List Shows That Suprised People When They Became It.

Criminal Minds. ALL the critics pretty much trashed the show as violent garbage. Proof that critics suck.

Dukes of Hazard...probably #1 surprise hit, EVERYONE trashed this !
Honorable Mentions:
Gilligan's Island
Hogan's Heroes
Get Smart <ABC dumped their option on the show after preview showings of the pilot (Which NBC gladly picked up)

"MASH"-critics trashed it when it started; in fact Time magazine called it "the biggest dissapointment of the 1972-73 fall season". The only reason it was renewed for a second season was because Bill Paileys wife liked it, and asked her husband to renew it. (Bill Pailey was the president of CBS at the time).

Facts Of Life. The first season had poor ratings and even poorer reviews. It was only by a stroke of luck and a very desparate period for NBC that the show was renewed in 1980 for a season two with a revitalized cast. And then the show lasted almost until the end of the 1980's with Nancy McKeon.

Seinfeld. It was a cult hit and critical fave, but I think pretty much everyone gave up by 92 on the show ever becoming a ratings blockbuster, and then in 1993.... it moved to Thursday night and was the #1 sitcom on television for it's last four seasons.

Cheers was not doing too well in the ratings during its first year.
All In The Family didn't do well in the ratings until it went into reruns and caught on during its summer airings.

Family Ties . . . it's first season didn't do that well, but NBC kept renewing it, until it's third season, when it finally caught on and placed #3, after being after The Cosby Show at 8:30.

Wasn't Family Matters doing poorly until they brought in Urkel? I heard if it wasn't for Urkel joing the cast halfway through the first season, ABC would have cancelled it.

The Beverly Hillbillies - The critics thrashed that show and hated on it but it was a ratings bonanza immediately.

Too Close for Comfort - OK show but not the best. It was only a hit because it came on after Three's Company in the first two seasons but once it got out of that comfort time slot it was cancelled the following season. It was a hit because audiences knew Ted Knight and Nancy Dussault.

The critics hated the Brady Bunch. Fans loved it.

WKRP in Cincinnati - it was never a ratings hit, but CBS had no faith at all in it. It was shoved around on the schedule numerous times, and never had time to gain an audience. But, once CBS placed it after MASH, it finally did well, and started to become a hit, until CBS moved it once again and cancelled it after 4 seasons.

But, this show went on to be one of the biggest hits in syndication in the 80's and 90's.

Cheers was not doing too well in the ratings during its first year.
All In The Family didn't do well in the ratings until it went into reruns and caught on during its summer airings.
that's right; "CHEERS" only became a hit once NBC placed it right after "THE COSBY SHOW".

that's right; "CHEERS" only became a hit once NBC placed it right after "THE COSBY SHOW".

What show didn't become a hit after The Cosby Show-LOL

i NEVER would've expected Two and a Half Men to become as big as it did.

Three's Company-Nonody Thought Three's Company Would Last Past Spring 1977 Not Even Most Of The Cast , Even the Critics Thought It Was Going To Be Cancled after it 6 episodes airing,But Then In It Last Five Weeks The Show Placed In The Top 10 And Proved To Be A Hit And Shocked The Network And Even The Cast Were Suprise By The Shows High Numbers,And Three's Company Broke The Season Racord For A Show To Be A To 10 Hits In Only 6 Airings And Abc Renewed The Show For A Second Season,And 23 Years Later Three's Company Continue To Have Gret Success In Sydnication And Has Great DVD Sales.


Three's Company Is Considered As One Of Th Most Surpised Hts In Tv History Who Agree?

Friends was almost cancelled after season 1 however due to high ratings in summer repeats, the show was renewed!

actually, I was watching Friends from season 1. At the start of the first season, the ratings were so hot, but then around Jan or Feb 95, NBC moved it to 9:30 after Seinfeld and Friendsmania began. By the end of season 1, season 2 was guaranteed and the show was already a phenomenon.

Yeah, Cheers was almost canceled after season 1, that is why the season ended with Sam and Diane kissing. Full House also gut bad ratings in season 1 but summer reruns were good so it got picked up for another season. Gilligan's Island is probably the best example of a surprise hit since the critics HATED it and constantly had something bad to say about it at the time.

actually, I was watching Friends from season 1. At the start of the first season, the ratings were so hot, but then around Jan or Feb 95, NBC moved it to 9:30 after Seinfeld and Friendsmania began. By the end of season 1, season 2 was guaranteed and the show was already a phenomenon.
They both lived in nY,Im surprised there were no crossovers, and I just got doen with Seinfeld on DVD.

Seinfriends, that Friends Id probably watch LOL

WKRP in Cincinnati - it was never a ratings hit, but CBS had no faith at all in it. It was shoved around on the schedule numerous times, and never had time to gain an audience. But, once CBS placed it after MASH, it finally did well, and started to become a hit, until CBS moved it once again and cancelled it after 4 seasons.

But, this show went on to be one of the biggest hits in syndication in the 80's and 90's.
The show was never given a real good chance, and kept being put up in timeslots against established #1 shows

Three's Company Is Considered As One Of Th Most Surpised Hts In Tv History Who Agree?


I agree!!:wave: I remember all the fuss because, it was a show about a guy living with two girls something that was not heard of at the time.

The show was never given a real good chance, and kept being put up in timeslots against established #1 showsi read somewhere that mary tyler moore hated the whole program it was always on grant tinker's case about about pitching the show to cbs in the first place

i read somewhere that mary tyler moore hated the whole program it was always on grant tinker's case about about pitching the show to cbs in the first place

Not sure about that one . . . I know that CBS completely hated the show, heted the actors, and hated the writing. On the dress rehearsal for the pilot episode, they were getting no laughs once so ever from there studio audience. CBS actually wanted to put the show on Tuesday nights against tough competition to kill it off. But, with the help of Grant Tinker, they pursuaded CBS to put in Saturday nights with little competition, and it slowly became a surprise hit.

The show was never given a real good chance, and kept being put up in timeslots against established #1 shows

Exactly. Plus, CBS never liked the show much to begin with, and was obviously trying to kill it by putting it against what they knew was tough competition. If they had left it be after MASH, it probably would have ran longer than 4 seasons.

I agree!!:wave: I remember all the fuss because, it was a show about a guy living with two girls something that was not heard of at the time.
I think "THE JEFFERSONS" was controversial when it started, because it had a mixed-marraige couple.

Cagney and Lacey - The 1st season had gotten really horrid reviews and by the time Season 2 came along, out was Meg Foster, in was Sharon Gless as Christine Cagney. But even w/ Gless as Cagney, the show was still getting low ratings and CBS canned the show in the spring of 1983. Protesting letters by many viewers towards CBS to renew the show for S3 caught their attention and b/c of that, S3 was made in the Spring of the 1983-84 TV Season and it even gotten top 25 ratings slots in the 1984-85 TV season and went on to last for another 4 seasons, before wrapping it up for good in 1988.

Soap - like another 1977 ABC Sitcom in "Three's Company," this show too was plagued w/ trashing by the critics as it was deemed very controversial due to the homosexual character in Jodie Dallas for one and a few other things. But fans made it a Top 25 show for a good season or two in the beginning.

And I also agree about the way CBS mishandled "WKRP in Cincinnati" during its 4-season run. It was bounced like a rubber ball (and not in a good way), slotted against already top-notch shows, then bounced again to other timeslots.

And although I'm not a huge fan of "Seinfield," in the beginning, that show was going through a rough period in its first few seasons. And once it was getting pummeled by ABC's "Home Improvement," it was moved to a better night and became a smash hit show.

"Cheers" was also almost cancelled in its first season b/c of the effect that ratings-withered "Taxi" (which defected from ABC to NBC the time "Cheers" came out). had on it.

Pretty much the majority of NBC shows in the late '70s through the early '90s had it the hardest.

Even "Hunter" (1984-91) starring Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer got shabby reviews by critics for its first several seasons. But Brandon Tartikoff liked it that he allowed the show to stay around and it stayed around for 7 seasons in its original run and it even was a Top 25 show in its 5th and 6th seasons.

"The Love Boat" was infamously destined to "sink like the Titanic." But of course, it became a Saturday night staple on ABC and ran for nine lovely seasons. Not to mention, the cruise industry skyrocketed due to the show's popularity.