Article from February of 1980 regarding the collapse of L&S in 1979-80 season

[TVFactFan]

Article by Gary Deeb, Philadelphia Daily News, February 15, 1980

"Last week Steven Kampmann was talking about WKRP in Cincinnati.". The As story editor of the CBS comedy series, Kampmann is proud the program's quality, its popularity, and particularly the way "WKRP" trounces Laverne and Shirley in the battle for viewers each Monday night. "By beating that show, we're doing America a tremendous favor" he declared.

He didnt swagger when he said it. He didnt even smile. Indeed, his voice carried a low-key ring of the sincerity, not to mention a hint of relief. The fact that Laverne and Shirley, is one of the loudest, most lamebrained comedies to every make it big on television, is dying a slow, painful death this season and its a mighty pleasant sight.


Penny Marshall, a 40 year old woman attempting to portray a girl barely past 20, finally has worn out finally her welcome with the mass Tv audience. The way things shape up, "Laverne and Shirley" will probably limp along for another year or so before fading into oblivion and reruns. The fall from grace came unexpectedly for L&S. Two years ago it was TV's most popular program, last year it ranked 2nd to only Three's Company, this season its battling desperately to stay in the top 40.


The precise reasons behind the plummet are difficult to pinpoint. Obviously, ABC program executives outguessed themselves last September when they moved Laverne and Shirley from its longtime Tuesday night slot(After Happy Days) to Thursday Nights. Against the seemingly easy competition of the tired "Waltons" series on CBS and newcomer "Buck Rogers" on NBC, L&S surprisingly just managed to hold its own.

With an audience falloff of 35 percent from last year, the program was sinking fast. So ABC recently moved it to Monday nights opposite "WKRP" and the "Little House on the Prairie." The result: a complete cave in. Laverne and Shirley now finishes dead-last in its Monday night time period, attracting less than half the number of viewers registered by "Little House." The ABC comedy has also yet to come close to "WKRP" in the audience tally.

The switching of Laverne and Shirley away from Tuesday Night certainly may account for part of its current dip in the ratings, a rival network executive said. "But I think there's more to it than that. A superpoular program doesn't get wiped out overnight simply because of a change of timeslot. I think what's happened is the overall TV audience has become fed up the high-decibel, pratfall style of comedy that's been popular since the mid 1970's."

By way of illustrating his theory, the programmer pointed to "Happy Days" which remained in its Tuesday Night time slot and nevertheless has lost 25 percent of its audience since last year, and to Mork and Mindy, now back in its old Thursday Night slot and still down nearly 30 percent from its 1979 high point. "Viewers are now rejecting the comedy formulas they embraced as recently as 8 or 9 months ago, " the network official insisted. "I don't know why but the knockabout, slapsticky comedies just aren't cutting it anymore."

But ABC refuses to give up. Starting later this month, the network will return Laverne and Shirley to its old home--the 830pm Tuesday slot (Eastern time) immediately following Happy Days. Clearly, the former No. 1 network, which is now runner up to CBS in the night time audience ratings. is praying for a return to days past.

It doesn't seem likely, however, Laverne and Shirley is a low rent comedy that always goes for the easy cheap laugh. The lead characters constantly chew gum, fall down, shout, behave like morons, and resort to a pattern of verbal insults that the Hollywood production crowd apparently believes is representative of blue-collar America.

[TVFactFan]

Why would ABC wait so late to move the show back to its previous successful time slot on Tuesday night? You can see it didnt change anything because the show still struggled to stay in the top 40 even with the move back to Tuesday nights

[Missygal21880]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Why would ABC wait so late to move the show back to its previous successful time slot on Tuesday night? You can see it didnt change anything because the show still struggled to stay in the top 40 even with the move back to Tuesday nights

Per this contemporaneous interview with Penny, ABC kept promising to put the series back on Tuesdays when/if the ratings got "Crummy" enough. Quoting Penny: "So we kept sending messages, ‘Is this crummy enough?' It hasn’t been a great year.”

Karma really came for this story editor's bragging/WKRP itself; it started leaking viewers like mad pretty soon after this because CBS moved it hither and yon all over the schedule over its second/third season. They only got one more season before they were cancelled and then scuttled to syndication, where it actually DID become a bigger hit and lead to The New WKRP

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Missygal21880

Per this contemporaneous interview with Penny, ABC kept promising to put the series back on Tuesdays when/if the ratings got "Crummy" enough. Quoting Penny: "So we kept sending messages, ‘Is this crummy enough?' It hasn’t been a great year.”

Karma really came for this story editor's bragging/WKRP itself; it started leaking viewers like mad pretty soon after this because CBS moved it hither and yon all over the schedule over its second/third season. They only got one more season before they were cancelled and then scuttled to syndication, where it actually DID become a bigger hit and lead to The New WKRP

yeah I see it was moved 4 times in the 1980-81 season

[icecream]

Is this the same Steven Kampmann who went on to co-star in the first two seasons of Newhart? I did not picture him as a WKRP writer at all.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by icecream

Is this the same Steven Kampmann who went on to co-star in the first two seasons of Newhart? I did not picture him as a WKRP writer at all.

That's him


Steven Kampmann is an American screenwriter and film director. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Kampmann was one of the main writers for the radio station-themed sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati" (1978-1981). As one of the show's producers, he was nominated for a 1981 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. The award was instead won by rival television series "Taxi" (1978-1983).

In the 1980s, Kampman was credited as co-writer in a number of films, including the college themed comedy "Back to School" (1986), the impostor-themed comedy "The Couch Trip" (1988), and the nostalgia-themed drama "Stealing Home" (1988). He was also the director of "Stealing Home", and he reportedly incorporated autobiographic elements to the film's narrative.

During the 1990s, his only screenwriting credit (under a pseudonym) was the comedy "Clifford" (1994), one of several box-office flops for Orion Pictures. In the 2000s, his only screenwriting credit was the Christmas television film "Special Delivery" (2000).

In 2012, Kampmann attempted a comeback by directing and scripting the serial killer-themed comedy "BuzzKill" (2012). In 2017, "Clifford" was remade into a new film called "Maurice!". Kampmann received a writing credit for the remake, since it reused elements from his original script.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimos I

[Missygal21880]

Things I didn't know!

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Missygal21880

Things I didn't know!

I been on this site 20 years and just caught that about L&S collapsing after being #1 previous season