SATURDAY NIGHTS COULD HAVE ENDED SEINFELD

This week, “The Goldbergs” aired a spin-off pilot about the 1990s.  It’s been quite awhile since a network has done that.  It got me thinking of an another unsold pilot that aired back on July 5, 1980something…

I’ve made “location, location, location” a recurring theme of this blog.  Even though viewers now have the luxury of watching their favorite shows when they want, the survival of these shows still relies on strategy.   Networks don’t premiere shows on Saturdays for a reason, and even streaming services don’t often, either.  Very few comedies survive on nights where there are no hit comedies.  This season’s new comedies “Me, Myself and I” and “The Mayor” didn’t show signs of life alongside other hit comedies on their scheduled nights.  They weren’t around long enough to watch at your leisure.

Back in a four-network universe (where Fox was still merely a weekend programming service), I had the good fortune of seeing how the top strategists would work with the research department to see where shows would have the best chance of succeeding.  For example, in the summer of 1990, even though these veteran comedies were cancelled, NBC ran estimates on how shows like “ALF” and “My Two Dads” would perform on either Sunday, Monday or Saturdays at 8.  They would mix and match potential nights to get an idea.  Although these shows were cancelled, they wanted to see how they could get the best numbers even in the dog days of summer to boost the network.  And, if something did very well, maybe they would bring a show back mid-season. 

“Seinfeld” had aired as an unsold pilot on July 5, 1989 on a Wednesday night following a “Night Court” repeat.  Almost universally, pilots that aired in the summer (“burn-offs”) would never be seen again.  But, as legend goes, NBC execs liked “The Seinfeld Chronicles” and late-night and specials senior VP Rick Ludwin offered to produce four half-hour episodes out of his budget instead of producing a Bob Hope special.  “Seinfeld,” as it would be later known, returned in the summer of 1990.  (The title was changed after an ABC sitcom “The Marshall Chronicles” failed.) 

Herein lies another tale of the scheduling squares no one else would remember.  “Seinfeld” was scheduled for Thursdays at 9:30 after “Cheers” in May, once the traditional television season was over and summer reruns had begun.  But, schedulers like to tinker.  I don’t know how serious this scenario was, but at one point, it was considered that “Seinfeld” would run after a short-lived Carol Burnett sketch show on Saturdays at 10:30 so that a returning mid-season show “F.M.” (with “Airplane!” star Robert Hays) could air after “Cheers.”  Fortunately, that move didn’t stick and "F.M." went to Saturdays.  It was cancelled that summer.

“Seinfeld” did very well when it debuted on May 31, 1990 after “Cheers,” but few remember its early potential since the show historically didn’t become a hit until it aired after the last episodes of “Cheers” in 1993.   It premiered at #3 for the week.

It stumbled for a couple years on Wednesdays after “Night Court,” then back to Thursdays when other shows wrapped and then back to Wednesdays where it eventually battled juggernaut “Home Improvement.”  Critics loved the show and it developed a cult following as it struggled the first three seasons.  But the first four episodes (followed by a repeat of the 1989 pilot) ranked in the Nielsen top 5 in the summer of 1990, of course among most everything else in reruns.  It always could have been a hit if given the right time slot.

Thanks to USA Today clippings online, here are the four weeks of ratings for “Seinfeld.”  Back then, the USA Today Wednesday ratings chart was how tv fans would see how their favorite shows were doing.

I will always remember overhearing a “watercooler” chat about the pilot.  Senior VP David Wedeck was talking about sports in a planning meeting and asked his co-workers if they remembered the scene from that recent “Seinfeld Chronicles” pilot. Seinfeld had recorded a ballgame and tried to prevent his neighbor Kramer from telling him the score.  Of course, Kramer ruined the game for Seinfeld by blurting out a key play Seinfeld hadn’t seen yet.  The execs laughed about what was probably the first “Seinfeld” word-of-mouth buzz.

This encouraged me to be one of the show’s first fans.  The comedian had been on many Letterman shows doing stand-up at that point, as well as the “7^th Anniversary Special” that I got to work on as a page.   So, when word came out that NBC was doing a pilot with Seinfeld, I was happy to hear it.  While answering phones in the programming department, I would occasionally answer calls from producer Larry David, who had been a writer a few years earlier on “Saturday Night Live.”  He was keeping in touch with his old east coast co-workers at NBC about his new pilot taping in Los Angeles.  Although the show did not make the fall schedule, I made sure we taped “The Seinfeld Chronicles” pilot when it aired on July 5, 1989.  I really liked the rapport between real/fictional stand-up Seinfeld and his friend George (played by Jason Alexander.)  Their banter reminded me of hanging out with male friends at the diner talking about life and relationships.  In 1989, there weren’t many shows like this.  As I mentioned earlier, there were funny, identifiable real-life moments like Kramer (then named Kessler) ruining the ballgame for Seinfeld, or that a girl was coming to stay with Seinfeld but he didn’t really know if this meant they were dating or not.  I even managed to save these original press releases for the show.

Getting that Thursday night exposure in the summer of 1990 was salvation for “Seinfeld.”  I was happy to learn a few years back that someone else remembered how it could have been destined for Saturdays at 10:30 P.M.  In Jennifer Armstrong’s book, “Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted,” producer Allan Burns reminisced how there was a big difference in getting that Thursday slot instead of the Saturday death slot.

He was a producer of the aforementioned “F.M.”

TV'S MVPs TO THE RESCUE

I love to see the pieces of the scheduling puzzle being used proactively.  Here’s a situation that’s nothing new: networks, faced with staggering competition, have relied on their big guns to help boost other shows.  CBS has regularly used reruns of hits “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon” on Monday nights to help its newer comedies, while ABC recently scheduled “Modern Family” on Tuesdays at 9:30 as a bridge between “Black-ish” and the new “Kevin (Probably) Saves the World.”  This triage certainly makes sense considering the power of these hits that still reach audiences most broadcast shows still don’t.  In the case of “Big Bang,” the network has ordered three runs of each episode which gives them many leftovers to use from the previous season.  I would say that even if there weren’t so many episodes on the shelf, this is the time to use them.  There would be more upside now even if there weren’t reruns left for the late summer weeks.   These hits are among the few shows that do perform in the summer, but in-season needs the assist now more than ever.

As mentioned, this is nothing new, but remains deft strategizing to watch.  Regularly, networks “encore” series in the same week usually during the first weeks of a new series, or to plug holes in the lower-watched Friday and Saturday nights.  Fox is doing this with “9-1-1” and “X-Files” on Fridays and The CW is running the “Black Lightning” pilot again three days after its premiere.  CBS has had a long practice of putting series favorites on their “Crimetime Saturday” line-up.  Networks pay for two runs of these shows (sometimes three) so you’ll see Fox air primetime series like “Hell’s Kitchen” in Saturday late night or NBC using “Will & Grace” encores on Saturdays at 8 to lead into “Superstore” on the east coast and to allow an 8:30 start for “Saturday Night Live” on the west coast.  Likewise, “Saturday Night Live” has been coming to the rescue with primetime repeats going back to the late 70s.  The other painful truth is that if these hits don’t help the new shows, they will likely still be the face of the networks in years to come. 

Over the years, the hits have been called in to replace the quickly cancelled.   Back in 1998 during the final weeks of “Seinfeld,” NBC used third-runs of episodes on Wednesdays at 8:30 to bridge fellow sitcoms “NewsRadio” and “3^rd Rock from the Sun.”  The dear, departed WB Network branded first-season repeats in a regular Sunday slot as “Beginnings” when they aired “7^th Heaven,” “Gilmore Girls” and “Smallville,” among others.  See your favorites from the beginning!  This was being done long before early series episodes were made available online.

Years ago, weaker shows would be yanked for sweeps periods.  It wasn’t always fair to the 8:30 shows on Must See TV but added “Friends” repeats were evergreens.  Often, the new shows had already failed to benefit from their lead-ins and were on life support, anyway.

The exciting thing is to see new hits that become viable pieces on other nights of the schedule.  “The Good Doctor,” “S.W.A.T.” and “SEAL Team” are not only showing up on special nights for additional exposure, they are also helping other nights.  “Young Sheldon” recently had a three-episode binge on a Monday night.

Where do schedules go from here?  It will be interesting to see the impact of the “Roseanne” reboot leading off Tuesday nights into the final season of “The Middle.”  Both shows could be used to fortify other nights with encores.  “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” repeats could augment weeknights where they rarely visit outside of Sunday night.   As broadcast networks pick up fewer shows and rely on returning favorites, we may see a lot more familiar faces multiple nights a week.