SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1996-1997 Wednesdays

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

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Ellen	Townies	Grace Under Fire	The Drew Carey Show	Primetime Live
Oct
Nov
Dec	Grace Under Fire	Coach	The Drew Carey Show	Ellen
Jan
Feb
Mar				Arsenio
Apr
May				Ellen

ABC's Wednesday night comedy block was the perfect example of a "solid but not great" lineup. The night didn't have a Home Improvement style hit or an instant flop. A lot of the veterans plugged along and two newbies did alright but ultimately didn't make it. But the night got a huge amount of attention at the end of the season when a certain sitcom character came out of the closet and made nationwide news. Before Ellen became a cultural touchstone, it was just a modest sitcom performer leading off the night to start the season. It led into Townies, a new sitcom starring Molly Ringwald and two actresses mostly unknown at the time - Jenna Elfman and Lauren Graham - as a group of friends in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Grace Under Fire continued as the 9pm anchor but the one-time breakout hit took a big dive in the ratings as star Brett Butler's erratic behavior was contributing the show's quick decline. On the ascent though was the 9:30pm entry, The Drew Carey Show. After a modest performance in its first season, Drew broke out and quickly became the best performer of the night. ABC responded accordingly with a rejiggering of its lineup in December. Grace moved up an hour while Drew became the new 9pm anchor and Ellen, as it started to court controversy, was moved to the more "adult" time at 9:30pm. Replacing the cancelled Townies at 8:30pm was the ninth season of Coach, which had been languishing on Saturdays. It was ultimately cancelled after a long run where it always did very well when it followed a hit but couldn't venture out on its own and be successful. Ellen was temporarily moved to Tuesdays to make room for Arsenio, a sitcom that had high expectations because it brought Arsenio Hall to a sitcom after his very successful run as a late night host. Also starring Vivica A. Fox, the series was not an outright flop but it couldn't find a way to break out and was cancelled after just seven episodes Check back tomorrow for a One Season Wonder post on Arsenio!. Ellen returned to the night and Ellen DeGeneres' character famously came out of the closet in a late April episode that drew huge ratings and huge amounts of controversy. That seems crazy now that a plotline like that would be a nationwide news story but it was a different time in 1997. Throughout the season, Primetime Live continued at 10pm.

CBS	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	The Nanny	Various Programs
Oct		Almost Perfect	Various Programs	Public Morals	EZ Streets
Nov		Pearl	Wednesday Night Movie
Dec
Jan			Coast to Coast		Orleans
Feb			Wednesday Night Movie
Mar		Temporarily Yours	Feds		EZ Streets
Apr			Wednesday Night Movie
May		Dave’s World

Wednesdays were a puzzle that CBS couldn't solve for many years in the 1990s and the 1996-97 season was no exception. They had a plan that blew up very, very quickly after starting late. Due to the CMA Awards and Presidential/Vice Presidential debates, the full lineup didn't premiere until the end of October. Before that, they only aired sitcoms in the 8pm hour. The Nanny moved over from Monday nights to be the new Wednesday lead-off and it was the only thing that worked on the night. Pearl was slated for 8:30pm and Almost Perfect was slated for 9pm but when CBS suddenly had a need on Mondays with Ink delayed, Pearl went over to that night for a month and Almost Perfect slid up to 8:30pm. The second year sitcom went through a revamp that saw the male lead, Kevin Kilner, leave the series after one episode in the second season. By the end of October, they were finally ready to unveil their full lineup which include the three comedies already mentioned followed by a Steven Bochco cop comedy Public Morals and the well-reviewed EZ Streets, which had premiered with a two hour pilot on a different night. Both shows bombed instantly. Morals, which was trashed critically and pushed the envelope for network decency standards, was cancelled after one episode and Almost Perfect joined it on the cancellation pile just four episodes into its second season. EZ Streets was put on hiatus. A movie aired from 9-11pm until January when the network tried newsmagazine Coast to Coast and the return of Larry Hagman to a CBS drama six years after Dallas ended with Orleans, starring Hagman as a judge. That lineup lasted just a couple weeks before Coast was pulled and Orleans headed to Fridays. In March, Pearl was added to the list of failed Wednesday shows and yet another lineup was tried. Temporarily Yours took the 8:30pm slot, ahem, temporarily. It starred Debi Mazar as a woman working for a temp agency. It was followed by the new drama Feds, a legal drama from Dick Wolf. At 10pm, EZ Streets returned to the night with a rejuvenated marketing campaign. It didn't fare any better though and was cancelled for good a few weeks later. Since then, it has occasionally popped up on those "brilliant but cancelled" list. Finally at the end of the season, Dave's World returned to the night for a couple weeks as it was winding down its four year run.

NBC	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Wings	The John Larroquette Show	Newsradio	Men Behaving Badly	Law & Order
Oct
Nov		Various Programs
Dec
Jan		Chicago Sons
Feb
Mar	Newsradio		Wings	Just Shoot Me!	Prince Street
Apr		The Single Guy		Men Behaving Badly	Law & Order
May		Various Programs

As part of NBC's move to more and more sitcoms on their schedule, Wednesday became another two hour sitcom block after airing dramas and Dateline NBC on the night in the 1995-96 season. Wednesdays were clearly not as strong as Tuesdays or Thursdays though looking at the anchors. At 8pm was Wings, which had been a strong performer at one point but was getting pretty long in the tooth. Newsradio was the 9pm anchor and it had its fans but wasn't strong enough to be a 9pm show. The two shows flipped slots in March but it didn't really improve things for either show. Wings ended its run in May after eight seasons and 172 episodes while Newsradio did get renewed despite a big drop in ratings. The 8:30pm slot was a bit of a revolving door. First up was The John Larroquette Show, which had always been a modest performer at best. It was abruptly cancelled less than two months into its fourth season, which is rare since the fourth season is usually the syndication year and veteran shows like that would rarely get pulled so early. But it happened here. The next regularly scheduled show was Chicago Sons, which starred Jason Bateman, D.W. Moffett and David Krumholtz as three Chicago brothers. It lasted for a couple months before it was replaced by The Single Guy, which quickly proved it was a timeslot only hit. It languished on Wednesdays and was cancelled after two seasons despite regularly reaching the Top 10 in the ratings when it followed Friends, which was most of its run. At 9:30pm was a new comedy, Men Behaving Badly. The series was based on a successful British sitcom and starred Rob Schneider, Ron Eldard and Justine Bateman. It did not do well in the ratings but still managed to get renewed. It was briefly replaced by Just Shoot Me!, a comedy set at a fashion magazine starring George Segal and David Spade among others. Despite only getting a six episode tryout, it did get renewed for a second season and eventually became a big player for NBC. Law & Order continued at 10pm but it was briefly replaced by Prince Street, a cop drama about a secret police unit in Manhattan and based on a real unit. It premiered as a preview on Thursday night and then aired just one episode on Wednesdays before being cancelled as one of the rare two-and-done shows. It was notable for featuring Mariska Hargitay a couple seasons before she found much, much more success on an NBC cop show.

FOX	8:00	9:00
Sep	Beverly Hills, 90210	Party of Five
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr		Pacific Palisades
May

FOX followed a similar plan on Wednesday nights as they had for the 1995-96 season: a pairing of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Party of Five with a new drama taking the 9pm slot late in the season. Beverly Hills, 90210 was not as strong as it was at its peak but it was still one of the top performers for FOX while Party of Five continued to have a loyal but small audience. With FOX continuing to strike out with many new shows, Party of Five just keep surviving. Late in the season, Party of Five ended its season early and FOX premiered Pacific Palisades, a soapy drama that came from Aaron Spelling, just like 90210. The series was about young professionals but when being young and edgy didn't result in the ratings, there was a desperate move to add Joan Collins of Dynasty fame to the cast. That casting move didn't pay off and the series was cancelled after airing into the summer.

UPN	8:00	9:00
Sep	The Sentinel	Star Trek: Voyager
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

UPN had started airing on Wednesdays midway through the 1995-96 season and found their second drama success in The Sentinel. For 1996-97, they decided to pair it with their most successful show - Star Trek: Voyager to give them a more potent night so they could worry about the new shows they were launching on other nights. Despite the move to a new night and time, Voyager remained UPN's top rated show while The Sentinel continued to do decently as well. So this was actually a successful night by UPN standards even though it was still a netlet so it was dwarfed in ratings by the big four networks (for perspective, big flops Prince Street and Pacific Palisades still outperformed Voyager). 

WB	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30
Sep	Sister, Sister	Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher	The Wayans Bros.	The Jamie Foxx Show
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar		Sister, Sister	The Jamie Foxx Show	The Wayans Bros.
Apr		Smart Guy
May

Early on, the WB had even more trouble catching on than UPN because they didn't have a show like Star Trek: Voyager. They had a comedy lineup on Wednesday night that was more successful than their Sunday or Monday lineups, but the ratings were minuscule. Sister, Sister had moved over from ABC and was in the lead-off slot for a second consecutive year. It was followed by a new comedy: Nick Freno, Licensed Teacher, a sitcom starring Mitch Mullany as an actor making ends meet in New York City as a substitute teacher. One of the original WB shows, The Wayans Bros., continued as the 9pm anchor and it was followed by another new show: The Jamie Foxx Show. The series helped turn Foxx into a more well-known name and it was the top rated show on the WB for the 1996-97 season (though, again, that's not saying much). Later in the season, Nick Freno moved to Sundays so that WB could launch Smart Guy, a sitcom starring Tahj Mowry (younger brother of Sister Sister stars Tia and Tamera). The younger Mowry played a child genius attending high school at the age of 10 in a similar premise to Doogie Howser M.D., which came before it, and Young Sheldon, which came after it.

Top Rated Wednesday Show of 1996-97: The Single Guy (#8) - this was due to it airing on Thursdays for most of the season though. Next would be Primetime Live at #15

Lowest Rated Wednesday Show of 1996-97: Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher (#142)

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

Party of Five. Beyond that, there were tons of comedies to choose from on Wednesdays but nothing that would have been an absolute must-see. Some I would have been more likely to watch would have been Ellen, Coach, Wings, Newsradio and Just Shoot Me! I might have sampled EZ Streets with the acclaim it got and I'm sure there are other comedies I would have watched sometimes.

Tomorrow: A One Season Wonder look at Arsenio!

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