Early seasons Like most American sitcoms in the 1980s, the series sometimes dealt with
moral conflicts, but not in a heavy-handed fashion. In the
very special episode "Bad Timing", which first aired February 7, 1987, David and a former girlfriend debate whether to
have sex. The episode featured the first use of the word
condom on a
prime time television program. After a modest start in the ratings that was countered by critical success,
Valerie had begun to show growth in the
Nielsens by the end of the 1986–87 season. Its most significant ratings jump occurred after its moving to Mondays at 8:30/7:30c in March 1987, following
ALF. NBC renewed the series for a third season in May. In light of the show's success, Harper and her husband, Tony Cacciotti, approached their producers and NBC about per-episode salary increases and a larger cut of future syndication revenue. When all of the couple's requests were refused, Harper and Cacciotti walked out on
Valerie. Harper had history in this situation, as she staged a walkout in 1975 following the first season of her hit series
Rhoda (and its parent series,
The Mary Tyler Moore Show) which successfully resulted in a pay increase.
Network switch In 1990, after spending three of the last four years on Monday nights at 8:30/7:30 (having been on Sundays before that), NBC opted not to respond to an agreement made with Lorimar insisting that the network had to exercise renewal options on the series before April 1. Despite the series still sporting decent
ratings, NBC stated that it chose not to renew
The Hogan Family "because of the strength of our current development." The show was then picked up by
CBS for the sixth and final season. Ratings for this CBS season were poor; the series was cancelled in December 1990, after 13 episodes of season 6 were produced (only 9 of which had aired). The final four episodes (including a Christmas episode) were shown by CBS months later, in July 1991. ==Production==