The 1980-1983 era was a bad time for sitcoms

[TMC]

2001 was in hindsight, a pretty bad or lackluster year for sitcoms too:

Scrubs debuted in 2001, which was not a great year for comedy debuts: Do you remember Off Centre? How about Men, Women & Dogs? Raising Dad? Bob Patterson? Maybe It's Me? Ellen DeGeneres's second sitcom, The Ellen Show? The late, great Undeclared debuted that season, too. The big new comedies from Scrubs' freshman class: Reba and According to Jim. You can't blame this on Americans not being ready to laugh or something after 9/11 either. These shows would have flopped anyway. Terrorism is not responsible for the failure of Emeril Lagassi's sitcom Emeril. America did that all by itself.

[Crusinforabrusin]

The entire 80s were bad for sitcoms. Not too many good ones came out in that decade that I like. Most 80s sitcoms were those "Cheesy" shows like Full House, ALF, Family Ties, Family Matters, etc. The only non-cheesy sitcoms of the 80s I like are Cheers, The Golden Girls, Newhart,And Empty Nest

[TMC]

1981-82 Sitcom Scorecard -- The Tide Changes as CBS Revivives and ABC Ages

1983-84 Sitcom Scorecard -- No More Happy Days for One Day at a Time as Three's Company Becomes a Crowd

http://www.tvratingsguide.com/2017/0...works-are.html

Trending Cold -- Sitcoms experienced a downturn of failures as longstanding fares like Happy Days Three's Company and One Day at a Time left the air. Only CBS' Kate and Allie was handed a renewal as sitcom freshmans were stuffed into cancellation lockers. Can one blame them, as viewers were handed stinkers such as Jennifer Slept here.

1984-85 Sitcoms -- NBC Says No to Soaps as ABC and CBS Binge on Dynasty and Dallas Cocaine

[visaman666]

Television was unwatchable in the mid 90's until Survivor debuted.

[cnnbcbs]

Originally Posted by visaman666

Television was unwatchable in the mid 90's until Survivor debuted.

Survivor debuted in 2000. Which is not considered part of the nineties even although technically 2000 was the last year of the decade since there was no year 'zero.'

[Mr. Television]

Actually when Survivor debuted network television JTS. And it's only gone down hill from there.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Crusinforabrusin

The entire 80s were bad for sitcoms. Not too many good ones came out in that decade that I like. Most 80s sitcoms were those "Cheesy" shows like Full House, ALF, Family Ties, Family Matters, etc. The only non-cheesy sitcoms of the 80s I like are Cheers, The Golden Girls, Newhart,And Empty Nest

American sitcoms in the '80s were initially weighed down with earnest and heavy-handed public service announcements and a very sanitized, suburban imagery that insulated us from the unrest of the '60s and '70s, in the same way that the '50s nuclear families were meant to wash away the Depression and World Wars.

It wasn't until shows like Married...with Children came along (in 1987), that we got an initially pretty spot on satire of both yuppies and the affluent families on most mainstream sitcoms of the time, particularly the notion of the parents as moral and behavioral paragons who always had the right answers. By the late late '80s and early '90s sitcoms (like MWC, Roseanne, and The Simpsons) started to become more cynical/sarcastic and satirical.

[TMC]

Another reason why sitcoms had it rough in the early part of the '80s because left over hits from the '70s made too many drastic and utterly bizarre changes:

• Happy Days - Ron Howard & Don Most leave but before that Arnold's burns down and a whole new Arnold's set is made. We then get Ted McGinley as Roger & many other characters. (Thankfully though, the show got back to more 'realistic' episodes. No more aliens, angels & bad guys.)
  
• Archie Bunker's Place (formerly All In The Family) : After Rob Reiner & Sally Struthers leave in early 1978, the show changes names & the Bunkers adopt a girl. Jean Stapleton stays 1 more year but then wants to leave and gives the green light for her character to be 'offed'. Then (like the show above) new & old characters fill the void. It all ends with no finale.
  
• Three's Company - The much publicized battle of Suzanne Somers vs. ABC. 2 roommate changes. The failed Ropers spin-off, leading to them replaced by Don Knotts.
  
• TAXI - Axed by ABC after 4 seasons, picked up by NBC but canceled again in 1983. Andy Kaufman dies 1 year later.
  
• One Day At A Time - McKenzie Phillips' substance abuse problems, Many new characters in 1980/1981.
  
• M*A*S*H - Mainly that they filmed more on the indoor set than at the outdoor 'ranch' set. This took away from the more realistic look of the show. Gary Burghoff's leaves as well.
  
• Mork & Mindy - ABC's infamous screwing with a show that wasn't broken. More 'topical' story-lines and firing Mindy's dad & Grandma, to bring in more 'youthful' cast members.
  
• The Dukes Of Hazzard - Schneider & Wopat walk out in a dispute and get replaced by clone characters Coy & Vance. Plus Enos (Sonny Shroyer) leaves for his own show & the new 'Duke' deputy isn't as funny. Enos flops & returns.
  
• Diff'rent Strokes - 3 housekeepers!
  
• Alice - 2 replacements for Flo, after Polly Holiday leaves for own show.
  
• The Jeffersons - Mainly (and this a subject of a TV Guide article) the show seemed to lose its edge. Or in the mag. article "The White-Washing of The Jeffersons". Meaning, the show had lost it's 'blackness' and/or issue oriented topics.

And then there was of course, the final season of Laverne & Shirley, where it was still called that even though Laverne was on her own now.

More or less, it was a time and period in which the networks were desperate to try anything that's why there were so many bad spin-offs and continuations of series that just fell flat.

[icecream]

Benson, the best sitcom of all time, started in September 1979 and aired all through the 1980-1983 era mentioned here. So I would definitely disagree with this sentiment.

[icecream]

Originally Posted by badbrainsfan

In case you haven't notice that Gimme A Break! & Webster aired for six seasons, at least those shows lasted longer than WKRP In Cinncinati.

They shouldn't have. WKRP was cancelled too soon, it is better than Gimme a Break! and Webster combined.

[Svenfan1234]

Originally Posted by catsrule

They shouldn't have. WKRP was cancelled too soon, it is better than Gimme a Break! and Webster combined.

Truth.

[bmasters9]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

Actually when Survivor debuted network television JTS. And it's only gone down hill from there.

My thoughts exactly! Survivor has never been a watchable show for me-- it boned on Day 1!

[TMC]

A byproduct of sitcoms going into decline in by the early '80s may be traced back to the 1979-80 season. ABC depending on who you ask, got greedy at the start of by breaking up its comedy blocks and trying to boost ratings on other nights. To go back a bit, they moved Laverne & Shirley from Tuesday nights (where it was paired with its parent show Happy Days, and was the #1 show on TV in its third and fourth seasons) to a different night in its fifth season (79-80) and it didn't work. Its (along with Mork & Mindy's) ratings plummeted. Ratings for L&S stabilized once it moved back to Tuesday but by this point, sitcoms as a whole were fading/getting long in the tooth/being eclipsed by prime time soaps and Dallas was the new #1 show.

[TMC]

Another reason why sitcoms in the '80s may have suffered is that they really didn't have continuing, over-arching storylines. Instead, they were typically stand-alone and open and shut cases. Therefore, there could be cases in which the writers would instantly or easily contradict themselves if you rewatch them. It's possible that a lot of shows in the '80s had multiple writers who didn't stay with a particular show for an entire season.

[TVFactFan]

Bad Time for NEW SITCOMS, Sitcoms that was already on the air was still top 10