ABC Fall 1978 Posters: Tuesday

To promote its Fall 1978 line-up ABC commissioned a series of seven posters–one for each night of the week–depicting characters from its new and returning shows. Check back every day this week for a look at one of these posters. Today we’ll examine the Tuesday poster.

Tuesday on ABC in the fall of 1978 featured four half-hour sitcoms and an hour-long drama:

  8:00PM Happy Days
  8:30PM Laverne & Shirley
  9:00PM Three’s Company
  9:30PM Taxi (New)
10:00PM Starsky and Hutch

Laverne & Shirley opened its fourth season with a special hour-long episode on September 5th from 8-9PM. The following week Happy Days kicked off its sixth season with its own hour-long episode from 8-9PM, pre-empting Laverne & Shirley, followed by the third season premiere of Three’s Company at 9PM, the series premiere of Taxi at 9:30PM, and the fourth and final season premiere of Starsky and Hutch at 10PM.

Here’s the ABC poster for its Tuesday lineup:

Color poster for ABC's Tuesday lineup

ABC Fall 1978 Posters: Tuesday

Only part of the Happy Days cast was included on the poster. Ron Howard and Henry Winkler are there, of course, as well as Marion Ross and Tom Bosley. With the exception of Judd Hirsch, the cast of Taxi is lumped together in a group and difficult to make out. Starsky and Hutch almost seem to be floating menacingly at the top of the poster.

Here’s a closer look:

Close-up image of the cast of Three's Company

If you’re familiar with Three’s Company you’ll be able to identify these three as Suzanne Somers, John Ritter, and Joyce DeWitt but the angle at which they’re depicted means they don’t really stand out.

And another close-up:

Close-up image of Ron Howard and Henry Winkler

Speaking of angles, if this was real life poor Ron Howard would probably have neck problems after trying to strike this pose. I wonder whether ABC–or its publicity department–insisted on certain poses or angles for the characters. Also, I wonder if the artist was asked to use promotional images as references while completing the paintings.

Check back tomorrow for a look at the Wednesday poster.


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5 Replies to “ABC Fall 1978 Posters: Tuesday”

  1. I’m wondering what ABC did with these posters. Did they send them out to the local stations for distribution? Was there a way for viewers to send away for them? They look like an ad you’d want to place in TV Guide or local newspaper television guides, but you wouldn’t need anything poster size fr that.

    1. Sorry for the typo. In my previous post the next-to-the-last word should have been “for”. (How I wish editing was possible.)

  2. That’s a terrible drawing of Judd Hirsch. Where’s the schnozz and his frizzy hair?

    It’s not cool for Marilu Henner and Tony Danza to lie on the taxi’s hood while Andy Kaufman is trying to change the tire. How is Danny DeVito standing there and allowing it?

    Fonzie looks like a creepy guy in his 30s who hangs out with high school children. So in that respect the art is right on the mark.

  3. That absolutely is not Judd Hirsch. It’s not even a bad drawing of him. It is definitely someone else whose face was drawn on there. Is it possible that there was a different actor originally cast as Alex? I know that Mandy Patinkin read for the part, but that’s not him either.

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