NBC Set Up The Mothers-in-Law to Fail

[icecream]

Being stuck against long-running The F.B.I. and iconic The Ed Sullivan Show plus an incompatible lead-in killed it. I am really liking this show seeing it for the first time on LAFF. With just two seasons it naturally hasn't been syndicated like long-running 60s sitcoms (that didn't stop The Munsters and The Addams Family but they were the exceptions to the rule). I Dream of Jeannie or Get Smart would have been a lot better lead-ins giving it a chance of success. Or at least put The Mothers-in-Law an hour earlier Sundays at 7:30 with the Disney show at 8:00 so it didn't have that stiff competition.

[1960'sTVfan]

I prefer season 1 over season 2, mainly because I think Richard Deacon was an odd choice to replace Roger Carmel, with Carmel having left the series after season 1. I've thought that Avery Schreiber would have been a better choice to replace Carmel but I don't know if Avery was asked or even considered for the role.

The Bill Cosby Show took over for The Mothers In Law in 1969-70, that series also ran for two seasons and then The Jimmy Stewart Show had a one season run in 1971-72. After that, NBC started doing those mystery movie series like Banacek, McMillan and Wife, Colombo, etc.

[icecream]

Today's episodes were all from season 1. Richard Deacon was great in Leave it to Beaver and The Dick Van Dyke Show. But he does look a lot different than Roger Carmel.

[rcbrad]

Originally Posted by icecream

Being stuck against long-running The F.B.I. and iconic The Ed Sullivan Show plus an incompatible lead-in killed it. I am really liking this show seeing it for the first time on LAFF. With just two seasons it naturally hasn't been syndicated like long-running 60s sitcoms (that didn't stop The Munsters and The Addams Family but they were the exceptions to the rule). I Dream of Jeannie or Get Smart would have been a lot better lead-ins giving it a chance of success. Or at least put The Mothers-in-Law an hour earlier Sundays at 7:30 with the Disney show at 8:00 so it didn't have that stiff competition.

The Mothers in Law was fairly widely syndicated in the 70's, despite the fact that it did not meet the usual episode threshold for syndication. It was still being shown in the 80's, as it still aired in the Philadelphia area during this time. Other stations were airing it too, but probably not as many as the decade before.

[cd637299]

With Ed Sullivan against it, I doubt it woulda mattered. It was a really big shoe!! Seemingly whatever preceded the mighty Bonanza on NBC then was a different audience. TMIL followed Disney too. Disney owned 7:30-8:30, and moving it head to head vs Ed wouldn’t have been wise.

I consider The Mothers-in-Law as a 60s I Love Lucy, sans the physical comedy. Heck—Desi Arnaz was the man in charge, along with some of the same ILL writers, and even Wilbur Hatch did the theme.

I will watch it if I have nothing better to do, but Saturday mornings I either sleep in, or go to yard sales.

cd

[Duster76]

The two year tenure of The Mothers-In-Law was part of the TV scheduling paradox of the 1960's, the outrageous good fortune of being bookended by two mega hit series, The Wonderful World of Disney 7:30-8:30pm and Bonanza 9-10pm, who could want for anything more. As it turned out what appeared to be the French Riviera turned out to be the Bermuda Triangle of time slots. Here's a list of the shows that sailed in never to sail out:

(The slot opens in 1961-62 when The Wonderful World of Disney is scheduled in the 7:30-8:30 position with Bonanza already occupying the 9pm-10pm slot. This programming slot would exist until 72-73 when Bonanza was moved to Tuesday.)

Car 54, Where Are You?

Two seasons, first, did very well, second, not so well, cancelled.

Grindl

One season, cancelled

The Bill Dana Show

Half a season. This show was cancelled, it had been moved into this timeslot after a mediocre first season as the 7:00-7:30 show on Sunday.

Branded

Season and a half.

Hey, Landlord

One season

The Mothers-in-Law

Two seasons

The Bill Cosby Show

Two Seasons

The Jimmy Stewart Show

One season

The two series that had the most success in that time slot were The Bill Cosby Show and Car 54, Where Are You?, both shows were top 20 hits their first season and both series had a significant drop in their second season.


There were a lot of things wrong with this show, one of the major problems was the casting which I discussed in another thread. With respect to the time slot, NBC did not have many half hour shows, there were only 7 slots for the 67-68 season. One of the seven slots was held by The Mothers-In-Law, the other slots were held by three returning series, one returning series (I Dream of Jeannie) was moved into the 7:30 Tuesday slot. So that leaves only two openings, Friday at 9:30 pm between Star Trek and The Bell Telephone Hour/other specials/news programming, the final slot was the 7:00 pm slot before Disney. Jerry Van Dyke's series Accidental Family held the Friday slot, he complained bitterly about the slot killing the show, the other timeslot had football programming until 7:30 in the fall and Wild Kingdom a good match for the 7:30 Disney series. My point, I don't think there was anything else available based on NBC's primetime structure.

The network was on the fence about even giving the show a second season, Arnaz was in no position to negotiate.

[cd637299]

^ NICE rundown here!

Being born in 1959, one of my first recollections was Car 54. I could not remember if Branded was in that slot, so thanks for that. It would seem that Branded would have made the most sense as a Bonanza lead-in.

I recently purchased an Oct ‘63 TV Guide covering my local area (South FL), where Grindl was in the slot.

One would think that that slot, Ed Sullivan notwithstanding, would be nice.

cd

[KurtfromPitts]

Procter and Gamble owned Sunday at 8:30 on the peacock net from 1961 to 1972, I believe.