On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Thursdays in the 1992-93 season!
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ABC
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8:00
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8:30
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9:00
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10:00
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Sep
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Delta
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Room for Two
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Homefront
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Primetime Live
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
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Jan
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Matlock
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Jack’s Place
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Feb
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Mar
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Various Programs
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Apr
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May
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ABC had
Primetime Live at 10pm but the 8pm and 9pm hours were a nut they just couldn't crack. They made a valiant effort in 1992-93 though as they brought Delta Burke back to TV with her self titled sitcom
Delta. Burke had famously left
Designing Women in 1991 after a flurry of controversy and press as she fought very publicly with the producers. Getting her to launch her own sitcom was a pretty big get at the time for ABC and they gave her the task of leading off Thursday nights after a preview after
Roseanne on Tuesdays. Burke played a wannabe country singer in Nashville and famously sported a new blonde look for the show. Check back Wednesday for a One Season Wonder post on
Delta! It was followed by the second season of
Room for Two, a sitcom which had a brief run in a good slot the previous season. The Linda Lavin-Patricia Heaton sitcom was not capable of standing on its own. At 9pm was
Homefront, a critically acclaimed but ratings challenged show also in its second season. It had to undergo some cast trimming to make it financially viable for its second season. Despite the valiant effort, the 8-10pm block only lasted through December before all three shows were pulled from the night. Their next attempt went after an older crowd to avoid competing for viewers with
The Simpsons and NBC's younger skewing comedy lineup. NBC had cancelled
Matlock the previous season in NBC's attempt to go younger with its shows. ABC picked up the long running drama and launched it on Thursdays at midseason. While it didn't reach the ratings highs it had on NBC, it was the first solid scripted performer for ABC Thursdays in awhile. It was paired with another old skewing show.
Jack's Place had premiered in the Summer of 1992 and did well enough in the ratings to get a midseason order. The series starred Hal Linden as a retired jazz musician now running a restaurant. It did not do as well as
Matlock and also had to air against the final stretch of
Cheers episodes. It was pulled after a couple months and no permanent show aired in the 9pm slot the rest of the season.
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CBS
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8:00
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9:00
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10:00
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Sep
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Top Cops
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Street Stories
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Middle Ages
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Oct
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Various Programs
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Nov
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Knots Landing
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Dec
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Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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Picket Fences
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May
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Various Programs
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It was the end of an era on CBS Thursdays in the 1992-93 as Knots Landing came to an end after 14 seasons, all on Thursdays. CBS had been airing Knots at 9pm or 10pm on Thursday nights during the season since December 1979. The drama was the last 80s style primetime soap airing on the networks as it outlasted Dallas, Dynasty and others. Soaps in the 90s were more like Beverly Hills, 90210 and Knots felt like a show from a bygone era. It was still the top performer on Thursdays for CBS though so it was leaving a hole in the lineup. Before Knots returned for its final season, a different drama aired on Thursdays at 10pm for a very short time. Middle Ages was about middle aged friends living in suburban Chicago. Starring Peter Riegert among others, it was as much a late summer show as a fall show as there was always a plan to bring Knots back. It launched September 3 and was cancelled after just five episodes. Late in the season, Picket Fences moved to the night after a critically acclaimed start on Fridays. Although it found its way back to Fridays, CBS was trying to give it a more high profile slot. The rest of the night was devoted to cheap unscripted options, Top Cops and Street Stories. Both shows kept the lights on but weren't helpful in building a night of programming.
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NBC
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8:00
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8:30
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9:00
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9:30
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10:00
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Sep
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A Different World
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Rhythm & Blues
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Cheers
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Wings
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Various Programs
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Oct
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L.A. Law
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Nov
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Out All Night
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A Different World
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Dec
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Jan
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Feb
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Cheers
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Wings
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Seinfeld
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Mar
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Crime & Punishment
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Apr
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L.A. Law
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May
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For the first time since the 1983-84 season, NBC did not have
The Cosby Show to lead off their Thursday night sitcom lineup. With
Cosby off the air, the lead-off slot went to its spinoff
A Different World.
World had been a huge hit airing after
Cosby for years and even out-rated the parent show towards the end of
Cosby's run. But this was an example of NBC waiting too long to make a move.
A Different World was too old of a show itself when it was finally given the chance to be an anchor and the results were pretty disastrous. The ratings plummeted and it was clear pretty early that the plan for a revamped 8pm hour wasn't going to work. The problems extended at 8:30pm where new comedy
Rhythm & Blues was an outright flop.
Rhythm & Blues was about a white DJ who accidentally gets hired at a black radio station. It was considered pretty racist then and would probably feel even more cringey now. It lasted a mere five weeks which was pretty unheard of for a Thursday show for many years. NBC tried to bring over
Out All Night from Saturdays and slid
A Different World back to 8:30pm but it was too little, too late. Starting in February, they went with
Cheers reruns followed by
Wings for the rest of the season in the 8pm hour. Speaking of
Cheers, it was announced that the long running cornerstone of the lineup would end after 11 seasons. Star Ted Danson was done and the series, while still extremely popular, was starting to show some signs of it age creatively. NBC put on the full court press to bid
Cheers farewell. When the final night rolled around, it was a two hour event with a "pregame" and a 98 minute episode followed by the cast appearing live on
The Tonight Show (while intoxicated). It was one of the biggest series finale events in TV history though it did not top the
M*A*S*H finale in the ratings as some expected it to. And NBC was left with a hole at 9pm to match its 8pm hole. Luckily, they had a show in waiting for 9pm that was more ready to take the mantle than
A Different World. When NBC moved
Wings to 8:30pm, they brought
Seinfeld over from Wednesdays and the show began its ascent to the top of the ratings.
L.A. Law continued at 10pm. The show's ratings started to be in freefall and their two executive producers were fired at midseason as the show was accused of becoming too "whimsical" and less focused on legal cases. They course corrected some creatively but the damage was done though it did get renewed for an eighth season.
L.A. Law was briefly replaced at midseason by
Crime & Punishment, a police drama from Dick Wolf that lasted just four weeks on Thursdays. It attempted to emulate the
Law & Order success by focusing half of the episode on the crime and criminals and the other half on the cops and investigation.
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FOX
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8:00
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8:30
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9:00
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9:30
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Sep
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The Simpsons
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Martin
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The Heights
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
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In Living Color
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Down the Shore
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Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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May
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FOX's Thursday lineup continued with
The Simpsons at 8pm. Without
The Cosby Show as competition, FOX's top show saw its ratings increase a bit from the previous season. FOX also found a successful show to pair it with after two one and done shows.
Martin starred stand-up comedian Martin Lawrence as a Detroit DJ among a variety of other roles at times. Also starring Tisha Campbell, it became one of FOX's biggest hits in its first season. Things were not as successful at 9pm at first with
The Heights, a musical drama about a fictional band. The series joined the long list of failed musical dramas and was off the air within a couple months. However, it did manage to boast a #1 song with its theme song "How Do You Talk to An Angel" by cast member Jamie Walters. The success of the theme song did nothing to help the show though. After it was cancelled, two comedies filled the 9pm hour.
In Living Color started airing encore episodes on Thursdays with an occasional new episode while it continued to air on Sundays as well. It was followed by
Down the Shore, which had aired its first season in the Summer of 1992. The series didn't make it to a third season but did last the rest of the season on Thursdays.
Top Rated Thursday Show of 1992-93: Cheers (#8)
Lowest Rated Thursday Show of 1992-93: The Heights (#127)
What would I have watched on Thursdays in 1992-93?
Cheers of course along with Wings and probably Seinfeld, even though I'm mixed on that show. Homefront of course. I would have given Delta a try and probably Picket Fences at the end of the season.
Tomorrow: Top 10 Laverne & Shirley Characters!
Next Monday: A look at Fridays in the 1992-93 season!
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