'Family Matters' Moves From ABC to CBS: Good Move Or Bad Move???

[Furienna]

Originally Posted by JO Sweet Heart

^^^ Steve started wearing a belt instead of his suspenders in the final season and I guess that is how it all started for Laura.

Yeah, that was the right girl for him.

[Furienna]

Originally Posted by JO Sweet Heart

^^^ I agree. Was it ever said why he was written out?

I believe Waldo went to school in another city.

[Neutronman67]

Not only that but laura felt bad for steve that not a single woman in the building out of hundreads did not want to kiss him she even dropped the price to 5 bucks for somebody to kiss him, i guess she felt that a simple kiss could boost his confidence after being humiliated, i guess it did cause they got married a few months later.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by bh7812

I wanted to comment on the two parts of your post I bolded:

HOLY CRAP!!! So they WERE considering a good sized renewal for both shows eh!? At the time, I had read and heard they definitely wanted to renew both, but couldn't decide if it was going to be a 1 or 2 year renewal, then they couldn't decide if they wanted the shows anymore at all, and it went back and forth for a while. So, now we know they wanted a 2 year renewal. That renewal, and ending their runs on ABC would have been the BEST thing for both shows I think. For two reasons..One ABC would have given them both proper actual Series Finales. Two, ABC could have kept TGIF popular for just a bit longer than they were able to in the end. Family Matters, Step By Step and Boy Meets World would have all had their Series Finales within a year of each other. Again, it woulda been better for the shows and the network that way.

Then came the move to CBS. Strategically, and creatively, any of the other networks would have killed to have gotten both shows and have their own TGIF type block. Seriously, a lot of broadcast and cable networks were beside themselves trying to put together a Friday Night Block that could compete and do as well as ABC did with the concept but never succeeded. CBS had an incredible chance. Conceptually, the Friday Night Block Party was dead on the exact right idea. The shows they got to anchor it..again bulls eye. CBS's problem then was the much much older audience who would not dare be caught watching TV on Friday night in Prime Time let alone two sitcoms like Family Matters and Step By Step. The shows went to the wrong network demographic wise. There was no way the concept would work on CBS with their huge older audience. I applaud Les Moonves for taking the shot and risk, I truly do. He was truly excited about it at the time, and had fully planned to give both shows at least 2 more seasons on CBS. He wanted to give those shows a great home and of that I have no doubt. But again demographics. I think CBS's worst mistake though was just suddenly cancelling both shows and not giving either show time to put together proper Series Finales. Neither show deserved no series finale The final problem CBS had with the Block Party was Meego, the show with Bronson Pinchot. On paper that should have been a third bulls eye..but after being so used to seeing him as Balki for so many years, I think people were wanting and expecting to see Balki again, not some brand new alien character. The Gregory Hines Show was good clean fun from what I did see of it and I thank Gregory for giving time to do that project. If Family Matters and Step By Step HAD to go to another network, NBC would have been a far better choice and I've wondered for years if they were offered the shows and what their reaction may have been.

Les Moonves before he came to CBS, was the head of Lorimar and later Warner Bros. Television, who produced Family Matters and Step by Step. So it isn't that surprising that those shows would inevitably find a way to CBS.

[Hawkee]

The main reason I think Family Matters moved to CBS along with Step By Step was because CBS was trying to copy ABC's TGIF lineup with a lineup of sitcoms of their very own called The CBS Block Party in the 90's but for some reason when it came to CBS and sitcoms in the 90's CBS was always the strongest link for sitcoms but some didn't work out well. I think the problem with Family Matters was ABC was trying to save Family Matters from ending since JoMarie Payton was gone and replaced by Judyann Elder but when that happened CBS got their hands on the show because THEY thought ABC was gonna end Family Matters but they managed to save it for at least one more season. I think out of all the sitcoms the Miller/Boyett produced sitcoms always seemed to last a long time. Look at The Hogan Family and Full House and Perfect Strangers and they lasted a long time. Step By Step began in 1991 and when it was moved from ABC to CBS they thought the same thing for Step By Step and it worked. But it mainly was because I think CBS wanted to get all the 90's Miller/Boyett sitcoms from ABC and signed a secret deal to do it
Bestie

[TMC]

Originally Posted by mets82

I do remember CBS getting into the Friday night TGIF type of block when they got Family Matters and Step by Step. I think both shows were gone anyway. If both shows were a year old and then went to CBS, it would have been a hell of a deal for CBS. By the time they got to CBS, the shows were pretty much over.

Btw, how did Laura wind up falling for Steve? I dont even remember that.

I think that the CBS Block Party flopped because Family Matters and Step by Step were already on their last legs by the time that they moved over from ABC. And Family Matters in itself, had already became damaged goods do to all of the increasingly stupid and insane plots that they were pulling out relating to Steve Urkel's inventions.

Audiences you could argue (and this is according to Dark Side of Comedy), by that point, were gravitating to sitcoms like Friends or Frasier over at NBC. Miller-Boyett's brand of sitcoms was losing its relevancy come 1998-99.

Also, if you put on similar shows for the same target audience on the same night, then you're naturally bound to split the audience. Plus, I don't know how much of a good fit those shows were on CBS because as others have pointed out, CBS at the time, typically skewed towards older viewers instead of kids and teenagers.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by bh7812

I wanted to comment on the two parts of your post I bolded:

HOLY CRAP!!! So they WERE considering a good sized renewal for both shows eh!? At the time, I had read and heard they definitely wanted to renew both, but couldn't decide if it was going to be a 1 or 2 year renewal, then they couldn't decide if they wanted the shows anymore at all, and it went back and forth for a while. So, now we know they wanted a 2 year renewal. That renewal, and ending their runs on ABC would have been the BEST thing for both shows I think. For two reasons..One ABC would have given them both proper actual Series Finales. Two, ABC could have kept TGIF popular for just a bit longer than they were able to in the end. Family Matters, Step By Step and Boy Meets World would have all had their Series Finales within a year of each other. Again, it woulda been better for the shows and the network that way.

Then came the move to CBS. Strategically, and creatively, any of the other networks would have killed to have gotten both shows and have their own TGIF type block. Seriously, a lot of broadcast and cable networks were beside themselves trying to put together a Friday Night Block that could compete and do as well as ABC did with the concept but never succeeded. CBS had an incredible chance. Conceptually, the Friday Night Block Party was dead on the exact right idea. The shows they got to anchor it..again bulls eye. CBS's problem then was the much much older audience who would not dare be caught watching TV on Friday night in Prime Time let alone two sitcoms like Family Matters and Step By Step. The shows went to the wrong network demographic wise. There was no way the concept would work on CBS with their huge older audience. I applaud Les Moonves for taking the shot and risk, I truly do. He was truly excited about it at the time, and had fully planned to give both shows at least 2 more seasons on CBS. He wanted to give those shows a great home and of that I have no doubt. But again demographics. I think CBS's worst mistake though was just suddenly cancelling both shows and not giving either show time to put together proper Series Finales. Neither show deserved no series finale The final problem CBS had with the Block Party was Meego, the show with Bronson Pinchot. On paper that should have been a third bulls eye..but after being so used to seeing him as Balki for so many years, I think people were wanting and expecting to see Balki again, not some brand new alien character. The Gregory Hines Show was good clean fun from what I did see of it and I thank Gregory for giving time to do that project. If Family Matters and Step By Step HAD to go to another network, NBC would have been a far better choice and I've wondered for years if they were offered the shows and what their reaction may have been.

"13 Week Theater" did a video on the failure of Meego. It argues that Meego failed in part because it was produced on video tape instead film. This not only made Meego look very low budget by 1998 network prime time standards (especially for a special effects heavy show), but also felt very off-brand with the three other sitcoms (Family Matters, Step by Step, and The Gregory Hines Show) on the CBS Block Party line-up, which were all produced on film. As a result, Meego really stood out for all of the wrong reasons.

Secondarily, the scripts were very juvenile, even by Miller-Boyett standards. They relied on cheap jokes and seemed to be aimed strictly at young kids instead of the entire family like with TGIF on ABC or what CBS presumably intended to do with the Block Party. All in all, Meego felt like one of those first-run syndicated sitcoms that ran in the afternoons or weekends from back in the day like Small Wonder than in prime time on a major network like CBS. Variety argued that Meego felt like a Saturday morning show that just so happened to be in a Friday night timeslot.

[Wildchats]

Growing up I watched this all the time, but when I started high school I rarely watched it anymore once 1996 came about. However, I can't recall the character of Myra. And she was on there before 1996, I believe! I don't even remember Maxine much. I just remember Laura, Eddie, Steve, Richie and Waldo. I don't even recall Eddie's friends, et. I just recall stuff from the main cast. I can't even recall Rachel leaving or Estelle getting less and less episodes and time on the show.

The show was always on earliest, if I can recall, so I'd watch it first before all the others on TGIF. I was 7 when it came out in 1989. Up until I was 13 I clearly recall watching TGIF, maybe even 14 up until 1997. But then I started working when I was a sophomore in early 1998 and by that time I had stopped watching it completely as i felt it ended in spring of 1997.


But I do in fact remember in spring of 1997 watching TGIF and the season finale of season 8. They promoted it as the "final fling" or something. At that time I didn't have internet until the year later in February of 1998, so I couldn't research on that. I asked my classmate if the show was ending and they were clueless (he was the caucasian Steve Urkle, too!) and he had no clue as he wasn't into the show as much as I was.

So watcing "A Pirate's Life" or whatever that last one was, I felt it was the end and I stopped watching. I felt it was the series finale and I never tuned into TGIF again. Even if I had, that and Step By Step were moving to CBS, and maybe I might have mis-heard that finale promo as being the last episode and just interpreted it as that. I just couldn't understand them ending it with a dumb episode like that and didn't think that was smart to close the show up on.

Then I checked the episode guide when I got the internet more than a year later in fall of 1998 or around that time and realized the show came back and was on CBS and was cancelled with no season 10....

I didn't even know or recall Laura ended up with Steve towards the end. I watched the show but I was more a watcher in the earlier seasons and I just blanked out Myra and whoever else wasn't on the cast or who was less on the show than the main cast.

When I watched the show's season 9 episodes later I didn't care for the last season. I even didn't care for season 8 or 7 or when Laura got older.

I feel the show should have started to wrap up around the time Eddie, Steve and Waldo got that apartment together. I remember watching that one I believe in first run. Not sure if they stayed at it or left shortly after, et. but that' around the time it should have ended. It did go on too long, BUT it was the best show on TGIF and it should have gotten that 10th season to close it up. They should have done it right in season 9 and not sent Steve into Space.

The Christmas episode of season 9, that's the end of the end. It shouldn't have gone on longer, or if it had, the 1998 episodes should have only been a few so Jo Marie could have agreed to do them as they would have been the last 3/4.


They should have ended the show with a several part storyline in January of 1998 and married off Steve and Laura, Eddie and Greta and Waldo and Maxine. Also, Rachel should have returned home for good that Christmas of 1997 and been part of those last episodes.

[Furienna]

Originally Posted by Wildchats

Growing up I watched this all the time, but when I started high school I rarely watched it anymore once 1996 came about. However, I can't recall the character of Myra. And she was on there before 1996, I believe! I don't even remember Maxine much. I just remember Laura, Eddie, Steve, Richie and Waldo. I don't even recall Eddie's friends, et. I just recall stuff from the main cast. I can't even recall Rachel leaving or Estelle getting less and less episodes and time on the show.

The show was always on earliest, if I can recall, so I'd watch it first before all the others on TGIF. I was 7 when it came out in 1989. Up until I was 13 I clearly recall watching TGIF, maybe even 14 up until 1997. But then I started working when I was a sophomore in early 1998 and by that time I had stopped watching it completely as i felt it ended in spring of 1997.


But I do in fact remember in spring of 1997 watching TGIF and the season finale of season 8. They promoted it as the "final fling" or something. At that time I didn't have internet until the year later in February of 1998, so I couldn't research on that. I asked my classmate if the show was ending and they were clueless (he was the caucasian Steve Urkle, too!) and he had no clue as he wasn't into the show as much as I was.

So watcing "A Pirate's Life" or whatever that last one was, I felt it was the end and I stopped watching. I felt it was the series finale and I never tuned into TGIF again. Even if I had, that and Step By Step were moving to CBS, and maybe I might have mis-heard that finale promo as being the last episode and just interpreted it as that. I just couldn't understand them ending it with a dumb episode like that and didn't think that was smart to close the show up on.

Then I checked the episode guide when I got the internet more than a year later in fall of 1998 or around that time and realized the show came back and was on CBS and was cancelled with no season 10....

I didn't even know or recall Laura ended up with Steve towards the end. I watched the show but I was more a watcher in the earlier seasons and I just blanked out Myra and whoever else wasn't on the cast or who was less on the show than the main cast.

When I watched the show's season 9 episodes later I didn't care for the last season. I even didn't care for season 8 or 7 or when Laura got older.

I feel the show should have started to wrap up around the time Eddie, Steve and Waldo got that apartment together. I remember watching that one I believe in first run. Not sure if they stayed at it or left shortly after, et. but that' around the time it should have ended. It did go on too long, BUT it was the best show on TGIF and it should have gotten that 10th season to close it up. They should have done it right in season 9 and not sent Steve into Space.

The Christmas episode of season 9, that's the end of the end. It shouldn't have gone on longer, or if it had, the 1998 episodes should have only been a few so Jo Marie could have agreed to do them as they would have been the last 3/4.


They should have ended the show with a several part storyline in January of 1998 and married off Steve and Laura, Eddie and Greta and Waldo and Maxine. Also, Rachel should have returned home for good that Christmas of 1997 and been part of those last episodes.

Myra was a part of the main cast from the 6th season onwords.
Besides, Steve and Laura are the worst sitcom couple ever and should never have gotten married.

And lastly, I believe that that pirate episode was in the middle of the season and wasn't meant to the last episode at all.

[Lorimar Television]

Originally Posted by Furienna

Myra was a part of the main cast from the 6th season onwords.
Besides, Steve and Laura are the worst sitcom couple ever and should never have gotten married.

And lastly, I believe that that pirate episode was in the middle of the season and wasn't meant to the last episode at all.

Yeah that ep was terrible