I saw this and immediately thought of DL

That there's 15!! shows with between nearly 24 million and nearly 31 million viewers is sort of amazing. And, obviously, there were considerably less people in the country then.

Fewer!

I believe this is May 1980, OP.

Real People was off the air by 1985, and Scruples originally aired in spring 1980.

Agree, this is definitely 1980.

Being old is a hilarious experience, not gonna lie. Yea I liked those shows

The only top 10 list Bonnie Franklin appeared on in 1985 was Bestselling Tap Instructional Videos (and she was number 10).

Scruples was juicy, I remember watching that.

Alice was more popular than Dallas?

You bet your grits it was!

I always thought CBS was usually third behind ABC and NBC.

Most of those top 15 were CBS 🤷🏻‍♂️

[quote]Scruples was juicy, I remember watching that.

Scruples is the only thing on the list I hadn't heard of, R7.

Lindsay Wagner, Gavin MacLeod, Barry Bostwick, Robert Reed, Connie Stevens, and per Wikipedia:

[quote]Scruples included the final screen appearance of Gene Tierney.

Awww

Remember when there was no FOX?

NBC's career was in the shitter in the early 80's. Diff'rent Strokes and Facts of Life resuscitated it. Then Cheers and Family Ties got it off its feet. Then The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls sent it into the stratosphere.

[R2] —Stannis Baratheon

Our family (one tv back then) kept it on CBS on Sunday nights.

My mother hates reading, I seriously think she’s only read one book (outside of school) her whole life, and that one book was Scruples! I’d never heard the word before. Someone loaned her the book & insisted she read it, she wouldn’t have done it otherwise. We rarely watched CBS shows (the channel was always snowy) but we did watch that, only because she read the book & wanted to see what the adaptation was like.

Early to bed, early to rise…

[quote]Mom’s the only person who says: the movie is always better than the book

Is that what she said about "Scruples" or is that just her general assessment about everything?

Could never stand "Alice".

r19: Kiss My Grits!

Alice shows that people will always flock to see a girl who can sing and dance.

“Billy took to fucking Jews with an enthusiasm even Jessica couldn’t have matched.”

Not sure how legitimate that list really is or when it's actually from, but all's I can say is I was a teenager then and not one of those shows would have been watched by me (maybe the first 2-3 seasons of Dallas). And I watched TV a lot back then.

But I agree that for 1985, there's no way Alice would be #1. Bwaaaahaaahaaaa.

Here's a wiki page link for the actual hit shows of the 1984-85 season.

My apologies. The list is legit, I put the wrong date. This is from TV Guide, March 15, 1980. Taken from the RetroNewsNow Twitter.

The only reason I posted it was because Alice was #1 and it makes me happy when you queens bitch about Linda Lavin, even though she was #1 in the Nielsens and pulling in 31 million viewers a week. 😁

scruples was a BODACE RIPPER

I was born in 1971 and grew up in Ohio. I remember that “Scruples” was a big deal but I don’t remember why. Was it just hype?

The Grammys didn’t get a big audience…. Was that the year of Christopher Cross?

My favorite show of 1980 was

Galactica 1980

which only lasted the one season

I can’t believe Alice and ODAAT beat out Three’s Company.

The IMDb makes it sound like all 3 episodes of "Scruples" aired on February 25, 1980, but surely not. It was 290 minutes total, it must have been on once a week for 3 weeks.

At first I thought I hadn't heard of "Scruples" but once I saw the book cover I recognized it immediately. The mini series has also been released on DVD by Warner Archive!

[quote]Alice was more popular than Dallas?

That was Alice's ratings-peak season, the last with Polly Holliday as Flo. Dallas wasn't there yet. JR would get shot the very next week (the March 21, 1980 episode), and Dallas's ratings would increase by almost a third in the 1980-81 season, which was its high water mark.

How much of "Trapper John's" 26 share were gay boys, watching to see hot piece of ass Gregory Harrison emerge from the shower in the opening credits?

Decent, free entertainment. No bingeing. If you missed a show you had to wait for rerun season.

I had to look up this Scruples movie since I was too young. Low and behold, it appears that Judith Krantz was a DLer. The first sentence of the wiki plot entry reads:

[quote] Wilhelmina Hunnewell Winthrop is a plain young woman, and a "poor relative" of the Winthrops, a wealthy Boston family. After she graduates from high school, she is given a sum of money by an aunt and goes to live in Paris with family friends.

Scruples was naughty.

[quote]The IMDb makes it sound like all 3 episodes of "Scruples" aired on February 25, 1980, but surely not. It was 290 minutes total, it must have been on once a week for 3 weeks.

This would have been a miniseries, so they would have run it consecutive nights all in one week. The miniseries was put into place to air during certain programming weeks.

For example, many series aired an average of 20 episodes a year. So they would broadcast the first 10 episodes in the late September/October - December. Christmas programming would take over in December. Then specials would be programmed in (miniseries, sporting events, movies broadcast on tv, sometimes pilots for new shows, etc) and around the remaining 10-12 series episodes so that the tv season would end in May.

Where’s Laverne & Shirley? Wasn’t that the number one show late 70s?

How are more people watching Alice and ODAAT over Three’s Company? Hadnt the Jeffersons been on like 8 years by then already?

[quote] Where’s Laverne & Shirley? Wasn’t that the number one show late 70s?

By this time Laverne & Shirley had moved to California and their show took a serious drop. They had really run their course, but the Marshalls didn't want to admit it and end the show.

Amazing how one tv show could get 30 million viewers on any given night back then. That is unheard of today.

Who are those crazy queens who watched part 3 of Scruples without having watched part 2?

[quote]Amazing how one tv show could get 30 million viewers on any given night back then.

Far fewer channels to watch. Now almost everything is at your fingertips for a subscription price.

[quote]And I watched TV a lot back then.

Didn't we all? It seems like that was the only thing to do during a certain age range.

they had to have some half naked guy on it 'cause that's the only way i would have watched it.

oh, and jamie sommers.

Limo for the lameo

"Scruples" was such a great book. If any of you bitches haven't read it yet, it's .99 on Kindle right now.

Only recently did I come to understand that Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz were two different people, somehow they fused together as one in my mind.

Krantz was a better writer. And funny.

Alice had spunk.

I hate spunk.

Scruples, and then Lace a couple of years later gave me life as a gayling.

Lace! With the line "Which one of you BITCHES is my mother?"

So scandalous in my middle school!

Judith Krantz wrote great trashy novels. Very entertaining.

R31, I was watching for Trapper himself. Harrison wasn’t hairy enough for me. I had a bit of a fetish in those days. Fortunately, I have broadened my horizons and can now appreciate Harrison. I still think Pernell Roberts (Trapper) was hot and had a much sexier personality besides (on the show).

R11, Scruples was great! And what a catalog of ‘70s-‘80s made-for-TV stars. The book was fun, too.

R29, thanks for the tip. The DVD is winging its way to me from Amazon as we speak.

I couldn't go back to living in those days because I couldn't give up the internet. But you can't miss what you've never had, and I'd happily relive that year ('80-81). So many great memories ... and so many people who are gone now.

That is, I'd happily relive that year ('79-'80), although '80-'81 would be even better.

Fascinating how many shows were CBS. And how was Trapper John such a hit!? Must have had a good lead-in.

It does however have a fantastic theme. Trombones descending a perfect 5th, love it.

I didn't watch a single one of those.

Here's the pilot episode of Trapper John MD. Perfect for Datalounge:

Gregory Harrison's shower moment Mary McCarty of FOLLIES fame Jack Gilford of GOLDEN GIRLS fame Roddy MacDowall of gay fame

R55, thank you. As I recall, the nurse was nicknamed "Bubbles" until humorless nurses and feminists complained that it trivialized the profession and they had to start calling her by her character's real name.

Harrison also has FOLLIES cred, r55, and I wish there was more McCarty out there.

[quote]Low and behold

Oh, dear.

Here is the actual top 15 from May 4, 1985.

And I have no memory of a show called “Crazy Like a Fox”!

I'm old enough to remember Dynasty and Dallas, those shows were HUGE. All of my adult female relatives were avid watchers.

I watched Crazy Like a Fox. Jack Warden was my Daddy fetish.

They've been showing "Crazy Like a Fox" on one of those Medicare/Mesothelioma channels.

I haven't Googled yet, but wasn't Crazy Like A Fox the show were the old guy adopts a bunch of little girls.

I'd forgotten about Crazy Like a Fox and Riptide.

I wish I could forget about Cosby and Family Ties.

ABC sure went into the shitter very fast, after ruling the '70s with shows like "Laverne & Shirley," "Happy Days," "Three's Company," "Taxi," "Charlie's Angels," etc. In both the 1980 and 1985 lists that OP posted, ABC only has 2 of the top 15 shows.

Loved Crazy Like A Fox.

Anything with Jack Warden was sure to be enjoyable.

[quote] Jack Gilford of GOLDEN GIRLS fame

Jack Gilford was in the original Broadway casts of Cabaret, The Diary of Anne Frank, Once Upon A Mattress and Forum, as well as other shows.

[quote] Anything with Jack Warden was sure to be enjoyable

I think he was literally in every other movie between 1975-1985. Loved him.

R59 - thanks! There was a lot of eye candy on those shows. I loved Simon & Simon. Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker were such different types but both so sexy.

I also loved Riptide, with Perry King and Joe Penny. I was wondering WHET Joe Penny, but I see his imdb page is pretty busy with TV movies. And yet, the only other thing I remember him in is Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife, with Melissa Gilbert as the eponymous wife and Penny as her evil but sexy husband.

It's too bad neither of these weeks contained a Battle of the Network Stars. As I recall, they always did well in the ratings.

It's nostalgic to think how network television dominated popular culture in those days. It was one thing almost all Americans had in common, something we lack today. Nothing is as nearly universal in America today as network TV was from the '50s through ... maybe the '90s?

I did love the pendulum swing of which network was on top and how quickly it changed, it kept them lean and hungry ready to try something new. Today who knows which streamer is on top at any time, and if it even impacts them or not, and one doesn’t really see the outcome.

I knew this wasn't 1985 otherwise our beloved Murder, She Wrote would be there!

I loved "Crazy Like a Fox"! My parents liked Jack Warden and dad liked anything with detectives, crime, or courtrooms, so they were primed to like it anyway, but then I ended up liking it too. I seem to recall a lot of kids at school also watching it. But then it kept getting pre-empted for sports, I think, and got cancelled really early, then people complained so they filmed a reunion movie maybe a year after it was cancelled. Graham Chapman was in it, of all people.

It was on right before "Trapper John MD" which we were already watching.

ABC had a few really good shows in the 84-85 season, like "Who's the Boss" and "Moonlighting." Some shows like "Street Hawk" and "Matt Houston" were good and if they'd had a chance they would have gotten better with time.

R75, thank you for mentioning Matt Houston - the show that opened with a closeup of Lee Horsley's crotch. '84-'85 would be its last season. (It had premiered in the '81-'82 season.)

Wasn't Moonlighting a mid-season replacement for something? I seem to remember it premiering in the late winter or spring of 1985 and becoming a groundbreaking hit right away. More '80s TV eye candy! And Moonlighting, at least, was also great television.

Those bitches were hacks, R44. HACKS!

Crazy Like a Fox has that awesome theme music and those delightfully campy shots from the show

1985 also had "V," the sci fi tv movie about alien lizards disguised as humans who invade Earth. Remember the fierce Jane Badler as Diana, the alien leader?

No wonder ABC pumped so much money into DYNASTY…the #1 show on tv and then basically nothing else in the top 15. I know HOTEL is in there, but ONLY because it had DYNASTY as a lead-in. I never got into HOTEL..I kind of remember watching it a bit if I forgot to turn the channel after watching Alexis, Fallon, etc.

I think HOTEL would have worked better had they just kept the same format as LOVE BOAT and not tried to turn it into an episodic melodrama with guest stars and 22 min stories. That said, I never watched HOTEL or rarely watched LOVE BOAT thinking they were both shit.

Bette Davis did the pilot episode of Hotel, which she called "Brothel." Then she got sick and didn't do any more episodes.

Would have loved to see Bette Davis do a season or two of Hotel, just to be able to see her weekly on screen. She's a bit stiff in the pilot, but I bet she would have warmed up.

I would have loved to watch James Brolin in "Male Brothel"...

R84 - How do you think Shea Farrell got the job? Well, HOW?

WHET Heidi Bohay???

When I read OP's headline, I thought this was going to be a thread about a caftan sale.

Same here r84. James Brolin was sex on a fucking stick back then.

Connie Sellecca was a charisma-free zone.

Yup, my teens right there

R89 I win that contest! Plus I wasn’t even attractive.

Jim should reboot "Hotel" as "Mall," with charismatic Barbra replacing dreary Connie.

R86, I seem to recall Heidi married her co-star from the show, Michael something-or-other. He was cute, so she had good taste. Wonder if they're still together?

V was the bomb r79! Everyone was watching and talking about it! I also really liked Hotel. I forgot all about that show.

R93 - Michael Spound. Yes, he was. Yes, they are. They also spawned a few more Spounds. Here he is in his glory days...

Let's try that again, shall we?

I still remember Liz Taylor’s entrance when she guest-starred on Hotel. The star power positively radiated.

R97 - We had to use a wide angle lens.

Ms. B, you know you stole that from Joan "she's so fat her blood type is Ragu" Rivers.

The dead can't sue, R99. Oh, and reminds me... Liz has more chins than a Chinese phonebook.

Season 1 was my favorite version of the "Alice" theme song.