Regarding “Welcome Back Kotter,”
And we, who were a little bit older than 10, and going though puberty, wished that Mrs. Kotter had a bigger rack than she actually did.
Well, “WKRP in Cincinnati” and Loni Anderson would come along.
I just thought of a good mediocre movie. Condorman.
I remember family members watching shows like:
That Girl
The Flying Nun
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father
Family Affair
I never heard anything about those shows later. Would these be considered average/mediocre?
Those shows were all in daily syndication when I was kid, so they must have had a level of popularity most TV shows don’t achieve. But who’s to say mediocrity can’t be popular?
Part of that is also that those series had enough episodes to make syndication attractive.
The general rule of thumb, at least back then (1970s, I’m guessing, since I remember watching all of those series in syndication when I was a kid, too), was that a series needed to have at least 100 episodes to interest local TV stations to buy them for use in daily runs: 100+ episodes allowed a station to “strip” the show (i.e., run it in the same time slot, M-F) for at least 20 weeks without re-running a particular episode.
That said, there were a few series (most notably, the original Star Trek, and Gilligan’s Island) which succeeded in syndication in that era despite not having the magic 100 episodes.
I think that actually had a purpose-- it could be cut without affecting the plot, so that the run-time in syndication could be adjusted as a local station needed.
Why the jokes were so stupid, I don’t know-- maybe because they’d be just as funny 25 years later as they were in the original run. The funniest jokes usually made fun of a current figure or the economy, or some other current problem-- jokes that would leave people scratching their heads even 10 years later.
Gabe Kaplan was a standup before he became an actor so those closing scenes were just a sort of showcase for him. I always wondered how many uncles Kotter had.
If you don’t want to do the math, a show had to be on for five years. There were big celebrations when a show made in five years, and could run in syndication-- residuals!
I’ve heard that Star Trek had a lot of fans among TV people-- people who worked in television-- that’s how it got in syndication without 5 seasons.
I can’t explain Gilligan’s Island.
ETA: Googled. Duh. Gilligan’s Island produced more episodes than usual per season, and had 98 episodes instead of the more typical 70 or so after 3 seasons. So it was picked up for syndication.
Six year olds don’t care how many times they see an episode, especially if it is filled with slapstick, dumb jokes, and none of that romantic relationship crap. The sweet spot for Gilligan reruns was that hour between when the younger and older kids got off school.
Well, back then (the 1960s), it was more like 3 or 4 seasons, as most network prime-time series produced 25-35 episodes a year. But, yes, the point’s accurate: if a series made it to 100 or more episodes, it was an important milestone for the producers, actors, etc., because it meant that they had an opportunity to make more money on the show, even after it ceased first-run production.
100 episodes is also proof of popularity (if not quality).
I assume the stupidity was because WBK was meant for pre-adolescent kids, for whom more sophisticated humor would go right over their heads.
(When I first started reading MAD Magazine, a couple months short of my eighth birthday, a lot of the jokes escaped me. “Group encounter/group gropes”??)
The conversation about what makes a TV show eligible for syndication is an interesting one, as there are no hard-fast rules. Only guidelines.
I remember a long time ago watching something on Star Trek TOS which talked about how passing the 75 episode threshold was so important for syndication purposes, and part of the last season was filmed with the sole intention of ensuring that the show would be syndicated after it was done running (something which was pretty obvious by the end of season 3 for those who weren’t emotionally attached to the show). It never stated why, though. The Monkees had far fewer episodes than that. This only piqued my interest because I had always heard that 88 was the “magic number” of episodes to make a show eligible for syndication, but that apparently changed in recent years to 100. Either way, it’s only a guideline. If a show has enough demand, someone will try to pick it up.
And for those cult classic shows like Mama’s Family, they will make episodes exclusively for syndication if there is enough demand.
Though I never understood Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Did people actually watch that?
I remember reading somewhere that 65 episodes was the minimum number needed for syndication because you could air an episode for one day a week for 13 weeks(a quarter of a year) before needing to repeat them.
Yes, it’s only a guideline. The Munsters had around 70 episodes and The Honeymooners had 39 - and The Honeymooners was shown nightly in my area for at least 30 years.
I think you likely meant “could air an episode five days a week for 13 weeks before needing to repeat them.”
Around age 11, I started complaining to any adult who’d listen that MAD’s humor was becoming more vulgar and crude - in response to which I’d inevitably get a condescending smile and a comment that I was probably just understanding more of the jokes. Except that, at the time, MAD’s humor was becoming more vulgar and crude! The creators even admitted as much in a New York Times profile.
I graduated high school in 1984 so I was watching stuff like Gilligan’s Island in the 1970s. The thing is that our television viewing options were limited so we watched what we could. It was often that or a soap opera or a dull talk show.
That is what I meant.
I have a chronic problem of thinking faster than I can type so if I don’t repeatedly proofread everything I post mistakes like that happen.
I guess there’s no such thing as a wrong opinion when it comes to art. But let’s just say that during this thread my eyebrows have raised a bit when I’ve read that DS9 is mediocre (my favourite Trek), and even moreso Dr Strangelove (one of the best films ever and a magnificent performance by Sellers).