What killed this show? - Page 3 - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

DJM77 · 10-08-2010, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riff

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...&output=gplain

Scroll down to the bottom. Way down at the bottom.

It finished ahead of Silver Spoons. Wow!!

megamanj2004 · 11-02-2010, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJM77

It finished ahead of Silver Spoons. Wow!!

Even sadder is that with the exceptions of Newhart and Kate and Allie, the majority of CBS's sitcoms were getting basement ratings, including AfterM*A*S*H.

Schmo · 07-13-2019, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I am Roboto

Thanks for this information. I've posted it on the TVTome AfterMASH guide. I knew AM's ratings dropped in the 2nd season, but I never thought they fell as low as they did.

Nowadays, a Nielsen rating of 9.0 would be a huge success.

Dr. Thong · 07-14-2019, 08:27 AM

Bottom line: Network meddling killed it. It got good ratings the first year, but then they tinkered with it and moved the time slot.

After-MASH was never going to be the great show that it spun off from, but it could have had a good five year run or so if CBS had just let it be.

Duster76 · 07-15-2019, 10:35 PM

Dr. Thong wrote:

"Bottom line: Network meddling killed it. It got good ratings the first year, but then they tinkered with it and moved the time slot".

Ratings are like a lot of things, the devil is in the details. The show exploded out of the box pulling huge numbers, the question was, how many of those eyeballs were going to return week after week. Once the early sampling was over the rating started going down. By the time the last few season 1 episodes were airing the show was losing in its timeslot. The decline over the season forced changes to try to jumpstart the series, things like this are not done when a show is working. The network had a hit series at 8:00 and was looking to build an audience for the rest of the evening, AfterMASH was losing audience.

CBS had a potential hit on their hands with the well received Kate & Allie, a late arrival to the 83-84 schedule. For the 84-85 season the network built the Monday schedule around series that appealed to women. Scarecrow & Mrs. King featuring the popular Kate Jackson 8-9pm, Kate & Allie a contempory series about two divorced women with children living together, Newhart (a series that was retooled for season 3) and Cagney & Lacey 10-11pm to round it out. The network programmers seemed on their toes putting a schedule like this together, AfterMASH wasn't renewed until May so in spite of its early success it was on the bubble.

The second season was a fiasco, the rating were bad and the series was cancelled. The show behind it on Tuesday (E/R) actually did better than AfterMASH.

Chocolate Moose · 07-16-2019, 09:35 AM

I remember it being lame.

DEH55 · 05-24-2020, 04:31 PM

One of the major problems was that the 3 leads of the show were just supporting actors. They were not leads that were going to make a hit show. They were supporting actors on Mash for a reason. Mash would not have been a hit either if those 3 were carrying the show.

07-14-2019, 08:27 AM	#34
Dr. Thong a/k/a "ACK!" Forum Veteran Join Date: Jul 10, 2001 Location: New Hampshire, USA Posts: 5,545	Bottom line: Network meddling killed it. It got good ratings the first year, but then they tinkered with it and moved the time slot. After-MASH was never going to be the great show that it spun off from, but it could have had a good five year run or so if CBS had just let it be.
	__________________ "Sunday has been cancelled due to lack of interest. That is all."

07-16-2019, 09:35 AM	#36
Chocolate Moose Member Forum 4000 Club Member Join Date: Jan 21, 2007 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 4,881	I remember it being lame.
	__________________ How long a minute is, depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on.

07-15-2019, 10:35 PM	#35
Duster76 Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 01, 2008 Location: New jersey Posts: 1,639	Dr. Thong wrote: "Bottom line: Network meddling killed it. It got good ratings the first year, but then they tinkered with it and moved the time slot". Ratings are like a lot of things, the devil is in the details. The show exploded out of the box pulling huge numbers, the question was, how many of those eyeballs were going to return week after week. Once the early sampling was over the rating started going down. By the time the last few season 1 episodes were airing the show was losing in its timeslot. The decline over the season forced changes to try to jumpstart the series, things like this are not done when a show is working. The network had a hit series at 8:00 and was looking to build an audience for the rest of the evening, AfterMASH was losing audience. CBS had a potential hit on their hands with the well received Kate & Allie, a late arrival to the 83-84 schedule. For the 84-85 season the network built the Monday schedule around series that appealed to women. Scarecrow & Mrs. King featuring the popular Kate Jackson 8-9pm, Kate & Allie a contempory series about two divorced women with children living together, Newhart (a series that was retooled for season 3) and Cagney & Lacey 10-11pm to round it out. The network programmers seemed on their toes putting a schedule like this together, AfterMASH wasn't renewed until May so in spite of its early success it was on the bubble. The second season was a fiasco, the rating were bad and the series was cancelled. The show behind it on Tuesday (E/R) actually did better than AfterMASH.

05-24-2020, 04:31 PM	#37
DEH55 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: May 19, 2020 Posts: 319	One of the major problems was that the 3 leads of the show were just supporting actors. They were not leads that were going to make a hit show. They were supporting actors on Mash for a reason. Mash would not have been a hit either if those 3 were carrying the show.