Luck of the Draw

[Smartboy]

As you can see, I have been working my fingers to the bones trying to stimulate some conversation about this fine series! You can also see by the number of replies how successful I have been! Well, I guess that it is just the luck of the draw what people feel is worth responding to and what is not. Take, for instance, the "Three's Company" page. There have been at least two threads started only a few days ago in which the number of replies is already in the double digits! Go figure! I wish that I could think of something to write about that would get that much attention! Another page that seems to be getting a lot of posts that generate responses is "The Brady Bunch". I have already responded to two of these threads this evening. Two other pages that have been at least as slow as this one lately are "Mad About You" and "Friends". I guest that the Yuppies who grew up with those sereis are off doing other things! Too bad! So far this evening, I have already started new threads on both of those pages in an attempt to liven things up. I think that I will go to "Caroline in the City" next. Until next time folks!

[TV_on_the_Porch]

Hmmm, Luck of the Draw is actually an appropriate title for a subject I was musing about this morning concerning this very show--so I'm gonna steal it!

The job of a network exec in choosing which pilots will go to series is largely the luck of the draw--you hope to draw a high (rated) card and try to lay it down at just the right time (slot).

There's more than luck of course, there's also strategy. The strategy with Gimme A Break was obvious: schedule it after Diff'rent Strokes and give it a season to build an audience, then move GAB to the 9PM leadoff slot and hope the audience not only keeps watching, but that the new 9:30 series will also be a success. But fate had other plans.

When NBC picked up Taxi shortly after it announced its fall 1982 schedule, the show deleted to make room for it was Mama's Family. That's how GAB ended up on Saturday nights the first time. This was a sore test of the show's audience loyalty. Its ratings took a steep dive during those few months, but the shows in the Thursday 9 - 10 slot were doing very poorly where GAB had done well. NBC still had faith in Nell, and it would prove to be well placed.

When GAB was moved back to Thursday in January not only did its ratings rebound, it also passed its audience on to a struggling new show that had, up til then, been tanking in the ratings: Cheers. So the initial strategy, though delayed, paid off in the end!

Gimme A Break's success surprised some, myself included. But despite never landing in the top 25, it was for a number of years a show NBC could count on to deliver decent numbers in various time slots, sometimes against stiff competition.

For a network in turmoil during those years, with GAB NBC played its hand well ineed.

[Smartboy]

I am going to have to say that I am very impressed with your knowledge! Did you write this all from memory or have you done research after the fact? I have a pretty vivid memory of "Gimme a Break!" being ping-ponged between different nights and time slots. From its start in 1981 up until the mid-eighties, it was always on either Thursday or Saturday. However, on those two night, it has been in every time slot from 8 o'clock until 9:30. Like you said, it was originally on Thursday Night after the very successful "Different Strokes". Another thing that probably factored in was that it was right before the very successful "Hill Street Blues". You also mentioned that it was up against still competition. Well, I remember that, when it was first on 9 o'clock Thursday Nights it was up against the very successful "Simon and Simon". Maybe this is one of the reasons why they moved it to Saturday Night very shortly there after. At another stage in the game, it was on Saturday Night up against the very established institution known as "Love Boat". It is also quite ironic that you mentioned "Cheers" struggling in the ratings. Look at how successful "Cheers" ended up and compare that to "Gimme a Break!"! A good indication is how many of the former have seasons out on DVD compared to the latter! It was after the half-way mark of the eighties was over that desperation caused them to move it to Wednesday Night. Opposite "Dynesty"! How foolish can you get? In 1987, one fianl refusal to cry "Uncle" was moving it to Tuesday Night. Opposite "Whose the Boss?"! It was right before the "Cheers" spin-off known as the "Tortelies". Does anyone out there remember this disaster waiting to happen? Oh Brother!

[Smartboy]

Originally Posted by TDRyan

Hmmm, Luck of the Draw is actually an appropriate title for a subject I was musing about this morning concerning this very show--so I'm gonna steal it!

The job of a network exec in choosing which pilots will go to series is largely the luck of the draw--you hope to draw a high (rated) card and try to lay it down at just the right time (slot).

There's more than luck of course, there's also strategy. The strategy with Gimme A Break was obvious: schedule it after Diff'rent Strokes and give it a season to build an audience, then move GAB to the 9PM leadoff slot and hope the audience not only keeps watching, but that the new 9:30 series will also be a success. But fate had other plans.

When NBC picked up Taxi shortly after it announced its fall 1982 schedule, the show deleted to make room for it was Mama's Family. That's how GAB ended up on Saturday nights the first time. This was a sore test of the show's audience loyalty. Its ratings took a steep dive during those few months, but the shows in the Thursday 9 - 10 slot were doing very poorly where GAB had done well. NBC still had faith in Nell, and it would prove to be well placed.

When GAB was moved back to Thursday in January not only did its ratings rebound, it also passed its audience on to a struggling new show that had, up til then, been tanking in the ratings: Cheers. So the initial strategy, though delayed, paid off in the end!

Gimme A Break's success surprised some, myself included. But despite never landing in the top 25, it was for a number of years a show NBC could count on to deliver decent numbers in various time slots, sometimes against stiff competition.

For a network in turmoil during those years, with GAB NBC played its hand well ineed.

In between the last time that I responded to this post and the present moment, I though of something else. This has to do with the stiff compitition that you mentioned when you first responded to me. The same year that "Different Strokes" was moved to the Saturday Night Line-Up ABC bumped "Too Close For Comfort" from its Thursday 9:30 time slot. This was to make room for the new series based on the popular movie "Nine To Five". I thought that this was a pretty good series and I am surprised that it did not last longer. In any event, at that stage in the game, "Happy Days" and "Three's Company" were two of my favorites. I would usually sit through "Laverne and Shirley" in between the two. I would then watch "Too Close For Comfort" to finish out the hour. When "Nine To Five" took its place, I would watch that as well. However, when "Too Close For Comfort" was moved to Thursday at 9, it was opposide "Gimme a Break!". Although I thought that "Too Close For Comfort" was okay, I liked "Gimme a Break!" better. If my memory is correct, this was the year that "Comfort" fizzled out. After "Comfort" was "It Takes Two". I believe that this was the original ABC show that was up against "Cheers". They both came out in 1982. In my opinion, "Cheers" was the better of the two. Given how long the former lasted compared to the latter, I think that the public tended to agree with me!

[Smartboy]

Originally Posted by TDRyan

Hmmm, Luck of the Draw is actually an appropriate title for a subject I was musing about this morning concerning this very show--so I'm gonna steal it!

The job of a network exec in choosing which pilots will go to series is largely the luck of the draw--you hope to draw a high (rated) card and try to lay it down at just the right time (slot).

There's more than luck of course, there's also strategy. The strategy with Gimme A Break was obvious: schedule it after Diff'rent Strokes and give it a season to build an audience, then move GAB to the 9PM leadoff slot and hope the audience not only keeps watching, but that the new 9:30 series will also be a success. But fate had other plans.

When NBC picked up Taxi shortly after it announced its fall 1982 schedule, the show deleted to make room for it was Mama's Family. That's how GAB ended up on Saturday nights the first time. This was a sore test of the show's audience loyalty. Its ratings took a steep dive during those few months, but the shows in the Thursday 9 - 10 slot were doing very poorly where GAB had done well. NBC still had faith in Nell, and it would prove to be well placed.

When GAB was moved back to Thursday in January not only did its ratings rebound, it also passed its audience on to a struggling new show that had, up til then, been tanking in the ratings: Cheers. So the initial strategy, though delayed, paid off in the end!

Gimme A Break's success surprised some, myself included. But despite never landing in the top 25, it was for a number of years a show NBC could count on to deliver decent numbers in various time slots, sometimes against stiff competition.

For a network in turmoil during those years, with GAB NBC played its hand well ineed.

I have been sitting here for about two hours going all over this site trying to stimulate some conversation. So far, I have had no success! I have already left multiple messages on the pages of Facts of Life, Friends and Mad About You. Because I have long ago bleed dry what I can think of to say about this series, I have decided to see what I can do by bringing this one to the top. Given how good a job the one respondee other than me did in giving us the history of the show and its time slots, I think it has potential! Let us wait and see what happens!

[Smartboy]

Originally Posted by TDRyan

Hmmm, Luck of the Draw is actually an appropriate title for a subject I was musing about this morning concerning this very show--so I'm gonna steal it!

The job of a network exec in choosing which pilots will go to series is largely the luck of the draw--you hope to draw a high (rated) card and try to lay it down at just the right time (slot).

There's more than luck of course, there's also strategy. The strategy with Gimme A Break was obvious: schedule it after Diff'rent Strokes and give it a season to build an audience, then move GAB to the 9PM leadoff slot and hope the audience not only keeps watching, but that the new 9:30 series will also be a success. But fate had other plans.

When NBC picked up Taxi shortly after it announced its fall 1982 schedule, the show deleted to make room for it was Mama's Family. That's how GAB ended up on Saturday nights the first time. This was a sore test of the show's audience loyalty. Its ratings took a steep dive during those few months, but the shows in the Thursday 9 - 10 slot were doing very poorly where GAB had done well. NBC still had faith in Nell, and it would prove to be well placed.

When GAB was moved back to Thursday in January not only did its ratings rebound, it also passed its audience on to a struggling new show that had, up til then, been tanking in the ratings: Cheers. So the initial strategy, though delayed, paid off in the end!

Gimme A Break's success surprised some, myself included. But despite never landing in the top 25, it was for a number of years a show NBC could count on to deliver decent numbers in various time slots, sometimes against stiff competition.

For a network in turmoil during those years, with GAB NBC played its hand well ineed.

In the recent past, I attempted to stimulate some conversation by bringing four of my old favorites to the top of the page. When that did not work, I tried by starting yet another thread about site traffic (or lack of it). At this stage in the game, that thread has five views and zero responses. Now I thought that I would let some newcomers see what us great minds were thinking about when this thread was started!

[Smartboy]

Originally Posted by TDRyan

Hmmm, Luck of the Draw is actually an appropriate title for a subject I was musing about this morning concerning this very show--so I'm gonna steal it!

The job of a network exec in choosing which pilots will go to series is largely the luck of the draw--you hope to draw a high (rated) card and try to lay it down at just the right time (slot).

There's more than luck of course, there's also strategy. The strategy with Gimme A Break was obvious: schedule it after Diff'rent Strokes and give it a season to build an audience, then move GAB to the 9PM leadoff slot and hope the audience not only keeps watching, but that the new 9:30 series will also be a success. But fate had other plans.

When NBC picked up Taxi shortly after it announced its fall 1982 schedule, the show deleted to make room for it was Mama's Family. That's how GAB ended up on Saturday nights the first time. This was a sore test of the show's audience loyalty. Its ratings took a steep dive during those few months, but the shows in the Thursday 9 - 10 slot were doing very poorly where GAB had done well. NBC still had faith in Nell, and it would prove to be well placed.

When GAB was moved back to Thursday in January not only did its ratings rebound, it also passed its audience on to a struggling new show that had, up til then, been tanking in the ratings: Cheers. So the initial strategy, though delayed, paid off in the end!

Gimme A Break's success surprised some, myself included. But despite never landing in the top 25, it was for a number of years a show NBC could count on to deliver decent numbers in various time slots, sometimes against stiff competition.

For a network in turmoil during those years, with GAB NBC played its hand well ineed.

At this point in time, I am really just picking threads at random to bring to the top of the page in hopes of stimulating some conversation. During this sitting, in addition to this page, I have also responded to threads on the pages of "Facts of Life" and "Mad About You". At this stage in the game, I am still the most recent poster on both of those pages. However, there does seem to be some action on the "Will and Grace" page. Some of you might be interested in the issue being discussed over there.

[Smartboy]

Originally Posted by TDRyan

Hmmm, Luck of the Draw is actually an appropriate title for a subject I was musing about this morning concerning this very show--so I'm gonna steal it!

The job of a network exec in choosing which pilots will go to series is largely the luck of the draw--you hope to draw a high (rated) card and try to lay it down at just the right time (slot).

There's more than luck of course, there's also strategy. The strategy with Gimme A Break was obvious: schedule it after Diff'rent Strokes and give it a season to build an audience, then move GAB to the 9PM leadoff slot and hope the audience not only keeps watching, but that the new 9:30 series will also be a success. But fate had other plans.

When NBC picked up Taxi shortly after it announced its fall 1982 schedule, the show deleted to make room for it was Mama's Family. That's how GAB ended up on Saturday nights the first time. This was a sore test of the show's audience loyalty. Its ratings took a steep dive during those few months, but the shows in the Thursday 9 - 10 slot were doing very poorly where GAB had done well. NBC still had faith in Nell, and it would prove to be well placed.

When GAB was moved back to Thursday in January not only did its ratings rebound, it also passed its audience on to a struggling new show that had, up til then, been tanking in the ratings: Cheers. So the initial strategy, though delayed, paid off in the end!

Gimme A Break's success surprised some, myself included. But despite never landing in the top 25, it was for a number of years a show NBC could count on to deliver decent numbers in various time slots, sometimes against stiff competition.

For a network in turmoil during those years, with GAB NBC played its hand well ineed.

At this stage in the game, it has been four days since anyone other than me has posted on this page. However, I posted a thread a little over an hour ago and it has already obtained three replies. That lets me know that the fans are out there. Because of this, I have decided to see what I can do by bringing three oldies but goodies to the top of the page. This is the first such thread!