Comments on: The 1985-1986 Season, Week by Week

By: WestVirginiaRebel

WestVirginiaRebel — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:17:55 +0000

“The Equalizer” also started on CBS this year, along with “The New Twilight Zone”, which were two more bright spots for the network IMO.

By: Michael Spadoni

Michael Spadoni — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:24:15 +0000

Agreed, Barry: “YOU AGAIN” didn’t last long; it got a boost from a premiere after “THE COSBY SHOW” before moving to Monday nights. But it didn’t last; the show was canceled in the spring of 1987. One funny note about “YOU AGAIN”: British actress Elizabeth Bennett played the role of housekeeper Enid Tompkins on both “YOU AGAIN” and the British “HOME TO ROOST,” requiring her to commute between London and Los Angeles during the run of both shows. According to TV historians Tim Brooks and Earl Marsh, it was a video first.

By: Barry I. Grauman

Barry I. Grauman — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:49:40 +0000

You’re right, Michael! I almost completely forgot about “THE GOLDEN GIRLS”, which allowed the network to build a Saturday night “beachhead” as well. But “YOU AGAIN?” [an American version of a British sitcom, "HOME TO ROOST"] didn’t last too long, and “VALERIE” was almost scuttled by Valerie Harper abruptly leaving the show. Fortunately, with Sandy Duncan “replacing” her, “THE HOGAN FAMILY” (as it finally became known) found a comfortable nest on Mondays until 1991.

By: pBOB

pBOB — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:05:31 +0000

The sitcoms haven’t been the same since they got rid of the studio audiences and show opennings.

I was recently on the Retrojunk site and didn’t realize how long and how many different show openings Three’s company had for seasons one & two.

By: Cee Jay

Cee Jay — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:48:05 +0000

Looks like everything old is new again at the peac*** network they are trying a new version of the Thursday comedy line up with The Office, Community, Parks and Recreation and Saturday Night Live Weekend Edition Thursday and Jay Leno not in this order and to tell you the truth I don’t see lightning strinking twice

By: Michael Spadoni

Michael Spadoni — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:14:48 +0000

Barry is absolutely right in noting NBC’s Thursday night juggernaut was the engine that drove the network to its first outright seasonal win since the early 1950’s.
But it wasn’t the only reason for NBC’s dominance during the 1985-86 season. On Saturday night, a new comedy featuring four women over 50 did quite nicely, thank you. “THE GOLDEN GIRLS” tied for seventh place with “DYNASTY” that season, helping another new sitcom that followed it, “227″ (20th place). And old favorite “THE FACTS OF LIFE” still had some steam left in it (27th place), while second-season crime drama “HUNTER” was building an audience.
And of course, we can’t forget a couple of sophomore NBC hits that season–”MIAMI VICE” on Fridays (9th place); and Michael Landon’s Wednesday night drama “HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN” (11th place). Not to mention NBC’s movie nights on Sunday (21st place) and Monday (22nd place tie with “HOTEL”). Add the mid-season success of new sitcoms “YOU AGAIN” with Jack Klugman and John Stamos (19th place) and “VALERIE” with Valerie Harper (24th place tie with “MOONLIGHTING” and “FALCON CREST”), and it added up to a stellar comeback season for NBC.

By: Barry I. Grauman

Barry I. Grauman — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:20:02 +0000

…and of course, the first of the “updated” “PERRY MASON” TV movies {I personally refer to it as “The Case Of Della Street’s Dilemma’} was SO successful on “NBC SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES”, it “jump-started” Raymond Burr’s career and led to a series of 26 two-hour movies, until Burr’s death in 1993.

By: Barry I. Grauman

Barry I. Grauman — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:58:55 +0000

Yes, NBC virtually “built” their Thursday night schedule around Cosby in 1985-’86 (and that’s why they won the season):

8:00 THE COSBY SHOW [naturally]
8:30 FAMILY TIES [often the #2 program]
9:00 CHEERS
9:30 NIGHT COURT
10:00 HILL STREET BLUES

ABC and CBS were virtually “shell-shocked” in planning their schedules as a result.

Even CBS’ “answer” to the Cosby format, “CHARLIE AND COMPANY” (starring Flip Wilson), came and went on Wednesdays at 9pm(et), opposite ABC’s #1 series in that time period, “DYNASTY”, which was beginning to “lose its edge”. But the network DID have a few “evergreens” to fall back on: “60 MINUTES” and “MURDER SHE WROTE” on Sundays, “SCARECROW & MRS. KING”, “KATE & ALLIE”, “NEWHART”, and “CAGNEY & LACEY” on Mondays, ‘MAGNUM P.I.”, “SIMON & SIMON” and “KNOTS LANDING” on Thursdays, and “DALLAS” and “FALCON CREST” on Fridays.

ABC wasn’t so lucky. By depending too much on Aaron Spelling to supply most of their prime-time programming in the 1984-’85 season, they “lost” the season to CBS (with NBC a close second, due to the first season of “THE COSBY SHOW”), and tore up Spelling’s exclusive contract with the network. However, what remained of his series- “DYNASTY”, “HOTEL”, and “THE LOVE BOAT”- continued in the 1985-’86 season (with one new series, “HOLLYWOOD BEAT”, gone within a few weeks, and another, the “DYNASTY” spin-off, “DYNASTY II: THE COLBYS”, hanging on)…but “LOVE BOAT” ended that season. However, there were some bright spots- “MacGYVER” on Sundays, “GROWING PAINS”, “MOONLIGHTING” and “SPENSER: FOR HIRE” on Tuesdays, “MR. BELVEDERE” on Fridays, and in mid-season, “PERFECT STRANGERS”, “HEAD OF THE CLASS”, and the return of the Disney anthology series (as “THE DISNEY SUNDAY MOVIE”). But several of their more recent series, “HARDCASTLE & McCORMICK”, “THE FALL GUY”, and “RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT!”, vanished at the end of the season.