TV Was Better Back Then (May 7, 1978)

Henry? Wasn't Buffy expelled from a Henry?

It was three years of nothing but overinflated sports playing egos touting how important that they were but as time went on only proved how meaningless their so-called high school feats in sports have really been.

It was the worst of times for me during the days I attended high school. I just couldn't find anybody I had anything in common with at all. I was a total misfit in high school.

As for the times outside of the classes, what was there? Students trying to get me to spend my allowance on sports games I never had an interest in, attend events that were often on opposite the prime time network fare, or join hobbies that required me to stay beyond the end of Match Game in the afternoon. Patrick Henry like other high schools didn't have what I needed... Television culture.

As we reexplore the silver age of television, the season of 1977-78 also yielded the Saturday night appointment fare of Second City Television on KHJ, reruns of Benny Hill on channel 13, comedies galore on CBS featuring the final seasons of Bob Newhart and Carol Burnett, plus the final usuable season of All In The Family with Mike and Gloria moving out at the end of the season, plus Good Times, The Jeffersons, Alice, Maude, and a transplanted Tony Randall show which also bombed in its second and final season (it was on ABC the season before). The Six Million Dollar Man lost so much value that it was gone, as well as its spinoff The Bionic Woman, which moved to NBC after ABC passed on its renewal from the previous season.

NBC tried out Baa Baa Black Sheep and Grizzly Adams opposite ABC's popular fare. CBS had a nice try with Shields and Yarnell, but bombed. NBC had Chuck Barris's Rah Rah Show to virtually nobody. Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx had comedy hours on NBC and ABC respectively, but neither one lasted. James at 15 became James at 16 in the same season, then was cancelled.

Late nights had Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ruling the land from 11:30 until 1am when Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show took over until 2am. ABC ran reruns of prime time programming opposite it such as Police Story, Starsky and Hutch, and Baretta. CBS ran "The CBS Late Movie" featuring reruns of prime time programming.

Daytime talkers were simply Phil Donahue, Dinah Shore, Mike Douglas, and Merv Griffin.

Space: 1999 was a hit in syndication.

Wonder Woman (which moved from ABC to CBS), Spiderman, and the Incredible Hulk all got prime time exposure in the same year.

Card Sharks and Tic Tac Dough premiered on network daytime.

ABC's game show hits were The Pyramid and Family Feud.

Captain Kangaroo still ran on CBS's weekday morning schedule.

Dick Clark hosted American Bandstand on ABC Saturday afternoons.

Hawaii Five-O was finishing up its tenth of twelve seasons. Barnaby Jones and The Waltons rounded out the CBS Thursday night lineup.

Baretta had its final season of murdering ABC's timeslot.

Love Boat and Fantasy Island were a 1-2 Saturday Night replacement for what used to be appointment viewing on CBS.

Don Kirshner's Rock Concert sometimes featured rock videos before someone had an idea of making a channel out of them. Wolfman Jack hosted Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special after Carson on Friday nights.

And how was the 2007-08 season so far in this WGA writer's strike affected lineup? It didn't affect my nonviewing of whatever was there until the strike made the networks replace the crap with game shows (self-contained contests, not ongoing reality series). The networks are trying to get people back from whatever they were doing during the strike back to watching crap like Ugly Betty, Women's Murder Club, According to Jim, Grey's Anatomy, and other forgettable series that I can't relate to. Ain't working with me until the networks dump their idea of appealing to the 18-34 age group and bring back some real programming. When I see Karla Peterson write reviews about new westerns, comedy varieties, urban family comedies with a brain, and crime drama adventures with car chases and cool detectives that we guys can relate to, then I'll head back to network land and watch.

The top ten shows of the 2007-08 season as follows:

10. Heroes

9. The $1,000,000 Price is Right (prime time version)

8. American Dad

7. The Simpsons

6. Family Guy

5. The Wizards of Waverly Place

4. Robot Chicken

3. King of the Hill

2. Hannah Montana

1. South Park

May Sweeps Report (May 6, 1978)

ABC is also having a great season with another two-hour comedy block on Thursdays with Welcome Back, Kotter, What's Happenin', Barney Miller, and Carter Country.

CBS's sitcoms, MASH and One Day at a Time, went back into the red since the network moved its one-hour duo from ABC's line of fire of Tuesdays to Monday nights.

On NBC, the struggling network has a new hit, CHiPs, that's guaranteed for renewal for its second season. Aside of that, only The Rockford Files and Quincy are holding their forts on Friday nights while its 8pm lead that night continues to flounder as it recently cancelled one of the best shows of the year, the comedy sci-fi series Quark starring Richard Benjamin.

Wednesday nights are a 1-2-3 one-hour show punch with Eight is Enough, Charlie's Angels, and Starsky and Hutch dominating the night.

Sunday nights is anybody's guess, as 60 Minutes continues to beat anything ABC throws at it, as well as NBC's Wonderful World of Disney.

ABC is losing the popular Donny and Marie show for the 1978-79 season because I guess Donny is sick of doing the show, so Marie will be doing the retooled hour solo.

In the off-network fare, the Muppet Show continues to be a popular family draw early Friday nights as its sophomore season continues to attract an adult following. Game shows are everywhere in prime time access, as well as first runs of The Lawrence Welk Show and Hee Haw on weekends.

The third season of Saturday Night Live on NBC has shown so much life that it has birthed one of its own onto real life. The Blues Brothers, a duo fronted by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, were the "musical guests" on the show with Dan and John also as regulars. Last month was the first time I watched Saturday Night Live, and it was courtesy of my high school TV class with Larry Trouba as the instructor. One of his helpers put in a tape of the April 22 episode of SNL and the guest host was comedian Steve Martin, and the Blues Brothers were the musical guests. I thought that this was one of the funniest shows I ever saw, and I never stayed up that late to watch the show. The Blues Brothers would be getting their first commercial release on album later in the year.

Daytime television continues to see more soap operas expanding to an hour while game shows continue to retreat, with ABC down to reruns of Happy Days and two game shows in the hopes that the struggling General Hospital would gain some traction in the late afternoon ratings after faultering with an abnormal 2:15 Pacific Time start and a 45 minute slot until January of this year. CBS's The Match Game rules the late afternoon, while it and NBC also cancel some game shows and try some new ideas that may or may not work. Morning game shows on ABC and NBC were stable until CBS debuted The Young and the Restless in 1973, and mornings on the other two networks opposite it haven't been the same since in terms of ratings.

Saturday morning cartoons continue to rule the weekends, with some appearing on Sunday mornings as well. The most popular ones include the two-hour Scooby Doo slot, Bugs Bunny, and Superfriends.

That's what TV was like in a nutshell way back thirty years ago on this month in 1978. Now, let's see if I can do the same with prime time TV on this month in 2008.

Um, uh, um, ooh, hmm, uh. How about the Fox Sunday Night cartoon block, eh?

Welp. I guess the networks don't have anything to offer like they used to 30 years ago. In my opinion, the season of 1977-78, which was not only my high school senior year, it was probably the peak of the silver age of television. I wasn't around when the golden age happened from the late 40s through the late 50s. TV from the 60s was pretty good, and plenty of shows from that era were seen as reruns in the late 70s as syndicated fare. Gilligan's Island and Star Trek ruled.

Well, Karla Peterson, were you around in the best time of the TV era in my lifetime, the late 70s?