SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1986-1987 Sundays

After this week, there will be a two week break on the blog for the holidays so the next Monday "Schedules from the Past" post will be on January 4. Here's a look at Sundays in the 1986-87 season!

ABC	7:00	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	The Disney Sunday Movie		Sunday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

In the previous season, ABC had taken over the Wonderful World of Disney franchise at midseason and rechristened it as The Disney Sunday Movie. For the whole 1986-87 season, they simply aired two movies. Their Sunday Night Movie was a distant third behind the CBS and NBC movies on the same night.

CBS	7:00	8:00	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	60 Minutes	Murder, She Wrote	Sunday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb			Designing Women	Nothing is Easy	Hard Copy
Mar			Sunday Night Movie
Apr
May

CBS had a stable Sunday lineup except for an odd stretch in February. For much of the season, the lineup remained the same hit lineup they had the previous spring with 60 Minutes, the Sunday Night Movie and TV's top show that did not air on Thursdays on NBC: Murder, She Wrote. The lineup was humming along but then CBS changed gears after carrying the Super Bowl at the end of January and went with a comedy block followed by a new drama. The comedy block included Designing Women, which had struggled on Mondays and Thursdays and Nothing is Easy, which had last been seen under the title Together We Stand in the fall. The show underwent a revamp including the departure of Elliott Gould and was relaunched. At 10pm was the show that got the post-Super Bowl slot. Although that wasn't as big a deal back then, it was still a launching pad. The drama, not to be confused with the more popular tabloid magazine show, was a sci-fi crime drama that lasted just five episodes in its slot before being yanked and burned off on Fridays in the summer. Meanwhile, Designing Women headed back to Mondays where its fortunes eventually improved and Nothing is Easy resurfaced briefly on Fridays before being cancelled. The movie was restored and the lineup continued on. I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind trying something different when it was working but they changed their mind back quickly.

NBC	7:00	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Our House	Easy Street	Valerie	Sunday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar		Rags to Riches
Apr
May

NBC went with a new plan from 7-9pm from the previous season. First up was Our House, a family drama about three generations living together in the same house. Featuring Wilford Brimley and a young Shannon Doherty among others, the show was in the family friendly timeslot of 7pm for the whole season. It received modest ratings in a tough slot and was renewed for a second season. A comedy block aired at 8pm with the new Easy Street leading things off. The comedy marked Loni Anderson's return to TV as a retired showgirl who ended up dealing with her sugar daddy's family after he passed away. It was followed by the second season of Valerie, which had been a successful midseason launch the previous season. The comedy block struggled and was abandoned in February with Valerie returning to its old night on Mondays and Easy Street heading to Tuesdays and then Wednesdays. It was replaced by another family drama. Rags to Riches was set in the early 1960s and about a millionaire who adopts five orphan girls including a young Tisha Campbell. The show also featured the girls performing songs from the era with modified lyrics for the episode. Just like Our House, the show received modest ratings but did get renewed for a second season.

FOX	7:00	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30
Sep	No FOX Programming
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr	21 Jump Street	Married… With Children	The Tracey Ullman Show	Various Programs	Duet
May			Duet	Mr. President	The Tracey Ullman Show

FOX burst onto the scene in primetime April 1987 with just one night of programming. There had been just three major broadcast networks since the demise of DuMont in the mid 1950s until Rupert Murdoch had a soft launch for FOX in the Fall of 1986 with Joan Rivers' ill-fated late night talk show. Their "grand opening" though was when they expanded into primetime and the very first show they aired turned out to be one of their most iconic shows ever and still their longest running live action sitcom. Married... with Children was a rude, loud family sitcom that was nothing like The Cosby Show but helped FOX announce itself on the scene with a promise to air some edgier programming. You can't ask for a better performance from a show to launch a network. Though the Ed O'Neill/Katey Sagal comedy never won over critics, it certainly had a large number of fans and was critical to putting FOX on the map. The only other show that premiered the first night was The Tracey Ullman Show, a sketch comedy series that is best known now for being the origin of The Simpsons. In fact, the first animated short involving the iconic family happened in the third episode of Tracey Ullman. Other shows joined the lineup in the following weeks. FOX's first drama was 21 Jump Street starring a young Johnny Depp. It obviously has had staying power as it became a film franchise and early on was one of their strongest performers. The last two shows are less remembered: Duet and Mr. President. Duet was about the intertwined life of two very different couples while Mr. President starred George C. Scott as a newly elected US President and Madeline Kahn as his wife. Both shows ran a couple years but didn't make as much of a dent in the zeitgeist as the others. FOX added Saturday nights to their roster starting in July with four new shows: Werewolf, The New Adventures of Beans Baxter and their first two cancellations: Karen's Song and Down and Out in Beverly Hills. It's worth noting than even the spring shows premiered too late to be counted in the weekly ratings but FOX was still just finding its way so its ratings were low for awhile.

Top Rated Sunday Show in 1986-87: Murder, She Wrote (#4)
Lowest Rated Sunday Show in 1986-87: Nothing is Easy (#66)
(Please note FOX shows were not included in the ratings)

What would I have watched on Sundays in 1986-87?
Both Our House and Rags to Riches sound interesting to me. I would have watched Valerie too most likely and the short time Designing Women was on the night. I would have probably sampled Mr. President.

Tomorrow: Top 10 Christmas Drama Episodes

Monday in 3 Weeks: A look at Mondays in 1987-88!