Would be nice if TV One can air this short-lived sitcom Charlie and Company since...

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by ThomasE

Spring 1987

Well I didn't have cable until the summer of 88

[ThomasE]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Well I didn't have cable until the summer of 88

See what you miss out on when you don't have cable? LOL. I used to watch the show on CBS. I thought it was great.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by ThomasE

See what you miss out on when you don't have cable? LOL. I used to watch the show on CBS. I thought it was great.

I have 2 CBS episodes that I may watch this weekend since I been talking about it. A christmas episode and another episode.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Since the show was a obvious response to the Cosby Show, CBS should have placed it at 8pm on Thursdays lol


Strange that only Webster, and Who's the Boss were the only comedies at 8pm during the week

Difficult to say if putting the show in a different time slot would have helped matters any. I think CBS just took a gamble that Flip Wilson in a family sitcom would pull in high ratings like Cosby did with his show, but the gamble failed.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

Difficult to say if putting the show in a different time slot would have helped matters any. I think CBS just took a gamble that Flip Wilson in a family sitcom would pull in high ratings like Cosby did with his show, but the gamble failed.

We don't know if the show would have competed with the Cosby show for viewers because CBS was too scared to take the risk

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

We don't know if the show would have competed with the Cosby show for viewers because CBS was too scared to take the risk

I think it was mostly a case of the majority of viewers having the opinion that Charlie And Company was a cheap imitation of The Cosby Show, that's why ratings were low resulting in cancellation. CBS could have aired Charlie And Company any day and time they wanted, it likely wouldn't have made a difference, the show was destined to fail from the start. Interesting though to talk about it now years later after the fact, I had almost forgot that this show existed.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

I think it was mostly a case of the majority of viewers having the opinion that Charlie And Company was a cheap imitation of The Cosby Show, that's why ratings were low resulting in cancellation. CBS could have aired Charlie And Company any day and time they wanted, it likely wouldn't have made a difference, the show was destined to fail from the start. Interesting though to talk about it now years later after the fact, I had almost forgot that this show existed.

To me it was a early Family Matters with no Urkel

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

To me it was a early Family Matters with no Urkel

Charlie And Company might have had a better chance to succeed if CBS hadn't tried to make it a clone of The Cosby Show. For example, they could have had Flip Wilson play a bachelor running his own business, surround him with a funny cast of characters and create funny situations instead of having him play a family man like Cosby did on his show. Flip Wilson as a family man didn't translate too well on TV, it wasn't his type of role so I think CBS should have taken a different approach with this series, a family sitcom wasn't really Flip Wilson's strength.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

Charlie And Company might have had a better chance to succeed if CBS hadn't tried to make it a clone of The Cosby Show. For example, they could have had Flip Wilson play a bachelor running his own business, surround him with a funny cast of characters and create funny situations instead of having him play a family man like Cosby did on his show. Flip Wilson as a family man didn't translate too well on TV, it wasn't his type of role so I think CBS should have taken a different approach with this series, a family sitcom wasn't really Flip Wilson's strength.

But Cosby wasn't a family man on a sitcom until the 80's and did variety shows like Flip in the 70's. So I guess they figured, why not Flip?

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

But Cosby wasn't a family man on a sitcom until the 80's and did variety shows like Flip in the 70's. So I guess they figured, why not Flip?

Cosby was always good with kids, in his earlier sitcom from 1970 he wasn't a family man but he interacted with a lot of kids. I used to watch Flip Wilson's variety show in the early 70's but I don't recall if he had kids on there often or not. In a sitcom however, I think Flip Wilson would have had a better chance for success in a role as a single person as opposed to a family man with wife and children. As a family man, he didn't fit the role like Cosby did in The Cosby Show.