[net.tv] Why Remington Steele went Downhill

betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry) (10/05/84)

Last season *Remington Steele* was far less interesting than had been
its wont.  It was less witty, less coherent, less intelligent than
the show of the season before.  I wrote this off to incompetence;
turns out it was deliberate.  I quote Mark Christensen's *The Sweeps*,
Morrow, 1984, p.185-86.
 
"...Tartikoff, the master programming technician, explained the strategies that
he'd engineered the previous month in New York.  He walked the audience through
the schedule, night by night.
...
Tuesday night would still be *A-Team* night, and the well-plotted
*Remington Steele* would become less plotted, in order to
capitalize on the presumably nonthinking *A-Team* watchers."
 

I always thought our friends in Hollywood simply didn't *recognize*
quality.  Turns out they're actively eschewing it.  
 
-- 
Betsy Perry
UUCP: {decvax|linus|cornell}!dartvax!betsy  
CSNET: betsy@dartmouth
ARPA:  betsy%dartmouth@csnet-relay

rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (10/09/84)

*I* thought one of the biggest symptoms of Remington Steele's demise was
the alteration of the theme music to the jumpy TV detective show opening,
with the original "cool jazz" detective show opening (a la Mike Hammer's
Harlem Nocturne) being relegated to a snippet at the very end of the
opening credits.

What REALLY gets me is the way NBC still (I thought they had stopped it,
but I think I was wrong) "superimposes" their own chimes and NBC theme
music over the closing credits of a show.  It's downright rude to hear
one or two notes of HSB or RS theme music only to be interrupted by the
noise and the announcer saying "This week on "We've Got It Made", Micky
takes off all of her clothes, much to the surprise of everyone!"  Someone
put some sort of effort into writing whatever music closes the show.
The other networks have a voice over of an announcer briefly doing an
advertisement and saying what's on next, as opposed to NBC's axing the
music completely in favor of their drivel.
-- 
Now I've lost my train of thought. I'll have to catch the bus of thought.
			Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr