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by Cary O'Dell Over the years, it’s easy to look back to so many primetime programs from “back in the day” that were clearly (let’s say) “inspired” by other earlier and far-more successful shows. These copycat shows are always a weak attempt to grab some of the audience of those other hit programs. Yet, these copies are seldom successful. In fact, usually they are embarrassing failures. Let me tell you (show you) what I mean by a “copycat” show. Remember when “Melrose Place” (1992-99) became a big, big hit? Well, in a ruse that fooled no one, during “Melrose’s” peak, in 1995, CBS launched its own primetime, hour-long drama focused mainly on the tangled, glam lives of some extremely rowdy and VERY attractive young people. Hmmm? Sound familiar? That show was called “Central Park West.” Even before it debuted, critics were already calling it a pathetic “Melrose” imitation which, despite its good cast (including Mariel Hemmingway), would never be able to pass itself off as anything but a “Melrose” clone.
The critics ended up being right. Ratings-wise, “Central Park” wasn’t a success as CBS did not have the key Gen X demographics that FOX had then and which were needed for a show like this to thrive. Then, in a last ditch attempt by CBS to keep the show afloat, the show deemphasized many of the original cast members or, in the case of Hemingway, fired them and then added such older vets as Gerald McRaney and Raquel Welch to try to bring “CPW” back to life. It didn’t work. “CPW” did not make it to a second season. When will the networks learn that such programming knockoffs seldom pay off? Well, they didn’t learn it by the late 1990s and early 2000s. When “Sex & the City” became a cable TV phenomenon, the three broadcast networks rushed to create and air shows about small groups of strong working women living in big cities, having fabulous jobs and with their personal lives deeply enmeshed with their female friends. ABC’s “Cashmere Mafia” with Lucy Liu and Miranda Otto leading its cast ran for seven episodes in 2008. NBC’s similar “Lipstick Jungle,” with Brooke Shields and Kim Raver, was around a little longer but wasn’t a hit either; it aired only 20 episodes before being pulled.
Interestingly, neither of these shows should be considered exact replicas of “Sex & the City,” the focus of these other series was different and, due to them being on broadcast television, far less graphic in sexual terms. But, it didn’t matter, they seemed enough like “Sex and the City” rip-offs that audiences treated them as such and stayed away from them. I mean why watch the copies if the original is a click away? Years prior, when “Charlie’s Angels” became a mega-hit, the other two major networks at the time decided that programs focused on attractive female teams was what American wanted. And they delivered. “Angels” debuted in 1976. In 1978, CBS debuted “Flying High,” an hour-long show focused on the lives and careers of three female flight attendants. Connie Sellecca was one of the three leading ladies. That show—laughed off by critics—last only 15 episodes. That same year/season, CBS also launched “The American Girls.” It told the story of two crusading female producers/reporters who worked for a “60 Minutes”-like TV news show. They were seen crisscrossing the USA in their RV ferreting out and covering controversial stories. Priscilla Barnes was one of its stars. “The American Girls” aired just six episodes before being yanked from the schedule.
It was not just women who found themselves imitated. Tom Selleck became a superstar when his show “Magnum, PI” debuted in 1980. It was a hit with both male and female viewers (just as “Charlie’s Angels” was able to appeal to both genders). Hence, after “Magnum’s” success, the networks decided that the way forward for TV success was hot looking men in action-adventure shows. In 1982, ABC debuted the hour-long, light-hearted detective show “Matt Houston.” It starred another handsome and mustached actor, Lee Horsley. A good time slot, Horsley’s appeal and a wide variety of interesting guest stars helped make “Matt Houston” a modest hit and, unlike so many other imitation-type shows, “Houston” ran for three years and had a total of 69 episodes produced. But, that success, was not similarly obtained by other programs of this ilk launched by network. The adventure drama “Gavilan” starring veteran hunk Robert Urich, 1982-1983, was not a success and “The Devlin Connection” with Jack Scalia, from 1982. also petered out early. Combining the square jaw of Bruce Boxleitner with a premise similar to the big screen’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in CBS’s “Bring ’Em Back Alive” also didn’t spell success. It lasted only 17 episodes, from 1982-1983.
The only program that sort of rode in on this wave and had real success was “Knight Rider.” It had the benefit of both a handsome David Hasselhoff and a good-looking car. It ran for four seasons, 1982-1986. Others examples of this copycat phenomenon: “Diff’rent Strokes” beget “Webster” but “Webster” was a hit. The same can’t quite be said for so many of the programs that were launched over all the networks in the wake of “Mary Tyler Moore’s” great sitcom success in the early 1970s. Despite creating several programs about Young Women Making It On Their Own and, despite building them around an array of proven, small screen talents, like Diana Rigg, Sandy Duncan and Karen Valentine, most of these single-named sitcoms vanished after a single season.
You want more? Yes, there are more. “The Cosby Show” largely beget Flip Wilson’s “Charlie & Co.” “Love Boat” beget the disastrous “Supertrain.” “Saturday Night Live” beget ABC’s late-night “Fridays.” And the success of “Roseanne” beget a small rash of “working-class” sitcoms like “Bless This House” with Andrew Dice Clay. When “Ab Fab” was a hit over in the UK and in the USA over Comedy Central, America responded with the series “High Society” with Jean Smart. But none of the latter programs had any endurance. And it’s not hard to see why: even the very best imitation is still just an imitation.
So, in the end, you’d think this long list of failed “sub-shows” would behoove networks and streamers to try something new and fresh. But, until they do, I’ll just keep watching Netflix’s “Ransom Canyon.” Though, you know, it kind of reminds me of “Yellow—" Post-Modern Sitcoms / Actors That Wrote Books / 1987 Gilbert Gottfried Pilot Written By Larry David / Tarantino, DiCaprio & Pitt on Once Upon A Time In Hollywood / Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci Talk Goodfellas / Coming to America - The Awful Sitcom? / Robert Wagner Interview / Helen Mirren on 1923 / Lucky 19-Year Old Birthday Boy on The Price is Right / 1990-1999 TV Commercials / James Hong on the First & Only Asian Talent Agent in Hollywood / More Than Myagi: The Pat Morita Story / Chevy Chase 2021 Interview / Ally McBeal and that Darn Dancing Baby / The Pitts / Andy Huggins / I'm Sorry sitcom / Threat of Artificial Actors! / Ed Begley Jr. Interview / John Masius Tribute / Rap Folk Artist Demeanor Interview / Peter Boyle's Heart Attack on the Set of Everybody Loves Raymond / Patrick Swayze Refused To Do 'Ghost' Without Whoopie Goldberg / Clark Furlong on Stephen King's Mini-Series Lisey's Story / Rita Rocks Lifetime Sitcom / 14-Year Old Brody Bett Steals the Show at a David Foster Concert / Worst Big Budget Superhero Movie of All Time / William and Bonnie Daniels, ReLaunch Online Store / Jerry Springer's Toxic TV Legacy / Three Generations of Talent / Mary McCormack on The West Wing / TOBE : First Respectful Children's Book for Black Kids / Greensboro NC Stories & Weird History! / Greensboro NC Stories & Weird History : It Happened on Hill Street! / One Season Too Many / Dick Wolf on the Writer's Strike / Angela Lansbury Tribute / Sam Fribush Organ Trio / Why The Nanny Matters / Houston Knights / Rissi Palmer is Still Here / Uncle Buck Sitcom / My Brush With King Charles / Bonnie Bartlett Daniels Interview / Frank Zappa Talk Show? / Remembering Marvel & Buffy Scribe Pierce Askegren / Piper Laurie Tribute / 1993 Route 66 Reboot / David Hyde Pierce on the Last Days of ‘Frazier’ / Angela Lansbury Interview / The Shadow Movies of the 1930s & 40s / Copycat TV Shows / Remembering Hal Holbrook / Remembering Angela Lansbury / Greensboro Movie Theaters : Star Theatre / Police Squad Shot-By-Shot Remake of M Squad! / A Painting Saved Bill Murray's Life / Why Jim Carrey Fought to Cast Jeff Daniels in 'Dumb and Dumber' / Meredith Baxter Talks Breast Cancer / Sopranos Creator David Chase Had to Fight to Make Tony Soprano the Mobster He Was / Joan Collins on Working With Drunk Actors / Snowmaggedon 1969 / Joe Pesci HATES Practical Jokes / Books About Showbiz / Making It in Showbiz / Dark Justice / My Fave Book About Showbiz / Remembering Billy Packer / More Celebrity Biographies / Peter Falk : Inside The Actor's Studio / Jason Alexander on Duckman / Robert Ebert on Robert Mitchum / Watch Dave Chappelle's New Netflix Special for Free / Margaret (Wicked Witch of the West) Hamilton Was Almost Scarred For Life Filming Wizard of Oz / Restaurant Chains We Might Lose In 2020 / Night Heat / Short History of TV Advertising / Is Ellen A Monster? / To Binge Or Not To Binge? / 1986-87 TV SEASON / Celebrity Bios 4 / 1988-89 TV SEASON / 1990-91 TV SEASON / Can Comic Book City Survive? / When TV Plays Politics for Laughs / The Worst Thing I Ever Saw (Part 2) / Greensboro's Beef (Biff) Burger Has Closed! / Sally Field Looks Back on Smokey and the Bandit / Actors Writing Memoirs 2 / Gene Wilder's Sexual Chemistry with Richard Pryor / WORST Pizzas Served On Kitchen Nightmares / Ricky Gervais' Cruelly Funny 2020 Golden Globe Monologue / What It's Like To Win A New Car on The Price Is Right / Night Train! 3 - Las Vegas Comic Pat Cooper / Night Train! 4 - Resurrection and Death of Louis Prima / Denis Shepard of Paradise Lost / Space Force Logo is a Ripoff from Star Trek! / Batman Movie from 1939? 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