I'd like to start this mini rant by saying that this is in NO WAY criticizing "Good Times" or "Night Court"

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People are always complaining about the lack of the very old classics of the 50s and 60s on TV Land and Nick at Nite, on this board and especially on the tvland.com boards. TV Land's defense is that the shows don't perform nearly as well and point to the WB and N@N's 20th weekend as proof. It is an obvious fact that those marathons were huge disappointments while the Good Times and Night Court ratings for the marathon were through the roof. I believe that happened because of three reasons

1) It IS true that there is not as much an audience for the 50s and 60s shows. Plain and simple. As sad as it is, they don't receive massive ratings BUT they could receive better ratings if:

2) TV Land ADVERTISED it more. Almost EVERY commercial break for 2 weeks before their respective marathons, had commercials advertising for Good Times and Night Court. There were also many pop-ups during pretty much every TV Land show for both those marathons. For the N@N 20th and WB marathons, there was an extreme shortage in promotion. I realize that the WB marathon kept switching on and off so that's an excuse but there is NO excuse for the lack of promotion on N@N's 20th. They only promoted the part that was on Nick at Nite, and had very very few for the TV Land portion of the celebration. I'm positive that many people had no idea that the marathon was even on. I know ppl who visit these boards and other sites like it do know that it is on, but the average TV Land viewer most likely did not.

3) It is without question, more ratings savvy to show the SAME show over and over again. People might see an episode of "Good Times" or "Night Court" on Saturday morning and realize it's on all weekend, and plan to tune in for a couple hours on Sunday for example. They can't do that with a marathon like the WB one and the N@N's 20th. Again, a casual TV Land viewer would have NO idea when some shows they may want to see are on in a multi-show marathon but if they would be well aware if it was consistently the same show. TVLtheLink even admitted that the same show airing back to back does well, hence the many twice as nice, fandemoniums, block party summers, and mini-marathons that have been shown over the years on N@N and TV Land

That is why I think it's not fair to compare the ratings of the Good Times/Night Court marathon to the WB/N@N's 20th marathon. I think TV Land does not maximize the viewership potential of older shows mainly due to lack of advertising and continuity although I am well aware that they still would not do as well as the newer shows, although I think they would do BETTER than they do currently.

I'm very curious to hear responses to this, if you think I'm on to something or completely nuts, please let me know

I agree totally. I don't think the N@Niversary or Warner 50th weekends were low-rated because of lack of interest, but because I think a lot of people didn't feel like watching because they'd wind up feeling more deprived after seeing ONE episode of a show they can't see elsewhere and it'll just make them miss it more. The FOL and Kate And Allie episodes on N@N's 20th anniversary are perfect examples. I think a lot of people who like the shows probably opted not to watch it because seeing those shows would just make them miss them even more since they don't currently air in reruns (outside of Chicago) and there's no DVD's for them.

Yet Night Court and Good Times were all weekend long so people have plenty of time to reacquaint themselves with those old favorites.

I agree totally. I don't think the N@Niversary or Warner 50th weekends were low-rated because of lack of interest, but because I think a lot of people didn't feel like watching because they'd wind up feeling more deprived after seeing ONE episode of a show they can't see elsewhere and it'll just make them miss it more. The FOL and Kate And Allie episodes on N@N's 20th anniversary are perfect examples. I think a lot of people who like the shows probably opted not to watch it because seeing those shows would just make them miss them even more since they don't currently air in reruns (outside of Chicago) and there's no DVD's for them.

Yet Night Court and Good Times were all weekend long so people have plenty of time to reacquaint themselves with those old favorites.

Very true! I watched the episode of Alice, and I knew when it was over that would be it. I was craving for more Alice!

Well put buffyslayer. Don't tease me with a few episodes. Give me THE WHOLE DAMN THING!!!!!!

I don't believe the whole "people will want more" thing. I don't really believe that the average viewer would think of something like that.

I personally think that the N@N and WB marathons performed so low because it was a huge variety of different shows, and for example, I tuned in for most of the Saturday noontime sitcoms, then left the marathon, returned for some of the early evening dramas, left for a while, and came back for the four hour block of "EiE Wedding," followed by EiE and FC. The next day, I barely watched the marathon, but I did spend my longest amount of consecutive time on it that night, with the five hours of primetime soaps.

With the 48-hour marathons of one show, you automatically have the diehard fans tuning in as much as they can, you have near-diehard fans tuning in a lot, you have regular fans watching for a few hours a day, and then you have newcomers who watch it for a long time to get acquainted with it. With the variety marathons, you have to deal with different fanbases tuning for certain shows, and then there's the fact that some shows only aired in late night/early morning time periods, meaning people had to tape, and I dont know if Nielson counts taping or not...

I don't believe the whole "people will want more" thing. I don't really believe that the average viewer would think of something like that.

I can't speak for everyone else in the world, but that was my reason for skipping the marathon. With me, it's all or none. "Life Goes On" is one of my favorite shows, yet I passed the episodes they aired, because I didn't want to get in the "Life Goes On" mood and then be deprived of it again.

But again, that's me. And with the name TVAdam, you know I'm not an "Average Viewer". ;)