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When CBS Really "Blew It."

T

The Voice of Reason

It started with the retirement of Walter Cronkite in 1981. Depending on what you read, or hear, "Uncle Walter" wasn't too thrilled about turning over the anchor chair to Dan Rather. But it was the "suits" at CBS who wanted to keep Rather from going to ABC, so they approached Cronkite about retiring at age 65. Big mistake there considering that Cronkite would have crushed Rather in the ratings and kept CBS number 1 for a few more years.

Other big mistakes by CBS included the massacre of the so-called "Rural Programs" the network ran: Mayberry RFD, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and the list goes on.
Once again the "suits" decided that the network was becoming too rural. Apparently they forgot to look at a map of the U S to see there is plenty of people that live between New York City and Los Angeles.

And who can forget what has been called the "Captain Kangaroo Curse." Every since the network yanked the Captain off the air and replaced it with an early morning news program to compete against "Today" and "Good Morning America", CBS has been getting its clock cleaned in the ratings. Even Les Mooves trophy wife couldn't help boost the ratings out of the cellar.

CBS today can claim it has an audience mostly thanks to CSI and Dick Wolf's numerous Law & Order shows. By the way the hiring of Jeff Goldblum on Law and Order was a stroke of genius.
 
The Voice of Reason said:
1) It started with the retirement of Walter Cronkite in 1981. Depending on what you read, or hear, "Uncle Walter" wasn't too thrilled about turning over the anchor chair to Dan Rather. But it was the "suits" at CBS who wanted to keep Rather from going to ABC, so they approached Cronkite about retiring at age 65. Big mistake there considering that Cronkite would have crushed Rather in the ratings and kept CBS number 1 for a few more years.

2) Other big mistakes by CBS included the massacre of the so-called "Rural Programs" the network ran: Mayberry RFD, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and the list goes on.
Once again the "suits" decided that the network was becoming too rural. Apparently they forgot to look at a map of the U S to see there is plenty of people that live between New York City and Los Angeles.
Click to expand...

While I could be convinced of #1, #2 isn't relevant today at all. CBS has long since recovered from canceling those shows 30+ years ago.
 
Let me see if I've got this straight. You are still angry at CBS for canceling Green Acres. The show with Mr. Haney and the pigs. Then you are also mad about something you created called the Captain Kangaroo curse. That is supposedly where the Network has been doomed to fail because Mr. Green Jeans doesn't work there anymore. Ok.... I think I have to go now. You should have just mentioned Cronkite. At least that one made a little sense.
 
He is correct.....the Captain Kangerooo Curse is Real..........
 
Skynet74 said:
Let me see if I've got this straight. You are still angry at CBS for canceling Green Acres. The show with Mr. Haney and the pigs. Then you are also mad about something you created called the Captain Kangaroo curse. That is supposedly where the Network has been doomed to fail because Mr. Green Jeans doesn't work there anymore. Ok.... I think I have to go now. You should have just mentioned Cronkite. At least that one made a little sense.
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Well said. Poor CBS...their execs are sitting around crying into their beer because they've been such a failure the last three decades. Oh, well...I guess they can take a little solace from being the NUMBER ONE BROADCAST NETWORK!.

Seriously, the rural comedy thing had run its course by the early 70s...it's like saying the networks ought to bring back westerns or variety shows.

Cashiering Cronkite at age 64, and still at the top of his game? THAT was stupid
 
Wow, a tad bit bitter?

Ignoring the factual issue of Law & Order being on NBC, CBS can claim it has an audience because it, um, has an audience.

Really, Green Acres? Captain Kangaroo? Does anyone really think if Green Acres had been left on the air a bit longer to die its 'natural' death (whatever that might have been, considering renewing/cancelling shows has always been a subjective call and always left some number of viewers angry) that some variation of that theme would be burning up the airwaves today? That CBS would be in first place (oh wait, they are).

And much as I loved the Captain, if anyone really believes there's a 'curse,' then it's time to seek help. CBS's failure in the morning news race has been a function of its efforts, not what did or didn't get bumped to make room for it--more than a generation ago.
 
Lkeller said:
Seriously, the rural comedy thing had run its course by the early 70s...it's like saying the networks ought to bring back westerns or variety shows.
Click to expand...

Yet "Hee Haw", a victim of the rural purge, found a new, long life in syndication.

As fir westerns and variety shows in the 70s -- "Gunsmoke". "Sonny and Cher". And of course, "Donny and Marie".
 
IMHO, CBS really blew it when they canned WKRP after just four seasons.
 
Captain Kangaroo curse? What about the curse of Mr. Moose?
"Knock, knock." "Who's there, Mister Moose?"
"Alaska."
"Alaska, who, Mister Moose?"
"Alaska to duck, 'cause here they come!"
 
azumanga said:
Lkeller said:
Seriously, the rural comedy thing had run its course by the early 70s...it's like saying the networks ought to bring back westerns or variety shows.
Click to expand...

Yet "Hee Haw", a victim of the rural purge, found a new, long life in syndication.

As fir westerns and variety shows in the 70s -- "Gunsmoke". "Sonny and Cher". And of course, "Donny and Marie".
Click to expand...

Being succesful in syndication does not mean the network was wrong for cancelling it. Running a show in dozens or hundreds of markets to audiences with different demographics (rural, urban, northern, southern) in dozens of different time-slots is a whole other broadcast world.

Also, networks make decisions for strategic reasons, or to appeal to different demographics - like CBS's decision a decade or so ago to appeal to a younger demo by moving away from the old-fogey crime dramas (Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis: Murder, etc.)

Finally, I wasn't saying there were NO westerns or variety shows on TV in the 70s...clearly there were a few (very few) survivors in both genres, but they were all dead and gone by the 80s, and nobody has suggested that they should return.
 
All the mistakes of the past are irrelevant now. The Hee Haw and Green Acres viewers have been replaced by a whole new prime demographic. CBS is the number one broadcast network, for 7 years now. Of the 4 they are showing the most ratings growth this year. They're winning late nights now, and invest bigger bucks in prime time programming while NBC is cutting back and going primarily reality (and bad reality at that) and 5 hours of Leno a week. I can't see how CBS has "blown it," unless we're talking about a frustrated Captain Kangaroo fan still out there.
 
DToTheJ said:
IMHO, CBS really blew it when they canned WKRP after just four seasons.
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I am pretty sure CBS came real close to cancelling WKRP during that first season. Its been years of course, I can remember reading the headline in our local paper "CBS FIRES WKRP !!"

Of course CBS did brought it back within a short time after "firing the WKRP staff"
 
Did you ever notice that Bob Keeshan (Capt. Kangaroo) and Walter Cronkite were never seen together?

Neither were Mr. Green Jeans and Douglas Edwards.

Conspiracy? Hmmm.
 
RicoGregg said:
Did you ever notice that Bob Keeshan (Capt. Kangaroo) and Walter Cronkite were never seen together?

Neither were Mr. Green Jeans and Douglas Edwards.

Conspiracy? Hmmm.
Click to expand...

My memory may be faulty, but I believe Cronkite did appear with the Captain once.
I have no memory of Douglas Edwards' ever appearing on "Captain," and he was
CBS's anchor in the days when I watched "Captain Kangaroo."

CBS should look back to the '70s to unlock the secret of getting an audience for "The Early Show." I take as my text ABC's incessant promotion of "Good Morning America" in primetime, not to mention the fact that the "Today" show had grown rather stuffy. Then there was the Iranian hostage crisis: people would leave their dials on the ABC station after "Nightline," then wake up the next morning to get the latest on "GMA." Two of the three, the promotion and the most thorough coverage of the next crisis, would help CBS enormously in the morning.

And as for the purging of the rural shows, it gave us "All In The Family," "M*A*S*H." Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, "Maude," and "Kojak"--in fact,
nine of the top ten shows in the 1973-74 season (NBC's "Sanford And Son"
was the tenth), a feat duplicated only once, by CBS in 1963-64, when it
had all of the top ten shows except "Bonanza" (NBC).
 
Clearly, CBS really suffered because of the demise of Captain Kangaroo. ::)
 
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