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PROGRAMS SYNDICATED--OR--SEEN EVEN WITH VERY LIMITED EPISODES

gregg75

gregg75

What shows are seen even though they have limited (100 or less) episodes.

from a thread on the National TV board....
Bosom Buddies (37 episodes) Having Tom Hanks as part of the cast surely helped.

Still Standing (88 episodes)
The Jetsons (75 episodes)
Star Trek (79 episodes)
Lost In Space (83 episodes)
 
'The Jetsons' longevity was more impressive because, until the mid-80s, it had only been a 'one-season wonder'.
I know that it aired on Saturday mornings for years, even as late as 1980 on NBC. Did that first batch of episodes ever run in syndication before 1985? Once they started making new episodes that year, the show became even more attractive for local stations and cable channels.
Another H-B cartoon, 'Top Cat', also ran forever after just one year in production, but TC never had an '80s comeback.
 
The classic 39 episodes of The Honeymooners. I know that "lost episodes" were found and shown later on, but for years those 39 episodes were shown again and again.
 
Two NBC sitcoms that aired back-to-back in the 1960s come to mind: Please Don't Eat the Daisies and Mothers-In-Law, each of which had two-year runs, the first 1965-67 and the second 1967-69. The latter was Desi Arnaz's mostly unsuccessful attempt to "come back," as it were, as a TV packager. He never tried packaging again, from what I know.
 
The Munsters (70 episodes) and The Addams Family (64) are two prominent examples; The Munster Today, as it was mentioned on this board before, had more episodes (two more) than its predecessor. WKRP in Cincinnati is another example, with 90 episodes (88 ran originally on CBS).
 
Several short-running westerns of the 1959-61 era produced by Four-Star--BLACK SADDLE, LAW OF THE PLAINSMAN, THE WESTERNER and JOHNNY RINGO--were bundled together into a single syndicated package, THE WESTERNERS, which was "stripped" in several markets and still actively distributed into the 1980s.
 
Gidget, with Sally Field. Was not a hit until after it was cancelled, and went into syndication with only 32 episodes!
 
There was "BJ and The Bear" (48 episodes) and it's spinoff "The Misadventures of Sherriff Lobo" (37 episodes). Back in the eary 80s when the memories of those shows were still fresh with a lot of pre-teen guys (yours truly among them) they were set up for syndication in the early afternoon hours. Sometimes the syndication would be just "BJ&TB," and sometimes both shows were packaged together as "The BJ/Lobo Hour."

If I seem to recall, I can remember one episode of "BJ & The Bear" that was cut down to 30 minutes in order to make it seem like a sitcom.

Also, don't forget "The Monkees." Only 58 episodes. We have MTV to thank for sending them into syndication city when they had their resurrgence in the mid-80s.
 
onairb said:
'The Jetsons' longevity was more impressive because, until the mid-80s, it had only been a 'one-season wonder'.
I know that it aired on Saturday mornings for years, even as late as 1980 on NBC. Did that first batch of episodes ever run in syndication before 1985?
Click to expand...

Yes, it did run in syndication prior to 1985, even though there were only 26 episodes.

Also worth mentioning is "Jonny Quest", which also lasted for only a single season and was syndicated for many years.

Some other short lived shows that I've seen in syndication over the years: "F Troop" (two seasons), "Mister Roberts" (one season, but also fairly rare), "The Ghost & Mrs Muir" (two seasons), "Car 54, Where are You?" (two seasons), "Land of the Giants" (two seasons), "Time Tunnel" (one season), "The Outer Limits" (the sixties version lasted one and half seasons), and "The Invaders" (one and half seasons).
 
I remembered WPWR-TV airing Angie during the morning hours when they were on channel 60. This was around 1983 or1984 to the latest, maybe 1986 (they moved to channel 50 in January 1987). Supposedly there were 36 episodes made, but only 35 were aired (according to wikipedia) within 2 seasons.

If I remember correctly, Square Pegs was offered in syndication here & there, & had been on MeTV when it was just in Chicago. There were just 20 episodes, & that 1 season is out on DVD.
 
"The Prisoner", with Patrick McGoohan. 17 episodes. First run on CBS (in the states), I've since seen it also on PBS and the SciFi Channel.
 
F Troop was syndicated for years with 65 episodes (2 seasons), 34 of which were in black & white.
 
In Pittsburgh in the 80s we saw Private Benjamin, Angie, Fish, Carter Country, Bosom Buddies and What's Happening.

Three's a Crowd and The Ropers also were syndicated and air on Antenna TV.

I just saw Veronica's Closet on TV Guide channel.
 
The Jetsons and Johnny Quest were unusual in that they were run in syndication since the late 1960's and were still in syndication while running on NBC once a week on Saturday Morning. These shows ran on NBC from sometime in 1979 to some time in 1982 off and on. Also Bullwinkle ran on NBC after running in syndication and continued in syndication concurrent to its NBC run. And they were the same episodes. So NBC never had exclusive broadcast rights. Very few shows ever were run aith the same episodes on Network TV as in Syndication.
 
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