Caroline in the City. It was between Seinfeld and ER its first season. It ended that season number 4 and had 17 million people tune in.
It was OK. Lea Thompson is likable but she didn’t have a ton of personality. The jokes weren’t that sharp. And her love interest was clearly gay.
It was a basic generic sitcom. Not number 4 in the rankings worthy especially in the late 90s when there was a lot of strong tv.
ETA: OK I assumed this meant lead in like a strong show that went right before it. But others are thinking strong lead in it. Sorry if I misunderstood. Although it still kind of works?
208
weeble1826 days ago
+174
I think you're the only one currently who's commented and understood the question
174
GeekAesthete6 days ago
+71
I suspect the issue is that young listnookors who grew up on streaming don’t grasp what a lead-in is since they’ve never experienced a broadcast TV schedule.
71
Plenty_Structure_8616 days ago
+67
Nah, they're the ones that misunderstood. You got it.
67
Avium6 days ago
+24
I read it the same way, honestly.
I also agree about *Caroline in the City*. It was solidly okay.
24
GeekAesthete6 days ago
+22
You could throw in several of the 8:30 or 9:30 shows from NBC’s Thursday Night lineups:
Veronica’s Closet and Suddenly Susan, certainly.
A Different World was a big hit between Cosby and Cheers, but as soon as Cosby went off the air and A Different World moved to 8:00, it lost almost half its viewership and only lasted half a season in that time s***.
Even Night Court—which I loved—would not have been such a big hit were it not conveniently couched between Cheers and Hill St Blues.
22
MikoSkyns6 days ago
+1
There was also a little while there where NBC was trying out shows with only a handful of episodes each, and none of them went anywhere. Like they knew people were not going to change the channel at 8:30 on Thursday so they were trying anything that would stick to the wall. So so many bad shows.
Mark feuerstein was in several of them. NBC REALLY wanted to make him a star.
If I recall correctly he ended up with some kind of news show sitcom or he steals a girl from someone else and the show didn't even last two seasons.
1
Toby_O_Notoby5 days ago
+1
What I find hilarious is that Veronica's Closet has been all but forgotten yet still got 20m viewers a week. In fact, it was cancelled because it dipped below that number and was considered a failure.
By way of comparison, Game of Thrones is pretty much considered the last "monoculture" show and it never once got above 20m. Topped out at something like 19.4m for the finale.
1
Maximilian_Xavier6 days ago
+40
I was thinking the same thing. "lead in" And was also thinking so many shows to pick from in the 830 or 930 s*** on NBC for like 10 years.
40
zoom5186 days ago
+16
Yeah, you can see how all those sitcoms faltered without the help of Seinfeld/Friends:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Must_See_TV?wprov=sfti1#Explosive_success_in_the_1990s_(1994%E2%80%932000)
16
Maximilian_Xavier6 days ago
+1
Oh, I was alive and watched them all. Then didn't follow them to new nights at all if they moved.
1
NoraCharles916 days ago
+1
Gosh, I haven't seen the words Veronica's Closet for the about 25 years! I remember scrolling past it on the TV guide as a kid and thinking it sounded so glamorous!
1
Maximilian_Xavier6 days ago
+1
I forgot it existed until he shared that list and I for sure watched all of it when on Thursdays.
1
slymm6 days ago
+12
There's lots of examples from Must See TV. Without looking it up, I think there was also "Suddenly Susan", "Just Shoot Me", and maybe Wings?
12
joeboo51506 days ago
+2
Wings was so damn good
2
RueTheQuais5 days ago
+1
Wings started on a Friday and moved to Thursdays for 4 seasons before moving to Tuesday.
It was never seen as must see as the other shows but it did earn its place there.
1
sycasey6 days ago
+16
Just about everything they slotted between Friends and Seinfeld (8:30 s***) or Seinfeld and ER (9:30). Didn't matter how mediocre it was, it got big ratings.
The Single Guy was another one like this.
16
BillyPotion6 days ago
+2
Awww I liked the Single Guy. Got canceled pretty quick though
2
sycasey6 days ago
+7
Like Caroline in the City, didn't survive once it was off of Thursday night. Also like Caroline . . . it was okay.
7
Particle_wombat6 days ago
+3
I remember when they revealed him as a love interest and I was so thrown off by their lack of chemistry and him coming across as a typical gay 90's character.
3
shaggyscoob6 days ago
+3
OMG, I haven't thought of that show since it left Thursday nights. Utterly forgettable. I remember nothing but that Lea Thompson was in it.
3
ontheweed6 days ago
+1
And a dude who always wore roller blades
1
CollateralSandwich5 days ago
+2
At first I tuned in for Lea. Every week after that it for was the neighbor lady who was in CATS. Hubba hubba. That actress was gorgeous
2
kirby20004 days ago
+2
Amy Pietz. She's still gorgeous.
2
benjaminhlogan6 days ago
+2
The Kenny Bania character is them writing about this, he only became a hit because Jerry went on before him. I kinda feel like the writers tanked the end of that last season on purpose the same way Jerry did in that episode.
2
ParksCity6 days ago
+70
Every NBC show from 1994 to 1998 that aired in between Friends and Seinfeld, and between Seinfeld and ER. Multiple top ten shows that would get cancelled soon after moving to a different night, where it was clear were only watching those shows to get to Seinfeld and ER.
70
Particle_wombat6 days ago
+12
We used to call it the pre-ER bathroom break
12
NeedsToShutUp6 days ago
+1
I liked Boston Common.
1
Plenty_Structure_8616 days ago
+32
Well definitely not the Dana Carvey show, that's for sure. The Home Improvement lead in was a death sentence for them.
32
zowietremendously6 days ago
+56
The office is a the gayest show to ever exist.
56
Andrew1990M6 days ago
+15
Most sitcoms from 1980-2000 were just vehicles for someone’s stand up. They weren’t all bad, but a lot were held up entirely on the main character’s popularity.
15
sexandliquor6 days ago
+13
And I think Seinfeld was the only one that ever truly used that premise literally and effectively by having him actually do stand up bits as the wrap around book ends to episodes. It kept the premise of him being a comedian intact.
Pretty much all the other sitcoms just tried to translate bits into an entire premise for a sitcom. Ray Romano told jokes about his family so let’s just make a family sitcom. I think Home Improvement’s general premise just started from Tim Allen literally doing that grunt and talking about tools, but it wasn’t even like a fully formed bit or his whole act. If I recall.
13
Randvek6 days ago
+19
For a while, that 8:30 Fox Sunday s*** was pretty damn coveted because you got to follow The Simpsons. I’m not going to say that stuff like King of the Hill or Futurama were popular because of the lead-in, but it sure helped.
19
mike10dude6 days ago
+1
I remember king of the hill and futurama being on at maybe 7 or 7:30
and that is why people would complain about them getting preempted for football when it went longer than usual
1
kloiberin_time6 days ago
+10
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip came on after Heroes and while I loved Studio 60, it's numbers declined when Heroes went on hiatus and The Black Donellys filled in, and was canceled when Heroes tanked in season 2.
10
jrodfantastic6 days ago
+9
Silk Stalkings & La Femme Nikita
9
EddieDantes225 days ago
+3
Take Step by Step out of the TGIF lineup and it dies within a season.
3
mike10dude3 days ago
+1
that happened when it moved to cbs
same thing with family matters
1
__sonder__6 days ago
+14
My Name is Earl was on after The Office
14
ablackcloudupahead6 days ago
+5
I loved My Name is Earl while it was out and I didn't start watching the office until season 5. At the time I watched everything on demand so I guess I never realized they aired right next to each other
5
LazloHollifeld6 days ago
+13
NBC from that time is such an odd outlier. They had great shows that were all praised yet the viewer counts stunk.
I don’t understand how a network that was pulling fourth place in ratings trailing telemundo while airing things like the office, parks and rec, thirty rock and more which are all huge streaming and syndicating properties that fetched far more in royalties than the other shows that it was supposedly being trounced by at the time.
13
firesticks6 days ago
+6
So, I have was in my twenties during this era and would t****** everything. I have to wonder if some of these shows, which appealed so much to my demographic, were early victims of people cutting out cable but before we had streaming to track viewership.
They were wildly popular but either for that reason or poor Nielsen coverage, it wasn’t being captured.
6
ihastheporn6 days ago
+2
you're overestimating how popular t****** was and still is. even now people don't pirate that much
2
mike10dude6 days ago
+1
I started torrenting around that time just because it was easier than using a vcr to record shows
and I got something called the gameshark media player that let me watch video files from my computer on a playstation 2
1
Puzzled-Ad15646 days ago
+5
Seinfeld only got popular because it followed Cheers
5
Gilshem6 days ago
+14
And because it was hilarious with great actors.
14
DoodleBuggering6 days ago
+8
It struggled its first few seasons
8
Puzzled-Ad15646 days ago
+6
That didn’t help Arrested development. Seinfeld’s main reason for success was the Cheer lead in
6
Gilshem6 days ago
+2
That seems a really ambitious thing to declare. There’s no way to say with any certainty that the Cheers lead-in is why it became one of the best sitcoms ever.
2
Puzzled-Ad15646 days ago
+1
That’s not what I’m saying. It became the best sitcom ever because how funny and cleverly written it was. What I’m saying is it would have been canceled without Cheers because enough people wouldn’t have tuned in to watch it. It needed the lead in for people to watch it and realize how good it was.
1
Gilshem6 days ago
+2
How do you know no one would have watched it?
2
Puzzled-Ad15646 days ago
+1
Because seasons 1 and 2’s ratings were very low and the show almost got cancelled. Ratings didn’t pick up until it moved into the s*** right after Cheers.
1
Gilshem6 days ago
+1
Seinfeld only started airing on Thursdays in Season 4, and that was only three episodes. Seinfeld S4 was during Cheers final season, so there really isn’t much of a reason to think it got a boost from Cheers.
1
jogoso20146 days ago
+2
A Different World
2
Gilshem6 days ago
-3
The Mentalist was a fairly mid-show with a charismatic lead.
-3
JimmyTheJimJimson6 days ago
-39
Euphoria.
You can’t tell me season 3 is popular not because of Sydney Sweeney and her b****.
-39
tvcneverdie6 days ago
+42
That's not what the question is asking...
42
gigashadowwolf6 days ago
+2
Yeah, Zendaya is the lead in that show!
2
Ruleoflawz6 days ago
+1
But i thought her b**** lead her in to every room?
1
ObviouslyTriggered6 days ago
-2
Not if she walks backwards.
-2
[deleted]6 days ago
-2
[deleted]
-2
dreadit-runfromit6 days ago
+1
The OP isn't asking about main characters.
1
bwestlie6 days ago
-34
House has got to be toward the top here.
-34
lazy_pig6 days ago
+1
I also was going to comment 'House MD' because I had the same interpretation.
1
Intelligent_Bite_3236 days ago
-9
Why are you being downvoted. That is a very good answer.
-9
gigashadowwolf6 days ago
+22
Because OP meant "lead in" not "lead in it".
They mean a show that follows another great show rather than a show with a great lead actor.
Edit: Or maybe they meant it started out strong. I don't know, there are several ways to interpret this apparently.
22
mlmka586 days ago
-36
I think Friends should thank the Cosby
Show
-36
BoringAccount4Work6 days ago
+22
The Cosby Show ended 2 years before Friends was even on the air
22
[deleted]6 days ago
-40
[deleted]
-40
gideon5136 days ago
+15
How can a streaming show have a lead in program? lol
15
gigashadowwolf6 days ago
+2
I think they misread that as having a strong lead (actor) in it.
2
rhythmrice6 days ago
+1
I thought it meant the show was only popular because it started good
1
LightThatIgnitesAll6 days ago
-55
**Mr. Robot**
Everyone else is Trash. And I guess **Peaky Blinders.**
-55
usable_dinosaur6 days ago
+4
Good ragebait I raged
4
KennyShowers6 days ago
I mean Christian Slater can’t be described as trash, but it is true that pretty much none of the other major actors went on to do much else of note.
That said I still think they all do a good job in the show itself, and on top of that the show also has god-tier (for TV) photography and camerawork and art direction, way more to it past the lead.
75 Comments