Why did “Courtship” only last three seasons?

Why did “Courtship” only last three seasons?


There was a falling out between James Komack and Billy Bixby regarding the direction of the show. It was probably why James Komack didnt appear in the final of episode of season 3

I think the reasons the show didn't last longer are varied. In 1973 Bixby was interviewed by Kay Gardella of the NY Daily News, this is what he said at that time:

"I cannot tell you how disappointed I was (when ‘Courtship’ was cancelled).I wanted that series to go on to the point when it came to the teen-age stage and we could deal with these problems in an honest contemporary way. But our time slot was changed so often we weren’t given a fighting chance. You can’t expect people to find you at home when you change your address so often."

The show was on Wednesdays throughout its run but changed start time 4 different times, in the final season Bewitched was the lead-in at 8, with Courtship starting at 8:30, in a midseason change, Courtship moved into the 8 pm slot.

ABC as the third network was always looking for ways to improve their numbers, a decision was made at the network level to go with more hour long series (leaning towards action), for the 72-73 season the number of half hour comedies was reduced to six out of which four appeared in one block on Friday evenings between 8 and 10.

During the run of Courtship the networks were required to reduce the amount of programming provided to affiliates to encourage more local programming (we all know how that worked out), this effected early evening programs which of course was the space Courtship lived in.

The show was obviously a bubble show so maybe Komack thought adding some additional comedic elements might help (Komack was an owner and wanted the series to go at least one more season to get it closer to the magic 100 episode mark).

I think it's just as well that the show ended before Eddie hit puberty- as the flaws in the 'best friend' parenting approach were becoming evident by the time the show ended!