Family/Tween Friendly TV Shows

[Magpie]

I have no stats to know--but did Who's The Boss, Growing Pains and Full House ever have much of an adult audience? I watched them as a kid but my parents didn't and none of my friends' parents did either.
Family Ties I recall being watched by adults as well as kid. I was in college by the time Home Improvement came out--but I knew adults who watched it too.

Oh, good question!

When I was a kid, during the brief period we had a TV, I watched Gilligan's Island... all by myself! My mother didn't watch it, she preferred Masterpiece Theatre.

Together we watched the News and MASH.

Later, when I was a teenager and MASH was off the air, the only show we watched together was the News. By myself I watched Miami Vice, Simon and Simon, MacGyver, Magnum P.I., Stingray, Airwolf (you can see a theme developing here, I'm sure)... My mother meanwhile watched Masterpiece Theatre, assorted stuff on the BBC, and the Cosby Show (which I thought was boring).

Other than the Cosby Show, my mother never watched any of the "family sitcoms".

 

[NHdisneylover]

As I recall, yes, those shows were highly rated in the key demographics. As Toad Passenger put it, above, they were "ratings giants".

Interesting. I truly had no idea they were anyhting more than really popular tween/teen shows.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Oh, good question!

When I was a kid, during the brief period we had a TV, I watched Gilligan's Island... all by myself! My mother didn't watch it, she preferred Masterpiece Theatre.

Together we watched the News and MASH.

Later, when I was a teenager and MASH was off the air, the only show we watched together was the News. By myself I watched Miami Vice, Simon and Simon, MacGyver, Magnum P.I., Stingray, Airwolf (you can see a theme developing here, I'm sure)... My mother meanwhile watched Masterpiece Theatre, assorted stuff on the BBC, and the Cosby Show (which I thought was boring).

Other than the Cosby Show, my mother never watched any of the "family sitcoms".

I forgot about MacGyver. My son went through phase of really liking that a year or so ago

 

[bicker]

Interesting. I truly had no idea they were anyhting more than really popular tween/teen shows.

In 1986, for example, The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Who's The Boss, and Growing Pains were all in the Top 20 for the year.

 

[NHdisneylover]

In 1986, for example, The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Who's The Boss, and Growing Pains were all in the Top 20 for the year.

I am not an expert on TV so this is an hinest question:
In the days before NIckelodian, DIsney Channel and the like--was it not possible to be ranked that high with an audience made up primarily of tweens and teens I know most of my friends and I had control of the ONE family TV until around 8:00 or 9:00 when the more adult aimed programming came on (I remember my parents watchign Hill Street Blues).

 

[bicker]

While it is possible for there to be a big skew between total viewers and the ratings, it's uncommon, and limited (a top ranked show, in terms of total viewers, is not going to have low ratings, nor vice versa). Total viewers may vary, but ratings reported are consistently that for the key demographic, adults 18-49. In 1986, The Cosby Show, for example, had total viewership of 28,948,000 (out of 84,900,000 households, so 34.1% of households were watching the show, on average) and a 33.7 rating, meaning that over a third of all adults watching television at that time were watching that show (but perhaps a small number of those households were just the children, accounting for the 0.4% difference, but again, that difference is typically small, even for family-friendly show, at least back then). Kate and Allie was another family friendly show, it had total viewership of 15,994,200 (18.8%) and a 20 rating, so it looks like Kate and Allie skewed the other way, doing better with adults vs. children (and seniors, by the way - that's another issue) than The Cosby Show did, but still it is a minimal difference.

Keep in mind that, back then, if CBS wanted to make money from presenting Kate and Allie, they had basically one choice: The CBS Television Network. Nowadays, CBS has a few choices: The CBS Television Network, The CW, and Showtime. If you think there was deflection between adults and children back then, think about now! Adults are as likely as not to be watching regularly-programmed original, scripted series, like Dexter, Weeds, or Californication, on Showtime, an option that not only wasn't available back then, but probably with content that wouldn't have resonated with the sensibilities of many adult viewers back then.

And while CBS has two first-run distribution channels, think about NBC Universal, with NBC, USA, Syfy, etc. And Disney with ABC, ABC Family, Disney Channel, etc. And completely new entrants, like Turner with TNT, TBS, The CW and HBO.

 

[Sorsha]

I am not an expert on TV so this is an hinest question:
In the days before NIckelodian, DIsney Channel and the like--was it not possible to be ranked that high with an audience made up primarily of tweens and teens I know most of my friends and I had control of the ONE family TV until around 8:00 or 9:00 when the more adult aimed programming came on (I remember my parents watchign Hill Street Blues).

I am not an expert on TV either, but I think this is a very valid point. 30 years ago, you didn't have anywhere NEAR the choice you have now, so you pretty much watched what was available to you, and what was available was network TV. I don't know about anyone else (and I have trouble remembering LOL) but I think our "cable" package was about 20 channels. there was ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, a couple of news channels, ESPN, maybe a couple of home shopping channels, HBO and Showtime (if you were lucky), Disney and Nickelodeon (both were just getting started) and I think that was about it.

Other than the networks, all of those channels were very specialized, and none of them invested yet in "original" programming. Disney played Disney movies (ah the good old days), HBO and Showtime played movies - no original shows. ESPN played the baseball game, CNN showed the news. PBS showed Masterpiece Theater and Evening at Pops and such, but if that wasn't your speed, then you pretty much had nowhere to turn but the networks.

So, is it fair to say that the programming the networks showed captured a much larger slice of the demographic pie then it does today because the viewers had many many less choices to choose from?? If you didn't want to watch ESPN or the news and you didn't pay enough for HBO or Showtime then you pretty much HAD to watch The Cosby Show or Magnum PI??? NOt necessarily because they were SO much better (although I think they were) but because that's all there was?

 

[bicker]

I am not an expert on TV either, but I think this is a very valid point. 30 years ago, you didn't have anywhere NEAR the choice you have now, so you pretty much watched what was available to you, and what was available was network TV.

Yes, and that definitely made it so that adults and children tended to watch the same stuff. No question about that. In a way, the reason why it is so hard to set the boundaries we talked about earlier is because there are so many choices, providing each set of viewers something better than the watered-down blandness that was presented when there wasn't the opportunity to present so many, more-specific choices. To set those boundaries, and watch television with their children, parents would have to not only deny their children what they'll unquestionably hear from friends are better choices, but they'll have to deny themselves better choices as well.