One show that I found it interesting is absent from the list I provided above is Gilligan's Island. It only ran three seasons:
- #18 (tied with the Munsters) in 64/5
- #22 in 65/6
- Outside the top-30 in 66/7
Gilligan's Island was wildly successful in syndication and, IMHO, is MUCH better remembered than a lot of the shows that crushed it in the ratings race during it's original run.
This is a great example of what happens with top athletes. On the one hand, you have some that barely make their HOF when they're no better or worse than those who barely miss their HOF. Most HOFers stay famous while the ones who don't tend to gradually disappear to time.
But even within the HOF players, some are continually held above and get mentioned and others fall by the wayside.
In the NBA, any one of us could rattle off 20 all-time greats, even if we're not major basketball fans. Our 20 would include extra players from our sweet-spot, age-wise. But I bet our lists would have the same 16-17 players and would omit the same 5-6 players who had equal careers of those we all mentioned.
Guys like George Gervin, Moses Malone, etc.
You can do it for any sport.
Tris Speaker, Al Kaline, Tim Keefe, etc in baseball.
I think the NFL does the best avoiding this. But I think in 30-40 years, because of guys like LT, Reggie White, and Bruce Smith, players like Rickey Jackson or Chris Doleman will become anonymous.
The 25th-ranked player all-time in value is Carl Eller. Never heard of him before in my life. Don't recall any deep voice saying his name on NFL Films. So they exist, just fewer of them imo.
College football has it built-in with mid-major teams' players.
