Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dartvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!dartvax!betsy From: betsy@dartvax.UUCP (Betsy Hanes Perry) Newsgroups: net.tv Subject: Why Remington Steele went Downhill Message-ID: <2453@dartvax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 5-Oct-84 15:48:35 EDT Article-I.D.: dartvax.2453 Posted: Fri Oct 5 15:48:35 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 6-Oct-84 06:48:34 EDT Organization: Dartmouth College Lines: 23 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