CMT is now heavily promoting a "Reba takeover weekend", which got me thinking about the success of "Reba" in cable reruns. The funny thing it was never a hit, never even getting into the top 100. (Admittedly a lot of that is being on the WB.) What other shows were far more popular in cable/syndicated reruns than their network runs?

Vindicated By History: Live-Action TV (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VindicatedByHistory/LiveActionTV)

*The original Star Trek is the most obvious example (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VindicatedByReruns) that comes to mind.

*WKRP in Cincinnati

*What's Happening!!

*Family Guy after its original, 1999-2002 run

The Brady Bunch and Leave It to Beaver

Both not ratings hits during their original runs. Neither of them even cracked the top 30. Leave It to Beaver was even cancelled after it's first season by CBS before moving to ABC. However, once they went into syndication, they've both been on the air non-stop. Both enjoying revivals throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

The Brady Bunch - The Brady Bunch Hour, The Brady Girls Get Married/The Brady Brides, The Bradys ....

Leave It to Beaver - Still the Beaver/The New Leave It to Beaver

I guess Married with Children would be a show that was bigger in reruns. I also think Melrose Place too. I mean both were on FOX but once they started with reruns they did great.

Gilligans Island even though it was fairly successful during it's initial run,was Giant in reruns making it one of the most successful syndicated shows ever made.If they had any idea what a hit it would have been in re-runs they would have probably kept the show going for 20 years or so.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kelleylcarter/being-mary-jane-and-bet

The network had picked up their show The Game — which The CW unceremoniously had canceled in 2009 — in syndication. And it wasn’t long before executives at BET noticed that the viewership for reruns of the series, which chronicled the off-the-field lives of a professional football team and the women who love them, was at times bigger than that of its original airings on The CW. In 2011, after a long social media campaign from crushed fans, BET struck a deal to bring The Game back with new episodes, making it the network’s first scripted show.

THE ODD COUPLE was never a hit during its 5 seasons on ABC, it fact it was nearly cancelled at the end of each season.

Didn't Seinfeld get more popular once it began in syndication while still airing on NBC?

Didn't Seinfeld get more popular once it began in syndication while still airing on NBC?I think Seinfeld became popular when it got off Wednesdays and replaced Cheers Thursdays at 9:00.

I think Seinfeld became popular when it got off Wednesdays and replaced Cheers Thursdays at 9:00.
I think you're right, I think that started NBC's "Must See TV" slogan.

I think you're right, I think that started NBC's "Must See TV" slogan.

Seinfeld became popular when it was moved on Thursday 9:30pm in March 1993 and then NBC started "Must See TV" slogan in August 1993.

I think Seinfeld entered syndication in 1995.

I guess Married with Children would be a show that was bigger in reruns. I also think Melrose Place too. I mean both were on FOX but once they started with reruns they did great.

I don't know about MWC. I mean, it was really Fox's first big hit TV show and along w/ the Simpsons, was drove the network in the years prior to them landing the NFL contract. MWC didn't really become a "big deal" so to speak to the masses until the whole Terry Rakolta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Rakolta) controversy.

Boy Meets World.

The show got OK ratings during its original run and was not a hit. But in syndication, it gained so much popularity that it got its own sequel/spin-off series.

I guess Married with Children would be a show that was bigger in reruns. I also think Melrose Place too. I mean both were on FOX but once they started with reruns they did great.

No to MP. Melrose Place was a huge hit in its early seasons, but very quickly declined in popularity. In fact, reruns did little to nothing to improve ratings.

Beverly Hills, 90210 was a massive success by all measurements, but hitting national syndication in 1994 or 1995 certainly increased the series popularity and overall appeal. In fact, very few believed the series would be a hit in syndication, but reruns on local stations far exceeded any expectation and at times it was the #1 rated syndicated drama in syndication at the time. Reruns clearly improved the shows overall popularity, to the extent it is still in syndication today.

Gilligans Island even though it was fairly successful during it's initial run,was Giant in reruns making it one of the most successful syndicated shows ever made.If they had any idea what a hit it would have been in re-runs they would have probably kept the show going for 20 years or so.
Yes, it has done quite well in syndication, considering the critics hated it.

The Brady Bunch and Leave It to Beaver

Both not ratings hits during their original runs. Neither of them even cracked the top 30. Leave It to Beaver was even cancelled after it's first season by CBS before moving to ABC. However, once they went into syndication, they've both been on the air non-stop. Both enjoying revivals throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

The Brady Bunch - The Brady Bunch Hour, The Brady Girls Get Married/The Brady Brides, The Bradys ....

Leave It to Beaver - Still the Beaver/The New Leave It to Beaver

I have mentioned this before about the Brady Bunch franchise but.....

1.) The original show never broke the Top 30. Back in the early 1970's, there were only three networks (CBS, NBC and ABC) with more or less no cable TV. So this means that the show was in the lower 50% of all shows watched.

2.) None of the other shows, the horrid variety show, the Brady Brides show or the early 1990's Bradys show lasted less than a season each.

Seems to me that for how much we supposedly love The Brady Bunch, it wasn't greatly supported, the legacy of that series was that it became a rerun for afterschool TV and the subsequent generation (my generation) watched it, hence the theme of this thread.

Futurama before its 2010 revival.