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)
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