SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1985-1986 Sundays

Here's a look at Sundays in the 1985-86 season!

ABC	7:00	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	Ripley’s Believe It or Not	MacGyver	Sunday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan		Various Programs
Feb	The Disney Sunday Movie
Mar
Apr
May

ABC started the season off with a little bit of a mashed together lineup. At 7pm was the unscripted series Ripley's Believe It or Not in its fourth season. It was exactly the kind of show you see in this kind of timeslot but had lost all momentum and was one of TV's lowest rated shows. It was followed by new action drama MacGyver. Though it has become an iconic series now, it was a slow starter in its first season. After the holidays, it moved to Wednesdays before finding a more permanent home on Mondays in season two. Various shows filled the timeslot until early February when the first half of the night was scrapped for The Disney Sunday Movie. This was part of the long running Wonderful World of Disney, but with a new name. It had last been seen on CBS in 1983 when it went off the air after almost thirty years. The movie was hosted by the new (at the time) Disney CEO Michael Eisner. All through the season, a movie aired at 9pm but did not do as well in the ratings as the CBS and NBC movies.

CBS	7:00	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	60 Minutes	Murder, She Wrote	Crazy Like a Fox	Trapper John M.D.
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan			Sunday Night Movie
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

Movies were a staple of Sunday night programming for decades on ABC and NBC but CBS had never gotten in on the action and always went with regular series. In the Fall of 1985 though, the second half of the night was having some trouble. The first half of the night was strong though. 60 Minutes had been on the air since 1968 and airing on Sundays at 7pm since 1975 (and still airs today). It has been a staple of TV for decades and was one of TV's top rated shows in 1985-86 at #4. However, the show that followed it was rated even higher, at #3. Murder, She Wrote had been a breakout hit in season one. The Angela Lansbury drama was both critically acclaimed and wildly popular with fans. Its huge ratings made the 9pm & 10pm slots even more glaring problems. At 9pm was Crazy Like a Fox, a third season detective show that had done quite well in the ratings early on but was showing some signs of problems in season three. It was followed by the long running drama Trapper John M.D., a distant spinoff of M*A*S*H. It had also been a hit for awhile but was showing its age in season seven and had lost a couple key cast members with another cast member, Gregory Harrison, out the door at midseason. CBS decided to get in the Sunday movie game and sent the two dramas to other nights where they were unceremoniously cancelled at the end of the season. The switch to the movie was a good call for CBS as it quickly became the highest rated of the three network movies and made CBS strong from top to bottom on Sunday nights.

NBC	7:00	7:30	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Punky Brewster	Silver Spoons	Amazing Stories	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Sunday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr		Fathers and Sons
May	Silver Spoons

NBC was pretty aggressive with their schedule in the two hours leading up to their movie. The 7pm hour was a pair of kid friendly sitcoms that had shared the hour (in reverse order) the previous season. Punky Brewster and Silver Spoons were both modestly rated in a tough hour. Both were cancelled only to be resurrected by syndication. Punky aired for two years in syndication while Silver aired for just one, but they both also had a decent afterlife in reruns. Towards the end of the season, another family sitcom called Fathers and Sons about a father and baseball coach aired at 7:30pm. It lasted just four episodes. The tone switched gears at 8pm where they went with two anthology dramas. Amazing Stories was from Steven Spielberg. It received lots of acclaim but struggled to find a mass audience. Alfred Hitchcock Presents was a revival of the popular series from the 1950s. Although Hitchcock had died in 1980, the series used colorized footage of him to still introduce each episode. Similar the CBS revival of The Twilight Zone, some were remakes of older episodes while some where new. Both the anthology dramas were renewed despite middling ratings. The movie was higher rated than ABC's but lower than CBS's.

Top Rated Sunday Show in 1985-86: Murder, She Wrote (#3)
Lowest Rated Sunday Show in 1985-86: Ripley's Believe It or Not (#79)

What would I have watched on Sundays in 1985-86?
Probably Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Maybe Murder She Wrote or Amazing Stories sometimes.

Tomorrow: Top 10 Halloween/Haunted Episodes (Pre-1995)

Next Monday: Mondays in 1986-87!