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<blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 224249" data-attributes="member: 27">Another issue working against both the sitcoms and the hour-long dramas was the weekly release of episodes (rather than &quot;strip syndication&quot; of Monday-Friday).&nbsp; Viewers were (and still are) accustomed to seeing the same show every weekday in most dayparts (other than primetime).&nbsp; The local channels would have to buy the first-run syndication comedies or action hours in groups of five--one for Monday, one for Tuesday, etc.&nbsp; From the minute Fox Network hit the airwaves in 1986 they did not program anything at 10pm Eastern, opting to give that hour to their affiliate stations to (supposedly) produce a nightly newscast.&nbsp; To this day, Fox still doesn&#039;t offer anything for the 10pm slot.&nbsp; Since most of the smaller stations out in the hinterlands were barely scraping by, they could not afford to have a news division--so that hour became one of the most popular timeslots for the action hours.&nbsp; They were good counter-programming for the big three networks, who were airing a lot of the same kind of shows at 10pm.&nbsp; For the stations (mostly in large cities) that could do a newscast, a sitcom would often be aired in the second half of the hour.&nbsp; But a lot of channels from all affiliations picked up various sitcoms and action hours to fill various holes in their schedules.&nbsp; I recall the weekends were filled with first-run stuff during early-prime and whenever there wasn&#039;t sports-related events airing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Daniel Avery, post: 224249, member: 27"] Another issue working against both the sitcoms and the hour-long dramas was the weekly release of episodes (rather than "strip syndication" of Monday-Friday). Viewers were (and still are) accustomed to seeing the same show every weekday in most dayparts (other than primetime). The local channels would have to buy the first-run syndication comedies or action hours in groups of five--one for Monday, one for Tuesday, etc. From the minute Fox Network hit the airwaves in 1986 they did not program anything at 10pm Eastern, opting to give that hour to their affiliate stations to (supposedly) produce a nightly newscast. [FONT=Georgia][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]To this day, Fox still doesn't offer anything for the 10pm slot. [/COLOR][/FONT]Since most of the smaller stations out in the hinterlands were barely scraping by, they could not afford to have a news division--so that hour became one of the most popular timeslots for the action hours. They were good counter-programming for the big three networks, who were airing a lot of the same kind of shows at 10pm. For the stations (mostly in large cities) that could do a newscast, a sitcom would often be aired in the second half of the hour. But a lot of channels from all affiliations picked up various sitcoms and action hours to fill various holes in their schedules. I recall the weekends were filled with first-run stuff during early-prime and whenever there wasn't sports-related events airing. [/QUOTE]

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Who played JR Ewing?