The 1972 CBS Fall Season

The CBS network premiered eight shows in the fall of 1972, including The Waltons, M*A*S*H and Maude. Several other programs are far less memorable, including The Sandy Duncan Show and The New Bill Cosby Show. Several full-length fall previews are included here.

Despite winning the 1971-1972 ratings race, when CBS unveiled its 1972-1973 schedule in early April of 1972, not a single evening was left unchanged [1]. Seven shows were cancelled, including Arnie, My Three Sons, Cade’s County and O’Hara — U.S. Treasury and seven returning shows were given new timeslots. Eight new shows were added, including one drama series, one variety show and six sitcoms. According to Robert D. Wood, president of CBS, the reasoning behind the drastic overhaul was simple. “We had a very hot hand this season, and we’re reaching to keep those dice hot. We wanted to maximize every opportunity so that if two or three of our new shows should explode, the return would be even greater” [2].

As for its emphasis on comedy, Wood stated that CBS was “a comedy and variety network,” and that its 11 half-hour of sitcoms were indicative of the network’s “interest in providing counter-programming, so that CBS will have a personality distinctly different from the others” [3]. The new shows included a one-hour drama, The Waltons (originally called Spencer’s Mountain, an hour-long variety series, The New Bill Cosby Show, and six half-hour sitcoms: M*A*S*H, Maude (originally called Cousin Maude), Bridget Loves Bernie, The Sandy Duncan Show, Anna and the King and The Bob Newhart Show.

The network’s new schedule was presented to viewers in a snazzy fall preview special, one that was apparently not shown in prime time but instead offered to affiliates to air when they saw fit. In Chicago, for example, it was shown once on the afternoon of Sunday, September 3rd, 1972 and again during the evening of Monday, September 4th, 1972 [4, 5].

The CBS promotional campaign included a catchy slogan set to an equally catchy jingle: “Have we got a fall for you!” A variation of this slogan was used in print ads: “Have we got a night for you!” promoting each night of the CBS schedule. For shows returning from the previous season the slogan was tweaked again, to “Have we got a show for you!” but remained just as catchy. The preview special had this jingle playing in the background (a lot) and repeated the slogan (often).

Five of the new CBS sitcoms were scheduled either on Saturday or Sunday evening, in an effort to create two solid comedy blocks. On Saturday, Bridget Loves Bernie was hammocked at 8:30PM between All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show; The Bob Newhart Show followed at 9:30PM. On Sunday, Anna and the King led off the night at 7:30PM, followed by M*A*S*H and The Sandy Duncan Show at 8PM and 8:30PM, respectively, with returning The New Dick Van Dyke Show at 9PM.

Referring to the Sunday line-up, Fred Silverman admitted “There are certain risks, but I think it will work. We’ve been in a bad third place on Sunday night for several seasons. We think our comedy block provides an alternative. When I’m home on Sunday night, there’s not much of a choice” [6]. He furthermore suggested that even if NBC’s The Wonderful World of Disney tops new entries Anna and the King and M*A*S*H from 7:30-8:30PM, younger viewers would switch to The Sandy Duncan Show rather than tune into the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie [7].

Anna & The King

Anna & The King was based upon the 1956 movie that in turn was based upon the 1952 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, that had been itself based upon a novel. The musical, movie and series starred Yul Brynner as the hairless King of Siam. Samantha Eggar appeared as Anna Owens, the schoolteacher the King of Siam hired to educate his numerous children (by many, many wives). The series lasted only a few months.

But Anna and the King wasn’t the only new CBS series based on a movie. M*A*S*H, a somewhat toned-down version of the hit 1970 film (which itself was based on the 1969 novel), premiered on September 17th. Alan Alda starred as Hawkeye Pierce, irreverent doctor, womanizer and wisecracker. Gary Burghoff reprised his movie role as Radar O’Reilly, the quirky company camp. McLean Stevenson, Wayne Rogers and Loretta Swit also starred. Eleven years later the beloved series came to a close with a feature-length finale that still tops the Nielsen record books.

Sandy Duncan, whose first series Funny Face had aired for thirteen weeks on CBS in 1971 before production was shut down so Duncan could recover from surgery, was back in 1972. CBS was more than willing to give her another shot and she revived back the character of Sandy Stockton for The Sandy Duncan Show, which co-starred Tom Bosley, later to appear on Happy Days as Papa Cunningham. The Sandy Duncan Show was cancelled after only a handful of months in December.

Bill Cosby, obviously, starred in The New Bill Cosby Show, a sketch/variety hour that premiered September 11th, 1972. The Bill Cosby Show had aired on NBC from 1969-1971. The new version didn’t last nearly as long. It was cancelled after eight months.

Maude was the first of many spin-offs of the popular All In The Family, which returned for its third season in the fall of 1972. Maude was Edith’s cousin and Archie’s nemesis. A vocal, opinionated woman, Maude was on her fourth husband. The series ran for six seasons before ending after star Bea Arthur called it quits. At once amusing, dramatic, comedic and controversial, Maude joined many other CBS shows to define the network during the 1970s.

Earl Hamner, Jr.’s sprawling family epic The Waltons premiered on Thursday, September 14th, airing at 8PM. The series stayed in the same timeslot until 1981, when it came to a close. Centered on the Walton clan, living on their mountain during the Depression, The Waltons began as a family series and evolved into an even larger family series, with a cast of dozens.

One new CBS series drew controversy even before it premiered – and that’s what ended up killing it. Bridget Loves Bernie brought together Meredith Baxter as Bridget Fitzgerald, a practicing Catholic, and Bernie Steinberg, of the Jewish faith. Reactions to the mixed marriage were fierce, both on-screen and off. The show garnered high enough ratings to basically guarantee renewal but CBS cancelled the series after one season.

The Bob Newhart Show starred Bob Newhart as a psychologist, with Suzanne Pleshette as his wife and Bill Daily as their neighbor. It was actually the second Bob Newhart vehicle to be called The Bob Newhart Show; the first was a variety show on NBC during the 1961-1962 season. The sitcom version would run for six seasons and, in one of television’s most famous twists, would be revisited in the series finale of Newhart in May of 1990.

CBS Movies

Television shows (both those new and returning) weren’t the only product CBS was pushing for the 1972-1973 season. Premiering major motion pictures on the networks was a bigger deal back in the 1970s than it is nowadays.

CBS had three nights of movies, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Among the films CBS premiered that year were Around The World in 80 Days, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Undefeated and the made-for-TV movie The Family Rico.

Sports, news and special programming were also an important part of the CBS strategy.

Of the eight new shows premiering on CBS during the fall of 1972, four would not return for the 1973-1974 season. On the other hand, the four shows that did survive past their first season would all go on to run for six seasons or more.

Works Cited:

Back to Articles

Last Updated June 26th, 2008