ABC Fall 1978 Posters: Saturday

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 Saturday poster.

Saturday on ABC in the fall of 1978 featured two half-hour sitcoms and two hour-long dramas

  8:00PM Carter Country
  8:30PM Apple Pie (New)
  9:00PM The Love Boat
10:00PM Fantasy Island

The Love Boat opened its second season with a special two-hour episode on September 16th followed by the second season premiere of Fantasy Island at 10PM. The following week, the second and last season of Carter Country premiered at 8PM followed by the series premiere of the short-lived Apple Pie at 8:30PM.

Here’s the ABC poster for its Saturday lineup:

Color poster for ABC's Saturday lineup

ABC Fall 1978 Posters: Saturday

Everyone seems a little bit squished together in the center of the poster, don’t you think?

Let’s take a closer look:

Close-up image of the cast of Apple Pie

If the pie isn’t an obvious enough clue, that’s the cast of Apple Pie (Jack Gilford, Rue McClanahan, and Dabney Coleman), which ran for just two weeks before ABC yanked it.

And another another close-up:

Close-up image of the cast of Fantasy Island

Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize are both obviously recognizable but they’re also just a little bit off.


Related Posts

Become a Patron Today

Are you a fan of obscure television? Please support Television Obscurities on Patreon by becoming a patron today.

4 Replies to “ABC Fall 1978 Posters: Saturday”

  1. Apple Pie’s an interesting obscurity. A Norman Lear produced series directed by Peter Bonerz and based on a play by the scriptwriter of Breaking Away. Eight episodes were filmed but only two aired.

    I watched everything on ABC back then, it seems, but I don’t think I ever heard about this show.

    1. I believe I saw an episode of “Apple Pie,” but I do not remember much more than that. This was back in the era when shows were yanked off the air two or three weeks after their premieres if the ratings were not good. I read Norman Lear’s autobiography, and this was one of his shows that was closest to his heart. He was truly disappointed about this quick cancellation. He wrote in the book that the network said it only got 20 million viewers, and that today any network would give their eyeteeth to have a show that gets 20 million viewers.

  2. ‘It looks as if Tattoo is standing on the arm of the chair.’

    Heh, heh.
    Makes me think of the brilliant SCTV version, where he was the size of a doll.
    “I know what your fantasy is, boss! You want to tie women up with Corinthean leather, and then pour coffee beans all over their bodies!”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.