One night I was listening to talk radio and they had Leslie Nielsen on the program. He went on to explain why there were only 6 shows. '
With TV shows like MASH you could go to the fridge to get a beer and as long as you heard what was going on you didn't miss anything. But with Police Squad, you HAD to watch the show, with the sight gags you missed a whole lot if you didn't see them. Who could forget "... the part of town known as "Little Italy"..." with the coliseum in the background.
Even the movies relied heavily on the sight gags, but then again being in the theater you were a captive audience.
Leslie also said the one reason the show, movies and other movies like Airplane were funny is because they didn't attempt to tell what was funny. It was up to the viewer to get the jokes.
Well that's just my 2 cents.
