Why so short-lived?


This is one of my favorite 80s shows of all time... I always tear up when I watch it, because it's filled with a lot of heart, and though not all jokes are fall-off-couch funny - one can tell how seriously all the actors took the project.
Someone on YouTube was kind enough to upload a few of the episodes. I had a blast watching them.
So, why did it end after, what, 140 episodes-or-so? Any idea what happened back then?

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Just the Ten of Us was canceled after about 43 episodes, and it wasn't due to ratings. Basically ABC wanted the TGIF block of shows to all be produced by the same company. The company behind other big ABC hit's at the time, I think it was the Full House production company. Anyways they canceled the show to accomplish this. A year later the President of ABC said oops we made a boo boo.

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Dang, I did not know this. I assumed it was merely canceled for ratings. In a way, I'm glad it wasn't that because I dug this show, but at the same time, what a bonehead move!

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It is too bad, as the show was a lot of fun and had heart. It is my fave family sitcom and my family and I loved it.
I read it actually won it's time slot every week and did really well in reruns for years on USA Network.
Total bonehead move that really screwed fans of the show.
ABC really should have tried to bring it back once they realized their mistake; however I am sure they would not have been able to get all of the cast back.

And...where are the DVD sets????

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Oh.

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Should ABC have kept Just the Ten of Us and cancelled its parent show, Growing Pains instead? By the time the '90s got underway, the show was running on fumes so to speak. I think it was around this time, that Kirk Cameron was becoming increasingly difficult to work with following his religious reawakening. And it wouldn't be too long afterward that the show had to work around Tracey Gold's real life eating disorder.

So you in effect, had an already aging show with a problematic and uncooperative star and another one who was dealing with life and death health issue. So why wasn't Growing Pains more expendable come 1990 than Just the Ten of Us?

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I was 15 to 17 during this shows run but I don't even remember it, I don't think I ever heard about it. Don't know why, I was watching some TV but not too little to not kind of keep up on things. But for what ever reason this slipped through the cracks for me. Would it be worth going back and watching now? I have been trying to go back to many TV shows I never watched back in the day.

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It was pretty good. Some episodes were better than others of course. Maybe you just didn't notice it at the time. I was only a little older than you during the show's run but I caught it due to watching Growing Pains, which it is a spinoff of.

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