Saturday Retro Fact.......Why the departure from Milwaukee to California

[TVFactFan]

Penny Marshall stated they received lots of mail expressing that fans were sick of seeing them in that Milwaukee

[BestTVever]

Looks like a Press Release statement because they surely were not going to say "due to declining ratings we are moving the show to California." So instead they are doing it for the fans.
Sure ok, yeah

Its amazing how fast the CA burnout was. It was really interesting to see them as stunt women and then the earthquake happened and then the ideas sort of ran out. They were not superficial girls in Milwaukee but now in CA they were wearing designer clothes and became superficial. I think Penney has said in interviews she thought it was a mistake to go to CA and the show should of ended.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

Looks like a Press Release statement because they surely were not going to say "due to declining ratings we are moving the show to California." So instead they are doing it for the fans.
Sure ok, yeah

Its amazing how fast the CA burnout was. It was really interesting to see them as stunt women and then the earthquake happened and then the ideas sort of ran out. They were not superficial girls in Milwaukee but now in CA they were wearing designer clothes and became superficial. I think Penney has said in interviews she thought it was a mistake to go to CA and the show should of ended.

The move to CA was the response to the fan mail. It had nothing to do with the apt it was the timeslot lol

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

The move to CA was the response to the fan mail. It had nothing to do with the apt it was the timeslot lol

You are believing the Public Relations team. In interviews with both Penney and Cindy they both said the move was to boost ratings. But it did not work. Apparently all those people that wrote letters never bothered to watch the show anymore

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

You are believing the Public Relations team. In interviews with both Penney and Cindy they both said the move was to boost ratings. But it did not work. Apparently all those people that wrote letters never bothered to watch the show anymore

Probably was both since the 79-80 season is when the show took a nose dive in ratings

[Duster76]

I don't doubt for a minute it was for the ratings. The show dropped like rock in season 5, falling from number 1 out of the top 40. Yes the day and time had changed (going from 8:30 Tuesday to 8pm Thursday) but to fall that far! The Waltons were on CBS and by this point were fading, Buck Rogers on NBC was new so for the number 1 show from a year earlier to perform so poorly was shocking. Garry Marshall had to put something on the table, moving the show back to Tuesday behind Happy Days in and of itself was not going to be enough. With the network looking for answers to the question, what happened and how do we fix it, Marshall had to make changes.

He didn't just move the girls and the rest of the gang to LA, he gave them new things to do where (and I'm sure this was in the pitch to the network) they might run into a celebrity or two. The girls had updated looks, the late 50's became the second half of the 60's, and they weren't stuck in the same jobs. Looking at it objectively was it a viable strategy, yes, did it help or hurt the show's performance , I think you could argue the case either way.

From my own point of view the show lost its soul, but that's me, I'm not sure the audience at the time saw it that way. All said and done the change probably had little to no effect on the ratings.

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by Duster76

I don't doubt for a minute it was for the ratings. The show dropped like rock in season 5, falling from number 1 out of the top 40. Yes the day and time had changed (going from 8:30 Tuesday to 8pm Thursday) but to fall that far! The Waltons were on CBS and by this point were fading, Buck Rogers on NBC was new so for the number 1 show from a year earlier to perform so poorly was shocking. Garry Marshall had to put something on the table, moving the show back to Tuesday behind Happy Days in and of itself was not going to be enough. With the network looking for answers to the question, what happened and how do we fix it, Marshall had to make changes.

He didn't just move the girls and the rest of the gang to LA, he gave them new things to do where (and I'm sure this was in the pitch to the network) they might run into a celebrity or two. The girls had updated looks, the late 50's became the second half of the 60's, and they weren't stuck in the same jobs. Looking at it objectively was it a viable strategy, yes, did it help or hurt the show's performance , I think you could argue the case either way.

From my own point of view the show lost its soul, but that's me, I'm not sure the audience at the time saw it that way. All said and done the change probably had little to no effect on the ratings.

I am paraphrasing Penney but she said something like the show was over and she was not for moving to CA. However that could be her looking back and seeing how bad the show had become. IMHO the absolute worst sitcom episode ever (of any sitcom) was when a ghost haunted Laverne's apartment and made her dad, Lenny, Squiggy, and Carmine run obstacle races inside the apartment. Yes I think its worse than when Lenny and Squiggy fell into a tar pit. We also had the KGB kidnap Squiggy. Carmine's dance was taken off the air for being Anti-American. Laverne is caught up in a bank robbery. These episodes were just so dumb.
The Milwaukee episodes showed them struggle with money, dates, and life. In LA they were on top of the world. The novelty of CA wore off really fast. The first few episodes were cool seeing the new world but then it just got dumb.
Many popular 1970s sitcoms struggled into the 1980s.

[TVFactFan]

shirley became more atttractive in California