The series' premiere was billed as a 90-minute "movie-length" episode on 24 January 1983, with another two-hour episode in the same timeslot the following night, before settling into its twice-weekly 60-minute format the following week. "Carson's Law" was noted for its quality scripts and period production values. Despite being popular in Melbourne, where the series was based and filmed, it did not succeed in Sydney. Attempts to revamp the series to make it appeal more to Sydney audiences eventually alienated the programme's core audience, and it was cancelled in 1984 after 184 episodes. The final episode aired on ATV-10 on 1 December 1984; after being shuffled around the TEN-10 schedule, then reduced to one episode per week, then pushed back from 8:30pm to 9:30pm and, finally, to the even later 10:40pm slot, the final episode eventually aired in Sydney on 18 April 1985. "Carson's Law" was bought by several members of the UK ITV network. TVS aired edited half-hour episodes on Thursdays and Fridays at 3.30pm in 1987 and 1988. At the same time, Yorkshire Television showed a considerable number of episodes on Thursdays at 1.30pm between 1984 and 1988 while Television South West screened a slightly lower number in their 6.35pm slot on Tuesdays during 1984.