My Journey Through 1970s TV: Wednesday Nights, 1978

As has become all too typical in reviewing these late 1970s schedules, ABC has once again mowed down its competition, which tonight seems mostly content with airing movies and not even trying to compete on the series front.

ABC
Eight is Enough
Charlie’s Angels
Vegas

All three of ABC’s Wednesday offering finished in the top 25, while CBS and NBC failed to land a single show that high in the ratings.

Looking back, I was a bit surprised that in its second season Eight is Enough (#11) ranked one spot higher than the third season of Charlie’s Angels (#12). 

This was, after all, the only Angels season without any cast turnover. Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd all returned, as did Farrah Fawcett for two episodes. But the Bradford family proved slightly more popular, and the addition of Betty Buckley to the cast after the passing of Diana Hyland helped to ease what might have been a difficult transition for the audience.

This was year one for Vegas (or Vega$ as it was promoted), starring Robert Urich as Las Vegas private investigator Dan Tanna. It ranked #23 in its debut season, certainly an impressive start. 

It was not a favorite show of mine, but as someone who has lived in and around Las Vegas since 1982, I enjoy revisiting the series occasionally to remember what the town was like back when the mob was in charge and resorts didn’t nickel-and-dime every visitor with parking and resort fees.

NBC
Dick Clark’s Live Wednesday
NBC Wednesday Night Movie

Dick Clark had been a fixture on television since American Bandstand went national and was already serving as host of the $10,000 Pyramid when NBC brought him into prime time in this surprisingly short-lived variety series.

It was an ambitious attempt to bring live TV back and reading the guest lineups it sounds like a show that couldn’t miss – Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Melissa Manchester, Billy Crystal, Rodney Dangerfield, Connie Francis – but even that star power wasn’t enough to lure viewers away from Eight is Enough.

Moving a show with this much potential into a new day would have been the wise move, but NBC opted to cancel instead. The final episode aired on December 27, to be replaced in its timeslot by a new series called Supertrain, which ranked #20 in my book about the 100 Dumbest Events in Television History. Serves ‘em right.


CBS
The Jeffersons
In the Beginning
CBS Wednesday Night Movie

Every year in the classic TV era had its share of sitcoms that didn’t work, but many still had likeable stars and a good-natured quality that compensated for creative shortcomings. That cannot be said for In the Beginning, which is one of the most awful shows of the decade. Looking back, probably even worse than Supertrain.

We all know the McLean Stevenson story: left a hit series in M*A*S*H for top billing elsewhere, only to star in four consecutive bombs. This is the worst of the bunch - lousy writing, dreadful characters, stilted performances, and a seething enmity toward the Catholic church.

Stevenson plays shallow, conniving, materialistic Father Dan Cleary, who is transferred from a well-to-do parish into a ghetto, where he butts heads with streetwise Sister Agnes (Priscilla Lopez), whom he dubs “Sister Mary Jackass.” Viewers are clearly being urged to side with the plucky nun over the frustrated priest, even though she proudly rides on the Planned Parenthood float in the Thanksgiving parade.

Full disclosure: I’ve laughed at Louis CK routines about Christianity that were far more blasphemous than this. But I believe God has a sense of humor and appreciates clever material. In the Beginning was not clever or funny, despite the dialed-up-to-11 laugh track desperately trying to convince viewers otherwise. It was canceled after just five episodes, a fitting response to the arrogance of its creators.


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)
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)
Young Dan’l Boone (1977)
Rafferty (1977)
Mulligan’s Stew (1977)
Big Hawaii (1977)
We’ve Got Each Other (1977)
Lifeline (1978)

Another Brady Bunch Life Lesson

Soon I'll be providing details about the new, expanded edition of my book When Television Brought Us Together, which has an official publication date of September 1. For the uninitiated, the book is about the classic TV era and how the country has changed since then, as well as the lessons the shows from this era taught us about living our best life in the real world.

Every so often I see something that reminds me of how much our culture has changed since these shows first aired, and that happened again when I saw a Facebook post about the Brady Bunch episode “And Now a Word from Our Sponsor.” In this episode, as you may recall, the Brady family is grocery shopping when they are approached to appear in a commercial for Safe Detergent.

It’s not one of my favorite episodes – the character of Skip Farnum (Paul Winchell), the beatnik director who stalks the family in a parking lot before inviting them to appear in the commercial, is an exaggerated eccentric that disrupts what is usually a more reality-based sitcom. 

We are also led to believe that Carol has a friend like Myrna (pronounced “Meer-na”), a flaky theater vet who coaches them on how to read their lines, resulting in the commercial never getting shot.

It was not a favorite for Robert Reed, either. In Barry Williams’ book Growing Up Brady he shares a lengthy memo Reed wrote citing numerous criticisms of the story, the dialogue, character inconsistencies and other flaws: “Once again, ‘The Brady Bunch’ takes an inconsistent literary leap from semi-real situation comedy into thinly motivated farce bordering on slapstick.”

To his credit however when it was time to go to work, he played material he found wanting with the same stalwart professionalism he always brought to his role and to the show (at least until the series’ final episode – if you know, you know).

Getting back to that Facebook post: it didn’t echo any of Reed’s complaints, nor was it critical of having two such hyperbolic characters as Skip and Myrna in the same show. 

This is what was considered so ridiculous:

“Mike Brady is a clown, OK? The whole family gets scouted and receives a contract to do a commercial for a laundry detergent for good money…but he just told Carol that they can’t do it because they don’t actually use that brand of laundry detergent…he wouldn’t feel right???!!!!!!!!!!!??????”

Indeed, there is a scene in the show when Carol tells Mike they don’t use Safe Detergent. He responds, “How are we going to get in front of millions of people and lie?” Carol then asks if everyone who appears in commercials really uses the product or service they’re endorsing. Mike admits he doesn’t know – but he says they probably should.

I agree, and I was taken aback that someone would dismiss Mike as a clown for having an issue with telling a mass audience something is good, without knowing that to be true.

No, it’s not a crime like stealing a car, or a moral failing as serious as cheating on your spouse, but it’s still a poor reflection on one’s character. There was a time most people understood that. I hope they still do. But it’s hard to blame those who see nothing dishonest with that type of deception when doing so appears to be a national epidemic.

You’ve probably lost count at the number of organizations and people in authority that have issued statements later proven to be false – and that they knew were false at the time. Your list may be different than mine, but whether it begins with “I can end the war in Ukraine in five minutes” or “the vaccine poses no risk to pregnant women,” that only illustrates how no one group has a monopoly on integrity.

Saying something without knowing it to be true, as millions of people do on social media every day, is wrong. It violates one of the foundational principles closely associated with the Judeo-Christian tradition that are the only things that truly underwrite our freedom and dignity. And any time and any place we still get a reminder of that, even if it comes from a couple of lines of dialogue in a 50-year-old Brady Bunch episode, I hope the message sinks in.

A postscript: If any of this has inspired you to revisit “Now a Word from Our Sponsor” I’d suggest pairing it for a pleasant evening with the Partridge Family episode “Bedknobs and Drumsticks,” in which that family also agrees to do a TV commercial. Then finish off your classic TV theme night with Lucy Ricardo’s commercial for Vitameatavegamin. I’ll take that lineup over anything on Netflix.

Top TV Moments: Joanna Pettet

I was saddened by the recent news that Joanna Pettet had died. In the Comfort TV era she was a frequent guest star on several quality shows and was always memorable regardless of her role. To me she was television’s equivalent to the cool patrician blondes favored by Alfred Hitchcock in films like Vertigo and Marnie, and I’d argue she was a better actress than either Kim Novak or Tippi Hedren.

In her personal life she played a bit part in one of the most infamous crime stories of the 20th century, having had lunch with Sharon Tate in Tate’s home just hours before she was murdered by the Manson Family. Rumer Willis played Pettet in Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood.

Unlike many performers from that era, she was also busy in feature films, appearing in the first (sort of) James Bond movie, Casino Royale, the wartime mystery The Night of the Generals, and the underrated cult horror hit The Evil (trust me, it’s good). But it was on television that most of us came to know her, starting back in 1964.

Route 66 (1964)
In “Child of a Night” Tod and Linc are determined to carry out a dying man’s wish of getting a large sum of money to its rightful recipient. Making her TV debut, the British-born Pettet manages a convincing southern accent as a would-be claimant of the fortune.

The Doctors (1964)
As nurse Judy Lloyd, Pettet appeared in 18 episodes of this daytime drama that debuted the same year as General Hospital.

The Fugitive (1966)
A traveling carnival provides a colorful backdrop to this typically strong episode, featuring Joanna Pettet as an emotionally troubled young woman who falls for Kimble, and jeopardizes his freedom after she is rejected. She would have an equally doomed romance with David Janssen eight years later in the Harry O episode “Forty Reasons to Kill.”

Night Gallery (1971)
Series fans have dubbed Pettet the Queen of Night Gallery, since she appeared in four different episodes. “The Caterpillar” may be the most satisfying but she’s just a supporting player in that tale of lust and murder. More interesting, at least until its climax, is “The House,” in which she plays a woman who tells her psychiatrist about a recurring dream she’s had for ten years: she is driving along a country road and sees a beautiful house – she knocks on the door but wakes up before anyone answers.

On the day she is released from a sanitarium, she spots the house from her dream and finds out it’s for sale. What happens next? No spoilers here, except to say that even Joanna Pettet wasn’t satisfied. “The ending makes absolutely no sense at all,” she said in an interview. 

Banacek (1972)
One reason Joanna Pettet was always in demand is how she seemed to have chemistry no matter who she was paired with on screen. Here she brings out a softer side of George Peppard’s smug, sexist hero. 

In “Project Phoenix” Pettet plays an automotive engineer who falls under suspicion after an experimental vehicle disappears from a moving train. Lots of familiar faces in this one – William Windom, Bert Convy, Peter Mark Richman, Herb Edelman, John Fiedler – what a wonderful era of television this was, with so many great character actors making every part memorable.

The Captains and the Kings (1976)
The 1970s were awash in ‘prestigious’ miniseries adaptations of popular novels, and while this one never made the same splash as Roots or Rich Man, Poor Man, it’s good trashy fun. It’s a multi-generational story of one Irish American family, loosely based on the Kennedys (unofficially to avoid any lawsuits). Amidst a huge all-star cast, Pettet appears as Katherine Hennessey, an early object of desire for young Joe Kenn…er, Armagh, who helps to smooth his rougher edges before his rise to power.

Charlie’s Angels (1980)
“Nips and Tucks” is one of the better fourth season (Shelley Hack) episodes, thanks in part to guest star Louis Jourdan as a renowned plastic surgeon being blackmailed into changing the appearance of a wanted racketeer. Pettet plays the crook’s girlfriend, who’s ready to kill anyone getting in the way.

The Love Boat (1981)
Most of Pettet’s resume consists of heavy dramatic roles, so it’s fun to see her playing light comedy for a change. In “I Love You Too, Smith” she plays a fussy customs agent whom Gopher despises, until she sails on the Pacific Princess, and you can guess what happens next.

Knots Landing (1983)
This was Pettet’s last recurring series role; she appeared in nine episodes as police detective Janet Baines.

The Fall Guy (1984)
Colt and company are shooting a James Bond-type movie (“Always Say Always”), but that’s not what makes this episode memorable. It’s the guest appearances by three former Bond girls that made it more fun – Pettet (Casino Royale), Lana Wood (Diamonds are Forever) and Britt Ekland (The Man with the Golden Gun).

And as it turned out, 1984 was Pettet’s last busy working year. She also appeared in episodes of Hotel, Knight Rider, The Yellow Rose and Finder of Lost Loves. After that IMDB lists only four more projects before she began more than 30 years of (hopefully happy) retirement.

My Journey Through 1970s TV: Tuesday Nights, 1978

CBS and NBC tried their best with new and returning offerings, but neither had a chance against the juggernaut that was ABC’s Tuesday night hit factory. Four of the season’s top ten shows aired back-to-back this evening, and while one must applaud the network for tapping into what America liked to watch, it’s also unfortunate that their dominance claimed one series on a rival network that deserved a better fate.


CBS
The Paper Chase
CBS Tuesday Night Movie

“You teach yourselves the law, but I train your minds. You come in here with a skull full of mush and if you survive, you’ll leave thinking like a lawyer.”

After a long and distinguished career, John Houseman at age 71 found the role that defined his career as law professor Charles Kingsfield in The Paper Chase (1973).

After receiving the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Houseman reprised the role in this series that, despite such a pedigree, was canceled after one season. The Showtime network brought it back for three more seasons five years later, but only about one-third of American households had cable back then. It remains one of 1970s television’s largely undiscovered treasures. There were DVDs released but they’re long out of print, available only at inflated prices on the secondary market.



ABC
Happy Days
Laverne & Shirley
Three’s Company
Taxi
Starsky & Hutch

The first three shows were in ABC’s Tuesday lineup in the previous year and are still topping the charts: Happy Days at #3, Laverne & Shirley at #1, and Three’s Company at #2. Taxi replaced Soap and finished the season at #9.

The excellent series Family was moved from Tuesdays to Thursdays, but that did not improve its rating. In its place on Tuesday – Starsky & Hutch, then limping through its final year.

NBC
Grandpa Goes to Washington
The Big Event

With Chico and the Man canceled shortly after the death of Freddie Prinze, NBC immediately put Jack Albertson into another series, and into a very different role. Political science professor Joe Kelley is forced into retirement at age 66 and decides to explore how political theory meets reality when he runs for a Senate seat and wins.

Grandpa Goes to Washington borrowed from Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, though Albertson’s Joe was not as wide-eyed and naïve. A time slot change and a stronger supporting cast might have kept the series around longer – Larry Linville played Joe’s son, once again the butt of every joke after years of similar abuse on MASH.

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)
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)
Young Dan’l Boone (1977)
Rafferty (1977)
Mulligan’s Stew (1977)
Big Hawaii (1977)
We’ve Got Each Other (1977)
Lifeline (1978)

Still Stuck in the 1970s, Part Two

The 1970s returned to the news recently as older Americans wondered why the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding did not generate the same national pride as the Bicentennial in 1976.

A YouTube video entitled “The 12 Things That Made Americans Happier in the 1970s (That We Destroyed)” provides some insightful answers into how the country has changed in the last 50 years. The first six of those things, and how many of them were connected to television or were reflected in the shows of that decade, were covered last week (just scroll down to read that post).

We left off on a particularly salient point related to Comfort TV: “Entertainment was shared.” It relates how, on a single evening in 1972, more than half the people in the United States were watching shows on one of the handful of channels available. Then, the next day at work and school and at the grocery store there was something to talk about: “a common thread running through the entire country."

Now, of course we consume entertainment on personal devices, individually, with thousands of programming options instead of four channels. That common thread no longer exists.

Moving on to point #7: “Food was just food.” I love this one. Food wasn’t as closely examined then as it is now, when it has become a source of anxiety and moral judgement. Mothers took their kids to McDonald’s without feeling guilty. Saturday mornings were spent wolfing down sugar coated cereals while watching cartoons. 

No one talked about probiotics or keto or meat and dairy alternatives, which is why ‘70s shows were blissfully free of any such references. And for those who think all this nanny state nonsense has produced a healthier populace, every study shows there were fewer obese people in the 1970s than there are now.

Point #8: “You were not comparing yourself to anyone.” This is like an observation in the previous blog about how social media gave us a barometer to measure ourselves against everyone else in the world, which for some added pressure to be doing better. “Keeping up with the Jones” is not a new sentiment, but in the ‘70s it was a localized phenomenon. If someone down the street bought a new car, or put a pool in their backyard, you might have felt some pressure to do the same. But your summer vacation at the King’s Island Amusement Park shouldn’t seem less enjoyable because someone you’ve never met was swimming with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands and shared the video on Facebook.

Next, “Institutions could be trusted.” Oh, boy. Our confidence has been shaken in government, media, church, schools, and the medical establishment. As reflected on TV shows in the ‘70s, if a student was sent to the principal’s office, or a kid like Danny Partridge was caught shoplifting, there was an automatic assumption that the authority figure was in the right. 

That assumption no longer exists, leaving each of us to personally adjudicate the truth of everything. That’s stressful, and exhausting.

Point #10. “There was a clear path, and it worked.” We all knew what it was, and how it was reinforced by most family shows on TV: finish school, get a job, get married, buy a house, have children, retire with a pension. I didn’t follow that path exactly, but I still saw the value in it. Fewer people do so now and even doing so does not guarantee a stable future.

Next, “Aging had a place.” Our older relatives were a respected source of wisdom to convey to grandchildren. Now they are “a problem to be managed, rather than a resource to be valued.”

The video’s final point is one that connects to many of those it preceded: “Time.” We just don’t have as much of it anymore. Is it better to be time-rich and money-poor? Or Money-rich and time-poor? Money can’t buy happiness but leisure hours, away from work, from computer screens, can add immeasurably to our peace of mind.

What do you think? The video has drawn more than 200 comments. Most are what you might expect – some blame the political left for our present perilous state (“Feminists ruined the one paycheck model”), while others blame the right (“Then we got Reaganomics and it just went downhill ever since.”). For others it’s just politicians regardless of party, or the media, lawyers (Shakespeare would approve) or technology (some truth there). And there are the usual voices condemning millionaires for not giving everyone more of their money.

But in many ways, we are to blame because we’ve done this to ourselves. The good news is we could reverse course if we wished to do so. Before televisions needed software updates. Before the internet put idiots on Tik Tok on equal footing with experts who have studied an issue for decades (with the idiots always getting more clicks). Before heads of prestigious medical schools could testify with a straight face that men can get pregnant. Before exposure to a 24-hour news cycle that has us convinced the country and the world are in far worse shape than they are.

“We are not going to pretend the 1970s were perfect. There were real injustices that needed fixing, and some were fixed, and that was good,” the video states in its conclusion. “But the things in this video were not injustices. They were the load-bearing structures of an ordinary contented life, and we knocked them down without noticing they held up the ceiling.”

Still Stuck in the 1970s, Part One

Over the 14-year history of this blog I’ve tried to give equal attention to shows throughout the Comfort TV era. But looking back it’s perhaps obvious that more pieces have been devoted to 1970s television than any other decade.

I have many favorites from the 1950s and ‘60s, but they were discovered after their first runs, so I didn’t have a connection with them when they were new. And while the 1980s also introduced several classic shows, it also planted the seeds for where television was headed in the ‘90s and beyond.

The 1970s took me from age 6 to age 16. I grew up with these shows and never stopped watching them. Their characters, references, fashions and music are imprinted on my DNA. That’s why I so enjoyed a YouTube video entitled “The 12 Things That Made Americans Happier in the 1970s (That We Destroyed).” Especially interesting is how many of them were connected to television or were reflected in the shows of that decade.

The video is nearly 30 minutes, so I’m going to cover it in two parts.

It begins with a statement backed by data that the average American in the 1970s reported levels of happiness and life satisfaction that have not only been unmatched in any subsequent decade but have declined almost continuously over the last 50 years. In doing so it introduces us to Ray, head of a middle-class family in Flint, Michigan. His house was smaller than what many people have now, his car wasn’t as nice and his TV only got four channels, “but he was happier than you are.”

Why? Here is introduced the first point: “One income was enough for a comfortable middle-class existence.” We saw that illustrated by that quintessential ‘70s TV family on The Brady Bunch. Mike supported six kids and a housekeeper on his income, which was enough to cover the mortgage, food bills, clothing bills, utilities and other necessities, and whatever they paid Alice.

What happened to family structure, stability and economic security once two incomes were necessary? I think we know.

The video’s second point: “The neighborhood was real.” Again, something reflected in the shows of that decade. People knew their neighbors and looked out for them. Bob and Emily knew Howard Borden. Mary had Rhoda and Phyllis. Archie Bunker had George Jefferson, and when George moved uptown he had Mr. Bentley. Your neighbors were a part of your life. They were when I was a kid in the ‘70s. Today where I live now? Never even met them.

Next, and this one was especially intriguing: “There was nothing to optimize.” Ray, we’re told, did not count his steps, monitor his macros, or measure his heart rate variability. He did not have a side hustle or a personal brand. He did not think of himself as a project to be improved. He worked, he came home, he ate dinner, he watched TV, and he went to bed, and did the same thing the next day. And “he did not experience this as a failure to maximize his potential.”

Two things to note: first, one of the unintended consequences of social media is how it gave us a barometer to measure ourselves against everyone else in the world, which for some added pressure to do more, be more, and share every action along the way.

Second, Ray’s chosen after-dinner activity was to watch television, just like tens of millions of other Americans at that time. Before the internet and video games that were more sophisticated than Pong, that was how pleasant evenings were spent. Doing so was certainly more relaxing than checking our phones every ten seconds, and it was an activity we were sharing with households across the nation; a common interest of the kind that also no longer exists to the same extent.

Point #4: “The future felt like it was getting better.” Do I even need to elaborate? For many of us that is certainly no longer the case, and it’s a damn shame.

Point #5: “Work ended when you left.” This may still be the case for many, thankfully, especially those who work in an office or a retail shop and like Fred Flintstone can’t wait to hear the horn that means it’s quitting time. 

I know this wasn’t always true in the ‘70s either. Bob Hartley’s patients sometimes called him at home. The doctors on Medical Center and Marcus Welby, M.D. stayed on call when it was necessary.

But as the video says, “the modern American carries their work in their pocket, everywhere, always.” Too many of us are wired to our workplaces through our phones, so that hard physical boundary between work and life no longer exists.

The last point we’ll cover in part one is perhaps the most relevant to this blog: “Entertainment was shared.” I know this was true. In the ‘70s families watched TV together, in the same room on the same set. Ray’s coworkers were watching the same programs in their homes. This was, as the video states, “a shared, communal, synchronizing experience.”

When I wrote my book When Television Brought Us Together (revised version coming soon!), this was one of its main premises: television gave the country a common set of cultural references. Now, we are more likely to consume entertainment on personal devices, individually, with thousands of programming options instead of four channels.

More variety is nice, I guess. But how much of it is really worth watching?

The rest of the video will be covered next week. Please check it out before then, and perhaps by then you’ll also pine for what life was like in America 50 years ago.

My Journey Through 1970s TV: Monday Nights, 1978

During this journey we’ve seen how some prime-time schedules in the 1970s were just more interesting than others. Monday nights in 1978…is not one of those times. Still, ABC finishing third is surprising given its previous ratings dominance. For the second straight evening viewers mostly stayed with a CBS lineup of returning favorites and one new series that definitively proved that turkeys can’t fly.

CBS

WKRP In Cincinnati
People
MASH
One Day at a Time
Lou Grant

I’m not sure why WKRP seems to bubble just under confirmed “classic TV” status. Maybe it wasn’t on long enough. But I still can’t get through Thanksgiving without one reference to flying turkeys. And while the “Jennifer or Bailey” debate never reached the heights of “Ginger or Mary Ann,” we all know where discerning men of culture pledged their troth.

People, hosted by Phyllis George, was the network’s attempt to launch a second magazine-style series after the success of 60 Minutes. Like the actual People magazine, which achieved a circulation of more than two million copies a week in the 1970s, it featured interviews with celebrities. It didn’t last long, but Entertainment Tonight debuted in 1981 and is still going strong. Go figure.

MASH, now in its seventh season, was the evening’s highest-rated series (#7), followed by One Day at a Time (#18) and Lou Grant (#30). WKRP would break into the top 20 in its second season.



NBC
Little House on the Prairie
NBC Monday Night Movie

Monday gave NBC its strongest showing of the season, with Little House at #14 and the Monday Night Movie at #21.


ABC
Welcome Back Kotter
Operation Petticoat
Monday Night Football

Ratings had begun to drop for Welcome Back Kotter in its previous season, and here in season 4 they continued to plummet. John Travolta was gone, replaced by a new Sweathog played by Stephen Shortridge. 

Gabe Kaplan also cut back on his appearances, citing a contract dispute with the network.

By this time viewers had also abandon ship on Operation Petticoat, but enough returned for Monday Night Football to rank at #28 for the season. Given the viewer numbers football draws now, it’s hard to believe there were 27 shows with higher ratings.


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)
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)
Young Dan’l Boone (1977)
Rafferty (1977)
Mulligan’s Stew (1977)
Big Hawaii (1977)
We’ve Got Each Other (1977)
Lifeline (1978)

People (1978)