‘Coach’ Wins Cheers For Continually Solid Play

Translated into sports parlance, “Coach” has been what its creator calls “the classic sixth man,” a role player capable of producing results wherever it’s been asked to go.

The ABC series has spent its career in the shadow of TV superstars such as “Roseanne” and “Home Improvement.” Small wonder, then, that those involved with the sitcom find themselves in the spotlight only now, as the show concludes its nine-year run on Wednesday.

Even after 200 episodes, the cast and producers generally accept the program’s status as a second-stringer. Still, they also point out proudly that “Coach” kept finding viewers despite being bounced around ABC’s schedule, landing in new time periods on at least 15 occasions.

“When you put a show on five different nights in however many time slots, you’re really demanding a lot from an audience,” said Barry Kemp, who created the series, in which Craig T. Nelson stars as football coach Hayden Fox.

“Coach” is what TV pundits generally refer to as a satellite (or, less charitably, scavenger) show - one that feeds off the program preceding it. Asked to play without riding the coattails of “Roseanne” or “Home Improvement,” “Coach” often faltered. Placed behind an established hit, the show invariably retained a high percentage of those viewers.

“Each year I figured was our last,” said Jerry Van Dyke, a four-time Emmy nominee as Fox’s addle-brained assistant coach, Luther. “We were never really a hit. … We were always kind of a cleanup show; you put us behind ‘Roseanne,’ and we cleaned up OK. We didn’t know from year to year if we were going to be picked up the next year.”

This season has demonstrated the program’s roller-coaster ride. ABC initially scheduled the show on Saturday night, and results were poor. “Coach” then spent some time on the bench before returning between “Grace Under Fire” and “The Drew Carey Show,” immediately improving ABC’s performance.