The reason why Nick at Nite took Facts of Life off..

[Mr. Stefani]

I emailed tvland, askin if the show would ever be on tv land:

"Dear Viewer,

Sadly the show did not do well on Nick at Nite at all, so they decided to pull the plug on it. Because of its low raitings on Nick at Nite, TV Land doesn't want to purchase rights to the show. There is no petition which would help it get on TV Land. Sorry"






:mad: :eek:

[Wild Child]

:eek: That's not even right!!!!! :mad: "grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

[Mr. Stefani]

How do u know for sure....Tv Land would probably know, but he could be wrong..

[NancyMcKeon/LisaWelchel#1]

:( THAT IS SOOOOOO UNFAIR UGH!! THAT IS A LOAD OF CRAP!! :mad:

[FOLrocks1]

That's a bunch of crap! FOL did good on N@N, i would think so ne ways!

[Kay Scarpetta]

Ok, whoa whoa whoa. I don't know how many people in America watched that show when it was on N@N, but I know that's..... that's a bunch of bull $h!+.

N@N...I'm telling you. They are majorly screwed up in the head if they are saying FOL didn't do well

[PhoenixMcKeonism]

That's a bunch of crap!! TV Land would put it on the air... but if it dont... hey whatever facts of life is too good for that network then LOL

[jayman75]

Originally posted by timmy087
I emailed tvland, askin if the show would ever be on tv land:

"Dear Viewer,

Sadly the show did not do well on Nick at Nite at all, so they decided to pull the plug on it. Because of its low raitings on Nick at Nite, TV Land doesn't want to purchase rights to the show. There is no petition which would help it get on TV Land. Sorry"

:mad: :eek:

Ummm, maybe it's because I'm a little older than the majority of people on here, but when I read that letter, I felt that it just doesn't sound like a "professional" letter. "...Pulling the plug..." sounds a bit rude, IMHO. From the way this post looks, it's a direct copy of the letter. There is no mention about "Thanks for contacting us about your suggestions..." or "We appreciate your understanding...." Plus, of ALL the people who have emailed about FOL, this is the only response I have ever heard. So, why was timmy the only one to get an answer. I'm not saying he's lying (so no one get vicious with me and send me rude emails), but it just doesn't sound right. I'm curious to see the original letter mailed to TVLand.

[Mr. Stefani]

A lot of people have posted the responses they have gotten from tv land. My letter wasnt to "professionsal". I wouldnt make it up...The tv land "postmaster" is kind of rude, well seems..I copied and pasted the letter exactly as i got it. You can email him, ull prob. get the same response. Postmaster@tvland.com

I will foward the letter to u, if u dont belive me.

[LynnFOL]

For some reason, I'm having trouble believing that FOL didn't do so well in the ratings. I bet that the Post Master was just mad at all the FOL fans wanting to get the show back up so he made that up. Well, whatever, I don't care about how good of a rating shows get! I care about the equality of air time a show gets! And so should N@N and TV Land. It is soooooo unfair that they "Pull the Plug" on one of the greatest Sitcoms ever! Without warning! And then expect to bring a bad sitcom and get better ratings. I don't even like the new N@N Line-up, except of All in the Family or the TV Land line-up!

[vienna waits]

What a load of cow cocka. FOL is probably one of the most popular shows they've ever had. If it didnt do good in ratings they wouldnt have shown the unhidden mysteries marathon twice! Something they've never done with any other show.

[ks]

Ok, so whether that letter is for real or not, I think it's a bunch of malarque when people say FOL did not do well on N@N. For all I'm concerned N@N can just "blow it out their gucci bags." I'd like to tell them where they can stick their ratings:rolleyes:


-ahem- Sorry, lots of homework just letting off some steam...



ks

[ABlairican Pie]

"Facts not doing well on Nick-at-Nite"?????!!!!:eek: THOSE GUYS GOTTA STOP SMOKING SO MUCH CRACK!!!! WHY DON'T I BELIEVE THAT???? Blair-Tootie Project, Blair and Angelica episodes, back to
back FOL episodes, WHERE THE HELL DO THEY GET THEIR INFORMATION ABOUT FACTS NOT BEING A BIG RATINGS WINNER???:mad: THEY ARE SO FULL OF IT!!!!

[Mr. Stefani]

tv Land is afflicted with N@N, right? Maybe the post master person was pissed everyone emails him so much:lol: If u want people to back up the letter, just ask, i sent it to a few people.

[InspectorExstead]

NO..YOU KNOW WHAT I BET NICK AT NITE WAS WORRYING ABOUT LOOSING THE AUDIENCE TO A SHOW LIKE FOL. BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE HIGHER RATINGS BACK WHEN IT WAS AIRING. SO THEY DECIDE TO AIR LIKE CHEERS, OR I LOVE LUCY (EVEN THOUGH THEY DON'T) BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE MAJORITY OF THE AUDIENCE KNOWS THE SHOW AND ARE BIG FANS. BUT THERE ARE A LOTTTA FOL FANS TOO...AND THERE WOULDN'T BE LIKE 5000 POSTS ON THIS SUBJECT OF FOL COMING BACK IF WE DIDN'T GIVE A DAMN! ...I HATE NICK AT NITE. I'VE VOWED NOT TO WATCH IT TILL FOL COMES BACK ON THE AIR. NOT LIKE THEY HAVE ANYTHING GOOD TO WATCH....AND THE FANDEMONIUM MARATHON ON TVLAND. I BET THAT WAS A REAL SUCCESS. A LOTTA FANS TUNED IN FOR THAT AND THE FACT THAT IT WAS ON THE SAME DAY AS THE RE-UNION MOVIE (WELL..ONE OF THE DAYS) MADE IT EVEN COOLER.

[boechsner]

Who ever wrote that letter obviously did not have any knowledge of FOL's history on N&N. First of all, the letter states "the show did not do well on Nick at Nite at all." At all, give me a break. When it was on N&N, I remember seeing cable ratings and The Facts of Life was one of the highest rated shows on N&N. Also, if it wasn't doing well, why in the world would N&N air a marathon of the series twice. Once in September and again in October. Obviously, the series was doing well, there would be no other reason to air the marathon again. Also, another marathon of the series aired at the end of October of 2000 for Halloween. Then there's the matter of it being showcased in the Revenge of the 80's marathon back in March of 2001 as well as practically taking over the "Make Your Own Sundays."

I also find it hard to believe that the letter was from an official at TV Land. I've never seen an official letter with such poor word choices and punctuation.

Also, since when does TV Land worry about ratings on other networks. Happy Days supposedly did terrible in the ratings on The Hallmark Channel and TV Land bought the rights and then recently dropped it.

And one more thing, this doesn't explain the Diff'rent Strokes dilemma. Basically, Diff'rent Strokes was handled in the same way FOL was handled and obviously the ratings were good enough for TNN to pick it up. So we are still back at the same question: Why did N&N drop FOL? and also Why did N&N drop Diff'rent Strokes?

My guess, they're finances are tapped. I've heard that purchasing the rights to Cheers, The Cosby Show and Family Ties has really put a dent in their finances. Which would explain why they've dropped FOL, Diff'rent Strokes, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island and The Jeffersons from their schedules.

[Hollow]

:rolleyes:

[Nancy McKeon fan!]

Originally posted by jayman75


Ummm, maybe it's because I'm a little older than the majority of people on here, but when I read that letter, I felt that it just doesn't sound like a "professional" letter. "...Pulling the plug..." sounds a bit rude, IMHO. From the way this post looks, it's a direct copy of the letter. There is no mention about "Thanks for contacting us about your suggestions..." or "We appreciate your understanding...." Plus, of ALL the people who have emailed about FOL, this is the only response I have ever heard. So, why was timmy the only one to get an answer. I'm not saying he's lying (so no one get vicious with me and send me rude emails), but it just doesn't sound right. I'm curious to see the original letter mailed to TVLand.

i have to agree. i wrote like 100 times and the only reply i got was you have to check with us later. sorry but i think this was writen to get people up set.

[jayman75]

I just don't know if there will ever be a straight answer as to why FOL was removed from N@N. We could argue that the show was so popular that it should never have been taken off. Perhaps (and I don't know this to be a fact) it was so unpopular that they did all the marathons, Blair/Angelica, etc. Maybe they were trying to find an audience out there. Boechsner said that he had seen that "The Facts of Life was one of the highest rated shows on N&N." But, how did it rank overall?

I just wonder if, despite our die-hard fan-ness of the show, we may be in a minority. I don't know what the prime audience is of N@N, but I have a feeling it's turning more into people my age -- mid 20s. I know several of you don't like the shows that are on now, but I grew up with FT, CS, Cheers, etc. If they have found that their main audience is 21-30, then they are right in line with what they are doing.

Am I bashing FOL? Do I want it to stay off the air? No! I think it's a great show that has some quality markings to it. However, N@N is a business. They must do what they can to make themselves profitable. I'm sure that many of their employees have had television series air and then leave, and think "Why the hell did they do that??" However, they had to have made a good enough argument to do what they have done.

Another thing I'm curious about (which I don't know how this worked)... Did N@N/Viacom buy the series for a number of showings or a length of time? If they found after some time that the show was not doing well, perhaps they ran the marathons to get it over with quicker. I don't think this was the case (so again, don't send me any rude emails calling me anti-Natalie, because you just have to check my avater to see who is my favorite).

There are so many questions about how this all went down. I doubt we'll ever know what happened. Perhaps if someone one day writes the FOL Information Book we'll find out the reason. Or, maybe one of us will be invited to N@N for a tour, and we can find out then. Or, maybe they will put it back on the air one day. Let's not burn our bridges just yet. We have no definite answers, just a lot of questions.

I apologize for the long post... it's just a lot of random thoughts thrown together.

[Mr. Stefani]

Do u want me to foward it to u? I have to 2 other people so far. I have written them 3 times and all three i have gotten back responces.
Why would i want to "Upset" people when I LIKE the show and am the one who started the petition?

[boechsner]

No one's saying that you made up the letter. Relax.

[jayman75]

Originally posted by timmy087
Do u want me to foward it to u? I have to 2 other people so far. I have written them 3 times and all three i have gotten back responces.
Why would i want to "Upset" people when I LIKE the show and am the one who started the petition?

Timmy, I never said you made the letter up. What I said was I found it hard to believe that:

1) This was written by a professional at N@N, because of the poor choice in wording and his reasoning; and
2) This is the only response that I have heard from N@N. I just wondered what made them respond to your letter and not one of the dozens that have been sent just by people on here.

Like I said in my "long" post -- we may never know why FOL was removed from the N@N lineup. As much protesting and emailing we do, it doesn't look positive that it will be returning anytime soon.

As the theme song says...
"You take the good, you take the bad, you take 'em both and there you have..."

Looks like we're taking the bad right now.

[jayman75]

Ok kids, I have a couple other "thoughts" on this whole N@N fiasco.

When I came on tho the main "Sitcomsonline" site, I saw a story about how "Cosby boosts Nick at Nite." I linked to the website (http://tvinsite.com/index.asp?layout=story&doc_id=72604&display=breakingNews ) and found that the show made a huge dent in the ratings when it premiered. It says there was an 80% jump in the key demographic group -- 18-49.

Secondly, for kicks, I tried www.nickatnite.com. The site is just Cliff Huxtable dancing up a storm. As I searched around, I noticed that all the links start as "www.tvland.com/...". There is a Contact Us section, and it specifically says "*Note:If you are looking for Nick at Nite, we' re sorry but they no longer have an e-mail address and we can not pass on e-mail for them. "

Now, how does a multi-million dollar company (which I would assume N@N to be) not have an email address?

From what I gather, it sounds as though the company is not doing well. Perhaps they had to get the Cosby show to get ratings/viewers/advertising revenue. They may be hurting for cashflow so bad that they stopped their email address. They may have had to get rid of employees in order to maintain.

Again, these are random thoughts (of which I have no backup other than my "brilliant ideas"). I just think that the network is hurting and needed to find a way to get back into the popular scene. Like I said in a previous post, I believe their target audience is more 20-somethings, and these shows are from that time period. The 49-and-under category are the parents and children of the 80s. It's only natural that they bring the most popular shows of that time back to today.

But, like I said... I STILL WANT MY FOL!!!!!

[Eva]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by boechsner
[B]Who ever wrote that letter obviously did not have any knowledge of FOL's history on N&N. First of all, the letter states "the show did not do well on Nick at Nite at all." At all, give me a break. When it was on N&N, I remember seeing cable ratings and The Facts of Life was one of the highest rated shows on N&N. Also, if it wasn't doing well, why in the world would N&N air a marathon of the series twice. Once in September and again in October. Obviously, the series was doing well, there would be no other reason to air the marathon again. Also, another marathon of the series aired at the end of October of 2000 for Halloween. Then there's the matter of it being showcased in the Revenge of the 80's marathon back in March of 2001 as well as practically taking over the "Make Your Own Sundays."


Well said! I am wondering if there is a way to research "ratings" and show TVLAND that putting FOL on their schedule would be great for them! (And us!)

[KristinHerreraFan]

You're So Right Guys,

It says on television hits FOL Schedule that Nick at Nite brought the FOL in sep 2000, and it was very succesful, the reason why it was taken of june 2001 was un-known.

[Rebel Queen 1980]

Does N@N still have rights to the show,I thought Hallmark had them since
they were the last one's to air FOL,Does anyone here even know the reason
why Hallmark channel dropped FOL from their lineup?,That really sucks that
we can't see our favorite show anywhere! :mad:

[ABlairican Pie]

The last thing I remember, I checked out a few years ago, is that ABC/Disney has had the rights to the show (hence the Facts of Life Reunion on ABC) until 2003. But since that was over a year ago, that may have changed.

[lordstides]

Well, I'm sure the original 2000 marathon did well and they showed most or almost all (?) of the Charlotte Rae episodes twice. I felt "The Facts of Life" had a good run on Nick at Nite--it was shown in a good prime-time slot. I'm surprised that Nick-at-Nite didn't show the last two season's of the show--episodes that I haven't seen too many of the episodes (I watched "The Facts of Life" from the very first episode back in 1979). I thought that Nick-at-Nite would show "The Facts of Life" in the middle of the morning or something--I was willing to videtape it!

I have 6 volumes on video and have to say that the selections were awesome--some of my very favorite episodes! Anyone notice that the 'Principle' volume says that 'Maginicient Obsession' is on the video (back sleeve of the videotape) but the episode on the videtape is different?

I'm glad the I broke the 10 volume (8 volume?) "The Facts of Life" video tape release story on this website! It's unfortunate that Columbia House MESSED up on releasing this to the fans!!! First they sent all of these cancellation notices and then the next week I received a volume and then it took so long for them to release the other volumes--major marketing problems in not having what the consumers wanted, demanded and paid for!

I recently ordered two more volumes on video, that are on sale, but aren't being promoted or advertised in their flyers or on the internet--probably because Columbia House in focusing on DVD's.

Call 1 (800) 262-2001 (I know it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to get through if you don't have an account number) and you should be able to order 7 volumes on videotape! These episodes contain original and exclusive opening credits and songs, like the first episode, and MANY MANY deleted scenes that weren't shown on Nick-at-Nite or TV Land!

Did Columbia House ever release volumes 9 and 10? The man at Columbia House couldn't answer that question and he did tell me that the 'Boys' volume is no longer available (probably worth a lot of money right now on Ebay!)

Again, if you call Columbia House, and get through, you should be able to order the first 8 volumes of "The Facts of Life" series at a discounted price, except for the 'Boys'' volume.

Call 1 (800) 262-2001 and order these volumes today!

While your on the phone, please ask how we can all request "The Facts of Life" to be released on DVD--Seasons 1 and 2! (I know there are a lot of Fans of "the Facts of Life" who like the final 4 seasons better than the first 4 seasons--who would probably prefer a 'Best of' selection).

Judging by the amount of hits "The Facts of Life Online" receives, and the INCREDIBLE top 10 polling on "TV on DVD" and "The Facts of Life" Commercial (which you can watch on another thread), one can hope that Sony/Columbia House will release "The Facts of Life" on DVD!

Links:

Here's a link to request "The Facts of Life" on DVD--the web site says they will forward comments to the appropiate decision makers:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/

Write TV Shows on DVD a letter--they're good about corresponding to questions!
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/faq/contact.cfm

"The Facts of Life" Sony Commercial: (Taken off of the net?)
http://www.sonypictures.com/cthe/tv/poll/clips/main.html?path=Facts_of_Life_clip1

Please Contact Columbia House today and write an online letter!
http://www.columbiahouse.com/sa/71/ch/customer_service/d_customer_email.jsp?formprofileid=24&dt=1106169927316&pin=71&bak=NONE

Here's a Sony Pictures e-mail address:
WebSiteTech@sonypictures.com
Maybe they can provide information on how to request "The Facts of Life" on DVD!


Andy Hobbs
lordstides@yahoo.com

[KristinHerreraFan]

I emailed tvland, askin if the show would ever be on tv land:

"Dear Viewer,

Sadly the show did not do well on Nick at Nite at all, so they decided to pull the plug on it. Because of its low raitings on Nick at Nite, TV Land doesn't want to purchase rights to the show. There is no petition which would help it get on TV Land. Sorry"


OH LETS CUT THE CRAP!!! Facts of Life was one of the most successful shows N@N had ever had. 40% of the people who turned to N@N, came to Watch Facts of Life. The Unhidden Mysteries brought up N@N's ratings so high that they decided to air it again. Facts of Life was doing very well in reruns. Nick@Nite was just being dumb and dumped the show for no reason :(

[IMakeBurgers]

Maybe if they didnt put off bringing it back, for so long, people wouldnt have forgotten about FOL.

[seventies_sitcoms]

Maybe if they didnt put off bringing it back, for so long, people wouldnt have forgotten about FOL.


I find it hard to believe that Fresh Prince is more popular than FOL. Even Jeff Foxworthy must be more popular because NAN is going to show him very soon.