Schedule Rewind: A look back at the Prime Time schedule from seasons past and network decisions impacting sci fi and fantasy shows.
The 1980’s were a particularly bad decade for sci fi TV on the broadcast networks with sparse genre offerings and few that lasted more than a season. The 1987-88 season is exemplary of this with only a handful of shows of interest to sci fi and fantasy fans airing across the Big 3 Networks (ABC, CBS, NBC). But a new show arrived in the syndication market that year which would not only lead the way for the Star Trek franchise but also for sci fi television over the next decade and more. Here’s a look at the shows from that season on each of the networks and in the syndication market.
ABC:
MacGyver (Mondays 8 PM EST)
The Charmings (Thursdays 8:30 PM EST)
Probe (Thursdays 8 PM EST)
Max Headroom (Fridays 10 PM EST)
The cyberpunk series Max Headroom had arrived on ABC’s schedule late in the prior season and turned into a minor hit airing on Tuesdays in the 10 PM EST hour against minimal competition. But when it returned in Fall of 1987, ABC shifted it to Fridays at 9 PM against the still-popular Dallas on CBS and Miami Vice on NBC. Maybe ABC execs thought audience interest in those shows was waning (the former was in its eleventh season, the latter in its 4th), but the counter-programming attempt failed miserably. Max Headroom sunk in the ratings and was cancelled after a shortened second season. Ironically the show predicted its own demise by depicting network executives making instant decisions based on up-to-the-minute ratings numbers (you can read more about the show at this link.)
Also on ABC that season was the spy fi series MacGyver which was in its third year and holding its own on Mondays at 8 PM against Top 10 ALF and Top 20 Valerie’s Family on NBC. On Thursdays, ABC scheduled the prior year’s mid-season replacement series The Charmings in the 8:30 PM timeslot. That one was a sitcom run-up of sorts to Once Upon A Time as it following Snow White, Prince Charming, and their children living in the modern world. It aired against top-rated The Cosby Show and A Different World and did not have a happily ever after as it was cancelled mid-season. ABC then slotted the promising sci fi investigation series Probe (co-created by Isaac Asimov) in the Thursday 8 PM hour. But that show disappeared after seven episodes had aired.
CBS:
Beauty and the Beast (Fridays 8 PM EST)
CBS has long had an aversion to sci fi TV shows, preferring to stick to its formula of sitcoms, soap operas, and procedurals. But in the 1987-88 season, the network decided to take a chance on the fantasy drama Beauty and the Beast which starred Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman (and had multiple episodes written by George R.R. Martin). It was scheduled in the Friday 8 PM hour against minimal competition and was renewed for a second season. It never counted as a ratings hit, though, and Hamilton departed after the second season. A third year was attempted without Hamilton, but the show was cancelled after only twelve more episodes were produced.
NBC:
ALF (Mondays 8 PM EST)
The Highwayman (Fridays 8 PM EST)
NBC’s sci fi sitcom ALF continued to perform well for the network in its second season, becoming a Top 10 hit that year (it was a Top 30 show its first season) as it aired on Mondays at 8 PM against minimal competition (you can read more about that show at this link). Also on the network that season was the Glen A. Larson sci fi action-series The Highwayman which starred Sam Jones (Flash Gordon). That series started as a pilot movie that aired in Fall and was then scheduled in the Friday 8 PM hour in Spring. The competition was not too tough on that night (though one of the few other broadcast net genre shows Beauty and the Beast aired in that hour), but it never found an audience and disappeared after nine episodes (you can read more about the show at this link). The only other show that might be of interest to genre fans on NBC was the angel-on-Earth entry Highway to Heaven, which was in its fourth season on that network.
FOX:
Werewolf (Saturdays 8 PM EST)
The New Adventures of Beans Baxter (Saturdays 8:30 PM EST)
The fledgeling FOX network was in its second season (its first full season) and had a variety of genres on its slate as it tried to establish itself against the Big 3 nets. The network was not really trying get the same level of viewership at that point, but it did want to draw some eyes to its programming. The supernatural drama Werewolf (starring Chuck Conners) started in late July (FOX tried to get a jump on the other networks with early starts for its shows) and was followed by the spy fi comedy The New Adventures of Beans Baxter in the 8:30 timeslot. Both shows would end up getting shuffled to different timeslots on the same night, but neither found enough of an audience for the struggling network to justify bringing them back for a second year.
Syndication/Cable:
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Friday the 13th: The Series
The Hitchhiker
Ray Bradbury Theater
Tales from the Darkside
Scripted programming in the syndication market was on the upswing in the 1980’s and the latter half of the decade started seeing more and more offerings beyond the afternoon animated shows targetted at a younger audience. By Fall 1987, most off-network genre offerings followed the anthology format. Tales from the Darkside was in its fourth and final season while Friday the 13th: The Series (linked to the films in title only) was just getting started. The reboot of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (more of a mystery/suspense series) continued for three seasons on the USA network and syndication after getting cancelled by NBC. The premium cable channels Showtime and HBO were also dabbling with scripted shows offering The Hitchhiker and Ray Bradbury Theater respectively. The later would switch to syndication in its third season and additional genre anthologies Monsters and Freddy’s Nightmares would show up later in the ’80’s.
But most important for sci fi TV was the arrival of Star Trek: The Next Generation in Fall of 1987. Paramount had originally approached the broadcast networks with the series (including FOX), but none would commit to more than thirteen episodes. Studio execs then decided their best bet was to take the show to syndication, the same market where reruns of the original series had been performing well since it began its encore run in the ’70’s. The shift to syndication was almost certainly crucial to the show’s success as the networks likely would not have given TNG the support it needed (especially considering their aversion to genre television in the ’80’s) and probably would have wanted more control of the series.
As it turned out, Star Trek: The Next Generation proved a huge success in the syndication market, often airing early evening on Saturdays. It would continue for a seven-year run and would pave the way for more sci fi and fantasy shows to find success in syndication and off the major networks (you can read more about the show at this link). Just a few of the shows that would have long runs in syndication over the next ten years included Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Xena: Warrior Princess. Throughout the late ’80’s and into the ’90’s genre shows would start to pop up in syndication as well as the newer broadcast channels (FOX, UPN, The WB) and find much more success than they could have hoped for on the Big 3 networks.
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