Cheers! is the only example I can think of; for the first few weeks it was actually dead last in the rankings for network TV (77 out of 77) and only survived cancellation because they had nothing to replace it with that was cheaper to produce. Within a couple of seasons it ws a major hit, and John Ratzenberger said that by the final season his agent was making more off of his role in the show than he himself made in the first year (when IIRC he was pay for play- Cliff wasn’t supposed to be a regular at first).
What are some other shows that got miserable ratings at first but turned out to be big hits?
On the flip side, there were also several shows that were cancelled even though they were ratings hits, something that would likely never happen today. The ones that come to mind immediately are Gilligan’s Island (always in the top 20, often in the top 10, but hated by the network brass) and Beverly Hillbillies (which was still going strong in its final season when, to borrow the words of one cast member, “the network cancelled every show that had a tree” and replaced them with detective shows and workplace sitcoms.
Any others that were cancelled while popular?
*The Wild, Wild West *was hugely popular, but was cancelled because of its supposedly extreme violence. As I recall, some dipshits in Congress got all huffy about network content, and Hollywood caved like wet tissue paper. Hell, I watched it as a kid and didn’t think it was that violent.
[QUOTE=Sampiro;11422348On the flip side, there were also several shows that were cancelled even though they were ratings hits, something that would likely never happen today. The ones that come to mind immediately are Gilligan’s Island (always in the top 20, often in the top 10, but hated by the network brass)[/QUOTE]
Why would the network executives hate their top rated show?
It was so low brow and the butt of so many jokes by critics (who hated it with a passion) they probably thought it was hurting the reputation of their network more than the profits were helping them. The cast members learned they were cancelled on the TV news when the rest of the public did (or from other cast members who called them after learning it on TV)
I suppose we can’t count shows on Scifi that were “hits” insomuch as they were producing higher ratings on that network than anything else, but were not high enough to either justify their costs or satisfy the morons who run that network.
[Hijack]When I heard (i.e. auditorily) they were going to change their name from the Sci-Fi Channel I assumed it meant they were dropping Channel and just going to be Sci-Fi. But Syfy? WTF? I wouldn’t name a poodle that. I know it’s pronounced sci-fi but it looks like Siffy, which sounds like either the name of a spoiled obnoxious poodle or a happy dancing slave in a '40s musical, or the dancing poodle of a spoiled obnoxious slave. What maroons.[/Hijack]
A show can be a huge “hit” and still not make a lot of money for the network. That’s especially true if the viewing demographics don’t suit the advertisers.
Lawrence Welk’s variety show was EXTRMELY popular, but was cancelled in the early Seventies because his viewers were, generally, senior citizens. Advertisers aren’t interested in reaching senior citizens because, rightlyu opr wrongly, they believe older viewers are set in their ways and unresponsive to commercials.
The idea is, Grandpa has always driven Buicks, and if he buys another car, dadgummit, it’ll be another Buick… so what’s the point of putting a Toyota commercial on during “Murder, She Wrote”?
The Dick Van Dyck Show was actually canceled due to low ratings after the first season. But it did very well in reruns, so CBS changed its mind and renewed.
Hill Street Blues and Homicide: Life on the Street were nearly canceled after their first season. NBC finally moved Hill Street to Thursday night (it had bounced around from Tuesday to Thursday to Saturday) and it started getting ratings and Emmy nominations. Similarly, Homicide was nearly canceled until NBC told them to try a four-episode tryout. It did well enough to get on the fall schedule the next year and continue.
Hill Street Blues was another show that started off near the bottom. NBC kept it on because it was critically acclaimed and because, at that time, nearly every show on NBC was near the bottom of the ratings. It never became a blockbuster, but ratings did steadily increase.
Cagney and Lacey and Designing Women were both saved from cancellation by letter-writing campaigns and went on to be solid, long-term hits.
As for shows that were big hits but canceled, it’s because their costs got too high to justify even high ratings, or like astorian says, they appealed to the wrong audience.
The only reason Seinfeld survived its first few seasons is because it was championed by the network president.
The tale of the show’s early years is something of a legend in Hollywood. It aired for a single episode in 1989, was renewed for four episodes the following year (at a time when a show that had any shot of succeeding, even if it wasn’t very good, was renewed for at least six episodes).
It struggled along in the ratings for a long time as NBC shuffled it around the schedule, going up against Home Improvement at one point. Finally in 1993 it found an audience on Thursday nights when it aired alongside Cheers.
To expand on Gilligan’s Island: It actually was renewed for a fourth season in 1967. However, CBS’s plans to cancel Gunsmoke met with resistance from the show’s fans, Congress, and CBS’s owner, William Paley and his wife, Babe. So CBS moved Gunsmoke from its Saturday night time slot to Monday night, where Gilligan was running. Rather than relocate Gilligan at the last minute, the network abruptly cancelled it, even though the show was still profitable. Gunsmoke regained the top 10 in its new time slot and ran for eight more seasons.
I just looked at Nielsen ratings for '95 and saw a show titled “Madman of the People.” I have never heard of that show. It finished higher than “Fraiser” and “Murphy Brown.” It was canceled after one season because it had a huge drop-off from its lead-in of “Seinfeld” on Must See Thursday.