Worst hit TV sitcom......

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Some of the comments on Family Matters are interesting
People can certainly like or dislike the show's changes, the same with any show.
No doubt, Urkel's popularity meant better ratings, and that is why it is called show "business"
The best comparison that I could describe is "Happy Days" after Fonzie became so popular,
and the show changed its focus
As a Dallas fan, I noticed that once Pam left, the Barnes Ewing feud at the core center of the show
didn't have the same impact. The only storyline that seemed compelling afterwards was
The range war, that interestingly didn't involve JR!
The" new" battle for Ewing Oil with JR and Bobby fighting to reclaim the company
somehow seemed less well-written
"Conundrum" was better, I think, than some have indicated, seeing characters in another context.

 

[darkshadows38]

with Happy Days for me i've seen the entire Run i'm not gonna say the show is better without Ron Howard it wasn't of course, but ya know what? it was i think still good until the end. fonzie jumping over that shark was it stupid hell yeah but it wasn't that bad of an episode at least not for me it should have never have happened & it gave birth to one of my most hated sayings jumping the shark i f... hate that term with a passion and i always will i never use it or if i do it's really rare for me to use it.

and yes it's called show business for a reason but the networks aren't always right on making things the center of a show. with Happy Days it should have focused more on the Family but yes had more Fonzie once he got popular. With Family Matters they should not have centered the show around Urkel so much but yes i love the character as well he did make the show and a lot of good memories of me watching it. however keeping it more about the family than they did was i think a bad idea.
you can do both i think and not focus something cause it's popular. Dallas did the same thing it became the JR show pretty much and part of that i think was cause Hagman got so much power during his tenure on the show. i haven't seen the show once Pam left but that makes sense that it would have less impact since the core of the show was the fight between her family and Bobby's. with her gone cause she was generally the reasonable one gone that would really impact that part of the show.
that's my take on it anyways i dunno if i'm right or not

 

[DallasFanForever]

it should have never have happened & it gave birth to one of my most hated sayings jumping the shark

I hate that saying as well. I think every show ended up jumping the shark at some point when you think about it but to me that’s what entertainment is all about. Just about every show I can think of had that one moment or storyline where everything hit that point of no return and went haywire.

 

[darkshadows38]

i would disagree with that but than we each can say look Dallas lost it's shit in season 3 i'm just throwing a random season in there i know it wasn't that particular season and someone else would say no it was season 7 another no season 5 see what i mean? i love Castle but once Andrew Marlowe left the show at the end of season 6 it wasn't as good but than it wasn't shit either it was still a great show but it just wasn't the same, one thing i noticed was that when a show runner leaves at times the show just isn't as good and at times it fails. that's not always the case though thankfully but sometimes it does turn out that way

 

[colbyco]

i have season 1 of family matters on dvd i haven't gotten the rest yet, but here is the thing i think it was in episode #4? on the dvd they put Urkel in the cold opening
yet he hadn't made his 1st appearance until i think the 11th episode i want to say? since it was suppose to be a one shot appearance apparently. however the audience loved him! the put him on the 4th when it was on tv later on but for whatever reason they didn't use the Original cold opening on the dvd. it's funny how a few years ago i watched The Pilot of Family matters than on a lark i bought season 1 a year or two ago than i fell in love with the show again.

the cast also liked the show better without him and like many fans felt that them changing the focus to be Urkel's show rather than the actual family hurt the show and well they are right. they did go way overboard on Urkel but i ended up falling in love with the show again i still need to buy Season 2 though

- once again without Urkel I wouldn´t have watched a second episode of this show ... this family was so uninteresting

- I think "Golden Girls" never jumped the shark - it just ended because Bea wanted out ... I even can´t remember "King of Queens" jumped the shark

 

[bmasters9]

E.L.Raymond, I have watched on a few occasions, but never really found it appealing. Just not very good.

Quite true-- same way with me! I wouldn't waste the money on the DVD releases either.

 

[DallasFanForever]

- I think "Golden Girls" never jumped the shark - it just ended because Bea wanted out .

Pretty much a great show right up until the end. The only thing I didn’t like, and I don’t know if this classified as a JTS moment, was Dorothy and Stan getting engaged again after he finally struck it rich. I just don’t think she would ever do that, as it seemed totally out of character. I’m glad the writers came to their senses and didn’t let them remarry. I like them much better trading insults as quarreling exes.

 

[Marika]

"Friends" is less popular than "the King of Queens" in Germany

Are you sure about that? I think they were both on the same level ratings-wise, even though "Friends" was more of a "sleeper hit".

When "Friends" first aired on Sat.1, it was a huge flop, but then the show was given to Pro7. The earlier seasons were broadcast on the weekend (paired with comedies like for example "Will & Grace"). Beginning with season 8, the show eventually received a primetime slot. Paired with its lead-in "Sex and the City", "Friends" reached a market share of 16% (among adults 14-49) and 2.4 million total viewers on average (in 2003).

"King of Queens" first aired on RTL 2, but the later seasons were shown on kabel eins. In 2005, the show reached a market share of 10% (among adults 14-49) and 1.1 million total viewers. The show's finale was among kabel eins's most-watched broadcasts ever.

 

[9unfold]

Baby Daddy I find very painful viewing. I can't really define what it is about the show that I don't like.

Baby Daddy doesn't work for me.

 

[darkshadows38]

i think i started watching Family Matters during Season 1 before Urkel joined the cast. i remember being surprised at Rachel having her own business and that was Season 2 so it was Season 1 i started watching. the family is more i think that i could relate to but we didn't have an Urkel in our house lol. though there are just me and my brother no other siblings but Urkel i related to a bit as well i got picked like he did but i wasn't a nerd like him though i'm told cause i iove to read i was considered a nerd. but on the Level that Urkel is of being a nerd and of course his outfit and his brain i didn't dress like that nor do i have his IQ either.

what really made me feel old was looking up how old the adults were on the show Reginald Vel Johnson for example when they did do Season 1 it made me feel old cause for many years they were older than me and now at least in season 1 i'm older than them and my way of thinking for years was just as a kid or a teenager during it's run now it's of course as an adult and watching it now just feels weird a bit cause now i'm not relating to the teenagers anymore since i'm no longer a teen but of the parents.

the realization of that just made me feel old and 43 isn't that old either but i'm not 16 anymore either. i don't remember if Friends was a hit or not when it started i started watching it i think it was Mid season 1 i want to say my brother's GF at the time loved the show and got me and my mom into it. my brother as well

but M.A.S.H. was a flop at first as well it was only really through The Ron Howard episode when the bullet kills? i can't remember the name of the episode that he was in that really got it some attention and they had to fight to do that episode cause the network said the audience doesn't want realism they want to laugh cause you had Ron Howard die at the end. and the producers more or less said this is War and war isn't funny shit like this does happen in war and that gave them i think their 1st good notice season 1 ended and during the summer is when people started tuning in when the season had by than been off the air for quite awhile that's how that show slowly became a hit. it wasn't until Season 2 that it started to really pick up steam in the ratings and by Season 3 it was a hit most shows today don't get that kind of chance and if they do it's rare.

 

[colbyco]

Are you sure about that? I think they were both on the same level ratings-wise, even though "Friends" was more of a "sleeper hit".

When "Friends" first aired on Sat.1, it was a huge flop, but then the show was given to Pro7. The earlier seasons were broadcast on the weekend (paired with comedies like for example "Will & Grace"). Beginning with season 8, the show eventually received a primetime slot. Paired with its lead-in "Sex and the City", "Friends" reached a market share of 16% (among adults 14-49) and 2.4 million total viewers on average (in 2003).

"King of Queens" first aired on RTL 2, but the later seasons were shown on kabel eins. In 2005, the show reached a market share of 10% (among adults 14-49) and 1.1 million total viewers. The show's finale was among kabel eins's most-watched broadcasts ever.

- I have the feeling "KoQ" was/is much more popular ... for me it seems the show had more re-runs on bigger networks and better timeslots than "Friends"

 

[bmasters9]

- I think "Golden Girls" never jumped the shark - it just ended because Bea wanted out ...

The same way w/Barney Miller on ABC; it ended because executive producer Danny Arnold wanted it to end (he felt that too many storylines were possibly being repeated, so, as I understand it, it was ended in '82 on those grounds).

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Last Of The Summer Wine - went on for 20 odd years and as a child when it started I was forced to watch it (only had 3 channels back then). One of the reasons I still detest "quaint" shows on Sunday nights.

A teeny bit longer than 20 years. 1973-2010.

 

[darkshadows38]

yes Barney Miller ended on those Terms and plus Hal Linden was ready for the show to end as well if i'm not mistaken his contract was up anyways

 

[Seaviewer]

I liked Urkel's continuing crush on Lara, more than a little reminiscent of the Chachi/Joannie relationship on Happy Days.

 

[AndyB2008]

The same way w/Barney Miller on ABC; it ended because executive producer Danny Arnold wanted it to end (he felt that too many storylines were possibly being repeated, so, as I understand it, it was ended in '82 on those grounds).

Keeping Up Appearances ended for the same reason, as Patricia Routledge wanted out of the show to pursue other roles.

Roy Clarke realised it couldn't continue without her, so it ended.

 

[darkshadows38]

so did Fawlty Towers i think Cleese was ready for it to end as well. i'm not sure i spelled that right but Cleese also did the same thing with Python the tv show i mean he left in (1972) so the last season or two without him aren't nearly as good

 

[AndyB2008]

Last Of The Summer Wine - went on for 20 odd years and as a child when it started I was forced to watch it (only had 3 channels back then). One of the reasons I still detest "quaint" shows on Sunday nights.

They had Where The Heart Is in the UK in the 8pm Sunday slot, and that show was hardly quaint. (Don't know what they call it in America, due to the CBS soap).

Despite the upbeat theme song and cheesy smiley opening titles, there was more misery in it than Prisoner. The creators may as well have flung in Maggie Kirkpatrick.

(Remember WTHI had a bit of US soap recast syndrome too - William Ash and Marsha Thomason had other projects, the latter in the USA what with The Haunted Mansion and Las Vegas, so both quit the show and the characters were recast. And no-one, not even Pam Ferris, noticed they had changed their face).

 

[darkshadows38]

one show that was a hit and miss show was "The NIght Gallery (1969-1972) it was a hit in miss in the sense that the Pilot was f... brilliant the episodes though some were really bad and some were pretty good. the reason being is that Serling wasn't the show runner on that one just the host