SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1989-1990 Wednesdays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Wednesdays in the 1989-90 season!

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Growing Pains	Head of the Class	Doogie Howser M.D.	Anything But Love	China Beach
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr				The Marshall Chronicles	Equal Justice
May				Brewster Place

ABC continued with a sitcom block on Wednesday nights that had some strong shows but was clearly not as powerful as their Tuesday night comedy lineup. Growing Pains and Head of the Class continued to lead things off in the 8pm. They were one of those pairings that worked well together but wasn't a breakout success. At the end of the season, Head of the Class star Howard Hesseman decided to leave the series but the show still was renewed for 1990-91. At 9pm was the new Doogie Howser M.D. starring a young Neil Patrick Harris as a teen doctor. Of course this was the show that launched Harris into stardom even if it was tough for him to break away from the role for awhile. It did pretty well in the ratings and had its share of critical support but it was quite a different style from the comedies that led into it. While the first three shows were all kid friendly to one degree or another, Anything But Love followed at 9:30pm and seemed like an odd fit on the night. The show had a very strong but short run in the Spring of 1989 when it followed Roseanne, but it struggled more on this night as the lowest rated comedy in the block by quite a bit. It ended its season early to make room for The Marshall Chronicles, a show that seemed on paper to be a good fit with Doogie Howser M.D. It was about a young high school kid named Marshall played by Johnny Beckett who frequently broke the fourth wall to talk to the camera. It lasted only five episodes before it was cancelled. One more show came in the 9:30pm slot at the very very end of the season. Brewster Place was based on a 1989 miniseries and starred talk show host Oprah Winfrey as a former beautician now running a restaurant in Chicago. Despite Winfrey's huge success as a talk show host, this show lasted just two months before being cancelled. The 10pm slot first belonged to China Beach, which had occupied it for much of 1988-89. The drama continued to be critically adored but viewer challenged. It headed to Mondays late in the season and was replaced by Equal Justice, a legal drama set in Pittsburgh and featuring Jane Kaczmarek Jon Tenney, Joe Morton and a young Sarah Jessica Parker among many others. Although it also struggled in the ratings like China Beach, it was renewed for a second season.

CBS	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Peaceable Kingdom		Jake and the Fatman	Wiseguy
Oct
Nov
Dec	Beauty and the Beast
Jan
Feb	Grand Slam
Mar	Normal Life	Sydney
Apr	Sydney	Normal Life
May		Various Programs		Various Programs

Similar to the 1988-89 season, CBS had a big problem in the 8pm hour on Wednesday nights. The 9pm and 10pm hours were steady with Jake and the Fatman at 9pm and Wiseguy at 10pm. Both crime dramas were modestly rated by compatible and the least of CBS's troubles on the night. Speaking of those troubles, the first show in the revolving 8pm door was A Peaceable Kingdom, a drama about a recent widow who took over as Managing Director of the Los Angeles County Zoo. The show could not find an audience and was cancelled after just seven episodes. It was replaced by the third season of Beauty and the Beast, which had been held off the fall schedule. The show had been a critical darling early on but it never found a mass audience and had fizzled very quickly. Adding to the difficulty for the show was star Linda Hamilton was pregnant and decided to leave the series. Hard to do a show called Beauty and the Beast when the "Beauty" is no longer a character. The series plummeted in the ratings and was pulled off the schedule after less than two months, ending its three season run with summer burnoff episodes. The next series was the new Grand Slam which got the coveted post-Super Bowl slot. Coming one year after a very successful post-Super Bowl launch with The Wonder Years on ABC, I'm sure there were high expectations for Grand Slam, an action drama about two San Diego bounty hunters. But it was no Wonder Years and lasted no longer in the 8pm Wednesday slot than the first two dramas to occupy the slot in the season, making it pretty high on the list of Super Bowl lead-out flops. After three straight drama attempts, CBS ended the season with a comedy hour at 8pm. Normal Life was a family sitcom featuring Frank Zappa's real life children with Max Gail and Cindy Williams as their on screen parents. Sydney marked Valerie Bertinelli's return to TV after One Day at a Time. The series, which also starred Craig Bierko, Daniel Baldwin and a young Matthew Perry featured Bertinelli as a woman bringing her NYC Detective Agency back to her hometown. CBS swapped Normal Life and Sydney pretty early in their runs but it didn't matter much. Neither sitcom saw a second season. It was back to the drawing board again for CBS at 8pm.

NBC	8:00	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Unsolved Mysteries	Night Court	The Nutt House	Quantum Leap
Oct
Nov			My Two Dads
Dec
Jan			Dear John
Feb
Mar
Apr			FM
May			Dear John

NBC's Wednesday lineup was stable for all of 1989-90 except for one slot: 9:30pm, where four comedies rotated in the lineup through the season. At 8pm was Unsolved Mysteries, which had caught on with viewers and shot all the way up to #11 in the ratings. It was followed by Night Court, which had become a reliable Wednesday anchor in its second full season on Wednesdays. At 10pm was the second season of Quantum Leap, which had a loyal audience but struggled to find a mass audience. It was still an easy renewal for a third season. Now on to the troubled 9:30pm slot. First up was The Nutt House, a broad farce set at a once proud New York City hotel and starring Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman (in a dual role). Counting Mel Brooks among its creators, the show seemed like it could be a fit with Night Court, which also had farce elements. But it was just too far outside the box for a 1989 audience and was gone before November Sweeps. It was replaced by My Two Dads which had been airing on Sundays. It aired for a couple months on Wednesdays and then moved to Mondays. The January replacement stuck more. Like its lead-in Night Court, Dear John was moving to the night after airing in the cushy Thursday 9:30pm slot. Unlike Night Court, John did not get to air as long on Thursdays as it had been in its slot for just a season and a half. Still, it made a decent transition to Wednesdays nights as a continued lead-out. It certainly was not strong enough to be an anchor show. Dear John aired for much of the rest of the season but was briefly replaced by FM, a radio station-set sitcom that had aired late in the Summer of 1989. It was not really a renewal when it appeared at midseason but more a continuation of its first season from the summer. It lasted only a few weeks on Wednesdays before being pulled and finishing off its run in a 10:30pm Saturday slot in the summer.

Top Rated Wednesday Show of 1989-90: Unsolved Mysteries (#11)
Lowest Rated Wednesday Show of 1989-90: Peaceable Kingdom (#77)

What would I have watched on Wednesdays in 1989-90?
Most likely Growing Pains, Head of the Class and Doogie Howser M.D.. Surely China Beach. I probably would have sampled the other ABC shows too. Not much on CBS but I would have tried the new shows. Likely My Two Dads and Quantum Leap on NBC.

Tomorrow: Top 10 Shows That Exemplify New York City!

Next Monday: A look at Thursdays in the 1989-90 season!