Thursday, July 2, 2015

The Death of NBC's "Must See TV"

From Time Magazine by James Poniewozik.

It was born in 1981, when NBC aired the "first in a set of comedy lineups that would eventually include Cheers, The Cosby Show, Seinfeld, Friends, the Office and many more TV legends.  It died of old age and neglect on Jan. 22, 2015, with the little-mourned expirations of Bad Judge and A to Z."

During most of the time, the four sitcoms were followed by a good drama.

"NBC euthanized its comedy block, but it is not solely guilty.  The Must-See-TV brand once promised a kind of sitcom that was both sophisticated and popular.  But as cable outlets for niche comedy multipliedMustaudiences shrank..  The finale of Cheers drew over 80 million viewers; the finale of the urbane, witty 30 Rock, not quite 5 million."

I was a real big fan of that Thursday night Must See TV, but no longer watched it by last year.

Bring back Must See TV.  --Cooter

No comments: