A Network profile: "The Rise & Fall of ABC "

[TMC]

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...6028#post46028

I used to do these with wrestlers.I called them profiles.Others called them a waste of time.I however like doing them and decided to do one concerning the Rise of the America Broadcasting Network.Or as Norm McDonald used to call It "The ABC".

It was the Best of Times...........-Its really hard to Imagine that 10 years ago that ABC was In Its glory.In fact they had a lock on almost 4 Nights of TV.

ABC owned Sundays,Mondays,Tuesdays,Wednesdays, and Fridays at points In the mid 90's.So what happened to cost them those 4 to 5 nights?Well lets look at the High points 1st and we'll go from there.

TGIF Takes Over!-In the early 90's ABC started out with Its TGIF lineup.The Network rolled out a spinoff of "Perfect Strangers" called "Family Matters" and then they hit a HR!

Paired with "Full House" , "Family Matters" took over after a kid named Urkel launched the TGIF machine.Other shows followed and TGIF would be ABC's Friday Night powerhouse.With shows like "Step by Step", "Boy Meets World.", and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" , ABC seemed destined to build a great night of shows.

ABC wanted to win Tuesday so they moved "Full House" there to pair It with "Roseanne" and "Home Improvement." The Idea worked and they would soon own that night of TV.

Sundays would be a Night that ABC would be given.CBS would cancel "Murder She Wrote" In 1994 and give ABC that spot for 2 seasons."Lois & Clark" would win that slot til CBS realized what they had lost and would shedule a strong show to face It.

Wednesdays would be a night luckily won by ABC when they sheduled the "Drew Carey Show" there In the mid 90's.No one gave the wierd show a chance but It would power ABC on that night for years.

Decline and Who Hates a Millionaire!!-ABC was on a hot streak by the late 90's but cracks began to emerge.In fact they would soon hit water on Fridays.

In 2000 ABC decided that Urkel had ran his course.They let "Family Matters" and "Step By Step" jump to CBS.This seemed like a great Idea but In hindsight It sped up TGIF's decline. "Boy Meets World" was aging and "Sabrina...." would jump to the WB the next year!

By 2002 TGIF was D.O.A.ABC tried moving the promising sitcom "The Norm Show" to Fridays but It Died quickly.ABC would lose that night to NBC after years of winning It.

"The Drew Carey Show" was slowly fading on Wednesdays after NBC finally delievered a solid alternative on that Night.ABC In thier stupiedity would In 2001 renew "The Drew Carey Show" for 2 more years.The last episodes still haven't aired and should air this summer finally!

Tuesday also hit bumps.In 2000 they tried to lure Tim Allen back for a 10th season of "Home Improvement".But Allen saw the writing on the wall and knew his show was fading."Home Improvement" won Its timeslot 9 straight years and Its loss hurt ABC more than anything!

ABC In the mid 90's also decided that "Full House" had ran Its course.The Network cancelled the show even though a huge out cry followed.The result was a weakened Tuesday Night but at the time not many really considered It a blow!

By 2000 ABC had found a New Gold Mine.Its name was Regis Philbin!His Show would hit Ratings Gold and the Network went Nuts!But In their haste to grab Instant Ratings they over did "Millionare."

end of part 1#

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...6028#post46028

ABC In the mid to late 90's appeared to rule overe almost all Networks.They had dramas like "NYPD Blue" and "The Practice." and comedies like "The Drew Carey Show" and "Home Improvement."

But network mis-steps would soon falter the ABC Network.Shows were renewed to long.Others like "The Job." and "The Norm Show" were showed the exit sign early.

ABC In 1996 would gamble and roll the dice on "Hudson Street" starring Tony Danza.In effect they would also gamble on "The Dania Carvey Show."

By doing so they let a show In developement go to NBC.That show?Well It was "3rd Rock From the Sun." The show did so well at 8:30pm that it was flipped with "Wings" and drew big numbers!

It also killed the promising "Hudson Street" sitcom starring Danza.Til that point Danza's show was winning that 8:30pm slot.

"The Dana Carvey Show" was a ratings hit.But the downside was the fact that Carvey pissed off advertisers.ABC at 1st held on hoping Carvey could at least keep some sponsers.After Ratings softened a bit ABC finally pulled the plug on him.

"Who Wants to be a Millionaire" mania hit In 2000.And ABC wanted to cash In.They would start airing "Millionaire..." up to 4 to 5 nights a week.The Unique Game show drew great ratings for 2 years and finally over-exposure killed it.

In this time span ABC didn't use the Game Show to grow any Network Shows.In fact their Comedy Line-ups suffered badly.By 2002 and new order came In....

Restore TGIF!!-ABC wanted to get back to the basics In 2002.So they went out and tried luring Family Shows.Family Shows like "According To Jim." and "Life With Bonnie."

The result has been lukewarm at best.At the moment ABC Is In a rebuilding phase and odds are Its gonna take at least 2 to 3 seasons to rebuild thier Network Shows.

But with "NYPD Blue" slowly fading towards Its 12th and final season odds are, ABC will need New Talents and New Ideas asap.Can ABC Rebuild?Well In the mid 90's CBS faced huge obstacles In thier way.

And odds are CBS will end up winning the 2003-2004 TV Season.So miracles can happen.ABC could return to dominace soon enough!

Comic Book Resources Forums > Miscellaneous Forums > TV/Film
A Network profile:"The Rise & Fall of ABC "

[TMC]

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...ead.php?t=2238

Wow did you write this all on your own Supercewfan? If so, this is pretty solid stuff, you could be doing the work of a clue-defficient writer like Louis Hobson.

A couple of points I'd disagree with/add to:
- I forgot what a hit Lois & Clark was. I remember that one faded very suddenly, just after ABC gave it a 2-season renewal, much like Drew Carey. IIRC, they paid for the second season without having any episodes filmed.

- TGIF was a pretty dead franchise when it died. "Family Matters" and "Step by Step" were alse long in the tooth when it was stolen by CBS and stealing those shows didn't help CBS establish a competitor to TGIF. Weren't both gone by the end of season? IIRC, Sabrina jumped networks when ABC decided to give up on the TGIF franchise after Boy Meets World ended, a stupid different decision.

- I think The Dana Carvey Show debuted to strong numbers but bled major audience in following episodes. I used to hang out on rec.arts.tv at the time and the reaction to the premiere episode was overwhelmingly negative. I only remember an awful church lady sketch that seemed to consist of applying different synonyms of "slut" to Princess Diana. That's it, "She's a slut" "Tramp!" "What a hussy", etc. Carvey apparently forgot that people are looking for a laugh they don't pick up a thesaurus. Carvey's "jokes" were also pretty offensive (without ever being funny) including a "satire" of old-fashioned show sponsorships where Carey insluted the sponsors. Pizza Hut (IIRC) was slated to sponor an ep but pulled out after seeing the premiere (sponsored by Taco Bell). I know I wouldn't have wanted my product's name associated with such an awful program. It was a pretty spectacular failure for the net, which was hyping it quite a bit.

- Also, I think it would be worth mentioning that ABC fumbled again in the 2002-2003 season by mistaken the rise of the reality genre as an easy route to save the network. That season their reality offerings included disasters like "The Family" (actually a pretty fun show), "Are You Hot?" and a couple that weren't spectacular enough failures for my mind to remember. Also, their first "Celebrity Mole" effectivey killed the franchise, which had previously pulled itself from behind in a second season that started badly enough to merit sudden cancellation.

Great article tho.

[bschmale1113]

Here how I rebuld ABC
Step one: already done bring back the tgif magic is to have 8 Simple Rules on Fridays & make Tuesday with stronger Comedies

Step Two: try to buld up your ten clock shows liked get Steven Bochco back with a another crime drama to replace N.Y.P.D Blue

Step Three: try to get young teen or Family Drama on Wednesday Night before the Bachelor

Step four: you can't do noting about Monday Night after Football Season Ends & Saturday Nighs but you is risky move to thursday have a realty show at 8:00 & 9:00

Step five: Sunday is also right but try to get a another watercooler show that people to talked about the next day

Final Step: if shows are getting a lot buzz from critics if it a comedy move to tuesday if it a crime drama move it to 10:00 on Tuesday & Wednesdays or it a teen comedy that stars Hillay duff or the Olsens Twins move it to friday and it a new family drama move it to wednesday night at 8:00

[db108108]

"The Dana Carvey Show" was actually called "The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show." But yes, they did pull out after one episode because of Carvey's antics. It did have a huge premiere and then dropped like a stone, much because it was far too adult to be airing after "Home Improvement."

CBS stole Family Matters And Step By Step in the fall of 1998. ABC countered with "Two Of A Kind" "Teen Angel." It didn;t work well, so ABC let "Sabrina" go in the spring of 1999, despite the fact that it was still averageing 10 million viewers. ABC then went with young adults sitcoms (Two Guys & A Girl, Norm, Madigan Men), but all died a quick death, ABC actually stuck with "Two Guys & A Girl" and "Norm" until the spring of 2001, but even paired with "Millionaire," they only drew 5 to 6 million viewers.

ABC's big problem is that it was 0 marquee series. None. From 1990-1995, it had Roseanne, Home Improvement, Ellen, NYPD Blue, Family matters, Full House, Grace Under Fire, and Lois & Clark. From 1997-2000, it had Drew Carey, Dharma & Greg, Spin City, The Practice & NYPD Blue. Then it had Millionaire. Now it has nothing. ABC used to be known for its sharp sitcoms, but now it doesn't have any drawing more than 10 million viewers.

The case of "Lois & Clark" was alot of bad timing. Ratings for the series were climbing and climbing (into the top 20) until the producers decided to get the couple together. At the start of the 1996-1997 season, with Lois & Clark marrying in episode 4, "Touched By an Angel" was starting to take off on CBS, "The Simpsons" was hot for Fox and on NBC it was the newly relocated "3rd Rock." CBS and NBC were drawing 20 million viewers (+) each, Fox 15mil, so there was nothing left for ABC. Ratings dropped like a rock, it was moved to Saturdays, where it fell into the 80s, and was then canned. ABC paid for a final season, but no episodes were filmed. What a waste.

Yes, the fall of ABC is sad. People attribute it all to "Millionaire," but really, was it all "Millionaire"s fault? this was a network falling before Millionaire came along, and falling afterwards.


For the record, ABC's reality series from 2002/2003 were:

The Bachelor (editions 2 & 3), The Bachelorette, Celebrity Mole, I'm A Celebrity..... Get Me Out Of Here, The Family, All American Girl, Are You Hot? Extreme Makeover, Push Nevada.

Final ratings for that season are here:

http://www.angelfire.com/tv/JustTV/f...tings2003.html

Final ratings for this season are here:
http://www.angelfire.com/tv/JustTV/t...lviewers1.html

There are also adults 18-49 ratings on this site.

[BLT]

The case of "Lois & Clark" was alot of bad timing. Ratings for the series were climbing and climbing (into the top 20) until the producers decided to get the couple together. At the start of the 1996-1997 season, with Lois & Clark marrying in episode 4,

I remember that the ratings dropped dramatically during the summer hiatus between seasons 3 and 4, the wedding was done as damage control but it was done with little fanfare and little notice. DC Comics, which married L&C in the comics around the same time said that they wish that they would've known in advance and do a joint-marketing effort. Fans were turned off by one too many false wedding alarms on L&C, I definitely think the straw that broke the candle was the big three episode story arc were L&C got "married" but it was revealed that Lois was a frog clone, much interest was lost after that.

[EmoJoe]

It says that Family Matters jumped to CBS in 2000, but how could that be if it ended in 1998?

[tvfan0101]

Originally posted by Rurry007
It says that Family Matters jumped to CBS in 2000, but how could that be if it ended in 1998?

Probably just a typo. Or maybe there are two seasons of Family Matters out there that have never been aired!

Dun dun dun...

[db108108]

Family Matters and Step By Step moved to CBS in the fall of 1997, and it was a huge was out. CBS paired them with "Meego" and another series.