SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1994-1995 Mondays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Mondays in the 1994-95 season!

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	Coach	Blue Skies	Monday Night Football
Oct
Nov		Coach
Dec
Jan		A Whole New Ballgame	Monday Night Movie
Feb
Mar		Various Programs
Apr	Various Programs
May

After airing unscripted shows in the Monday 8pm timeslot for a year and a half, ABC went back to the scripted well in 1994-95 for its lead-in to Monday Night Football and then the Monday Night Movie. For the first time since the 1979-80 season, they tried a comedy block on the night led by a show that would seemingly be compatible with football. Coach was entering its seventh season but it had rarely had to show what it could do on the own as it had spent most of its life following Roseanne or Home Improvement. It was always the show that came back to the slot after a newbie failed. But ABC tried to finally put it on its own for the 1994-95 season and the results were... not good. The series plunged from #6 to #53 in the ratings. ABC did try it out for much of the year on Mondays though before finally pulling the plug in March and sending it back to Wednesdays, this time after a different hit (Grace Under Fire). There were two new shows that followed it during the course of the year and they were strangely connected because they were from the same creators (who were also behind Coach) and featured a lot of the same cast members. First up was Blue Skies, a Boston-set sitcom set at a mail-order company. Blue Skies didn't make it past Halloween and, after reruns of Coach aired for two months, a new sitcom appeared in January called A Whole New Ballgame. The characters were different and the plot and setting were different (this was was set at a Milwaukee news station), but it was remarkably similar with crossover cast members including Julia Campbell, Richard Kind and Stephen Tobolowsky. And just like its predecessor, it lasted just seven episodes before being cancelled. Monday Night Football continued to be a dominant force but the movie that took over in January was not as strong as NBC's competing movie.

CBS	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	The Nanny	Dave’s World	Murphy Brown	Love & War	Northern Exposure
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan				Cybill	Chicago Hope
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

CBS went into the 1994-95 season with an lineup entirely composed of returning shows, though that wasn't the original plan. The original plan was for the new comedy The Boys Are Back to lead off the night but CBS made a late summer change and instead moved the second season of The Nanny to the night after it aired reruns on both nights through the summer. It's not clear whether that was a show of faith in The Nanny or an indictment of Boys, but either way The Nanny was up to the task and proved to be a solid new Monday night lead-off show for the network. Dave's World continued at 8:30pm and was another reliable ratings performer. Murphy Brown continued to anchor the 9pm slot for a seventh consecutive season. The show was past its peak but still one of CBS's top shows. For a third consecutive year, Love & War followed at 9:30pm. This was a little surprising since the show was a weaker link creatively and in the ratings. It was finally moved off the night after a lackluster fall. It was sent to Wednesdays where it died a quick death. The shiny new sitcom at 9:30pm was Cybill, which marked Cybill Shepherd's return to TV nearly six years after Moonlighting. The sitcom - which starred Shepherd as a struggling actress - was a hit with critics and audiences and provided a breakout role for Christine Baranski, who won the Supporting Actress Emmy Award. Another aging series started off the season at 10pm. Northern Exposure had been a buzzy Emmy darling for several years but it was past the point of growing its audience. The series also suffered an ill-fated move to Wednesdays at midseason and, just like Cybill, the replacement series benefited quite a bit. Though it wasn't a brand new show, it was a show that had lost a cage match on Thursdays. Chicago Hope went toe to toe with ER as NBC and CBS battled with new medical dramas set in Chicago. ER clearly won the battle and rather than giving up and cancelling Hope, CBS got it out of harms way and moved it to Mondays. Though Chicago Hope was never the phenomenon that ER was, the move to Mondays was the best thing for it as the series enjoyed a healthy run that also included some awards attention.

NBC	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Blossom	Monday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr		In the House
May

For a fifth consecutive season, NBC had The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Blossom and a movie on Monday nights. The night was never one of NBC's top nights but it was very reliable. However, the shows were getting older and this season was the end of the road for Blossom. The series moved to Saturdays briefly before returning for its series finale on Monday. Considering the series centered around a teen, it was never going to last forever. And though Mayim Bialik has continued to find success and the series remains in the public consciousness, it has never been a big hit in syndication or streaming. When Blossom moved to Saturdays, NBC replaced it with a series that seemed like a good companion to Fresh Prince because it also starred a popular young rapper. In the House starred LL Cool J as a former football player who rented most of his house to a single mother played by Debbie Allen. The series not only outperformed Blossom, it also outperformed Fresh Prince which easily earned it a second season especially because NBC was finally in need of a new 8:30pm show on Mondays. The movie at 9pm was a solid ratings draw and did better than ABC's competing movie in the spring.

FOX	8:00	9:00
Sep	Melrose Place	Party of Five
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan		Models Inc.
Feb
Mar		Medicine Ball
Apr
May

FOX made a big change for 1994-95 by moving its movie night to Tuesday and bringing scripted shows to Monday. One reason they could do that was the strength of Melrose Place after two seasons airing behind Beverly Hills, 90210. It was tasked with leading off Mondays and only dropped a small amount from its Wednesday ratings, proving it was time to move the show. Three different dramas aired behind it including two that also took a spin behind Beverly Hills on Wednesdays. Up first was Party of Five. The critically acclaimed drama about a family of children trying to make it after the death of their parents was a very odd tonal pairing with Melrose. The series had some very vocal fans and even though the audience was small, it was an example of a critical darling getting picked up for non-ratings reasons. In January, it flipped nights with Melrose Place spinoff, Models, Inc. which had gotten an early summer premiere and had two months airing behind reruns of Melrose. Although Models, Inc. actually outperformed Party of Five in the ratings, the trajectory wasn't great and FOX probably had higher hopes for it as a Melrose offshoot. It was cancelled after one season (that did span 29 episodes). The last Monday 9pm entry was Medicine Ball, a drama set at a Seattle hospital a decade before Grey's Anatomy. In a season with breakout medical hits ER and Chicago Hope, there wasn't much interest from FOX's audience in a third medical drama. It lasted just nine episodes.

UPN	8:00	9:00	9:30
Sep	No UPN Programming
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan	Star Trek: Voyager	Platypus Man	Pig Sty
Feb
Mar
Apr		Pig Sty	Platypus Man
May

The 1994-95 season brought two new networks with WB and UPN. WB programmed just one night of TV on Wednesdays while UPN (which stood for United Paramount Network) programmed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Both were very much "netlets" who had a hard time competing with the big three and even FOX but UPN did have one big gun in their toolbox with Star Trek: Voyager. Of course Star Trek had been in the cultural conversation going back to the 1960s but it had found success in the 80s and early 90s through the syndicated successes The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Paramount chose to bring its newest series to TV via their newly launched network so Star Trek: Voyager was the flagship show. It easily outrated everything else on UPN as well as everything on WB. Voyager was not as well regarded then or now as The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine, but it was notable for being the first Trek series with a female captain (Kate Mulgrew). It was followed by a comedy block that could not catch on despite the strong (by UPN standards) lead-in. Platypus Man starred comedian Richard Jeni as himself, the host of a cooking show. Pig Sty was about five male roommates in a New York City apartment. The shows flipped slots later in the season but it didn't make a difference and UPN cancelled both shows at the end of the season.

Top Rated Monday Show: Monday Night Football (#5)

Lowest Rated Monday Show: Pig Sty (#138)

What would I have watched on Mondays in 1994-95?

I would have been mostly into the CBS lineup though I probably would have picked Coach over The Nanny. I would have watched CBS the rest of the night depending on the quality of the game on Monday Night Football. And I definitely would have watched Party of Five, but maybe on tape.

Tomorrow: Top 10 The Dick Van Dyke Show Characters!

Next Monday: A look at Tuesdays in the 1994-95 season!