why did the ratings fall so low in the final season?

[snl75]

hi i dont usally ask such questions but i was wondering why the ratings plunged so much in the final 82/83 season i know dallas was up aganst it but even tho i my self watched dallas on fri. nights i also know this was a good show that alot of kids and non dallas fans watched i just wonder if there were other factors involved in the decision to cancel it ?

[tvfan0101]

I think it was pretty much just Dallas. CBS had a strangelhold on Friday nights for a decade with Dallas and Falcon Crest (plus Dukes of Hazzard for a while). ABC and NBC tried time and time again to pit shows against CBS and failed every time.

In this case, the show was pulled from the line-up in November after only a handful of episodes only to return in January with another handful of episodes. Then it was canned with four unaired episodes. The series was never a ratings winner (I think it ranked around 40 or so). Tossing it up against CBS on Fridays was a deathblow and ABC probably knew that.

[snl75]

thanks for clearing that up

[Flying Dutchman]

Also the last episode of the greatest american hero was the greatest american heroin and which ralph was found out by everyone to be the superhero people suspected for a long time, so ralph became a celebrity and became like a movie star in the publics eye so the aliens AKA The green guys, came back and told him its over now that people know about you and the suit its time to turn the suit over to someone els so ralph gives the suit to a woman friend he trusts and she now has the powers he had hence the greatest american heroin, they made this episode to be a 2 parter but i heard the ratings were so bad they didnt even film part 2 they just dropped it, i think their idea was that if they could get a beautiful girl to play the hero they could save the show but people didnt buy it.

[tvfan0101]

That is not entirely correct. A pilot episode for a proposed Greatest American Heroine was filmed, but a few years after The Greatest American Hero had been cancelled. It was not the final episode. In fact, the final four episodes of The Greatest American Hero never aired during the show's original run. They were only aired in syndication, as was the case with The Greatest American Heroine, which was never intended to be a two-part episode.

[Flying Dutchman]

Do you have or do you think they will have the final 4 in the dvd set one day? I had seen the grestest american heroin in a repeat years after the series was canceled i had watched the GAH when it was in 1st run but didnt see the heroin until years later didnt even know it exsisted until that time, but as i recall it was like a cliffhanger and seemed as there would be a 2nd part to that ep,
as I remember bill was in a seaside pub asking questions about a guy he was hunting and was getting the crap beat out of him while she was beating the crap out of everyone els and then finally saved him just before he was beaten to death. but your right this had to be a few years later since bill looked like a very old man in that ep.

[tvfan0101]

Originally posted by Flying Dutchman
Do you have or do you think they will have the final 4 in the dvd set one day?

If all three seasons are released on DVD I see no reason for the four unaired episodes to not be included. Every show I can think of with unaired episodes that has been released on DVD includes the unaired episodes as well.

but as i recall it was like a cliffhanger and seemed as there would be a 2nd part to that ep,
as I remember bill was in a seaside pub asking questions about a guy he was hunting and was getting the crap beat out of him while she was beating the crap out of everyone els and then finally saved him just before he was beaten to death.

Bill pretty much stayed out of the fight, letting Holly take out most of the brutes in the bar. Following that, there was a scene where Bill was watching Holly and Sarah, and he commented on how the two would make a good team - with his fingers crossed.

I have a page about GAHeroine at my website, if you want to refresh your memory. You can check it out here.

[Flying Dutchman]

I did see that page tv obscuritys thanks when i was reading, it all started to come back to me, i remember when id seen it it was around 1988 on what was then a local station in LA it was playing back to back with the fall guy remember that show? but it was so sad to see ralph go i really liked william katt alot, I dont think i would have continued to watch GAH if it had survived without Katt.

[sg1niner]

Looks like it's been a while since this thread was viewed.

For those who don't know, the final four episodes, ending with "Vanity, Says the Preacher", are included on Season 3. GAHeroine, from what I understand, is on Season One.

As for the original question about S3 and ratings, I'd have to say there's at least ONE great episode in this season: "Divorce Venusian Style."

I'm anxious to watch "Vanity..." too, not only cuz it was written and directed by Culp (who also wrote/directed "Lilacs, Mr Maxwell") but I heard one or two of Culp's sons are in the ep. Some argue the kid or kids are Bill's love children, lol, so I want to see this for myself.

[TimesArrow]

Well if anyone views this thread since the others were written long ago, dallas was one reason the show fell in the ratings the other reason was that the ABC execs wanted cannel to write more about monsters in the show and less about what made the show the greatest american her.

I loved it when ralph was trying to figure out how the suit worked and got frustrted with the whole thing, what made this show so wonderful is that he acted the same way alot of humans would have acted if they were given a super suit.

In my opinion Stephen J Cannel is one of TVs greatest writers of all time.

[EccentricGenius]

ABC moved "The Greatest American Hero" from Wednesdays at 8 pm (where it had resided for the last two seasons, despite heavy competition from NBC's smash hit "Real People") to Fridays at 9 pm, where it was scheduled directly opposite CBS's mega-successful "Dallas," as well as a new action/adventure series on NBC called "Knight Rider."

"TGAH" then went on hiatus by ABC in late November of '82 (after airing only four episodes), then returned in January of '83; it was now airing on Thursdays at 8 pm opposite another immensely popular CBS series, "Magnum, P.I.," as well as the critically acclaimed school drama "Fame" on NBC. "TGAH" aired for five weeks in that timeslot before ABC pulled the series from its schedule and replaced it with two short-lived sitcoms, "Condo" (starring the late McLean Stevenson as a Reagan-era WASP living next door to a Latino family in a condominium) and "Amanda's" (an Americanized remake of the hit British sitcom "Fawlty Towers" starring the late Beatrice Arthur). Sadly, neither " Condo" nor "Amanda's" lasted very long (once again, due to heavy competition from CBS's "Magnum, P.I."), and they were both yanked that summer ("Amanda's" had three episodes left to air prior its cancellation; A&E aired the entire run, including the unaired episodes, several years later).

Sadly, ABC canceled "TGAH" with four episodes in the can...those aforementioned episodes--"Wizards And Warlocks," "It's Only Rock And Roll," "Desperado," and "Vanity, Says The Preacher" (written and directed by Robert Culp--his second go-around as writer/director [his first was the season two finale "Lilacs, Mr. Mitchell"])--later aired when "TGAH" went into syndication.

[cbikle]

Originally Posted by TimesArrow

the other reason was that the ABC execs wanted cannel to write more about monsters in the show and less about what made the show the greatest american hero.

To be honest, I would have liked to have seen the show move a little more in that direction as well.

I think there could have been some middle ground.

I loved it when ralph was trying to figure out how the suit worked and got frustrted with the whole thing, what made this show so wonderful is that he acted the same way alot of humans would have acted if they were given a super suit.

Yeah. I always liked when they introduced new powers that he could barely control.

[icecream]

That move really backfired for ABC as Tales of the Gold Monkey, the show that replaced Greatest American Hero on Wednesday nights, was cancelled after just one season. It might not have made much of a difference, but were upfront positions then the same as it is now? If so with going the day before CBS, ABC might have assumed The Dukes of Hazzard was staying Fridays at 9:00 instead of Dallas moving earlier. While Dallas didn't suffer from the move just switching places with 60 Minutes, The Dukes of Hazzard suffered leading off the night at 8:00, dropping from a tie for #6 to almost not making the top 30 at a tie for #29.

[sm95fan]

Originally Posted by Flying Dutchman

Also the last episode of the greatest american hero was the greatest american heroin and which ralph was found out by everyone to be the superhero people suspected for a long time, so ralph became a celebrity and became like a movie star in the publics eye so the aliens AKA The green guys, came back and told him its over now that people know about you and the suit its time to turn the suit over to someone els so ralph gives the suit to a woman friend he trusts and she now has the powers he had hence the greatest american heroin, they made this episode to be a 2 parter but i heard the ratings were so bad they didnt even film part 2 they just dropped it, i think their idea was that if they could get a beautiful girl to play the hero they could save the show but people didnt buy it.

Heroine is actually from 1986 and was a pilot for a series reboot which sadly never got off the ground.

[sm95fan]

I'm not sure if it was responsible for the ratings tanking but it is never a good idea to have two main characters get married. Plus early on Ralph and Pam were citizen soldiers trying to juggle their careers with the Suit.

Toward the end of the 2nd season Ralph's son disappeared and you rarely saw his students anymore.

Ralph and Pam had a lot more time to hang out with Bill. The line between Ralph and GAH became blurred.