Guess Who's Back?

[TheDude]

Hey ya'll hows it going. Ive been real busy lately, and im just now gettgin around to using this new board. ONnce again i give a shout out to all my freinds from MF! ho ya'll doing?!!!
I have a couple questions to ask... im writing a paper on the muppet show for my history of television class, and even though ima big fan with lots of knowledge on the muppets tere are still lots of detailed dates and things i dont know so i need a little help.....DW... im looking your direction you great historian you...

Im confused abot how the muppet show was aired. i know that in marhc on 1975 A PILOT

 

[TheDude]

Guess whos back again!

k... evedently this new board is treatig me a little strage and posted beofre i wanted it too... so heres the rest....

I know in 1975 there was a pilot called sex and violence that aired in march on abc... but that was it. When did the muppet show begin showing weekly on U.S. netoworks? Lord Lew Grade had the shows shot in england... but when were they on england tv? and how long were they on england tv before they began showing regularly in america? Im SO confused about how the muppet show was taped and aired for U.S. In what years was the show aired in the U.S. and how did it work? i mean at first ABC didint want the muppet show, so the company went and did it on tv in london right? SO when did the american networks change there mind and decide that they wanted this show after all? any help would be greatl appreciated. Thank alot guys...

ALso... any rough estimates of how many countries the muppet show and sesame street were aried in. and does anybody know where i could get rating stats from the muppet show. i mean itwas number one for quite a long time right? ahgg!!! iknow so much about the muppets but when it comes to certain numbers dates and detials i get so confused. Thanks guys, i knew i coudl turn to you with y missing information

as soon as i started typing this paper, THe first thing that poped in my head was--- i bet my buddeis at muppet central can help me out with this

 

[Crazy Harry]

Guess who's back
Back again
The Dude's back
Tell a friend
Guess who's back
Guess who's back
Guess who's back
Guess who's back
Guess who's back
Guess who's back...

 

[Cindy]

Welcome back!

Hey, welcome back! It's great to see you again! So glad you finally made it over to the new forum. Hopefully it's treating you a little better now.

 

[DrGoshposh]

The Muppet Show was syndicated. Syndicated programming is sold on a market-by-market basis. This means no network ran the series, but instead Lord Lew's company sold the series to individual stations all over the country. For this reason, the show might have aired on an NBC affiliate in one market, and in another, it might have aired on an ABC affiliate, or on an independant station with no network affiliation.

If memory serves, Lord Lew got the attention of all of or most of the local stations owned and operated by CBS, and sold the show to them -- the stations, not the network -- and many other stations (CBS or not) around the country followed suit.

The show was usually aired in the seven o'clock hour, which the government opened up in the seventies to give non-network producers a chance to have their work shown (the FCC feared the Big Three networks would hold a "Monoply of ideas" so they gave the hour to the local stations to fill as they chose). Many station programmers saw this as a perfect time period for the Muppet Show -- which it was.

I don't have any more specifics about the show, but I thought I'd clear up some confusion about the manner in which the show aired. I would imagine the show did not air in England for any length of time before it came to America. Lord Grade was a good business man, and probably intended to distribute the show internationally. I would think it began airing in the US and England right around the same time. I'll leave air dates and such to people who know more about them. I hope that helps.

Scott

 

[TheDude]

still kinda confused

Thanks for the info but still one thning.......Ok... so ABC aired the pilot...and then nothing happend? it got bad ratings or somthing? Usually networks show a show at least 3 or 4 times before it gets pulled off. I just dont understnad why if ABC showed interest in airng a pilot why they didint keep the show going if people liked it so much.

MATT

 

[dwmckim]

dude

In the 70's and 80's it was more commonplace for networks to air the pilots they had commissioned, typically as specials. After all, since the money had been spent on them anyway, why not get some return on their investments? ABC aired the pilots. That did not guarentee that they would agree to a full season of shows and indeed they passed.

Quite honestly, i don't know about the ratings though in all the stories i've heard regarding ABC not picking up the show, i've never even heard the mention of rating as a factor - and given the Muppets' popularity from Sesame Street at the time (plus those who remembered them from Ed Sullivan, Jimmy Dean etc), i would think that it probably would have done well. But what's typically said is that the networks really thought that the idea of a prime time puppet show for adults was just too "out there" to consider. Specials were well and good but a commitment to a series was too much for network suits at the time.