In it, they say the following:
Is that really the only show to move up the chain? I remember it making the move, but I didn’t realize it was the only show to do so.
They list the chain as:
ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox
greater than
CW/UPN/WB
better than
Cable, especially basic cable.
Maybe cable is better than CW/UPN/WB, but still. Has any other show moved in what you would call an “upward” direction up the chain of networks?
Would you consider a show that began on local TV, local syndication then getting picked up by a network?
If I’m not mistaken, The Oprah Winfrey Show originally aired on the ABC owned Chicago station and just shown locally and was picked up 2 years later to be nationally syndicated.
The Phil Donahue Show may have had a similar history.
As did Mystery Science Theater 3000. It started as a local show on KTMA in Minneapolis and was picked up by Comedy Central, then Syfy (when it was still Sci Fi).
There was SCTV, which began on the Global Television Network (in Canada), then moved to CBC (also in Canada), then went to NBC (in the U.S.), and finally went to Superchannel (in Canada) and Cinemax (in the U.S.):
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood had a long history which could be considered moving up the ladder:
Fred Rogers - Wikipedia’_Neighborhood
There have been a handful of shows, like “Mr. Ed” and Merv Griffin’s talk show, that started in syndication and moved to the “Big Three”.
Plus “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and “Dream On” aired on premium cable before Fox started showing episodes.
The Uncle Al show perhaps?
Not a show, but Stephen Colbert started as a contributor on the Daily Show on Comedy Central, moved on to host the Colbert Report, then took over CBS’s Late Show from David Letterman.
Jackie Gleason developed The Honeymooner as a series of sketches for the Dumont Network. When Gleason moved to CBS, he took the show with him. Many of Gleason’s characters from Dumont we used in his CBS variety show.
Monk did this, sort of.
Is Monk worth a watch? Never seen it.
I’d say it’s better than most “eccentric sleuth solves mystery du jour” shows, and that it’s sometimes laugh-out-loud funny – but that it’s not everybody’s taste.
Dream On didn’t switch networks but an alternate ‘clean’ version was filmed expressly to be shown on Fox as well as the original boobs & swears version on HBO. That’s not counting the more typical syndication it went through later (I assume that standard syndication doesn’t count regardless).
I thought it was great. Tony Shaloub is great in everything he does, but he really shines in that. If you liked Psych, Monk should be right up your alley.
I was going to say “not to hijack, but…” but this will be post 5 or so… Monk is good but a few things got pretty tiresome. After about the first season Monk’s affliction became “symptom of the week” where a peculiarity we’d never seen before became key to the plot. This got more and more pronounced as time went on, until it was “new and completely crippling symptom we’ve never seen before and never see again.”
There was a lot of oh-by-the-way and outright retconning with the development of the wife’s death subplot.
And Shaloub’s firing and recasting of major characters who (rightfully, IMHO) wanted bigger pay when the show became a hit put kind of a stink on things.
But it’s worth a look on streaming.
However, “Monk, we can still hear you.” is an all time great TV wall breaker…
Historically, Disneyland went from ABC to NBC in the middle of its run. At the time, ABC was the lower tier network; Disneyland was their only ratings success. It wasn’t until the 70s that ABC became the equal of the others.
These were reruns. The new episodes of the shows always aired on the original network.
They were, but the show itself wasn’t in syndication at the time. The network stations made a deal to air them and the versions they aired were explicitly produced for that purpose.
Grounded For Life switched from Fox to WB halfway through it’s run. It wasn’t really stepping up, a lateral move at best. It was only in the middle of the third season on Fox when it was cancelled and then picked up by WB. Most of the seasons were short, but it did survive on WB for a couple of years.
In a local channel to network move the Regis&Kathy Lee show jumped from the local New York ABC affiliate to a national network broadcast. I had to look up the actual names of the shows, originally The Morning Show and then becoming Live with Regis and Kathie Lee on the network.
BattleBotswas on Comedy Central in the early 2000s but was recently revived on ABC.