Did a show like "Three's Company" begin to look outdated once "Cheers" came along

[TMC]

The early seasons of Cheers (it premiered during the 1982-83 season) do overlap with the final seasons of Three's Company (which would've at the time, been in its seventh season). Cheers wasn't a huge hit at the time. For its first season, it only ranked as high as 74th in the Nielsen ratings whereas as Three's Company in comparison, was the sixth highest rated show for the 1982-83 season. And for the 1983-84 season, they were about neck and neck with each other. Cheers for its second season, finished at 34th place in the Nielsen ratings while Three's Company for its 8th and final season, finished only one spot ahead of Cheers.

Regardless, I recently read this about a presumed paradigm shift in 1980s American sitcoms:

The **1980s television transition** features one of the most violent "Nirvana moments" in entertainment history. Entering 1984, the situation comedy was not just struggling—the television industry had officially declared the entire genre **dead**.

In the early 1980s, the airwaves were dominated by massive, serialized prime-time soap operas (*Dallas*, *Dynasty*) and high-concept action-adventure shows (*The A-Team*, *Knight Rider*, *Magnum, P.I.*). Comedies that survived were either aging relics of the 1970s or incredibly broad, high-concept gimmicks involving aliens (*Mork & Mindy*), cross-dressing (*Bosom Buddies*), or wacky setups.

Then came September 1984, and the entire ecosystem was blown apart.

---

### 1. *The Cosby Show* (The Total Extinction Event)

Before its legacy was permanently tarnished by its star’s real-life actions, *The Cosby Show*’s premiere on September 20, 1984, was the exact television equivalent of *Nevermind* dropping in 1991.

* **What it killed:** High-concept gimmick comedies, nighttime soap dominance, and the executive belief that "sitcoms are dead."
* **The Paradigm Shift:** Bill Cosby insisted on dropping standard, loud, one-liner setups and theatrical plots. Instead, the show focused on the quiet, realistic minutiae of upper-middle-class family life—things like a son squandering his allowance or a mock funeral for a pet goldfish. It was an immediate, monstrous rating blockbuster. It revived the sitcom genre overnight and single-handedly built NBC's "Must See TV" Thursday night empire.

### 2. *Cheers* (The Sophisticated Realignment)

While *Cheers* premiered in 1982 to dead-last ratings, it was saved by critics and network patience, exploding into a cultural powerhouse right alongside the mid-'80s sitcom renaissance.

* **What it killed:** The static, simplistic, episodic comedy structure.
* **The Paradigm Shift:** *Cheers* brought a cinematic, highly literate level of writing and character depth to the multi-cam stage. It introduced the intense "Will they/Won't they" multi-season serialization of Sam and Diane. It proved that a sitcom could feature deeply flawed, adult characters who didn't always make the right choice, setting the stage for everything from *Frasier* to *Friends*.

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### The Casualties: What Got "Market Corrected"?

When the shift toward realistic family dynamics and sophisticated workplace banter took over in 1984, the loud, gimmicky, joke-machine remnants of the late '70s and early '80s instantly felt like corny relics.

| The "Pre-Grunge" Early 80s Trend | The "Nirvana" Correction |
| --- | --- |
| **High-Concept Gimmick Sitcoms** | Shows that relied on bizarre, fantastical hooks to generate plots (*Alf*, *Small Wonder*, *My Living Doll* style formats) were suddenly pushed to the creative fringes or relegated purely to children's time slots as adult audiences demanded grounded realism. |
| **The "T&A" / Slapstick Comedy** | The early '80s relied heavily on broad, physical, innuendo-laden farces in the vein of *Three's Company*. Post-1984, the industry pivoted sharply toward witty, sharp dialogue and authentic emotional stakes. |
| **The Action-Adventure Block** | The broad, explosive hour-long escapism of *The A-Team* or *The Dukes of Hazzard* lost its stranglehold on the Top 10 as networks rushed to fill their schedules with half-hour, stand-up comedian-led family sitcoms (*Roseanne*, *Growing Pains*). |

> **The '80s Irony:** The ultimate testament to this shift is the trajectory of the production company **Carsey-Werner**. The executive producers had previously found success with the high-energy, cartoonish magic of *Mork & Mindy* and the broad setups of *Three's Company*. Realizing that style had run its course, they completely inverted their strategy to produce *The Cosby Show* and *Roseanne*, defining the new era by executing the very "market correction" that left their old hits in the past.

In a nutshell, the basic and fundamental argument is that Cheers did the following

• It introduced character‑driven, sophisticated, adult ensemble comedy.
  
• It made broad, joke‑first '70s sitcoms feel simplistic.
  
• It set the template for prestige sitcom writing.

And in the process, Cheers in essence, killed:

• Door‑slamming farce
  
• Broad physical comedy
  
• “Joke machine” sitcoms

[Lyverbe]

Your link in "I recently read this about a presumed paradigm shift" links to a gemini chat. Not helpful

"Three's Company" and "Cheers" are my two favorite sitcoms of all time, I know all their episodes by heart. With both being completely different, I can't compare one with the other. I find it hard to think that "Cheers" affected "Three's Company" in any way, as we could say that same for "Taxi" vs. "Happy Days" (for example)

[Willbo]

Cheers had a lot of broad physical comedy. Loved both shows.