Why did It's a Living end production in 1989

[TMC]

This coming Monday (April 8), will officially mark 30 years since It's a Living broadcast its final episode "The Sonny and Dot Show", which was essentially another clip show episode. Did it end after four years because they felt that at 120 episodes (counting the roughly 27 episodes from the ABC run), it was enough to syndicate?

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but I've noticed that virtually all of the first-run syndicated sitcoms from the '80s ran for a maximum of four seasons: Small Wonder, Mama's Family, Charles in Charge.

It's a Living was also a production of Lorimar-Telepictures. In its first year in syndication, its distribution arm was Golden West Television. In 1989, during its final season, Lorimar was purchased by Warner Communications.

[TV Guy]

Yes - the whole point of reviving those sitcoms in syndication was to have enough episodes to “strip” (i.e. run five days per week). That’s when you make the most profit, not through original airings. Once they had enough to strip, the shows went out of production.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TV Guy

Yes - the whole point of reviving those sitcoms in syndication was to have enough episodes to “strip” (i.e. run five days per week). That’s when you make the most profit, not through original airings. Once they had enough to strip, the shows went out of production.

They also reached some definitive milestones like Amy and Ginger's simultaneous weddings and Jan having her baby. IAL never really had a out and out "series finale" (i.e. letting everybody know that this was absolutely the end from a narrative standpoint), but it wasn't like nothing "monumental" happened in the last season.

[quincywagstaff]

IAL seemed like an odd choice to revive in syndication. when the show ran on ABC, it's ratings were less than impressive, despite having major cast changes between the first and second seasons. When Lorimar put the show back into production, again the ratings were not spectacular (it usually fell about the middle of the pack for syndicated half-hour shows).

So why did Lorimar stick with the show for four seasons? Basically, they were desperate fo have some half-hour comedies to sell to local stations to strip. Although they had three of most popular shows on the air at that time (Dallas, Falcon Crest and Knot's Landing), these were all continuing soaps which while popular in first run, do poorly in repeats. That meant that future syndication prospects for these expensive shows were not very good. So Lorimar decided to get big into half-hour comedies, both for the networks and first-run syndication. They did get some hits out of that strategy (like Mama's Family and Perfect Strangers), some modest successes (like It's a Living), and some flops (One Big Family, She's the Sheriff).

Another bit of history: Mama's Family was originally slated to run five seasons in syndication, in addition to the two seasons on NBC, for a total of 160 episodes, but when Warner bought out Lorimar in 1989, they cut the order for another season. Unlike Lorimar, which needed some half-hour comedies to sell to stations for stripping, Warner had no shortage of comedies so didn't feel it needed to make any more episodes of Mama after the 89-90 season.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by quincywagstaff

IAL seemed like an odd choice to revive in syndication. when the show ran on ABC, it's ratings were less than impressive, despite having major cast changes between the first and second seasons. When Lorimar put the show back into production, again the ratings were not spectacular (it usually fell about the middle of the pack for syndicated half-hour shows).

So why did Lorimar stick with the show for four seasons? Basically, they were desperate fo have some half-hour comedies to sell to local stations to strip. Although they had three of most popular shows on the air at that time (Dallas, Falcon Crest and Knot's Landing), these were all continuing soaps which while popular in first run, do poorly in repeats. That meant that future syndication prospects for these expensive shows were not very good. So Lorimar decided to get big into half-hour comedies, both for the networks and first-run syndication. They did get some hits out of that strategy (like Mama's Family and Perfect Strangers), some modest successes (like It's a Living), and some flops (One Big Family, She's the Sheriff).

Another bit of history: Mama's Family was originally slated to run five seasons in syndication, in addition to the two seasons on NBC, for a total of 160 episodes, but when Warner bought out Lorimar in 1989, they cut the order for another season. Unlike Lorimar, which needed some half-hour comedies to sell to stations for stripping, Warner had no shortage of comedies so didn't feel it needed to make any more episodes of Mama after the 89-90 season.

I posted this a long time ago, but apparently, Mama's Family ended when it did because Vicki Lawrence wasn't comfortable continuing the show due to Joe Hamilton's (the executive producer) declining health. Hamilton you see, was a heavy smoker and it got to the point in which he had cancer that was so bad that it ate away a large part of his face. At the time of the last season of Mama's Family, Hamilton would walk around the set with a paper towel taped to his face to hide the damage done to his face from cancer. And despite it all, he continued to smoke.

As for It's a Living, I am too a bit confused for why the show was revived. To the best of my knowledge, it wasn't exactly a huge "cult (much less critical) favorite" after mostly being overlooked on network TV like say WKRP in Cincinnati or What's Happening!! (which like WKRP, got bigger ratings in syndicated reruns then during its initial network run). In fairness, you can argue that ABC never really gave the show a fair shake, since IAL changed its timeslot at least five times. Plus, it was screwed over by the 1980s Screen Actors Guild strike, which resulted in its first season being truncated. The cynical part in me wonders if IAL was revived in part to capitalize off of the good will that Ann Jillian received following her breast cancer diagnosis.

I know that Too Close for Comfort already set a precedent of sitcoms that got a new lease on life in first-run syndication after being booted off of a major network. But you can argue that TCFC was benefited from having the "star power" of Ted Knight. And since Metromedia was backing it, you can look at it as a round about way of providing a testing ground for the Fox network. Rupert Murdoch in 1985, purchased Metromedia and used their stations to form the nucleus for what would become the Fox network.

As for why soaps like Dallas, Falcon Crest, and Knots Landing did poorly in repeats? I think a lot of it hinges on the element of surprise. Once you know how the storyline is going to play out, there really is little incentive to revisit them. Plus, soaps are by nature, highly serialized and contain story arcs. What that means is that you're going to have to dedicate yourself to watching literally every episode in order to make sense of the storyline. They aren't stand alone things (like procedural shows like Law & Order, NCIS, or CSI) where you can watch an episode and not have to worry too much about missing a huge chunk of the over all narrative.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by quincywagstaff

IAL seemed like an odd choice to revive in syndication. when the show ran on ABC, it's ratings were less than impressive, despite having major cast changes between the first and second seasons. When Lorimar put the show back into production, again the ratings were not spectacular (it usually fell about the middle of the pack for syndicated half-hour shows).

So why did Lorimar stick with the show for four seasons? Basically, they were desperate fo have some half-hour comedies to sell to local stations to strip. Although they had three of most popular shows on the air at that time (Dallas, Falcon Crest and Knot's Landing), these were all continuing soaps which while popular in first run, do poorly in repeats. That meant that future syndication prospects for these expensive shows were not very good. So Lorimar decided to get big into half-hour comedies, both for the networks and first-run syndication. They did get some hits out of that strategy (like Mama's Family and Perfect Strangers), some modest successes (like It's a Living), and some flops (One Big Family, She's the Sheriff).

Another bit of history: Mama's Family was originally slated to run five seasons in syndication, in addition to the two seasons on NBC, for a total of 160 episodes, but when Warner bought out Lorimar in 1989, they cut the order for another season. Unlike Lorimar, which needed some half-hour comedies to sell to stations for stripping, Warner had no shortage of comedies so didn't feel it needed to make any more episodes of Mama after the 89-90 season.

This reminds me of the Carl Weathers movie from 1988, Action Jackson. That movie while not a blockbuster, still held on well enough to gross just over $20 million dollars and barely cracking into the top 50 earners of the year. As talks began for a sequel, Lorimar, who produced Action Jackson, became a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. The big studio had its own franchises and wasn’t interested in continuing the Action Jackson series.

[boechsner]

Here's an interesting 1985 article about the sitcom boom in first-run syndication from that time: TV SYNDICATORS’ BRAVE NEW WORLD

It mentions how It's a Living came to be revived.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by boechsner

Here's an interesting 1985 article about the sitcom boom in first-run syndication from that time: TV SYNDICATORS’ BRAVE NEW WORLD

It mentions how It's a Living came to be revived.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...343-story.html

--"It’s a Living,” starring Ann Jillian, soon will join “Too Close for Comfort” and “Fame” on the list of shows that found life after network cancellation.

Although it lasted only a year on ABC before being canceled in 1981, “It’s a Living” did well when its original 22 episodes were syndicated last summer by Golden West Television. As a result, original producer Witt-Thomas now is creating new episodes to be distributed by Golden West and financed by guarantees from LBS Inc., a New York firm that sells the commercial time on the shows.

[michelala]

By the late 1980's Rupert Murdoch had bought alot of those independent/metromedia local channels that were broadcasting IAL. Fox was starting to produce their own tv shows and as a result there were fewer timeslots for straight to syndication tv shows such as IAL. "Married with Children" and the Tracy Ullman show in 1987 were 2 of the first Fox shows. I believe the ratings for IAL in syndication were ok but once they had their 120 episodes Witt/Thomas just moved Sotkin and the other producers over to run the last 3 seasons of their golden goose, "The Golden Girls."

[TMC]

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