NBC trailed CBS and ABC badly in the ratings during the 1982-83 season. Despite their middling to low ratings, NBC renewed freshmen series Cheers, Family Ties, St. Elsewhere, Knight Rider, Remington Steele, Mama’s Family,and Silver Spoons. These renewals eventually paid off with higher ratings for Cheers, Family Ties, Knight Rider, and Remington Steele. Disappointed by the low first-season ratings for critical favorites Cheers, St. Elsewhere, Family Ties, and Remington Steele, NBC adopted a different strategy for the fall of 1983. The network took big swings by adding high-concept series Manimal, Mr. Smith, Jennifer Slept Here, The Rousters, We Got It Made, and Boone. This season’s sitcom showdowns proved that NBC did better by renewing slow starters from 1982-83 than by adding outrageous newcomers in the fall of 1983.
We Got It Made and Cheers vs. 9 to 5 and It’s Not Easy on Thursday at 9:00-10:00 p.m. (ET)
While Cheers began with rock bottom ratings in the fall of 1982, it showed enough improvement to win a second season after being moved back a half hour to Thursday at 9:30 at mid-season. High ratings for reruns in the summer of 1983 and an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series boosted its prospects.
However, NBC thought its biggest ratings jolt might come from its new 9:00 lead-in, We Got It Made, a series that bore more than a passing resemblance to longtime hit sitcom Three’s Company. Emulating a move ABC made in 1978 when it paired Three’s Company with Taxi, NBC hoped a potential mass hit (We Got It Made) would lift a critical favorite (Cheers).
ABC did well in the 9:00-10:00 hour in the fall of 1982 with Too Close for Comfort and It Takes Two. However, both shows saw serious declines in their ratings in the second half of the season, as CBS’ Simon & Simon dominated the slot and NBC became competitive when it moved Gimme a Break into the 9:00 slot, pushing Cheers back to 9:30. ABC cancelled Too Close for Comfort and It Takes Two at the end of the season.
ABC didn’t abandon sitcoms completely on Thursday from 9:00-10:00. The network’s newly revamped 9 to 5 moved from Tuesday at 9:30 into the Thursday at 9:00 slot. New sitcom It’s Not Easy followed. These were curious choices, as 9 to 5 briefly held the Thursday at 9:00 slot in the spring of 1982. After a strong start, it dropped considerably during its brief trial run. Moved into Too Close for Comfort’s old Tuesday slot in the fall of 1982, it finished a respectable 16th place, but its ratings were still well behind the numbers Too Close for Comfort pulled in the slot the previous season.
ABC was high on the original 1982 pilot for It’s Not Easy. However, when star Gerald McRaney’s Simon & Simon was surprisingly renewed, recasting became necessary. Sadly, later that year, co-star Larry Breeding was killed in a car accident. By the time the series finally premiered in the fall of 1983, Ken Howard and Bert Convy had replaced the original stars. The premise of a divorced couple living near each other was similar to long-forgotten ABC flop, Here We Go Again, the lowest-rated series of the 1972-73 season.
NBC debuted We Got It Made before the season officially began. The September 8 premiere landed in 2nd place for the week, lifting a Cheers rerun to 8th place. A Simon & Simon rerun was close behind in 10th. Two more early episodes of We Got It Made landed in 21st and 20th place, respectively. Solid showings, but bested by Simon & Simon reruns.
All shows in the timeslot aired new episodes on Sept. 29. Simon & Simon finished in 6th place and wouldn’t leave the top ten all season. We Got It Made held up well in 28th, while Cheers finished an encouraging 19th. 9 to 5 was only 55th. After a long journey to make it to the air, It’s Not Easy was DOA with a 63rd-place finish out of 65 shows.
Ratings were similar the next time all shows aired against each other, although We Got It Made dropped a bit to 37th. A week later, it was down to 44th. Simon & Simon hit number one that week, while ABC’s sitcoms continued to flop. In fact, ABC dropped It’s Not Easy after its October 20 episode, with 9 to 5 following it to the dustbin a week later. 9 to 5 made considerable changes each season on ABC and would be revised again when it popped up for two seasons in first-run syndication in 1986. ABC would unsuccessfully try hour-long shows in the timeslot for the rest of the season.
We Got It Made continued to ride a ratings roller coaster, finishing as high as 28th and as low as 55th, which placed it in the bottom 10. Cheers’ ratings dipped only slightly during We Got It Made’s ratings trouble. With Cheers outrating We Got It Made on a weekly basis, NBC moved Cheers into the 9:00 slot on December 15, with summer sitcom Buffalo Bill returning to the lineup at 9:30. We Got It Made was switched to Saturday, where its ratings fell further. NBC cancelled it after one season, apparently waiting too long to imitate Three’s Company, as that series finally dropped in popularity in this, its final, season. Like 9 to 5, We Got It Made was revived in first-run syndication for one year, three seasons after its NBC cancellation.
Simon & Simon continued to dominate the slot, while Cheers usually finished in the top 30. Buffalo Bill never caught on, only hitting the top 40 once and dropping into the bottom 10 three different times. It was cancelled at the end of the season, while Cheers would hold the 9:00 slot for the rest of its 11-year run.
Season rankings:
Simon & Simon 3
Cheers 35
We Got It Made 64
Buffalo Bill 76
9 to 5 84
It’s Not Easy 88
Winner: Cheers
Benson and Webster vs. Mr. Smith and Jennifer Slept Here on Friday at 8:00-9:00
During the 1982-83 season, CBS’ declining The Dukes of Hazzard still had enough ratings juice to win the Friday at 8:00 timeslot. ABC’s fourth-season sitcom Benson was a reliable second in the slot, although in its three seasons there, none of the shows that followed it at 8:30 had caught on. NBC was a non-entity in the slot with The Powers of Matthew Star.
In the fall of 1983, The Dukes of Hazzard and Benson would once again battle at 8:00. Benson would now be followed by Webster at 8:30, a new sitcom with similarities to NBC’s Diff’rent Strokes. NBC went with two supernatural sitcoms. Mr. Smith concerned a talking, super-intelligent orangutan. While the show had a wild premise, it was created and developed by three former writers of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Mr. Smith would be followed by Jennifer Slept Here, with Ann Jillian as a ghost.
Benson and Webster got out of the gates first, opening strongly with 29th and 11th place finishes, respectively. A week later, Webster (34th) edged The Dukes of Hazzard (38th), which beat Benson (44th) and the premiere of Mr. Smith (47th). Numbers remained similar for the next few weeks, although Mr. Smith fell into the bottom 10, finishing in 58th place on October 14. Jennifer Slept Here finally debuted a week later in 56th place, only slightly better than Mr. Smith in 59th. Both shows continued to struggle the next week, with Mr. Smith finishing just one place from last in 71st. Jennifer Slept Here was 68th. When they continued to finish in the bottom 5, Mr. Smith and Jennifer Slept Here were pulled from the schedule in December. Mr. Smith would not return, while Jennifer Slept Here did only slightly better in an April return on Saturday.
In the meantime, The Dukes of Hazzard went on a hot streak with four straight top 20 appearances in November and December. Benson and Webster usually landed in the top 30 during this time. The tide turned in January when Webster began hitting the top 20 every week, with Benson not far behind. The Dukes of Hazzard ran a respectable second. NBC was not a factor for the rest of the season.
For the season, Webster finished 27th. The Dukes of Hazzard was 39th, just ahead of 41st-place Benson. Mr. Smith and Jennifer Slept Here finished 92nd and 90th, respectively. Only The Dukes, Benson,and Webster would return in the fall of 1984.
Winners: Benson and Webster
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