rather they keep the show intact and stay on schedule - even if that means no epilogue. They could always post epilogues for recent shows on the website (which might build more traffic).

As a Tivo/DVR user I have come to avoid TVLand because shows are always clipped (sometimes I get half of one show and half of another). Much as I love ol' Ang and Barn, it's not worth the hassle.

 

[BobbyNBC10]

I've seen syndicated reruns of "One Day at a Time" and Alice run for several years during the mid-to-late '80s in one of the local markets I grew up in (Peoria/Bloomington, IL). But I think by 1990 those syndicated reruns of those series were off my local stations of that time.

I don't think "One Day" has been anywhere on reruns since its E! run in the late '90s--and also around 1999 the former TNN (in its pre-The National Network/Spike glory days) started airing "Alice" reruns for at least a year or two. (This was in the midst of when TNN was adding country/rural-related sitcom/drama reruns to their lineup e.g. "Dukes of Hazzard," "Dallas"--and IMO TNN SHOULD HAVE BEEN where reruns of "Andy Griffith" went rather than TV Land in 1999).

I don't recall seeing either "Alice" or "One Day At A Time" in the local markets I've lived in in Syndication (Knoxville and Nashville). I do remember when "Alice" ran on the former TTN, but I don't recall "One Day At A Time" on E!.

In Sacramento, Alice was on KOVR-Tv and WGN-TV and both GN and KRBK-TV (now KMAX) had One Day At A Time.