As we arrive at Thursdays on our journey through 1976 we’ll see that little has changed from previous nights: ABC keeps introducing new hits, CBS proves to be a worthy rival with its own successful shows, and NBC just keeps trying…and failing. It will get better for the Peacock network – eventually – but for now let’s take another look at the series you watched, and the ones you missed.
ABC
Welcome Back Kotter
Barney Miller
The Tony Randall Show
The Nancy Walker Show
The Streets of San Francisco
ABC opened its Thursday prime time lineup with the highest-rated show of the evening, one that launched the career of John Travolta, as well as an array of catchphrases that haven’t aged well. I’m not sure Welcome Back Kotter has aged well either, and I’m usually a sucker for any show about teachers. But the theme song by John Sebastian, which became a last-minute substitute for one they had already selected - still sounds great.
Barney Miller finished at #17 in its second season. Then, proving even the mighty ABC was not perfect, it introduced two sitcoms that did not connect with most viewers. The Tony Randall Show, with Randall playing a retired judge, finished one season, then moved to CBS for a second season before being canceled.
The Nancy Walker Show was produced and co-created by Norman Lear, but his brand of topical comedy had begun to fall out of favor by 1976. It was pulled after just ten episodes, after which Walker was recruited by Garry Marshall to star in another sitcom, Blansky’s Beauties. That one didn’t last either.
In its final season, The Streets of San Francisco also began losing viewers, as Michael Douglas left the series and was replaced by Richard Hatch.
CBS
The Waltons
Hawaii Five-O
Barnaby Jones
CBS wisely countered ABC’s sitcom heavy lineup with three solid and more serious performers: The Waltons ranked #15 for the season, followed by Hawaii Five-O at #18. Barnaby Jones ranked #49 but would rebound back into the top 25 for its final two seasons. Perhaps the addition Mark Shera as the son of Barnaby’s cousin brought in some younger viewers.
NBC
Gemini Man
NBC’s Best Sellers
Van Dyke and Company
I wrote about Gemini Man in my “Terrible Shows I Like” recurring feature. Ben Murphy played Sam Casey, maverick special agent for a government think tank. On an underwater mission to retrieve an atomic-powered laser weapon, Sam is caught in an explosion. He miraculously survives, but his DNA is altered, and he becomes invisible. They find a way to restore his visibility by “building up a counter-field against the invisibility,” which can be controlled by that most futuristic of technology in 1976 – a digital watch.
Of course, there’s a catch – Sam can turn visible and invisible by pressing a button on the watch, but if he stays invisible longer than 15 minutes in one day, he’ll fade away, never to return.
It’s a good gimmick, and as I wrote in the original piece it’s not really a terrible show, just one that never caught on and was dropped after 11 episodes. Like Jerry Lewis, however, it was huge in France.
NBC’s Best Sellers was an anthology comprised of miniseries instead of single episodes. The one you may remember now is Captains and the Kings, which told over nine hours the story of the Irish Armagh family as they sought power and fortune in America.
I’m sure a lot of people at the time were rooting for Van Dyke and Company. Who doesn’t love Dick Van Dyke – whether it’s 1966 or 1976 or 2025? Why wouldn’t he make an ideal variety series host? Why wouldn’t it be great to see him reunited with guest stars like Mary Tyler Moore and Carl Reiner, and sharing a stage with John Denver, Lucille Ball, Chevy Chase, and even Ike & Tina Turner?
If you’re sure you would have loved it, check out any of the full episodes on YouTube, and you’ll likely change your mind. The whole thing just kind of lays there, despite everyone’s best efforts to make it work. Give Dick Van Dyke good material and he’ll make it great. Give him sketches that wouldn’t be salvageable with any performers, and they’ll get the better of him as well. He’d have to wait nearly 20 years for a more successful second act on TV, but Diagnosis Murder would run eight years and more than 170 episodes. And at age 100, I still wouldn’t count him out for one more comeback.
Shows Missed:
The Don Knotts Show (1970)
San Francisco International Airport (1970)
Nancy (1970)
The Headmaster (1970)
The Man and the City (1971)
Search (1972)
Assignment: Vienna (1972)
The Delphi Bureau (1972)
Jigsaw (1972)
The Little People (1972)
The Sixth Sense (1972)
Tenafly (1973)
Faraday & Company (1973)
Kodiak (1974)
The New Land (1974)
McCoy (1975)
Joe and Sons (1975)
Beacon Hill (1975)
Mobile One (1975)
Big Eddie (1975)
Executive Suite (1976)
Ball Four (1976)
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