Has ABC jumped the shark?

[Hawkee]

When ABC first came out it was a network that showed variety and it was destined to become a hit network. In the 80's and 90's ABC showed promise by having hit sitcoms and drama series and with sitcoms such as Growing Pains debuting in 1985 Head Of The Class debuting in 1986 Full House debuting in 1987 and Perfect Strangers ABC knew that these sitcoms would become classics of the 80's and with dramas such as Thirtysomething Doogie Howser MD ABC saw that these dramas would do good and with Roseanne debuting in 1988 along with Coach ABC had become the strongest link in networks for sitcoms. But I think in the 90's to the 2010's you could tell that ABC was really beginning to jump the shark. Starting with Full House's finale and what ABC should've done was have Danny Tanner get married and Stephanie and DJ would've graduated high school and began college. And I think once Full House ended ABC was focusing on other shows like Family Matters and adding shows like Hanging With Mr. Cooper and Me And The Boys and Thea to the TGIF lineup. But the one mistake ABC did and they should've never done was add Step By Step and I don't know how in the world Miller-Boyett came up with it because I guess they wanted to make Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers sitcom stars. But when Mom and I saw Step By Step I thought it was a ripoff of The Hogan Family and the only other star that was famous was Staci Keanan of My Two Dads and how she got the role of Dana i'll never figure out. Another thing that ABC thought would make Full House Family Matters and Step By Step hits was that all three sitcoms had the same singer Jesse Frederick sing the theme songs and how did that make those three sitcoms hits might you ask yourself? But when ABC really started to jump the shark was in 1999 when Who Wants To Be A Millionaire debuted and that show came out soon because it was the beginning of Millionaire Mania and I think ABC overdid Who Wants To Be A Millionaire way too much by showing it every night and adding editions like Celebrity Millionaire Oscars Millionaire Super Millionaire and so on and this hurt the show in ratings. While in sitcoms ABC should've let Spin City end when Michael J. Fox left the show instead of replacing him with Charlie Sheen. But if you look at the other sitcoms like Clueless Sabrina The Teenage Witch Dharma And Greg and Sports Night those shows were hits but Clueless was wrong to go to the UPN Network and Home Improvement was surviving in reruns even before the finale. But if you look at ABC today they seem to focus on Grey's Anatomy which I think will never end and Station 19 and action shows and crime dramas. But their Summer game show block is a hit but why are they continuing with Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune even though Pat Sajak retired last year from Wheel Of Fortune and Press Your Luck with Elizabeth Banks is still a hit but they should cancel Celebrity Family Feud and put another game in it's place. But what ABC should add is Marvel shows like they could create one about Kingpin and one about Silver Surfer and they would score ratings indeed

[Reinhold_Weege]

ABC jumped the shark when it was combined with Disney in 1995. Post-1995 I barely ever watched anything on the network.

[icecream]

Station 19 was cancelled a year ago. Pat Sajak will still be hosting one more season on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, even with being gone from the syndicated version.

[Hawkee]

The biggest mistake that ABC did which made them jump the shark even more was cancel several Marvel series like Agents Of SHIELD and Marvel's Inhumans which I think ABC was really hurt by doing this? Because Marvel's Inhumans was a great series and they should've given it a second season and that would've given ABC huge ratings. But why I think ABC jumped the shark was when they kept renewing Desperate Housewives and I never figured out why Desperate Housewives became so popular and how anyone could watch that show I never understood how. But one thing ABC was wrong to do was have Alec Baldwin host the new revival of Match Game because I guess they wanted to see how great Alec Baldwin would be as a game show host but you can see and understand why that show was cancelled. But in sitcoms I think Family Matters should've ended when JoMarie Payton-France quit the show and they were wrong to recast Judyann Elder as the new Harriet Winslow because I think the only reason Family Matters survived was because of how popular Steve Urkel was getting and Jaleel White probably was happy that Family Matters got ratings because of him. But they should've also let Perfect Strangers last until 1996 because Perfect Strangers was a popular sitcom and now ever since ABC ended it Perfect Strangers reruns have never been seen on any retro channel since. What I think ABC needs to do is create their own spin-off channel with sitcoms and it would help ABC bring back it's original formula that it once had

[Dude111]

I think they all have gone to crap

[icecream]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

But in sitcoms I think Family Matters should've ended when JoMarie Payton-France quit the show and they were wrong to recast Judyann Elder as the new Harriet Winslow.

Jo Marie Payton was in all 8 seasons of Family Matters that aired on ABC. She was not recast until halfway through season 9 which had moved to CBS.

[Hawkee]

Two other sitcoms that ABC had that were destined to be hits "actually one should've been a bigger hit in the 90's" was a sitcom that had Delta Burke named Delta and judging from the previews it seemed that Delta Burke was well on her way to being a bigger star in sitcoms and with Delta ABC hoped to give Delta Burke a chance. When Delta first aired Mom saw the first episode and Delta was indeed a cute sitcom but ABC cancelled it with no warning and gave no explaination why? The other sitcom that I think ABC was wrong to create and why it was created in my eyes was Thunder Alley and how in the world Thunder Alley existed is beyond me? Because the only reason why Thunder Alley was considered a small hit was because since it was the TGIF lineup the sitcoms had to have teen stars which was popular with all teenage girls. But when Thunder Alley was cancelled you can see why it failed. But the one sitcom that lasted a while that I couldn't figure out why it was a monster hit was Boy Meets World and I had never even seen that sitcom until my mom and I saw reruns of it in syndication and from what I saw it was another teen oriented sitcom and with Ben Savage in it they were trying to make him famous in sitcoms and even with Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong I can never figure out why Boy Meets World survived but the theme song was ruined with lyrics and they should've kept the original theme song for it's entire run. In soap operas I think when ABC jumped the shark was when they ended Loving in 1995 but the wrong thing they did was take some of the cast of Loving and create The City which in my eyes was very unappealing because when you see an episode of The City you can see that it's not really a soap opera but an city adventure series and the only saving grace was Morgan Fairchild and also The City had an awesome theme song which really didn't fit the show well. But after ABC saw what The City did with Loving characters they repeated the same thing with General Hospital by having Port Charles which was better than The City and why Port Charles was cancelled i'll never figure out why. But I think ABC wants to appeal to a younger audience and they want to add more interesting variety but a daytime lineup of game shows would be successful or they could develop a new soap opera to regain soap opera fans and an interesting variety could help ABC improve a lot

[Hawkee]

What I also think caused ABC to jump the shark is every Easter ABC doesn't seem to have Easter themed programming and from the 80's to the 90's ABC had the Walt Disney World Happy Easter Parade as a family Easter tradition but since 2000 they quit airing these parades and I can't figure out why they did this because these parades were huge monster hits and now the only Disney parade that's still a survivor on ABC is the Disney Merry Christmas Parade that airs every Christmas. Another thing that ABC has done every year before Easter is constantly air the movie The Ten Commandments and they should rotate some other Easter themed movies and how The Ten Commandments gets ratings every year i'll never understand. But the thing that really caused ABC to jump the shark was the ending of the popular ABC Weekend Special because in my eyes this show should've never gotten cancelled because it had an audience and kids watched it a lot. But I think if they gotten rid of Captain OG Readmore and put a human host in place like they did with Michael Young when the series first began it would've been better. Speaking of ABC's Saturday morning lineup what they could've done is develop their own original cartoons rather than choosing Disney cartoons like Recess Pepper Ann Jungle Cubs and they could've gotten the Marvel cartoon hour from FOX. But what really made ABC jump the shark in the cartoon side was having the Disney's One Saturday Morning cartoon hour and you can see why it failed? First what was the meaning of the elephant mascot? The only reason they marketed that elephant was because Brad Garrett provided his voice and the weakest segment was Miss Munger's Class which was essentially a class photo coming to life and why kids liked that segment i'll never know. I think ABC needs to get back on top and try developing sitcoms and dramas that will bring ratings

[Hawkee]

I think with the debut of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire it meant that ABC was ready for a monster hit game show in prime time. But when Who Wants To Be A Millionaire got even more popular it made ABC start to jump the shark. Why may you ask? Because as I mentioned in my opening post ABC overhyped Who Wants To Be A Millionaire way too much to the point where they practically ran new episodes EVERY night and then they started theme weeks like Celebrity Millionaire Couples Week College Week and so on and to me this is not how you promote a hit game show to get ratings but once viewers saw this they stopped watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. And how they got Jimmy Kimmel to revive Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and ruin it I'll never know. Another game show that got promoted but got cancelled was Supermarket Sweep and they promoted that show like crazy but I think the main reason why Supermarket Sweep was cancelled was because of Leslie Jones and how she got the Supermarket Sweep job is a mystery. Also why didn't The Chase return to GSN rather than ABC and why Sara Haines replaced Brooke Burns i'll never understand. Because this reboot seemed to be focused on Jeopardy champions and how Ken Jennings was chosen as a chaser is also a giant mystery. The Chase's only good season was they added Mark Labbett and I think he was hoping to host an American game show after being the star of the GSN version of The Chase with Brooke Burns. In the daytime lineup how The View is still surviving is a mystery i'll never solve? Before The View became number one ABC had Home and why Home was cancelled i'll never figure out because it was a great show that offered everything from cooking to health advice to home decorating tips celebrity interviews and more and ABC should've kept Home and not replaced it with The View. I can honestly say that if any network jumped the shark the most ABC has done it a lot

[Hawkee]

I also cannot figure out how in the world America's Funniest Home Videos is still surviving and they should've cancelled it when Bob Saget no longer was the host of the show and America's Funniest Home Videos with it's change of hosts made ABC jump the shark even more and they were smart to have spinoffs such as America's Funniest People and World's Funniest Videos which in my eyes were very unappealing yet those two shows were also produced by Vin DiBona Productions as was America's Funniest Home Videos. I guess Vin DiBona was very proud of his creation and wanted ABC to have more spinoffs of it to make a trilogy block of America's Funniest Home Videos. I also think what ABC also jump the shark is why did they choose CBS to take both Step By Step and Family Matters from them? The way I view it ABC saw it as a way to keep Step By Step and Family Matters surviving for fear if CBS didn't take them they would be cancelled for good. But the ending of Growing Pains really hurt ABC and they could've let it run till 1994 but they ended it in the 1992 season and yet they made two Growing Pains TV movies and that made ABC jump the shark more. But when it comes down to it ABC was truly trying to gain a new audience which is why shows like China Beach and The Young Riders and Twin Peaks were promising shows but Twin Peaks got canceled too soon

[Hawkee]

I have never figured out how China Beach became a big hit for ABC in the 80's? I think when China Beach debuted in 1988 ABC was trying to have a plan to make successful drama shows in their lineup. But how in the world Doogie Howser MD became a monster hit is beyond me? Mom and I saw reruns of Doogie Howser MD and I couldn't figure out why it was a hit because in my eyes I think ABC wanted to add medical dramas but the only thing that show did was make Neil Patrick Harris a teen idol and why Doogie Howser MD lasted so long I don't know why it was so popular. And the same with Thirtysomething and how Thirtysomething became a smash hit i'll never understand at all? Because I think why Thirtysomething became a hit is because it had somewhat of an interesting storyline to it. But I think the one drama show that seemed to keep ABC from jumping the shark in the drama department was The Wonder Years and the only reason why that show was a monster hit was because of Fred Savage and Fred Savage became a teen idol as well and shows that if an ABC show had to not jump the shark you stuck a teen idol in it to be successful

[Hawkee]

I think two of the main reasons why ABC has jumped the shark is they are trying to go for an older audience with the first reason being more shows to attract the senior citizen crowd because most of ABC's watchers are between the ages of 60 to 80 years old. And reason two being they want to add more successful sitcoms and dramas that score ratings galore but I think they want to focus on Disney+ and Hulu because they see the new sitcoms being more successful on Disney+ and Hulu. But I can't figure out why ABC doesn't have any other game show or talk show for the daytime lineup besides The View and I think The View really needs to go and they should put a game show in it's timeslot and also develop another soap opera to go with General Hospital. Because the daytime lineup is what is making ABC jump the shark even more

[Hawkee]

What I think ABC could do to prevent them from jumping the shark is try to create reality shows that survive long seasons. Like I can never figure out who came up with The Mole because that show lasted two seasons before switching to the Celebrity Mole format and when my father saw one episode of The Mole he found the format hard to figure out and the only reason why The Mole became somewhat of a hit was due to it being hosted by Anderson Cooper in my eyes. But how The Bachelor/Bachelorette still is surviving on ABC is a mystery to me and how it gets big ratings is beyond me? But when ABC started creating odd game shows caused them to jump the shark. Like why they came up with Set For Life I'll never know because the gameplay was weird to me and how Jimmy Kimmel hosted this odd game show I'll never understand. Another game show that I disliked was 500 Questions and how CNN's Richard Quest hosted it is somewhat odd because when I saw one episode I found Richard Quest annoying and how 500 Questions got Season 2 I never will understand but at least Richard Quest was replaced with Nightline's Dan Harris but that show was cancelled. And how Lost became popular I cannot figure out because that show also made ABC jump the shark. But I think ABC wants to make more successful dramas rather than sitcoms to keep them alive but they should improve their lineup with more interesting sitcoms and game shows

[Hawkee]

ABC could've had a successful game show in the 90's with the debut of Monopoly but I can't figure out who at ABC decided to make a Monopoly game show but you can see why it failed and it goes to show that nighttime game shows didn't work well in the 90's on ABC until Who Wants To Be A Millionaire debuted in 1999. But on Saturday mornings is when ABC really jumped the shark after cancelling The ABC Weekend Special and replaced it with Science Court in 1997 and if ABC could make a new version of the ABC Weekend Special it would get big ratings. But I also think having the ABC Kids block made ABC jump the shark more because since they got bought by Disney ABC wanted to show off more cartoons done by Disney. But when it comes to networks ABC is one of the weakest links

[icecream]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

But when it comes to networks ABC is one of the weakest links

NBC is the network with the Weakest Links. ABC hasn't tried to air that show nationwide yet.