ABC during the Capital-Cities era of ownership (1985-1996) - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 05-27-2022, 04:40 AM

What's your overall thoughts of this time period? I'm bringing this up because Thomas S. Murphy, who was the former Capital Cities CEO who acquired and transformed ABC in 1985 and sold it to Disney 10 years later just died. According to the New York Times article that I linked, it was under Murphy's leadership, that ABC's viewership rose, particularly among younger viewers. And ABC became so attractive that Disney ultimately purchased the network for $19 billion in 1995.

Yong Fang · 05-27-2022, 10:35 AM

This was in the era of the Big 3 networks. Fox came in, when about 1987? So even in the 1980’s the Big 3 networks dominated broadcasting and had all the new shows. So ABC was undoubtedly a money maker and did fine. ABC had Monday Night Football. ABC had a lot of good sitcoms, the biggest being Roseanne which got higher ratings than Cosby. Had The Wonder Years, Whose the Boss, Coach. Plus it had some good shows on Friday like Full House and Perfect Strangers, with Mr Belevdere. Those shows were Miller Boyette productions which were fairly inexpensive to make which brought a good return. For me, I have never seen Perfect Strangers or Mr Belvedere but I know them. The network also had Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and Dynasty.

Seems that ABC was doing quite well for themselves then and who did programming for the network did a good job. I remember those times and liked a lot of their sitcom offerings. Disney wanted to buy ABC because it was profitable and I think was about the number one network then. CBS (in my opinion) wasn’t that good in the 1980’s except for shows like Dallas. I think back then for NBC and ABC was to beat CBS, since CBS from the 1950’s has always been the number one network. Now the networks have about ten times more competition plus the internet.

05-27-2022, 04:40 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 127,631	ABC during the Capital-Cities era of ownership (1985-1996) What's your overall thoughts of this time period? I'm bringing this up because Thomas S. Murphy, who was the former Capital Cities CEO who acquired and transformed ABC in 1985 and sold it to Disney 10 years later just died. According to the New York Times article that I linked, it was under Murphy's leadership, that ABC's viewership rose, particularly among younger viewers. And ABC became so attractive that Disney ultimately purchased the network for $19 billion in 1995.

05-27-2022, 10:35 AM	#2
Yong Fang Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 04, 2009 Location: Memphis Tennessee Posts: 3,072	This was in the era of the Big 3 networks. Fox came in, when about 1987? So even in the 1980’s the Big 3 networks dominated broadcasting and had all the new shows. So ABC was undoubtedly a money maker and did fine. ABC had Monday Night Football. ABC had a lot of good sitcoms, the biggest being Roseanne which got higher ratings than Cosby. Had The Wonder Years, Whose the Boss, Coach. Plus it had some good shows on Friday like Full House and Perfect Strangers, with Mr Belevdere. Those shows were Miller Boyette productions which were fairly inexpensive to make which brought a good return. For me, I have never seen Perfect Strangers or Mr Belvedere but I know them. The network also had Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and Dynasty. Seems that ABC was doing quite well for themselves then and who did programming for the network did a good job. I remember those times and liked a lot of their sitcom offerings. Disney wanted to buy ABC because it was profitable and I think was about the number one network then. CBS (in my opinion) wasn’t that good in the 1980’s except for shows like Dallas. I think back then for NBC and ABC was to beat CBS, since CBS from the 1950’s has always been the number one network. Now the networks have about ten times more competition plus the internet.