Then there’s the weird middle period, where you have to wonder why Gary Coleman popped up on Silver Spoons, because that show and Diff’rent Strokes probably had exactly the same audience. The Venn Diagram of their viewership was just one big circle. That one’s always going to be a headscratcher.
The cheese factor really comes into play with NBC’s various “Must See TV” crossovers. Those things were hard to watch. They were ridiculously awkward, with stories just grinding to a halt so that Chandler could talk to Lea Thompson for a scene. When a crossover is network-mandated, it’s going to suck — the writers don’t want to do it, the actors don’t want to do it. It’s just drudgery. Try watching the Friends segment of any crossover, and you’ll see the outright contempt for the lesser-rated shows foisted upon them.
