Nothing lasts forever. The mighty CBS Saturday night lineup that dominated through the early 1970s had, by 1976, become vulnerable to competition. Mary, Bob and Carol were still in their accustomed timeslots but no longer ranked among the top 30 shows of the season.
Could one of the other networks make a move? ABC tried, but judging from the ratings it seemed like most people went back to going out on Saturday nights this year.
ABC
Holmes and Yoyo
Mr. T and Tina
Starsky & Hutch
Most Wanted
ABC had been on a roll this season, winning most nights, and was likely feeling confident in making an aggressive push to take over Saturdays with three new shows. Unfortunately, two of them were quickly canceled, but not before becoming punchlines.
Holmes and Yoyo starred Richard B. Shull as Holmes, a plainclothes police officer whose partners kept winding up in the hospital. So, they gave him a new partner in Yoyo, a 400-pound android (John Schuck) with several special abilities, but who also kept malfunctioning at the worst times.
This was familiar territory for Arne Sultan and Leonard Stern, who both worked on Get Smart, a series that featuring a robot named Hymie (Dick Gautier). It was silly, which isn’t a deal-breaker, but the buddy comedy vibe they wanted didn’t happen, as the two leads never developed the chemistry that would get viewers to invest in that relationship. Plus, sitcoms about police are tough – Barney Miller is the only one that worked (unless you count Police Squad, but that’s a whole other thing).
And then there was Mr. T and Tina, which did not star Mr. T. Instead, the series was developed by James Komack (The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Welcome Back, Kotter) as a vehicle for Pat Morita, who left Happy Days to play inventor Taro Takahashi.
After a boost from Kotter’s sweathogs making a guest appearance in the pilot, the series was pulled after six episodes. Despite the brevity of its run I do recall watching at least one episode because of June Angela, who I liked on The Electric Company.
Most Wanted lasted longer than the network’s 8pm-9pm offerings – 21 episodes – but was also not picked up for another year. Which is disappointing, as this was a solid crime drama about an elite task force of the Los Angeles Police Department. Robert Stack was the captain, assisted by agents Shelley Novack and Jo Ann Harris. Most Wanted was a Quinn Martin Production, which means four labeled acts on screen, and stories that may not linger in one’s memory forever but will hold your interest while they’re on. Several episodes are on YouTube and are worth checking out.
NBC
Emergency
NBC Saturday Night Movie
Entering its sixth season, Emergency continued to present compelling stories of paramedic rescues and hospital heroics. As with Dragnet, many of the stories were based on real-life situations.
CBS
The Jeffersons
Doc
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Bob Newhart Show
The Carol Burnett Show
The only Saturday series to rank among the season’s top 30 shows was The Jeffersons at #24. Its ratings pattern was one of the more unusual I’ve seen: the show was #4 in its first season, dropped into the 20s for the next couple of seasons, dropped even further after that, and then returned to the top ten for seasons 6-8. I guess that can happen when a show changes time slots 15 times in 11 years.
Some viewers may have moved on, but The Mary Tyler Moore Show was still churning out memorable episodes in its final season, including “Sue Ann’s Sister,” “Mary’s Insomnia,”” Mary’s Three Husbands,” and Johnny Carson’s sort-of cameo in “Mary’s Big Party.” The series also received an actual final show, something that was still rare for TV series in the 1970s. That episode won the Emmy for Best Writing.
The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show would soldier on for one more season after this one, closing out one of the most memorable runs enjoyed by any network in the pre-cable era.
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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