Zenith's slide into oblivion didn't begin until after the death of MacDonald, in 1958.

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Then Los Angeles Times staff writer Martin Miller wrote about the upcoming show, "Back to You, " a multi-camera sitcom created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, and cautioned that the format could slowly sink into oblivion if the networks didn't see results.

CNN: Multi-camera sitcoms dominate in ratings

With "Oblivion, " Universal made the increasingly rare move in Hollywood of producing a costly movie that isn't a sequel or based on a well known comic book, novel or videogame.

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