Schedule Rewind: A look back at the Prime Time schedule from seasons past and network decisions impacting sci fi and fantasy shows.
The year that Star Trek debuted on television saw an additional eighteen sci fi and fantasy television shows airing across the three broadcast networks. It was definitely a banner season for the genre that included other entries also considered classics such as Lost in Space, The Invaders, Bewitched, Batman, Mission: Impossible, and more. This was a point when Prime Time started at 7:30 PM EST, and it was not uncommon for networks to schedule an hour-long show starting at the half-hour mark (as NBC did with Star Trek). It was also a year that gave sci fi and fantasy fans plenty to choose from, perhaps too much because you had no way of recording a series that might be airing at the same time as another genre entry you wanted to watch (VCRs were still over a decade away from being widely available on the market). Consider it early Peak TV for sci fi, but that would change soon and within a few years there would only be a sparse selection of genre entries to choose from in Prime Time. (More on that at this link.)
ABC
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Sundays 7 PM EST)
The Invaders (Tuesdays 8:30 PM EST)
Batman (Wednesdays/Thursdays 7:30 PM EST)
Bewitched (Thursdays 9 PM EST)
The Green Hornet (Fridays 7:30 PM EST)
The Time Tunnel (Fridays 8 PM EST)
The Avengers (Fridays 10 PM EST)
ABC had the most-watched genre show that year with Bewitched which ended the season in the Top 10 at the Number 7 slot. It was in its third year at that point (first in color) and would stick around for eight total seasons. Batman was in its second season at this point and still airing two nights a week. That show’s popularity had dropped after it proved a breakout hit in its first year and it would last only one more season after this. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was in its third year, airing in the Sunday 7 PM EST hour aimed at the younger audience and would end its voyage after one more season.
Premiering on ABC was The Green Hornet which came from Batman creator William Dozier and tried to take advantage of the early popularity of the Dynamic Duo. It did not go in as high on the camp factor and it never quite caught on with the larger audience, so it was gone after one well-remembered season. Leading directly out of that was The Time Tunnel, which also premiered that year. That one struggled against Top 20 series Hogan’s Heroes and competed for the genre audience with The Wild Wild West on CBS and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on NBC and would also be gone by season end. Bowing at mid-year was The Invaders which managed to hold its own against Number 2 The Red Skelton Hour and would return for a second season the next year. Also airing on ABC that season was the British import The Avengers which played off the camp-craze started by Batman.
CBS
It’s About Time (Sundays 7:30 PM EST)
Mr. Terrific (Mondays 8 PM EST)
Lost in Space (Wednesdays 7:30 PM EST)
The Wild Wild West (Fridays 7:30 PM EST)
Mission: Impossible (Saturdays 9 PM EST)
While CBS had the fewest genre offerings that season, it still had several shows of interest for sci fi fans to pick from. Lost in Space was in its second season (first in color) and doing well enough against Top 10 series The Virginian to stick around for a third year. The Wild Wild West was in its second season and would remain on the air two more years before a purge of shows deemed too violent would end its run. Mission: Impossible debuted that year (it came from the same Desi Lu studio that produced Star Trek) and it would remain on the air until the early 70’s for a total of seven seasons.
Premiering that year was the sitcom It’s About Time from Gilligan’s Island creator Sherwood Schwartz. That one started off following astronauts who went back in time and lived with cavemen but then brought the whole group to the present day when the ratings lagged. Neither format worked and it was gone from the schedule by the end of the year. Premiering mid-season on Mondays, Mr. Terrific was a superhero parody that tried to capitalize on the Batman phenomenon. But like the nearly identical series Captain Nice on NBC (which aired a half-hour later on the same night), it failed to find much of an audience and was cancelled by the end of the year.
NBC
I Dream of Jeannie (Mondays 8 PM EST)
Captain Nice (Mondays 8:30 PM EST)
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (Tuesdays 7:30 PM EST)
Star Trek (Thursdays 8:30 PM EST)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Fridays 8:30 PM EST)
Get Smart (Saturdays 8:30 PM EST)
NBC’s spy-spoof Get Smart was the only other genre entry in the Top 30 that year, ending the season at the Number 22 slot. That show was in its second season (first in color) and would remain on NBC for two more years before shifting to CBS for its final season. I Dream of Jeannie was NBC’s answer to ABC’s popular Bewitched and it was doing well enough in a mostly uncontested timeslot, though it was out of the Top 30. It was in its second season (first in color) and would stick around for 3 more years.
Premiering that season was spin-off series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. which was another show that went for the same camp appeal as Batman. It was in a tough timeslot against Top 10 entry Daktari and was gone by season end. Parent series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. had also slipped more towards the camp side by that time, but it still managed to hold on in the Friday night timeslot and would return for one more season. Also premiering that year was the superhero spoof Captain Nice from Get Smart‘s Buck Henry. But like the similarly-themed Mr. Terrific that aired a half hour earlier on CBS the same night, it was gone by season end after failing to find much of an audience against Top 5 entry The Lucy Show.
And of course, this was the inaugural season for a show that would become a worldwide phenomenon and a major franchise. Star Trek debuted on Thursdays starting a 8:30 PM that year and would pull the best ratings of its three-year run during that season. It ran against Top 10 entry Bewitched on ABC and Top 30 entry My Three Sons on CBS, but still managed to pull respectable ratings (it ended the season in the Top 40). But the show’s fate was in doubt by the end of the year because it was expensive to produce, regularly went over budget, was often running behind schedule, and Gene Roddenberry frequently butted heads with network execs. NBC would still give it the greenlight for renewal, though, and it wouldn’t be until the end of its second year that the infamous write-in campaign would happen. The show definitely had an impact on the Prime Time audience, but it would be its syndication run in the 1970’s where it would find much larger viewership and would eventually become one of the major sci fi franchises.
The 1966-67 season delivered a notable year with quite a number of shows of interest to sci fi and fantasy, many of which are still well-known today. These days, it is common to have three to four times the number of sci fi and fantasy TV shows to choose from in a season, but to have eighteen across just three networks was quite an accomplishment at that time. By the next season, the number would drop to about a dozen, and it would keep going down from there. By the 70’s and into the 80’s, it was typical to have only a handful of genre entries to pick from across the broadcast networks, and few lasted more than a season. It would remain that way until 1987 when the sequel series Star Trek: The Next Generation would help revive the genre, and many more offerings would follow in syndication and off-network venues. You can read more about that at this link.
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Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
