- Awards
- 11
For a show with a twenty-year run on primetime network television, GUNSMOKE retained solid Nielsen ratings practically all the way through. Thirteen of those seasons were spent inside the Top 10, nine of those were in the Top 5, and from 1957 until 1961, it was the #1 show on the air. Even when it fell to #34 in 1967, that still wasn't that bad for a show twelve years old, and it quickly rebounded and regained a large percentage of its audience when CBS shook-up its schedule and moved GUNSMOKE from Saturdays to Mondays for the 1967-68 season.
- Awards
- 21
Even when it was in its 20th season, the first half of the year saw GUNSMOKE appear in the Top 5 for the week occasionally, the ratings drooping in the last half of the season when Leonard Katzman left midway through, and show's tone changed... When it was cancelled in 1975, James Arness attributed it to "demographic horsefeathers" (i.e., the audience was getting grey around the temples). So the team went over to ABC and did HOW THE WEST WAS WON, which was a hit... GUNSMOKE could have run another 5 years.
When it ended, it was the longest-running live-action scripted series in American primetime history. And when that record was tied or surpassed decades later, it was in an era where you needed only one-tenth the audience to be regarded as "a hit" and be easily renewed.
- Awards
- 24
Where the frek was Dallas?
- Awards
- 11
The list doesn't have DALLAS, KNOTS LANDING, or FALCON CREST, so I guess they hadn't started their seasons yet. Based on the dates at the top, this may have been a reruns list.
- Awards
- 24
Yes, the nighttime soaps took the summers off. You can't rerun soap episodes because it confuses the viewers who aren't bright enough to notice it's a rerun.
"Oh, man, they shot JR again? He was just shot a few months ago. In that same office. Wearing that same suit. Oh, these writers have no imagination."
"Oh, man, they shot JR again? He was just shot a few months ago. In that same office. Wearing that same suit. Oh, these writers have no imagination."
- Awards
- 24
Yes, the nighttime soaps too the summers off. You can't rerun soap episodes because it confuses the viewers who aren't bright enough to notice it's a rerun.
"Oh, man, they shot JR again? He was just shot a few months ago. In that same office. Wearing that same suit. Oh, these writers have no imagination."
"Oh, man, they shot JR again? He was just shot a few months ago. In that same office. Wearing that same suit. Oh, these writers have no imagination."