MSTV Flops: A Look at THE SINGLE GUY

[TMC]

https://jacksonupperco.com/2018/07/1...he-single-guy/

In this week’s post, we’re looking at the Must See TV Thursday flop of all Must See TV Thursday flops: The Single Guy (1995-1997, NBC), which ran for two seasons, mostly in the cushy post-Friends slot at 8:30 on Thursdays, hammocked between that aforementioned hit and Seinfeld. I don’t know about you, but when I think of “MSTV Flops,” the first show that comes to mind is The Single Guy. Although it wasn’t the first comedy to strike out under this brand umbrella (you remember Madman Of The People?) and it didn’t manage to eke out visible mid-level runs — like Veronica’s Closet and Suddenly Susan, despite definite mediocrity — The Single Guy is rivaled only by Caroline In The City (which premiered that same season after Seinfeld) as the most physically reminiscent hammock of the two low-concept “singles in the city” tentpoles. This was intentional. As we’ve explored, NBC wanted to replicate the look and feel of its two Thursday successes so that their sizable audiences would stick around and become fans of these new series, thereby allowing the network to evangelize and spread its sitcom dominance to other nights. (Like it did by moving Frasier and Wings to Tuesdays in 1994-’95, and Mad About You and Hope & Gloria to Sundays in 1995-’96.) But none of NBC’s past and future attempts, while sometimes qualitatively worse, is as egregiously responsible for the negative connotations associated with the “singles in the city” template as The Single Guy, which unlike Caroline, never proved it could stand on its own outside Thursday.