Why Was "Happy Days" Demoted to a Hammock Slot for Its Final Season? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

James28 · 08-07-2024, 04:36 PM

The ABC sitcom Happy Days had aired on Tuesdays at 8 pm for almost its entire run. Why "almost"? Well, Happy Days, a former number-one show in the Nielsen ratings, was, for its eleventh and final season, shifted to Tuesdays at 8:30 in favor of the infamous Just Our Luck. We're going to take an in-depth look at one scheduling question: Why take Happy Days off of what was literally the only timeslot it had held since its debut?

The previous season (1982-83), the ratings for both Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley took a major nosedive once The A-Team premiered on NBC in January of '83. The end-of-season Nielsen rankings had the averages for HD and L&S still ranking in the Top-30, being in the 17's range with L&S beating HD by four tenths of a ratings point (The A-Team ranked at #10 with a 20.1 average). L&S was only cancelled by ABC because the network wasn't willing to grant Penny Marshall's request to move production of that sitcom to New York for a potential ninth season, in addition to L&S's final two original episodes in May being down to the mid-11's range. I remember seeing on this forum that Happy Days was bumped to a hammock slot because it was no longer strong enough to lead off a night. I'm wondering if any other reasons can be identified for such a demotion. Regardless, demoting a former number-one show in the Nielsen ratings from an anchor slot to a hammock slot (especially if it had been on said anchor slot since its debut!) can only be seen as a burial for that show.

I don't believe in hit veteran shows getting bumped to hammock slots to make room for unproven freshman shows. Why couldn't ABC have just kept Happy Days on 8 and had Just Our Luck lead-out of Happy Days at 8:30 instead? (Happy Days would ultimately beat Just Our Luck in the Year-End Nielsen Rankings for 1983-84 anyway, ranking 63rd with a 13.6 rating compared to the 12.7 that the 75th-ranked JOL got, while The A-Team's ratings got even stronger in its second year, ranking 4th with an average of 24.0.) And why couldn't Happy Days have been put back on the 8pm half hour after JOL was cancelled? Happy Days's official series finale, on May 8 of 1984, still started at 8 pm and spanned the entire hour. Lastly, how was an unproven freshman show like Just Our Luck deserving of an anchor slot at all?

howilu · 08-08-2024, 07:13 AM

Two likely reasons why Happy Days got moved to 8:30 ET.

1. ABC needed a show to replace Laverne & Shirley which ended its run after eight seasons.

2. The emergence of NBC's new hit show The A-Team would cut into Happy Days' dominance of the 8 PM time period, siphoning much of the show's younger audience.

08-07-2024, 04:36 PM	#1
James28 Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Apr 14, 2007 Posts: 3,976	Why Was "Happy Days" Demoted to a Hammock Slot for Its Final Season? The ABC sitcom Happy Days had aired on Tuesdays at 8 pm for almost its entire run. Why "almost"? Well, Happy Days, a former number-one show in the Nielsen ratings, was, for its eleventh and final season, shifted to Tuesdays at 8:30 in favor of the infamous Just Our Luck. We're going to take an in-depth look at one scheduling question: Why take Happy Days off of what was literally the only timeslot it had held since its debut? The previous season (1982-83), the ratings for both Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley took a major nosedive once The A-Team premiered on NBC in January of '83. The end-of-season Nielsen rankings had the averages for HD and L&S still ranking in the Top-30, being in the 17's range with L&S beating HD by four tenths of a ratings point (The A-Team ranked at #10 with a 20.1 average). L&S was only cancelled by ABC because the network wasn't willing to grant Penny Marshall's request to move production of that sitcom to New York for a potential ninth season, in addition to L&S's final two original episodes in May being down to the mid-11's range. I remember seeing on this forum that Happy Days was bumped to a hammock slot because it was no longer strong enough to lead off a night. I'm wondering if any other reasons can be identified for such a demotion. Regardless, demoting a former number-one show in the Nielsen ratings from an anchor slot to a hammock slot (especially if it had been on said anchor slot since its debut!) can only be seen as a burial for that show. I don't believe in hit veteran shows getting bumped to hammock slots to make room for unproven freshman shows. Why couldn't ABC have just kept Happy Days on 8 and had Just Our Luck lead-out of Happy Days at 8:30 instead? (Happy Days would ultimately beat Just Our Luck in the Year-End Nielsen Rankings for 1983-84 anyway, ranking 63rd with a 13.6 rating compared to the 12.7 that the 75th-ranked JOL got, while The A-Team's ratings got even stronger in its second year, ranking 4th with an average of 24.0.) And why couldn't Happy Days have been put back on the 8pm half hour after JOL was cancelled? Happy Days's official series finale, on May 8 of 1984, still started at 8 pm and spanned the entire hour. Lastly, how was an unproven freshman show like Just Our Luck deserving of an anchor slot at all?
	__________________ "When the run of a network TV show has ended, some go out with a bang, some with a whimper, but all are...Future Endeavored." "Stay Safe"? More like "Stay Sad". #2020Hurts Last edited by James28; 08-07-2024 at 05:12 PM.

08-08-2024, 07:13 AM	#2
howilu Member Senior Member Join Date: Apr 20, 2003 Location: St. Louis Park, MN Posts: 1,959	Two likely reasons why Happy Days got moved to 8:30 ET. 1. ABC needed a show to replace Laverne & Shirley which ended its run after eight seasons. 2. The emergence of NBC's new hit show The A-Team would cut into Happy Days' dominance of the 8 PM time period, siphoning much of the show's younger audience.