Week 6 of the 1973-1974 season started on Monday, October 15th, 1973 and ended on Sunday, October 21st, 1973. The highest-rated program was Game 3 of the 1973 World Series on NBC with a 33.7/52 Nielsen rating/share. Here are the 10 lowest-rated programs:
| ## | Program | Network | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 54 | “Long Winter-Aaron” | NBC | 12.8/22 |
| 55 | CBS Tuesday Movie (“Viva Max”) | CBS | 12.6/19 |
| 56 | Toma | ABC | 12.2/19 |
| 57 | ABC Wednesday Movie (“The Man Who Could Talk to Kids”) | ABC | 11.7/17 |
| 58 | Streets of San Fran. | ABC | 10.5/17 |
| 59 | Roll-Out | CBS | 10.4/18 |
| 60 | Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice | ABC | 10.1/16 |
| 61 | Partridge Family | ABC | 9.6/16 |
| 62 | “The Israelis” | ??? | 8.3/16 |
| 63 | Calucci’s Dept. | CBS | 6.9/12 |
NBC aired “The Long Winter Of Henry Aaron,” a documentary about baseball player Henry “Hank” Aaron, from 10-11PM ET on Sunday, October 21st.
I don’t know what “The Israelis” is or which network aired it. I can’t find any program by that name in TV listings for this week. It was likely a last-minute news special about the Yom Kippur War.
Source:
“World Series Tops Week’s Nielsen List.” Los Angeles Times. 1 Nov. 1973: E20.
Roll Out is kind of a odd show, which basically can be summed up as a black MASH. It was about an intergrated Army trucking unit in WWII France, starring Stu Gilliam [who did a brief stint on Laugh-In] and Mel Stewart [George Jefferson’s brother on All In The Family].
And Roll Out gets replaced at midseason with Good Times which was a smash hit. NBC moves the new Dom Deluise comedy Lotsa Luck to Fridays at 830 to benefit from the Sandford and Son lead-in. But CBS now has Good Times and ABC adds The Six Million Dollar Man starting at 830 as well. The viewers watched Sanford but then left in droves for Steve Austin and Good Times. All three networks had a hit show on Friday nights. Lotsa Luck was based on the British sitcom On the Busses. I remember watching that show in England as a kid. Fond memories
Lotsa Luck was sort of a doomed show as it inherited the Laugh-In slot and was teamed up with Diana Rigg’s ill-fated sitcom. Basically, it went for a lot of low class humor and wasn’t very funny. On the other hand, Good Times succeeded due to its Norman Lear connection.
Do you think “Calucci’s Department” could have been a hit, or at least a moderate success, if it had been on another night? I think it should have been scheduled among Norman Lear and MTM shows.
I’m not sure if it would have made a difference for Calucci’s Department because the comedy was split so many ways and not really as laughable as CBS’ other sitcoms were at that time.