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View Full Version : TV Land success/HA! failed

Link
03-31-04, 09:38 AM
Why was it in the late 80s or early 90s that Nick at Nite launched HA! the new TV comedy network that basically showed classic TV sitcoms and failed, while HBO's The Comedy Channel wasn't doing well so the 2 failing channels merged to form today's Comedy Central. Why do you think HA! failed while TV Land is a great success?? I remember seeing HA! on Cband dish and though it was a good channel.
Mike Richardson
03-31-04, 03:54 PM
HA! and The Comedy Channel merged to form Comedy Central. Until recently this channel was 50% owned by Time Warner (HBO) and 50% owned by Viacom (Nick At Nite). Then Time Warner sold their 50% stake to Viacom. I wonder if Comedy Central would have been shut off if Time Warner still owns 50%.
oblio98
03-31-04, 08:55 PM
I have a VHS tape of 6 hours of HA! It's a goof! Stuff like "Occasional Wife" and "My Mother the Car" - rare stuff!
TimL
04-01-04, 12:34 AM
I have a VHS tape of 6 hours of HA! It's a goof! Stuff like "Occasional Wife" and "My Mother the Car" - rare stuff!
Wouldnt mind actually seeing that..

Tim Lones
DS0816
04-01-04, 12:43 AM
TV Land now sucks. Nothing on it is unique. No hard-to-come-by series. For god's sakes, I was born in 1971 and seeing in the 1980s-on-up reruns of Sanford and Son -- so what! TV Land should be showing programming that fell off the radar long ago and deserves another chance -- like James at 15 and Apple's Way.
TerryC
04-01-04, 01:02 AM
The Comedy Channel had Mystery Science Theater 3000. That's why it succeeded ;)
Geronimo
04-01-04, 07:09 AM
Most of the old HA properties----including My Mother the Car have beeen seen on TV Land. In many ways it lives on.

This is hopelessly off topic but my favorite episode of My Mother The Car was the one in which someone hits the cars bumper and the car gets amnesia. What the heck was Jerry Van Dyke thinking when he read that pilot script?
TimL
04-01-04, 08:00 AM
He was probably thinking steady paycheck..still remember that theme song after all these years..

Tim Lones
SamC
04-01-04, 04:31 PM
Why do you think HA! failed while TV Land is a great success??

Clearance. At the time HA and The Comedy Channel were competing. And cable systems carried one or the other. Leaving neither with enough subscribers to make it.

TV Land is on most any system worth the trouble.

I agree that TV Land should dip deeper into the vault.