SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1989-1990 Sundays

This is the final regular week on my blog for the "season." I will return with my Benjamonster Awards in July and then be back to the regular rotation of posts including Schedules of the Past in September. In the meantime, here's a look at Sundays in the 1989-90 season!

ABC	7:00	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Life Goes On	Free Spirit	Homeroom	Sunday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan		America’s Funniest Home Videos	Various Programs
Feb			Elvis
Mar
Apr			Various Programs
May

For the Fall of 1989, ABC kept their Sunday Night Movie but completely revamped the first two hours of the night with three new shows. At 7pm was Life Goes On, a family drama starring Bill Smitrovich, Patti LuPone and Kellie Martin. The series was notable for featuring an actor with Down Syndrome (Chris Burke) playing a character with Down Syndrome. The series received critical acclaim and while the ratings weren't amazing, it did pretty well for the difficult Sunday 7pm slot and was an easy renewal for season two. At 8pm was a comedy block with two new comedies. Free Spirit was a fantasy sitcom about a witch who moves in with a divorced father of three. The series, which featured a young Alyson Hannigan, was critically trashed and cancelled in January. At 8:30pm was Homeroom, a sitcom about a fourth grade teacher in an inner city school. Although the series received better reviews than Free Spirit, it was also gone in January. While ABC's comedy hour didn't work in the fall, they struck gold in January with the launch of America's Funniest Home Videos. After airing as a special in November 1989, the Bob Saget hosted series became a weekly series in January. While it's known now as a sort of average performing staple, it was a breakout hit in 1990 and vaulted into the Top 5 in the ratings. In February, ABC had a very different show leading out of their breakout hit. Elvis was a dramedy about the young years of Elvis Presley starring Michael St. Gerard, who had made a career out of Elvis impressions. It didn't even last two months on the night before it was yanked in favor of various shows and specials airing in the slot for the rest of the season.

CBS	7:00	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	60 Minutes	Murder, She Wrote	Sunday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

CBS kept things the same on Sunday nights for a third consecutive season and the lineup continued to be a success although Murder, She Wrote fell out of the Top 10 for the first time in its run. Star Angela Lansbury was always on the edge of wanting to retire and only appeared in 13 out of 22 episodes as the producers tried to keep her happy. Their movie also continued to top the competing movies on NBC and ABC. There isn't much to write about CBS Sunday nights in this era.

NBC	7:00	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Various Programs	Sister Kate	My Two Dads	Sunday Night Movie
Oct	A Brand New Life
Nov	The Magical World of Disney
Dec		Ann Jillian	Sister Kate
Jan
Feb		Various Programs
Mar
Apr
May		227	ALF

NBC kept their plan of starting their Sunday nights with The Magical World of Disney, but they actually went with a new series that fell under the umbrella of Disney. A Brand New Life was a family dramedy similar to The Brady Bunch as a divorcee with three kids married a widower with three kids. Starring Barbara Eden and Don Murray, the show aired three episodes in October and then one-offs in January and April before never being seen again while NBC went back to weekly films and specials for The Magical World of Disney. A comedy block continued at 8pm but with different shows as previous Sunday anchor Family Ties had ended. Taking over the 8pm slot was the new Sister Kate, starring Stephanie Beacham as a nun put in charge of seven orphans. The series also starred Jason Priestley and struggled to break through. It was paired with the third season of My Two Dads, which was constantly bouncing around the lineup. Dads eventually moved to Wednesdays and Sister Kate slid back to 8:30pm with a new show taking the 8pm slot again. Ann Jillian was a self-titled sitcom starring Jillian as a widow who moves with her teenage daughter from New York City to a small California village. Jillian was a fairly well known actress at the time, though perhaps not known well enough to have a sitcom titled after her. It lasted only a few months on Sunday. It went through a retooling but that retooling was not seen until summer burnoff episodes and it had already been cancelled. NBC didn't really stick with regular programming in the 8pm hour after January. Sometimes The Magical World of Disney went two hours, sometimes they started their Sunday Night Movie at 8:30pm and sometimes they aired specials. At the very end of the season, they very briefly aired episodes of ending sitcoms 227 and ALF on the night.

FOX	7:00	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30
Sep	Booker	America’s Most Wanted	Totally Hidden Video	Married… With Children	Open House	The Tracey Ullman Show	It’s Garry Shandling’s Show
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan			The Simpsons
Feb
Mar
Apr	The Outsiders					Booker
May

FOX made some changes to its Sunday nights including the launch of an iconic show at midseason. First up at 7pm was Booker, a spin-off of 21 Jump Street starring Richard Grieco as an insurance claim investigator. It inherited the old 21 Jump Street slot, but didn't have the same success. It lasted until April when it moved to 10pm and replaced by The Outsiders, a drama based on the famous S.E. Hinton novel. It aired through the summer but both new dramas were cancelled after one season. America's Most Wanted continued at 8pm followed by Totally Hidden Video, Married... With Children and the new Open House, a sitcom starring Alison LaPlaca about a former studio executive now working as a real estate agent. The series was a spinoff of the cancelled FOX sitcom Duet and also starred Ellen DeGeneres. The show underwent some retoolings but only lasted one season. At 10pm was The Tracey Ullman Show and continued reruns of It's Garry Shandling's Show until Booker moved to the slot. The biggest addition to the night though came at midseason with the launch of The Simpsons. Originally a sketch on Tracey Ullman, The Simpsons became a weekly series and was a hit for FOX out of the gate. It was the first show on FOX to make the Top 30 of the Nielsen Ratings and changed the network's fortunes forever. Although they both had one off episodes/specials before it, it's really amazing that two shows, The Simpsons and America's Funniest Home Videos, launched as regular series on January 14, 1990 and are still airing on Sunday nights 30+ years later on their respective networks.

Top Rated Sunday Show of 1989-90: America's Funniest Home Videos (#5)

Lowest Rated Sunday Show of 1989-90: The Tracey Ullman Show (#93)

What would I have watched on Sundays in 1989-90?
Life Goes On and My Two Dads. I would have sampled many of the new shows with the most interest in Homeroom, Elvis and A Brand New Life.

Tomorrow: Top 10 Sitcom Series Finales!