Long-Running (at least 4 years) Shows whose reruns never get shown anymore

[nomadcowatbk]

Part of the reason why we don't see some of the classic shows we'd like to see is because of "bundling" by the syndicators. Let's use Barny Miller for example: if a TV station or cable channel wants to buy it they may forced to acquire other shows with it. In Barney's case it's Columbia (Sony) so they may be forced to buy The Love Boat or Charlies Angels. Twos show they may not want or have room for. Now that's the way it used to be. Maybe with all the outlets things have changed.

Points taken, although in the case of The Love Boat and Charlie's Angels, those shows are under CBS ownership (in fact, the whole Aaron Spelling library is under CBS ownership, as it inheirted the library after the restructing of CBS and Viacom). I actually always though that Fox owned the rights to the those shows, since many of the 70s/80s Spelling shows were filmed at 20th Century Fox; Metromedia, before its absortion into Fox, had the distibution rights to Dynasty (another show we can add to the list, since SoapNet dropped the rights a few years ago). Dynasty, much like its rival Dallas, didn't do so well in off-network reruns, as did another nighttime serial from that era: Falcon Crest.

Now that I think about of it...I can't think of any Aaron Spelling series that lasted as long and well in syndication, maybe outside of maybe Charlie's Angels (currently airing on Universal HD) and The Love Boat. They tend to do well more on cable than broadcast TV for whatever reason.

Has any hour long drama done well in syndication? Sitcoms do better because you can watch those any random day but dramas have to be watched every day to keep up with the plots. You can also air sitcoms out of episode order and no one will care.

 

[landtuna]

Has any hour long drama done well in syndication? Sitcoms do better because you can watch those any random day but dramas have to be watched every day to keep up with the plots. You can also air sitcoms out of episode order and no one will care.

Law & Order (original series) and Cold Case appear to be doing very well. Since both are not serial in nature the order of episodes is not important and even more interesting when comparing, for instance, the numerous cast changes L&O went through over its original run.

"Two & 1/2 Men" is one sitcom I'd much rather watch in its original sequence since there are many instances of story continuation. Not "continued" situations so much but where some cast members were given more camera and story time. It's a bit distracting when a new cast member shows up integral to the story when they've never been introduced to the audience. Charlie went through many of these "girlfriend" characters.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I used to be the same way with shows like MASH and Cheers because of the cast changes over the years. But now that it's harder to find them on TV at a time I can watch them and since cable is my only option for seeing them most of the time I'm not as worried about that.

 

[visaman]

'The Cosby Show' has never done well in reruns.

Cosby has been running on and on, for years on at 7:00 - 8:00 AM (PST) on Peachtree (The former TBS).

 

[jwgreek8606]

Centric currently reruns Cosby and The Hub airs Family Ties at 9:30 on Monday-Thursday.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Cosby has done well in reruns, but underperformed when it first hit syndication

 

[jwgreek8606]

MASH and Cheers are rerun frequently. I know Reelz Channel airs Cheers every night and they air the full opening and I know WGN America airs it in the late afternoons.

 

[EnbyCee]

St. Elsewhere was on Bravo and TVLand (I think) during the '90s, but probably nowhere lately. The show was great, but it, too, probably has quite a bit of "dated" material in it.

St. E, Moonlighting and Hill Street Blues were together on Bravo's "Art of Television" block in 2002. Then in '03 they cut back to just HSB, then later that year they dropped HSB and I haven't seen any of the three anywhere since.

 

[LKellerIII]

St. Elsewhere was on Bravo and TVLand (I think) during the '90s, but probably nowhere lately. The show was great, but it, too, probably has quite a bit of "dated" material in it.

St. E, Moonlighting and Hill Street Blues were together on Bravo's "Art of Television" block in 2002. Then in '03 they cut back to just HSB, then later that year they dropped HSB and I haven't seen any of the three anywhere since.

I haven't seen Moonlighting since its original run on ABC, but that show became a serious train wreck, as I remember in the later episodes. I did see an episode of Hill Street Blues about a decade ago, and was surprised at how dated and silly it was. It was an episode with David Caruso playing the leader of an Irish-American gang. He wore a Leprechaun-style hat. It was ridiculous. Then there was James B. Sikking as the buffoonish squad leader of the "EATers" (IIRC, it stood for Emergency Action Team -think SWAT), and Belker calling everybody "hairball."

In the 80s, I thought the show was great, but now it seems even more dated than those 70s era Quinn Martin cop shows - perhaps because those QM shows played it straight, and HSB went for a more humorous tone, and that's what now falls flat.

 

[therealjm12]

I have watched Hill street Blues on Hulu within the last year. I still think it is still one of the better shows that was ever on TV. If it is dated, it only because it reflects the time it was shot. I think the humor gives it a little better shelf life.

 

[Markxxx]

Murphy Brown also has problems with licensing the music, if you recall the opening scenes were always some sort of Motown(ish( Song.

Fortunately in Chicago, we have Me-TOO, companion to Me-TV, so we have seen "One Day At A Time," "Barney Miller," "Fact of Life," "Gimme A Break," "Silver Spoons" and a host of others.

Most have mixed results. "Barney Miller" is consistently funny but the references to New York City as dying and will never come back, must be hard to relate too. I remember Wojo bought Fish NYC Municipal Bonds as a retirement gift from the group, payable in 1999. Back then NYC was one breath away from bankruptcy and a trash hole, who'd have thought it would recover?

"One Day.." "Facts..." "Gimme..." and "Silver Spoons" all are clear shark jumpers. The first seasons are great but they become hard to watch. After Julie got married, after the girls left Eastland, the last two seasons of "Gimme" (after the Chief died) and after Justin Bateman left "Silver Spoons." So while you may have enough episodes for syndication, in reality you don't as the later episodes are horrible, especially since the first season are so good.

Funny how liberated Ann Romano comes off as so selfish and self centered in reruns. Plus who told Bonnie Franklin she could act? Thank god everyone else on the show was great.

BTW they need to put Bateman's "It's Your Move" on DVD. That was a GREAT show.

I long for the days in the 80s when USA Network would rerun all these short lived shows in the afternoon, like "My Sister Sam," "Him and Her," "Bridget and Birney," "The Girl With Something Extra" and the show that ruined high school for me, "Room 222." I thought high school would actually be like that. With the bull sessions, caring teachers and Karen Valentine as the naive but eventually effective teacher.

 

[Bob1370]

"Sitcoms with family have a short life, they jump the shark when the kids get old."

There were a few exceptions. Home Improvement was able to last a long time in first-run basically because the kids were allowed to age normally and get into situations which were realistic for the ages of their characters (which in this case coincided with the actual age of the actors). That's one reason (among many) why it still holds up well in cable rerun.

On the flip side, Married: With Children also lasted a long time in first-run and holds up well in reruns because it was so UNrealistic, with the 'kids' playing precociously nasty and naughty beyond their ages. It was an over-the-top live action cartoon, so it still works on that level.

Speaking of cartoons, of course, The Simpsons has the luxury of being frozen in time, the kids will always be 9, 7 and 1, so there's no shark to jump.

 

[chrish]

In full agreement with regard to Home Improvement and Married with Children, enjoy both in reruns as much as I did when they were originally on the air,
like Andy Griffith they will pass the test of time because they were well produced unique shows.

 

[firepoint525]

"One Day.." "Facts..." "Gimme..." and "Silver Spoons" all are clear shark jumpers. The first seasons are great but they become hard to watch. After Julie got married, after the girls left Eastland, the last two seasons of "Gimme" (after the Chief died) and after Justin Jason Bateman left "Silver Spoons." So while you may have enough episodes for syndication, in reality you don't as the later episodes are horrible, especially since the first season are so good.

I believe you meant Jason Bateman there. You may have confused him with his sister Justine (with an "e") Bateman of Family Ties, another show which jumped the shark multiple times, especially in its latter years.

 

[landtuna]

Murphy Brown also has problems with licensing the music, if you recall the opening scenes were always some sort of Motown(ish( Song.

Why doesn't "Cold Case" have the same problem?

 

[ChuckRoast]

How come we get saturated with "Law and Order" franchise episodes(especially "L&O-SVU") but you never see "NYPD Blue" anymore? I watched an episode the other day from Amazon Prime and was very impressed with the acting chops of Dennis Franz.

 

[flashback]

i prefer the old school cop shows like kojack to the new kind of cop shows.

 

[landtuna]

i prefer the old school cop shows like kojack to the new kind of cop shows.

Different strokes for different folks but those old shows (save for Dragnet and perhaps Streets of S.F.) were not all that realistic. Kojak was a personal vehicle for Telly Savalas who had many "hooks" such as the candy pop and weird cigar(ette) - as well as Noo Yawk speech.

I watched an episode not long ago and was surprised how dated and dumb it looked compared with the acting and stories today.

 

[chrish]

Not sure how long "The Commish" ran on ABC but would love for it to reappear on METV.

 

[RBW]

This is going back a few years but one show that comes to mind is Naked City which ran from (I believe) 1958-1963.

Unless as mentioned, MeTV now has exclusive rights? --- last time I noticed, RTV was still running it. In my area it was on early Sunday evenings.