SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1987-1988 Thursdays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Thursdays in the 1987-88 season!

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Sledge Hammer!	The Charmings	Thursday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan	The Charmings	Thursday Night Movie
Feb
Mar	Probe		Hotel	Buck James
Apr
May	Max Headroom

ABC's Thursday nights were a place for most of their lowest rated shows throughout an ever changing night. 20/20 had left the night for Fridays after many years and they had a hard time filling that void. The night started out with a comedy hour followed by a movie. The comedy hour featured two second year sitcoms that barely eked out a renewal going against NBC's comedy power hour. Sledge Hammer! and The Charmings collapsed in the 8pm hour and both were cancelled with The Charmings moving up half an hour to 8pm and Sledge Hammer! heading to Fridays before they were gone for good. While both were satires of sorts, they were also not a very compatible pairing. In March, ABC went with a new lineup of dramas. First up was the new Probe, a sci-fi drama about a genius whole solved crimes. It couldn't get any traction in a difficult slot and was cancelled after eight episodes. 9pm & 10pm were occupied by two shows that had been struggling on Saturdays: veteran Hotel and freshman Buck James. Both were cancelled at the end of the season with Hotel ending after five seasons and 114 episodes. It had spent most of its run behind Dynasty but was already starting to struggle and then collapsed without it. Buck James was cancelled after 19 episodes. It was back to the drawing board for ABC on Thursday nights with none of the shows living to see the 1988-89 season.

CBS	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	Tour of Duty	Wiseguy	Knots Landing
Oct
Nov
Dec		Simon & Simon
Jan
Feb
Mar	48 Hours
Apr
May

CBS was not setting the world on fire with their Thursday night ratings like NBC was, but they also weren't a complete disaster like ABC. They started things off with a new drama. Tour of Duty was a military drama set during the Vietnam War, much like ABC's late season entry China Beach. The drama was not as critically beloved as China, but it still had some support. It received modest ratings and was eventually sent to Saturdays but it did get renewed for a second season. It was replaced on Thursdays by 48 Hours. The new newsmagazine had premiered on Tuesdays and ran for a few weeks but found a more permanent spot on Thursdays though it struggled early on in its run. 9pm was also given to a new drama initially as CBS tried to inject some new blood on the night. Wiseguy was a crime drama from crime drama extraordinaire Stephen J. Cannell that starred Ken Wahl as a deep cover operative for the FBI. It was notable at the time for having long story arcs spread across multiple episodes. Wiseguy was pulled from Thursdays in November and resurfaced on Mondays in January. Like Tour of Duty, the move to another night proved to work as it also got renewed. It was replaced on Thursdays by the seventh season of Simon & Simon. Once a big success for the network, the show was now relegated as a midseason backup but it still managed to get renewed, perhaps in part due to the Writer's Strike. While there were changes at 8pm and 9pm, there was no change at 10pm where Knots Landing aired the entire season. The primetime soap, now in its ninth year, was not at its peak but still easily the best performer for CBS on the night.

NBC	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	The Cosby Show	A Different World	Cheers	Night Court	L.A. Law
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar				The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
Apr
May				Night Court

It was no surprise that NBC ruled the night on Thursdays as they had for several years now. The first three shows on the night were TV's Top 3 shows for the year even with a new entry. The Cosby Show and Cheers were as strong as ever as the 8pm and 9pm anchors. Cheers was dealing with a major but ultimately successful change as Shelley Long had famously departed the cast after five years and was replaced by Kirstie Alley. Many thought the change would be the beginning of the end of Cheers but it made it through the cast change with no major change in the ratings. Family Ties was off the night though and the new entry was a spinoff of The Cosby Show, A Different World. The show featured Cosby's on-screen daughter Denise (Lisa Bonet) attending the historically black Hillman College. Though the show was a massive hit in its first year, the first year is not really the show that people remember. After season one, the show was already planning on being retooled which was made easier by Bonet's pregnancy and return to The Cosby Show, but more on that in the 1988-89 post. A Different World was easily the biggest new hit of the 1987-88 season with the next closest new show coming in at #10 (The Wonder Years). The 9:30pm slot originally belonged to usual occupant Night Court, but was replaced in March by season two of The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. The show had aired in the Summer of 1987 to critical acclaim and starred Blair Brown as a divorced woman living in New York City. While critically acclaimed, the show was a very different fit tonally with the other sitcoms and struggled mightily with retaining its lead-in audience. It was cancelled by NBC and Night Court briefly returned to the night but Molly Dodd was renewed by Lifetime, then a very young cable network, and ran for three more seasons. 10pm belonged to L.A. Law, which had moved to Thursdays early in its first season and was a critical darling.

Top Rated Thursday Show in 1987-88: The Cosby Show (#1)
Lowest Rated Thursday Show in 1987-88: Max Headroom (#101)

What would I have watched on Thursdays in 1987-88?
The Cosby Show and Cheers for sure. Probably A Different World and L.A. Law too. Maybe The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and Night Court. I don't think I would have checked out the other two networks.

Tomorrow: Top 10 Theme Songs of the 80s!

Next Monday: A look at Fridays in 1987-1988!