Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

Well, first of all, that was due to absolute blind dumb luck; nobody on either side had any idea how the revenue from TV rights was going to explode.

Second, while obviously in the long run over a span of decades it turned out to be a bonanza, in the immediate objective of building a viable basketball franchise, it was an absolute failure.

This whole deal has always been cloaked in such smoke and haze, who knows, but I've been led to believe over the years that there was some kind of codicil or provision in the settlement with the Silnas that, as long as the agreement remained in effect, no other NBA franchise could be granted in the St. Louis metro market unless the Silnas had first opportunity to buy a substantial (maybe controlling) share.
Which would seem to explain why there's been no serious talk about moving a franchise there in 46-48 years. Of course there are plenty of other good reasons why no NBA franchise might move to St. Louis -- starting with arena access and potential conflicts with the Blues -- but it seems strange there's hardly even been any talk about it.
I believe the Silna settlement was finally closed within the last several years, so maybe that's no longer true (if it ever really was).

 

Good points.
Bill Laurie thought he had a deal to purchase the Grizzlies and move them from Vancouver to STL. He owned both the Blues and the building. Don't remember the particulars anymore but shortly thereafter, Michael Heisley bought the Grizz and was allowed to move.

 

Yeah, I kinda vaguely remember that talk about the Grizzlies maybe moving to St Louis, but I think that's been the only eve srmi/serious rumor of an NBA team going there since the 1970d.

 

Finally got caught up. Sad to see it go. Really enjoyable two seasons.

Last one really didn’t feel like a finale. At least they got to tack on a wrap-up ending, but clearly wasn’t intended to be the end.

So much ground to cover yet. Would’ve loved to see the 1985 season. Then 87-88. The Pistons and the rise of Jordan. And the HIV announcement.

Bummer.

 

Question: did the strikes in Hollywood cause an early demise of this series?

 

Probably had a hand in the low ratings since the cast couldn’t be out promoting the show on late night and other talk shows.

 

You can probably read it that way somewhat - they were hurt because none of the actors were doing publicity for it. But, the environment also meant that they didn't have nearly as much to go up against, since most of the networks have shuffled their schedules and stretched out shows to try to cover up the lag. Like, SUITS was a god damn summer hit this year. S3 of Winning Time was probably never going to happen unless S2 was a much bigger hit than S1, since it seems like a very expensive show to make with the names attached. (A smaller scale version of this would be the Hulu sitcom Reboot, which most people liked but didn't love, but had to be expensive because it was made by an XP of Modern Family, and stared Paul Reiser, Rachel Bloom, Judy Greer and a bunch of other people you've probably heard of.)

 

As a college DJ with an “80s show” (rare in 1992), that irked me as well. But, otherwise you could only go with “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang — which played at Busch in ‘82 after Game 7. Perhaps they couldn’t get the rights.

 

The audience ceiling for this show just wasn’t high enough. Those of us who love sports already have our reality show: live sports.

The diehard audience is dudes 40 to 60. After watching NFL, college football and whatever porn we don’t admit to watching, we don’t have a lot of free hours of viewing left.

One unexpected fan was my best friend. Successful guy but doesn’t know that era past Bird and Magic. Didn’t know the 76ers were good. Never heard of Moses Malone.

He LOVED the show.

But his wife didn’t. And his wife is one the coolest humans I know. She has a working knowledge and enjoyment of stuff guys like.

Not enough couples were on board.

 

If you're spending a lot of time watching porn, you're doing it wrong.

 

More than 8 seconds or less than 8 seconds?

 

Most popular show on WVUA in Tuscaloosa when I was there was “Reagan Rock” every Sunday night.