SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1996-1997 Mondays

On Tuesdays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Mondays in the 1996-97 season!

ABC	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	Dangerous Minds	Monday Night Football
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan		Monday Night Movie
Feb
Mar	Spy Game
Apr	Relativity
May	Various Programs

ABC continued the search for a lead-in for Monday Night Football in the 1996-97 season as they hadn't found a successful pairing since MacGyver went off the air. Their attempt in the Fall of 1996 was Dangerous Minds, an urban school drama based on the successful 1995 movie of the same name starring Michelle Pfeiffer. The TV version starred Annie Potts in her first dramatic role after spending a decade on Designing Women and Love & War. The series did not catch on with viewers the way the film had and it was off the night in February. Check back tomorrow for a One Season Wonder post on Dangerous Minds! In March, ABC launched Spy Game, an action drama that paid tribute to 1960s spy shows like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. down to its stylish credits. Though those were all the rage in the 60s, the 90s audience was not interested. It performed even worse than Dangerous Minds and was off the air after just three weeks. ABC tried one more drama in the 8pm hour at the end of the season. Relativity had been a high profile new show in a tough Saturday slot so ABC gave it a last ditch effort at a renewal by airing it on Mondays. The romance drama only had three more episodes in its season so it aired those on Monday and it didn't make enough of a difference to sway ABC to a renewal. After trying some different approaches in the 1995-96, ABC went back to a movie replacing Football in January.

CBS	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Cosby	Pearl	Murphy Brown	Cybill	Chicago Hope
Oct		Ink
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar		Everybody Loves Raymond	Cybill	Ink
Apr
May		Murphy Brown

CBS sent The Nanny back to Wednesdays for the 1996-97 season and revamped its first hour on Monday nights in the Fall of 1996 using former sitcom stars who were taking another spin. Leading things off at 8pm was Cosby, which brought Bill Cosby back to the genre he had dominated on The Cosby Show from 1984-1992. This one, which came after his foray into drama with The Cosby Mysteries, reunited him with Phylicia Rashad as his TV wife. It was a bit different though as Cosby played a cranky retiree instead of a lovable doctor. Now of course Bill Cosby elicits a different response now but at the time, this was considered a huge get for CBS. The show started very strong in the ratings and, while it wasn't a breakout like The Cosby Show, it held its own at 8pm all season. The 8:30pm slot was supposed to go to Ink, but that show had behind the scenes difficulties (the original showrunner was replaced by Murphy Brown's Diane English and that resulted in the show shelving four completed episodes). The difficulties led to a delay so another new sitcom, Pearl, held down the fort at 8:30pm before it headed to its regular Wednesday slot. Ink finally came on the air in late October. The workplace sitcom, which starred real life married couple Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen never seemed to quite pull itself out of its pre-season bad buzz. It lasted the full season, but it was cancelled after that. Old warhorse Murphy Brown continued at 9pm for its ninth season and it now featured Lily Tomlin. Cybill aired at 9:30pm after its ill-fated trip to Sundays in the previous season. At midseason, CBS pulled Murphy off the air for the first time in its run. Cybill moved to the 9pm anchor while Ink moved to 9:30pm. At 8:30pm was Everybody Loves Raymond, which was rescued from a deadly Friday slot after it showed some signs of life in a very difficult spot. It rewarded that move as its ratings improved and Raymond eventually became a Monday cornerstone. Throughout the season, Chicago Hope continued at 10pm for another acclaimed season but another season of being in the shadow of ER among prestige medical dramas.

NBC	8:00	8:30	9:00	10:00
Sep	The Jeff Foxworthy Show	Mr. Rhodes	Monday Night Movie
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr		Boston Common
May		Various Programs

In the 1995-96 season, NBC had plucked a show that ABC had developed - 3rd Rock From the Sun - and it turned into a big hit for them. So they must have been feeling confident heading into the 1996-97 because they picked up a show that ABC had cancelled after one season. The Jeff Foxworthy Show became the new 8pm Monday anchor in a slot that had been occupied by The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for the past six years. The redneck-themed sitcom was an odd fit on NBC's lineup of mostly urban-set single people sitcoms instead of country-set family ones. The show aired the entire season but was cancelled for a second time by a second network. It was followed by Mr. Rhodes, another sitcom starring a stand-up comedian. Tom Rhodes played a failed novelist who became a teacher. It did a little worse than Foxworthy and was pulled from the lineup in March with two unaired episodes. Sunday sitcom Boston Common aired for a short time in the slot too before the end of the season and NBC had to hit the reset button for Mondays. A movie aired at 9pm and outpaced ABC's competing movie in the spring but it was a casualty when NBC reset the night in Fall 1997.

FOX	8:00	9:00	9:30
Sep	Melrose Place	Party Girl	Lush Life
Oct		Various Programs
Nov
Dec
Jan		Ned & Stacey	Married… With Children
Feb		Various Programs
Mar		Married… With Children	Pauly
Apr
May			Various Programs

FOX tried the combo again of Melrose Place into a comedy hour for the 1996-97 season but the results for the comedy were worse than Partners/Ned & Stacey in 1995-96. The comedy hour was comprised of new sitcoms Party Girl and Lush Life. Party Girl starred Christine Taylor, Swoosie Kurtz and John Cameron Mitchell and was based on a 1995 movie of the same name. Lush Life starred Karyn Parsons and Lori Petty as roommates. Both sitcoms premiered a week early before the fall season officially started and then lasted just four episodes so they didn't even air an episode in October as they were the first cancellations of the fall season. FOX didn't commit to regular programming on the night through the rest of the calendar year before airing a new comedy block in January. They brought Ned & Stacey back to the night after a failed run on Sundays and paired it with Married... With Children, which was finally hitting the end of its run that was as old as the FOX network itself. Ned & Stacey was quickly pulled for good, lasting partway through its second season. Married moved to 9pm and had a pretty quiet end for a show that was a cornerstone of the FOX lineup for many years. In fact, most of the team involved was expecting to be renewed for a twelfth and final season and were caught by surprise when FOX pulled the plug. It ended in May 1997 after 11 seasons and 259 episodes. It was paired briefly in March with Pauly, a sitcom vehicle for comedian Pauly Shore. That series, which had the same type of crude humor as Married, lasted just a few weeks. None of the comedies that aired on Mondays in 1996-97 lived to see another year on FOX.

UPN	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30
Sep	In the House	Malcolm & Eddie	Goode Behavior	Sparks
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan			Sparks	Goode Behavior
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

UPN changed gears on Monday and went from sci-fi dramas to comedies aimed at the black audience. This included an NBC cast-off and three new sitcoms. NBC had cancelled In the House after two seasons paired with the also departed Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and UPN picked it up to be the lead-off for its new sitcom block. It was followed by Malcolm & Eddie, an Odd Couple-type show about roommates in their twenties starring Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Eddie Griffin. The series was the highest rated of the UPN Monday block but of course that wasn't saying much as the netlets (UPN and WB) were still trying to make a dent in the ratings. Two new comedies followed. Goode Behavior marked the return of Sherman Hemsley to TV after The Jeffersons and Amen. He starred as a recently paroled con man moving in with his college professor son, played by Dorien Wilson. The block ended with Sparks, a comedy about a family of lawyers starring James Avery, Robin Givens and Terrance Howard. Goode Behavior and Sparks swapped slots in January and while they had the same ratings, Sparks was renewed while Goode Behavior was the only comedy of the block to get cancelled though Sherman Hemsley returned to the night in a different sitcom for the 1997-98 season.

WB	8:00	9:00
Sep	7th Heaven	Savannah
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar		Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Apr
May

The WB expanded to Monday nights in 1996-97 and they launched two new shows during the year that became iconic cornerstones for the network though they did not make huge impressions in the first season. At 8pm was 7th Heaven. There was no way of knowing in 1996 that this would become one of the longest running shows that spanned most of the WB's run as a network. The gentle preacher family drama didn't make much of an impression in the ratings in its first year but it did get renewed. It was followed by the second season of Savannah. The soap opera had been a decent performer by WB standards in its first season but it didn't hold up creatively and was cancelled after two seasons. Its replacement on Mondays was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, based on a cult hit film of the same name. Buffy was ridiculed a bit when it launched as people thought the title was pretty silly. It would ultimately become an iconic WB show and one of the best loved to this day, but just like 7th Heaven, it was just barely scraping by in its first season though it did break out a teeny bit more than Heaven.

Top Rated Monday Show of 1996-97: Monday Night Football (#7)

Lowest Rated Monday Show of 1996-97: Savannah (#154)

What would I have watched on Mondays in 1996-97?

Well, I am a little bit embarrassed to say I was watching 7th Heaven. But if it was now I would probably be mostly watching the CBS sitcom lineup. I may have checked out Dangerous Minds too and of course would have checked in on Monday Night Football. And perhaps (probably) 7th Heaven would still be a very guilty pleasure?

Tomorrow: A One Season Wonder look at Dangerous Minds!

Next Tuesday: A look at Tuesdays in the 1996-97 season!