I Am Shocked! 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' Was Never A #1 Show?!?

[OH Nuts!]

Originally Posted by PGood97041

The Mary Tyler Moore Show was No. 1 in my ratings book, and still is!

I too am a lot fonder of it than the ratings it garnered - in many respects it's #1 in my book too. (Who can turn the world on with her smile? - Mary!!! (everyday's a holiday with Mary - OH!! - that's a different Mary but it applies to our lovely Ms. Richards too! - ALSO..."practically perfect in every way!")

[LittleRickyII]

Ratings don't tell the whole story. There have been some fantastic shows over the years that didn't get good ratings. Still, TMTMS spent several years in the top 10, and that's pretty good, especially for a Saturday night show. And one place it always scored well, every season it was on the air, was at the Emmy Awards. The year it got the most wins was the fifth season (6 wins); the year it got the most nominations was the seventh season (12 nominations). Altogether, it received 29 wins out of 65 nominations. Here's how it breaks down:

First Season: 4 wins out of 8 nominations. It won for Best Director in a Comedy (Sandrich), Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Harper), Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Asner) and Outstanding Writing in a Comedy (Brooks and Burns).

Second Season: 2 wins out of 8 nominations. It won for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Harper) and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Asner).

Third Season: 4 wins out of 8 nominations. It won for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy (Moore), Best Director in a Comedy (Sandrich), Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Harper), Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Knight).

Fourth Season: 5 wins out of 10 nominations. It won for Actress of the Year in a Series (Moore) Best Lead Actress in a Comedy (Moore), Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Leachman), Best Writer in a Comedy (Silverman), Writer of the Year in a Series (Silverman).

Fifth Season: 6 wins out of 9 nominations. It won for Outstanding Comedy Series; Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Asner); Outstanding Continuing Performance by Supporting Actress in a Comedy (White), Outstanding Film Editing in a Comedy, Single Episode (Douglas Hines); Outstanding Single Performance by Supporting Actress (Leachman); Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (Weinberger, Daniels).

Sixth Season: 5 wins out of 10 nominations. It won for Outstanding Comedy Series; Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Knight); Outstanding Continuing Performance by Supporting Actress in a Comedy (White), Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy (Moore); Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (Lloyd).

Seventh Season: 3 wins out of 12 nominations. It won for Outstanding Comedy Series; Outstanding Film Editing in a Comedy Series (Douglas Hines); Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (Burns, Brooks, Weinberger, Daniels, Lloyd, Ellison)

[James28]

About the season-end ratings for the 1972-73 season, I could have swapped the #7 ranking and 23.6 average rating that The Mary Tyler Moore Show had during that season with the #5 rank (and 24.2 average rating) of Bridget Loves Bernie (which only ran for one season).

Plus, I think it is hard to tell if The MTM Show would have ranked #1 in the Nielsen Ratings if All in the Family had aired on ABC or NBC, or had never aired at all. I would have saw The MTM Show succeed Here's Lucy as CBS's flagship sitcom in either scenario, then it probably would have been a top-five show.

[Doug-oh]

I think there's too much focus on ratings, or, in music, chart position.

Many other great TV shows weren't big ratings winners, or in the Top 10.

-My Three Sons. I think it hit thea Top 10 one season in its (overly long) 12-year run.

-Leave It To Beaver. One of the greatest sitcoms ever. Look how well it's held up over the decades and how many times it's run.
Yet... I don't think it ever made the Top 20.

-Twilight Zone. Considered one of the greatest sci-fi (and overall TV) series ever.
The show was often a ratings "loser" and often faced cancellation.
To save costs, CBS ordered the producers to shoot 6 of the episodes in VIDEOTAPE, which lowered the production quality.

Some well-loved songs which never topped the charts:
-Brown-Eyed Girl. The Van Morrison song from 1966 peaked @ No. 10, hardly the No. 1 it sounds like when played on oldies radio.

-God Only Knows. The Brian Wilson/Beach Boys masterpiece only hit No. 39 on the charts (it was the flip side of Wouldn't It Be Nice from 1966).
From charts I've seen online, the song hit No 2 in Pittsburgh and in other areas, but not as high nationally.
Paul McCartney called it "the most beautiful song ever."

[Doug-oh]

Here's insight on how My Three Sons fared in ratings.
Yet, the show was successful enough to run for 12 seasons !!!

It likely drew a loyal and sizeable audience.

http://www.metv.com/lists/13-fascina...-my-three-sons
Despite its historic run, the sitcom never cracked the Top 10.

Despite its popularity, My Three Sons interestingly never ranked in the top 10. The closest it came was in season two, when it hit No. 11 on the Nielsen charts.

[Dr. Thong]

The show was so critically acclaimed and well remembered that is probably seemed or felt like it was a #1 hit.

It is hard to believe, though, but again, this is an argument for the saying "perception is reality," because I'm sure some people will swear it was a #1 show.

[Doug-oh]

Originally Posted by Dr. Thong

The show was so critically acclaimed and well remembered that is probably seemed or felt like it was a #1 hit.

It is hard to believe, though, but again, this is an argument for the saying "perception is reality," because I'm sure some people will swear it was a #1 show.

Positions on ratings charts -- on Billboard Hot 100 charts -- don't really tell the whole story.

Take Louie, Louie - that great 1960s party-rocker by The Kingsmen.
The song, which is always on party rock CD compilations and heard at parties as much as Wooly Bully (No. 2, 1965), sure sounds like a No. 1 hit.

Guess what position Louie, Louie charted?

NO. 2.....



Louie, Louie remained blocked from the Top Spot in December of 1963 because another song ....
... Dominque by The Singing Nun, which stayed at No.1 for FIVE WEEKS !!

Now, I wager that few remember The Singing Nun.
You rarely, if ever, hear that song on oldies radio, even when oldies FMs played real oldies... i.e. from 1950s and 1960s.

Louie, Louie did hit No. 1 on one chart... The Cashbox charts.

As for Wooly Bully:
It became a worldwide success, selling three million copies and reaching No. 2 on the American Hot 100 chart on June 5–12, 1965, kept off the top by The Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda"[3] and The Supremes' "Back in My Arms Again".[4]

[Doug-oh]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Well from my research it appears that MTM went up against these shows

NBC saturday Movie
Most Deadly Game-ABC
ABC Movie of the Weekend
Streets of San Francisco-ABC
ABC Suspense Movie
Kung Fu-ABC
SWAT-ABC
Starsky and Hutch-ABC

Today, only 2 of those shows occasionally appear in syndication. And they're not big winners.

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Brian you know Norman Lear Sitcoms RULED in the 70's era. MTM could not compete with any of the shows below

All in the Family
Maude
Sanford and Son
Good Times
Jeffersons
One Day at a Time


That was too much competition-lol

Only one or 2 of those appears in syndication today.... and isn't shown that much at that. Those shows are often one the lesser channels.
Not as much as MTM, which is known worldwide.

The others were good shows, but nothing like MTM.
AITF was cursed with too much politics... hence it's highly dated.

One thing Bob Newhart said was his 1970s show (and 80s one) wasn't going to do President Ford jokes. He was wise not dating it that way.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Doug-oh

Today, only 2 of those shows occasionally appear in syndication. And they're not big winners.


Only one or 2 of those appears in syndication today.... and isn't shown that much at that. Those shows are often one the lesser channels.
Not as much as MTM, which is known worldwide.

The others were good shows, but nothing like MTM.
AITF was cursed with too much politics... hence it's highly dated.

One thing Bob Newhart said was his 1970s show (and 80s one) wasn't going to do President Ford jokes. He was wise not dating it that way.

All of those Norman Lear shows are in syndication in 2021

[Alan Brady's Hair]

No one thought of MTM like it was a #1 show. All in the Family was such a phenomenon that there was no room for discussion. At its peak, its audience was 20% bigger then the #2 show.

Oil shortages caused gasoline prices to go up in the early 1970s, so for a few years people drove a lot less. So for a while Saturday was a TV night.

[Dr. Thong]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

No one thought of MTM like it was a #1 show. All in the Family was such a phenomenon that there was no room for discussion. At its peak, its audience was 20% bigger then the #2 show.

Oil shortages caused gasoline prices to go up in the early 1970s, so for a few years people drove a lot less. So for a while Saturday was a TV night.

And with a lineup like that, it was probably worth staying home for.

I remember my Dad saying that back in the 1950s, he and my Mom wouldn't go out on a Saturday night until they'd seen Jackie Gleason.

[James28]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

All I can say is WOW! I was always under the impression that TMTMS was #1 for at Least a season. Heck, it wasn't even a top 5 hit! The closest it got was 7th place, which is good, but I am shocked by this news.

I bet you'll also be surprised that The Carol Burnett Show never even made it into the Top-10 in the annual Nielsen Ratings, either. it's highest ranking? #13 (with a 22.1 rating) during its third season in 1969-70. Other comedy-variety shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Red Skelton Show, and The Flip Wilson Show got at high as #2, while Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In did, in fact, reach #1.

[Alan Brady's Hair]

Rowan and Martin broke a lot of ground that other shows get credit for, and was a true phenomenon.