MovieChat Forums > The Beatles Anthology (1995) Discussion > I thought this was a bigger hit on TV

I thought this was a bigger hit on TV


Not that it did horrible, but i remember it being much more of an event then it was...

Beatlemania, such as it was, faded quickly on TV last week. While the opening installment of ABC's three-part "Beatles Anthology" attracted about 27.3 million viewers nationwide, Part 2 dropped to 21.7 million and Part 3 to 18.3 million. The latter, on Thanksgiving, was outdrawn by repeats of "Home Alone" and "ER" on NBC.


http://articles.latimes.com/1995-11-29/entertainment/ca-8209_1_beatles -anthology

The show may have been hyped like the Second Coming, but ratings for ABC's three-part "The Beatles Anthology" suggest a large part of America greeted the Fab Four's return with a shrug.

Not that ABC should have expected much better, media-watchers suggest. After all, millions of people watched six hours of biographical material about a band that hasn't put out a record in 25 years, about four mop-tops with museum-piece hairdos, about music much of today's youth see as far removed from modern rock as Gilbert and Sullivan is from Little Richard.

"I have talked to any number of people, in particular young people, who didn't connect to it," says Neil Alperstein, who teaches media and popular culture at Loyola College. "A second Beatles generation? I don't think that it holds the same meaning for them. Anybody who anticipated [that vast numbers of young viewers would tune in] I think was barking up the wrong tree."

Adds Shirley Peroutka, a communications studies teacher at Goucher College, "I haven't heard zip from my students about it. I think for them it was a nonevent."

Sure, the show did OK, but it was far from the TV event of anyone's lifetime. Part 1 (which aired Nov. 19), with an estimated 17 million households watching, came in sixth for the week; it lagged behind NBC's entire Thursday night lineup, according to the Nielsen ratings.

Part 2, for which viewers had to wait three days, placed 13th the next week, with 12.9 million households.

"The broadcast schedule was extremely eccentric," said rock critic Dave Marsh, a fan of the series, whose cover story in TV Guide included interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. "You have to wait two nights for Part 2, and you put [Part 3] up against one of the biggest family social evenings in the year. I'd have scheduled it different."

Way behind 'Home'

Part 3, airing Thanksgiving, settled in at 36th place -- 26 places and 3.5 million households behind a repeat of "Home Alone," which aired against it on NBC. Part 3 also placed third in the week's Battle of the Brits, behind both Part 2 and ABC's broadcast of Princess Diana's BBC interview, which ranked 16th.

(Since the Nielsens measure households, it's hard to say how many people actually watched. ABC estimates 20 million viewers watched the anthology's entire six hours.)


http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-12-03/news/1995337214_1_beatles- anthology-part-2

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LOL I remember how I personally became obsessed with the Beatles after viewing the Anthology back in 1995, but then again I was only 20 years old at the time and found the young versions of them to be hilarious and inspiring. Then I discovered the internet & other British bands at the time, in the mid-late 1990s...and my obsession became something else over the next while. lol

Still though, based on TV viewing habits of today (nearly 21 years later) I'm not entirely surprised that viewership waned after awhile...especially if you take into consideration that ABC split the entire documentary into only 3 segments of 2+ hrs each?! (No wonder watching the entire Beatles Anthology seemed like such a monumental feat back in the day. lol)

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Those viewing figures seem quite respectable for a documentary series about a band that split up 25 years earlier. i am not sure what they were expecting.

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I didn't see it when it originally aired, but I would have thought it would have been a bigger event. I know I was always glad that in alternative music culture of the mid-90's, when it aired, the Beatles were highly regarded, respected and often cited by artists who were trying to push guitar/melody based music forward, like Black Francis with the Pixies (described as a psychotic Beatles) or Kurt Cobain referencing John Lennon as an idol. I miss good melodies in music, too much only bass and beats.

Comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable

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