SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1988-1989 Wednesdays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Wednesdays in the 1988-89 season!

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Growing Pains	Head of the Class	Wednesday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec			The Wonder Years	Hooperman	China Beach
Jan
Feb
Mar			Coach
Apr				The Robert Guillaume Show
May

ABC once again went with the two hour sitcom block on Wednesday nights but like so many fall plans, it got a late start due to the Writer's Strike. The 8pm hour started a little sooner and was a repeat of the end of the previous season. Perfect Strangers had been sent to Fridays while Tuesday hit Growing Pains moved to the lead off Wednesday slot and paired with Head of the Class. It continued to be a formidable pair in the 1988-89 season. A movie and some occasional specials occupied the rest of the night for a couple months but in December, the rest of the lineup premiered. The Wonder Years had been a breakout hit in its six episode Tuesday run the previous season on its way to an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy Award. However, it was maybe not quite ready to be in an anchor slot as it dipped a little bit in the ratings and was sent back to Tuesday. Its replacement was the new Coach. It's interesting that the Craig T. Nelson sitcom started its run in an anchor slot because it very rarely was in an anchor slot during its many years on air. It struggled in its first season but was renewed. There was no such luck for the 9:30pm occupants. The first one was season two of Hooperman. The critically acclaimed dramedy had been a bit of a reach renewal in its first season and things didn't go any better in year two. It was pulled from the lineup towards the end of the season and burned off in the summer. It was replaced with The Robert Guillaume Show. Guillaume had a long and acclaimed run on Benson that had ended in 1986, but his titular sitcom about a single father in an interracial relationship didn't go as well and lasted just 13 episodes that aired into the summer. The 10pm entry was China Beach, which had aired just a few episodes in late spring the previous season. It got most of the season in the Wednesday 10pm slot but continued to struggle in the ratings. However, ABC was extraordinarily patient with this critically acclaimed drama and gave it a third season. Star Dana Delany won the Emmy for Lead Drama Actress which helped reward ABC's commitment.

CBS	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Live! Dick Clark Presents		The Equalizer	Wiseguy
Oct	Various Programs
Nov	The Van Dyke Show	Annie McGuire
Dec
Jan	TV 101
Feb	Various Programs
Mar	Hard Time on Planet Earth		Jake and the Fatman
Apr
May

CBS was a mess in the 8pm hour on Wednesday night and the night struggled overall. I'll get to 8pm in a minute but first, the 9pm hour belonged to The Equalizer for much of the year before it moved to Thursday to make room for the return of Jake and the Fatman. Jake was the highest rated Wednesday show for CBS once it returned for its second season. There was stability the whole season at 10pm with season two of Wiseguy which continued to deliver so-so ratings but was stable in a tough slot. Now to 8pm. The beginning of the year was just filler with a Writer's Strike-forced variety show called Live! Dick Clark Presents. It ran only a couple weeks on Wednesday before running a couple more weeks on Saturdays. Various specials aired for a few weeks before CBS could launch their planned 8pm hour the last week of October. They had the grand plan to bring Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore back to TV. While the two icons didn't share the screen as they did on The Dick Van Dyke Show, they did share the 8pm hour with two new sitcoms. The Van Dyke Show starred Van Dyke and his real life son Barry as a father and son working at a small regional theater in Pennsylvania. The show also starred a young Maura Tierney. Annie McGuire starred Moore and Dennis Arndt as newlyweds with kids from previous marriages who were trying to balance their new marriage, their family and their busy careers. Both shows were bombs in the ratings and did not even make it to 1989. Van Dyke would go on to have a successful run on Diagnosis Murder but another successful series after The Mary Tyler Moore Show eluded Moore for the rest of her life. When the sitcom block was cancelled, CBS brought TV 101 over from Tuesday but it continued to be one of TV's lowest rated shows and was cancelled within a month. More specials aired in February until they tried one more show starting in March. Hard Time on Planet Earth was a sci-fi dramedy about an alien who had gotten in trouble and was sent to Earth to try to reform himself. The critically lambasted show made it to the end of the season in the 8pm slot but was then cancelled.

NBC	8:00	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Summer Olympics
Oct	Unsolved Mysteries	Various Programs
Nov		Night Court	Baby Boom	Tattinger’s
Dec
Jan			My Two Dads
Feb				Nightingales
Mar
Apr
May			Night Court	Quantum Leap

NBC looked to revamp Wednesdays entirely as none of their Wednesday shows from 1987-88 were back for the 1988-89 season. They found success in the 8pm hour by giving a permanent timeslot to Unsolved Mysteries. The show had bounced around the schedule the previous season with no real slot but once it landed at 8pm on Wednesdays, it became a Top 20 hit. At 9pm, they brought Night Court back to the night where it had aired in the 1986-87 season. Away from its comfy Thursday night home for good, it still managed to do pretty well even if it couldn't reach its Thursday heights. It did not prove to be a great lead-in show though. First it was paired with Baby Boom, a sitcom based on the popular 1987 Diane Keaton film. Replacing Keaton for the small screen was Kate Jackson and the show also starred Joy Behar. It got a one preview airing in September before actually launching in November. By January, it was off the schedule with plans for it to return but it never did until a burn-off in the Summer of 1989. It was replaced on Wednesdays with season two of My Two Dads, a show that struggled to find a wide audience. It was somewhat of an odd fit with Night Court but did get renewed for a third season. When its season ended, NBC opted to just air reruns of Night Court in May. The 10pm hour was a revolving door. First up was Tattinger's, a dramedy that starred Stephen Collins and Blythe Danner as a divorced couple running their Manhattan restaurant together. This show had a very unusual life as it aired as a one hour dramedy for a few months in the fall/winter and then returned in the spring as a half hour comedy called Nick & Hillary, which aired for just two episodes in April before the show was cancelled for good. Its Wednesday replacement was Nightingales, a medical drama starring Suzanne Pleshette as a supervisor of nurses. The drama started as a successful two hour movie that had aired the previous season but it was not able to translate that success to a weekly series. Late in the season, the new Quantum Leap moved over from Fridays and was the only 10pm occupant to get a renewal.

Top Rated Wednesday Show of 1988-89: Growing Pains (#12)
Lowest Rated Wednesday Show of 1988-89: TV 101 (#101)

What would I have watched on Wednesdays in 1988-89?
A lot actually. Definitely The Wonder Years, Coach and China Beach. I'm sure I would have supported two of my favorite TV stars by watching The Van Dyke Show and Annie McGuire. I would have sampled The Robert Guillaume Show, Tattinger's, Baby Boom and TV 101. And I might have been into Growing Pains, Head of the Class, Quantum Leap, Night Court and My Two Dads. Whew!

Tomorrow: Top 10 Fictional TV Towns!

Next Monday: A look at Thursdays in 1988-89!