Home
DFS
SB
OD
SDN
This website was once on the Internet until 2002 when bandwidth expenses got too high and this site had to be removed until things got good enough to return this site in 2007.
I started this section because as far as family sitcoms that had wide appeal go, "Sabrina..." was the last one that debuted way back in the ancient world wide web days of 1996! Hard to believe that it's already a legendary sitcom. Nobody produces good quality sitcoms anymore because television today has gotten so fixated on the 18-49 demographic that it decided to abandon appealling to the younger demographics such as children 6-18 in order to produce raunchier and saucier fare in the eight o'clock hour.
Wide-appeal sitcoms are very much restricted to cable channels such as ABC Family, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and The Disney Channel. The more successful ones on cable don't enjoy as wide appeal as they would if they were run in prime-time on broadcast networks. That's why shows such as "Leave It to Beaver", "Eight is Enough", "Beverly Hills 90210," and "That 70's Show", had both young and old appeal when they originally began on prime-time network television, while shows like "Lizzie McGuire" never reached wide appeal beyond the age of 17.
The networks are still not getting it. People want wide-appeal family sitcoms on prime-time networks that everybody can enjoy without settling for low-brow insults and cheap jokes.
Which brings me back to SOTW. This franchise was originally a Saturday morning cartoon show as part of the Archie Comedy Hour in 1969, then spun off on its own in 1970 and paired off with the Groovie Ghoulies. The series was resurrected in 1996 as a live-action movie pilot on Showtime and was made into a seven-year series on ABC, then the WB. It was part of the prime-time TGIF lineup on ABC until 2000, spending most of the years with "Boy Meets World" and other series coming and going between them, making the TGIF lineup a must-see TV party night for families. When Sabrina moved to the WB, it was the cornerstone of a new lineup, with "Reba" joining it a year later, helping to be part of a two-hour sitcom block that lasted until 2006 when the WB merged with the UPN networks.
"Sabrina..." folded in 2003. "Reba" made it to the CW lineup as a back-up show in the fall of 2006. "Reba" didn't have as wide appeal because it was on a low-rated network, instead of say CBS, but it often was the tentpole in the Friday night lineup holding its own ratings.
thank you for your support
David Tanny
© 1995-2023. davesfunstuff.com. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website without expressed written consent is prohibited.
