ITV axe sitcoms

As with Rainbow it survived the franchise change due to Thames Childrens Department morphing into Tetra FIlms. I have a feeling Mike & Angelo's demise was partly due to the folding of Tetra in 2000.

Mike and Angelo was dire by the end. It changed three Mike's already. Plus the budget cuts were on there way.

It was also usurped by My Parents Are Aliens.

Rainbow didn't really survive the franchise change as such, the original show ended, then it came back a couple of years later with a different format, pretty much as good as being a different show.

Actually it was only off air for a year before it returned. Extensively retooled yes, but still Rainbow and still produced by the former Thames kids dept.

It was awful though, and bore no resemblance to the show the kids knew and loved.

Oh it was beyond dreadful. One of those shows you wonder how it got to air.

Wikipedia says the final original Rainbow went out in March 1992, and the first new one in January 1994, so nearly 2 years. I imagine repeats were shown in the interim though.

I imagine the retooling wouldn't have happened without the franchise change.

Put it simply, ITV are sh*t at comedy programmes and their line up is full of the same shows that have been on for god knows how long.

Rainbow was shown until Christmas 1992 in its original form when (I think) Tots TV took over its lunchtime slot in January 1993.

As far as I know there was no more editions of the original Rainbow aired until its new format was aired in January 1994 with Geoffrey axed. No singing from Rod, Jane and Freddy. A new puppet called Cleo was introduced. Zippy, George and Bungle had a makeover with Zippy and George now gaining an arm each.

Rod, Jane and Freddy had left the Thames version of Rainbow a few years before it ended and were not replaced.

That is putting it very simply. Far too simply.