Treatment of old sitcoms by current television stations and networks - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

george ho · 05-21-2019, 05:38 PM

I've been reading messages saying that Family Ties is just a mere '80s piece and that The Brady Bunch made bigger cultural impact. If that's the case, then why must viewers watch The Brady Bunch on METV on only Sundays and Family Ties at late nights? Shouldn't The Brady Bunch be on every day instead? Also, Happy Days and Taxi is no longer on reruns

Also, in Los Angeles I don't see local television stations airing many pre-1980s shows anymore except... I Love Lucy. AntennaTV, MeTV, and RetroTV are available as subchannels of local stations just to compensate the way the stations treat old sitcoms nowadays.

Maybe I've not seen the full picture about the issue. However, the library of old sitcoms is getting very large, yet many sitcoms (and hourlong programs) deserve better.

favoriteshow · 05-21-2019, 09:13 PM

I don't think MeTV likes scheduling shows that are children/family focused at least during the week. And for cable, unfortunately classic TV hasn't fit on there either, except for M*A*S*H for some reason. Cable channels are a little of original programming but low cost reality TV, and marathon scheduling of a few shows.

I Love Lucy, Brady Bunch, Family Ties and Taxi are all available streaming on CBS All Access.

I did find it odd that only one season of Happy Days (season 3), Brady Bunch (seasons 1-4 but 5 is missing) is on CBS All Access and Laverne & Shirley is not there at all (even though CBS Television Distribution is listed as the distributor on wikipedia).

quincywagstaff · 05-21-2019, 09:56 PM

Part of the reason that local stations run very few pre-1980 shows comes down to demographics. Older shows have a predominantly older audience, which are less attractive to sponsors, as they are assumed to have less disposable income than younger viewers. You may have noticed that digital subchannels like Me-TV, Antenna or Decades have a lot of commercials by drug companies, social security or Medicare providers, or medical malpractice, which are directed at older viewers. Since the programming on those channels is mostly older TV shows, they appeal to those sponsors.

Not sure about Happy Days, but Taxi was never a big success in syndication (and it was only a modest hit in its original run on ABC and then NBC). It was always more popular with critics than the mass audience.

05-21-2019, 05:38 PM	#1
george ho Member Occasional Poster Join Date: May 19, 2010 Posts: 85	Treatment of old sitcoms by current television stations and networks I've been reading messages saying that Family Ties is just a mere '80s piece and that The Brady Bunch made bigger cultural impact. If that's the case, then why must viewers watch The Brady Bunch on METV on only Sundays and Family Ties at late nights? Shouldn't The Brady Bunch be on every day instead? Also, Happy Days and Taxi is no longer on reruns Also, in Los Angeles I don't see local television stations airing many pre-1980s shows anymore except... I Love Lucy. AntennaTV, MeTV, and RetroTV are available as subchannels of local stations just to compensate the way the stations treat old sitcoms nowadays. Maybe I've not seen the full picture about the issue. However, the library of old sitcoms is getting very large, yet many sitcoms (and hourlong programs) deserve better.

05-21-2019, 09:13 PM	#2
favoriteshow Member Forum Regular Join Date: Dec 08, 2018 Posts: 587	I don't think MeTV likes scheduling shows that are children/family focused at least during the week. And for cable, unfortunately classic TV hasn't fit on there either, except for MAS*H for some reason. Cable channels are a little of original programming but low cost reality TV, and marathon scheduling of a few shows. I Love Lucy, Brady Bunch, Family Ties and Taxi are all available streaming on CBS All Access. I did find it odd that only one season of Happy Days (season 3), Brady Bunch (seasons 1-4 but 5 is missing) is on CBS All Access and Laverne & Shirley is not there at all (even though CBS Television Distribution is listed as the distributor on wikipedia).

05-21-2019, 09:56 PM	#3
quincywagstaff Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jan 15, 2009 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 191	Part of the reason that local stations run very few pre-1980 shows comes down to demographics. Older shows have a predominantly older audience, which are less attractive to sponsors, as they are assumed to have less disposable income than younger viewers. You may have noticed that digital subchannels like Me-TV, Antenna or Decades have a lot of commercials by drug companies, social security or Medicare providers, or medical malpractice, which are directed at older viewers. Since the programming on those channels is mostly older TV shows, they appeal to those sponsors. Not sure about Happy Days, but Taxi was never a big success in syndication (and it was only a modest hit in its original run on ABC and then NBC). It was always more popular with critics than the mass audience.