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Post by The J-Man on Jul 8, 2005 21:12:00 GMT -5
Y'know, for years and years I've had to read the false trivia claiming that "The A-Team" premiered after the Super Bowl. It's always bothered me, and I've just read it somewhere else, and I've finally had enough.
Listen to me netizens of the world wide web: I'm a very old man; I'm in my mid-to-late thirties. I was there and I remember it like it was yesterday.
"The A-Team" did not premier after the Super Bowl.
Somewhere early on, someone misrepresented this info and people have been repeating it ever since.
"The A-Team" premiered on January 23 1983, one full week before that year's Super Bowl. It was the second episode that aired after the Super Bowl. Remember? In fact, due to the live sports event, the show even started 15 minutes late that night. And like people really would've stayed up to watch a two hour pilot of a show they've never seen before that was starting at 10:15pm on a Sunday night. As a matter of fact, name me a show that ever did premier after the Super Bowl and have any success. Who in their right mind wants to sit down and try out anything new that late after such an emotionally draining sports viewing experience?
In the case of "The A-Team", what NBC did do (brilliantly) was air a kick-ass, action-packed, Cannell-written, hour-long episode* right after the Super Bowl, exposing the show to a slightly larger audience than the quite-large audience that had already tuned in the week before. Giving the show maximum exposure for two weeks on Sunday night before moving it to Tuesdays to take on "Happy Days".
*"Children of Jamestown"; fourth episode filmed, but second aired. Wall-to-wall action, Cannell and first-season-Team and their best. Tartikoff really knew what he was doing when he decided to debut the show on Sunday nights, one week before and and the night of the Super Bowl, and pulling "CoJ" out of order to air second.
God, I love TV...
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scenario
Agent
"We all do what makes us feel good."
Posts: 335
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Post by scenario on Jul 10, 2005 16:39:53 GMT -5
I believe you. Like you I was also around back then, but I was a bit of a younger kid at the time, only 7 years old. I do remember watching the Pilot for A-Team, and I don't think I would have watched it if it had preimered later then 9 pm on a Sunday school night. At that time, I didn't even care about the Super Bowl to wait for it to end, just so I could watch a new TV show.
So while my memory of January 1983 isn't as accurate as yours, something about the legendary "The A-Team preimered right after the Super Bowl!" never sat right with me either, just because I remember watching the Pilot when it first came on, but I don't remember anything about football that day. I'm sure I missed the 2nd episode.
-scenario-
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Post by The J-Man on Jul 10, 2005 21:11:10 GMT -5
...something about the legendary "The A-Team preimered right after the Super Bowl!" never sat right with me either... Thank you. See, everybody? I'm not crazy. |
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Dec 29, 2005 0:39:56 GMT -5
I am sure you are right. Why did they air JAMESTOWN second? Were people NOT mad at the new FACE? I agree the first FACE sucked, but why not know that BEFORE you waste money on a pilot?
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Post by Maxwell - F.B.I. on Dec 29, 2005 11:39:12 GMT -5
Well, I can name you one that aired right after the Super Bowl that did make it, although it WAS cancelled ( twice!) before being brought back to life by DVD sales and huge rerun ratings: [glow=red,2,300]FAMILY GUY![/glow]  |
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Dec 29, 2005 13:37:18 GMT -5
I will take your word for it...I am not a big FAMILY GUY fan.
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Post by The J-Man on Dec 29, 2005 19:05:38 GMT -5
Why did they air JAMESTOWN second? Episodic TV shows are (or at least, were) aired out of sequence all the time. You can't do that with a serialized show like "NYPD Blue" or "ER" or "Lost", where the airing sequence effects the narrative; but episodic shows like "The A-Team", "GAH, or "Knight Rider" (orwhateverthehellthekidswatchtoday), do it all the time. Some reasons to move an episode up might include:A hot guest star - Any of my fellow middle-agers out there remember when Vanessa Williams, the-then-recently dethroned Miss America, guest starred on an episode of "Partners in Crime", the Lynda Carter/Loni Anderson detective show*? The network decided to air that episode even before the pilot episode (good way to confuse your audience, IMO). A hot topic- Sex, AIDS, lesbians, whatever is popular and in the news at the time. Ratings grabber/stunt episodes- So-and-so loses her virginity, The so-and-sos go on an exotic vacation filmed on location, the entire cast of M*A*S*H guest stars, the network thinking "The Man Trap" is 'real science fiction', not "WNMHGB". Reasons to push an episode farther back on the schedule include:Topic too sensitive right now- if the first space shuttle had blown up exactly five years earlier, I guarantee you it would have effected the airing order of GAH's second season. Respect for/Capitalizing on the unexpected- Didn't they hold back Jerry Orbach's final episode of "L&O:TBJ" for later airing? The network not liking an episode- "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell" The producers not liking an episode- Culp openly admits that the "I, Spy" pilot was pretty weak, and that it was intentionally held back to air Christmastime, when people would be least likely to see it. Meanwhile, half a season of good episodes would already have aired. Anyone my age remember when "Hardcastle and McCormick's" car, The Coyote, was blown to smithereens toward the end of the third season? The network knew that would be one hell of a ratings grabber, so as soon as it was finished they moved it to the front of the line, promoted the hell out of it, and aired it ahead of all the episodes where the car hadn't been blown up yet. I don't think I ever saw an episode of "The Powers of Matthew Star" before the final episode. Even then I knew something wasn't right. Does anyone remember this? The last all-new episode of "Matthew Star" was the pilot episode, airing for the very first time at the end of the show's one and only season. The reason being that the show was retooled so much after the pilot, it really wasn't the same show anymore. But the network still wanted to air it and recoup whatever revenue they could. All I know is that even though I had never seen and episode of "The Powers of Matthew Star" before, this was clearly not the same show that I had been seeing commercials for all season. I mean Where the hell was Sargent Foley, for crying out loud? Anyway, I think the decision to air "Children of Jamestown" as the second episode was quite brilliant. NBC knew there was the probability of a tremendous lead-in audience from the Super bowl, they had to know that there was a very real possibility of airing well after 10:00pm EST, and the audience would be high on adrenaline, yet anxious to go to sleep for work and school the next day. "CoJ", unlike most of the other early episodes, was an extremely fast-paced, action-packed episode. There's not much exposition; we don't go through the whole, hiring The A-Team shtick. The episode starts with the team already on the mission, all hell instantly breaks loose, and the audience has no choice but to grab on and hold tight (and do I even have to mention the Mike Post score?). ...I'm sorry, what was the original question? *don't ask. |
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Dec 29, 2005 23:15:36 GMT -5
Thanks for the answer...finally. |
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Post by Maxwell - F.B.I. on Dec 30, 2005 13:05:54 GMT -5
How about the networks absolutely HATING an episode: "Vanity, Says The Preacher". Episode never even airs because the show (now cancelled) is pulled from the airwaves even though production (or most of it anyway) has already been paid for! That episode, even WITH all its flaws, was STILL better than the total CRAP they put on in place of GAH once it was yanked. (sigh)
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Dec 30, 2005 13:18:31 GMT -5
I think J-Man was being nice when he said "not liking an episode." |
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