In other words, can you think of a sitcom that seemingly went to the most crazy length or changes to make it longer or simply more syndication friendly in terms of episode numbers? It could be due to reinventing itself every season like squeezing out a new season with a new premise.

In other words, can you think of a sitcom that seemingly went to the most crazy length or changes to make it longer or simply more syndication friendly in terms of episode numbers?

The only show I think identifies to this is Saved By The Bell The New Class. It lasted 7 years with each season having majority of the cast replaced with younger characters so it would take longer to get to the senior year of high school. I don't think any sitcom has had the number of cast changes like this show so it could last longer.

According to Jim, HIMYM, The Middle and just about any Chuck Lorre show.

The only show I think identifies to this is Saved By The Bell The New Class. It lasted 7 years with each season having majority of the cast replaced with younger characters so it would take longer to get to the senior year of high school. I don't think any sitcom has had the number of cast changes like this show so it could last longer.

That's what the Head of the Class people should've done, everyone rips on that show cause it took the genius students five years to get through high school.

As far as existing merely as filler, rules of engagement. That show lasted many years but maybe only once did it get a full season. It got to like 100 for syndication all in all.

In other words, can you think of a sitcom that seemingly went to the most crazy length or changes to make it longer or simply more syndication friendly in terms of episode numbers? It could be due to reinventing itself every season like squeezing out a new season with a new premise.

The Naked Truth. Season one had a good premise with solid ratings. NBC picked it up for season two and retooled it, then retooled it again for season 3.

Hearts Afire was a political sitcom by the designing women/evening shade people. A thematic companion of sorts to Murphy Brown. It seemed to do decently but was retooled to be more like Evening Shade. Was midseason spackle for season 3 then cancelled.

Speaking of changing Premise, Facts of Life changed twice first with Edna's Edibles then with Over Our Heads.

That's what the Head of the Class people should've done, everyone rips on that show cause it took the genius students five years to get through high school.Head of the Class had three students leave and four different students join at the start of season 4. So what if some of the others stayed the whole run, Head of the Class is a much better show than the highly overrated Saved by the Bell franchise ever will be.

The Charlie Sheen sitcom Anger Management had some episode order deal with FX network of 10+90 to reach that magical syndication number of 100 episodes.

Oh yeah - the 10/90 model, which included the Tyler Perry sitcoms. Both Kevin James and Kelsey Grammer had deals for 10/90 sitcoms, but they never came to fruition. Thank God.

‘Til Death was kept in production to get to 100 episodes, even though the ratings were crap


All of those revivals of 1980s sitcoms for first-run syndication were done to pad out the rerun packages. Once they got to 100-120 episodes, they went out of production.

...

‘Til Death was kept in production to get to 100 episodes, even though the ratings were crap

Sony Television has been known to give sweetheart deals to keep shows going to get as many episodes as possible which is what they did with 'Til Death.

It's reported they did the same thing for the "Mad about You" revival just to get it picked up someplace (and Spectrum's excusive window is now over and Sony still hasn't found a place for repeats or done anything regarding DVD/Streaming/Download) and the shortened 4th Season of the "One day at a Time" reboot.

I'd expect Sony Television to do the same thing with CBS to keep S.W.A.T. on another season. A sweetheart deal.

Munsters Today and What's Happening Now! were created to boost the syndication packages of both Munsters and What's Happening. Combined with the original shows got both over 100 episodes.

Also in the 80s, Jackie Gleason's kinescopes of honeymooners sketches were packaged as 'lost episodes' and eventually joined 'the classic 39' in syndication, boosting it's number over 100 as well.

Mama's Family, It's A Living, Charles in Charge, Fame and Too Close For comfort were all successfully revived in the 80s for syndication. On the action drama side, Airwolf was revived on the cheap for one season on USA to pad out the episode count. In the 90s Baywatch, Sliders and Viper were revived after cancellation giving both shows healthy episode counts.

American Housewife. This show keeps getting renewed yet every season-Spring premiers it has a new night and new time slot.

Mr Box Office, The First Family...

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/6ffdce19398187.562d9b77ed6df.jpg

Head of the Class had three students leave and four different students join at the start of season 4. So what if some of the others stayed the whole run, Head of the Class is a much better show than the highly overrated Saved by the Bell franchise ever will be.

Head Of The Class should be on MeTV Sunday mornings not Saved By The Bell...

Mr Box Office, The First Family...

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/6ffdce19398187.562d9b77ed6df.jpg
Caught them both one Saturday afternoon on Los Angeles KCAL 9, clear example of sitcom fillers and unfunny as hell and I can assure you nobody has ever heard of these shows.

Munsters Today and What's Happening Now! were created to boost the syndication packages of both Munsters and What's Happening. Combined with the original shows got both over 100 episodes.
Did that work for the Munsters? I've never seen the Munsters and Munsters Today broadcast in the same syndie package in my area.

The New WKRP in Cincinnati was created for the same reason, but I haven't seen the old and new versions combined on a 5x/week package either.

New WKRP was such a mess too much cast turnover

“Star Trek: The Next Generation” was also originally created to add a few more seasons to the syndication package of the original series. That didn’t happen, though, after TNG became a hit in its own right.

The only revival I ever saw packaged with the original was “The New Gidget.” When I lived in Philadelphia, a local station broadcast “Gidget” “The New Gidget”, and “Gidget’s Summer Reunion” (split into four episodes) in the same time period.

According to Jim, HIMYM, The Middle and just about any Chuck Lorre show.

I can agree with According To Jim, but not with the rest of your post. I think The Middle was always a consistantly good and funny show from beginning to end.

Ed.

The Jetsons episodes of the 1980s (with Orbity), were expressly made to pad out the syndication package since classic 1962 The Jetsons was only one season.

To me the historic example is Alice on CBS. That show went on way too long, nine years. But it did well enough that it stayed on and on and on.

I was going to say “According to Jim” as an example. Went on for about nine years, no one really talked about it and doubt it’s in syndication now, but it did well enough to keep being renewed.

To me, Miller Boyett shows suffice for this discussion. To me they were made inexpensively, with a fairly known star and a bunch of unknowns on a budget with ABC putting it on Friday nights, which is a very weak TV night, sell it as “TGIF” and go from there. Worked beautifully. Now some of those Miller Boyett shows became big hits, but it’s a formula that worked.

According to Jim is syndicated now on LAFF, has been for a few years.

On the animation front I remember in the mid-80's the 1960's Spider-Man and Marvel Superheroes cartoons were combined with the 1981 solo Spider-Man cartoon in syndication.

I can agree with According To Jim, but not with the rest of your post. I think The Middle was always a consistantly good and funny show from beginning to end.

Ed.

I also like The Middle, but I don't think the show was ever a ratings winner in primetime.

It's a Living - The show was never a ratings success during the two years that it was on ABC. In its second year, its name was infamously changed to Making a Living. After getting cancelled in 1981-82, it resurfaces three years later in first-run syndication.

Supposedly, the news surrounding Ann Jillian's breast cancer ordeal as well as the show gaining surprisingly good numbers in reruns on local stations, helped spread public awareness to the show. Even though there was the belief that It's a Living was still viable, it had to trudge along for three more seasons without its biggest star (Ann Jillian), who was only willing to sign up for the first syndicated year.

It finally ended in 1989 with 120 episodes in the can. Only 27 of those episodes were produced for ABC.

Full House on Nick@Nite were using it as network filler to fill up timeslot. They were skipping episodes every week due to more off the clocks. And unable to find any other shows to air other than SpongeBob, and few times movies.

As far as existing merely as filler, rules of engagement. That show lasted many years but maybe only once did it get a full season. It got to like 100 for syndication all in all.

A nice summarization that I read elsewhere about Rules of Engagement is that it seemed like one of those sitcoms that collected actors who likely wouldn't have been capable of carrying a successful show on their own. So here, you have Puddy from Seinfeld, the mom from Grounded for Life, Kate Hudson's brother, and David Spade.

Speaking of David Spade, Just Shoot Me! (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/07/just-shoot-me-and-me/372912/) was another show of his, that despite running (https://jacksonupperco.com/2019/01/22/the-ten-best-just-shoot-me-episodes-of-season-five/) a long time, always seemed like it was actually network filler (https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/fs0f2t/was_just_shoot_me_a_popular_show/) than a bonafide hit.

The Doris Day Show (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doris_Day_Show) - The story about how this show came to be sounds much more fascinating than the show itself. Basically, Doris' husband and manager Marty Melcher had committed her to do a TV series for CBS without her knowledge. It was also discovered following his death in April 1968, that Melcher had left her virtually penniless.

The show (http://www.tvparty.com/70dorisday.html) itself, lasted for five seasons and had 128 episodes. But it lacked story continuity (https://web.archive.org/web/20061031135208/http://www.jumptheshark.com/d/dorisdayshow.htm) and regularly changed the supporting cast. Regardless, did well in the ratings (https://televisionheaven.co.uk/reviews/the-doris-day-show) for most of its five seasons on the air. CBS was ready to renew the show at the end of the fifth season, but it was said that Doris made the decision not to continue with the show.

The Middle was mentioned above, and right it didn't have stellar ratings. Other ABC sitcoms such as blackish and The Goldbergs are the same.

I think they sometimes stay on, possibly beyond the 100 episode magic number, simply because they do better than a competing show.

Add the the above list of 1980s shows padded in syndication, which listed Charles in Charge an Mama's Family--add Silver Spoons--4 seasons on NBC and 1 season syndicated.

You can name just about any show that opted to continue even after the lead actor unexpectedly died (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_performers_who_died_during_production) during production such as Chico and the Man following Freddie Prinze's suicide and 8 Simple Rules after John Ritter's death from an aortic dissection.

Even though it was really more of an ensemble show, you can also add the final season of NewsRadio, where Jon Lovitz was brought in to fill the void after Phil Hartman was murdered.

Not a sitcom, but the fourth season (http://codex.seventhsanctum.com/2020/10/10/lost-in-translation-359-airwolf-season-4/) of Airwolf (https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=419262). After CBS dropped it in 1986, USA Network picked it up (https://tvline.com/lists/cancelled-tv-shows-saved-by-netflix-hulu-rival-networks/). It's generally accepted (https://www.reddit.com/r/airwolf/comments/iea1v5/how_do_you_guys_feel_about_season_4/) that the main reason for why the fourth season was produced, was to make the syndicated package more desirable. When CBS canceled (https://www.ign.com/articles/2011/10/07/tv-shows-that-were-un-cancelled) Airwolf, only 56 episodes (https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/forget-top-gun-maverick-lets-settle-blue-thunder-vs-airwolf-once-and-for-all/4/) were produced.

Not exactly a sitcom but I remember in the 80's the Los Angeles station KTLA 5 would on occasion if a sports game ran either too short or go into overtime they would fill the gap with a Three Stooges short.

I also read somewhere that Cheers and Family Ties had the option to make new episodes in off network syndication if they got canceled too early on NBC but that obviously didn’t happen because they had successful runs on NBC.

CBS sitcom Rules of Engagement. There were seven seasons total, but Season 5 was the only season to have a full season order of 24 episodes. Season 1 only had 7 episodes and the other seasons episode orders ranged from 13-15 episodes.

The Drew Carey Show. I think they even admitted it.

Grey's Anatomy.

Last Man Standing.

I would not call Grey's Anatomy a filler show, even after almost 2 decades it is still one of ABC's highest rated.