More about midseason replacements

[bpatrick]

I can think of a few more shows that started as midseason replacements:

The William Bendix version of "Life of Riley" in the winter of 1953;

"The Hollywood Palace" in January 1964;

"The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in February 1967;

"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" in January 1968;

"Sanford and Son" and "Emergency!" in January 1972;

"Barnaby Jones" in January 1973;

"Good Times" in January 1974;

"Barney Miller," "The Jeffersons," "Baretta," and "S.W.A.T." in January 1975;

"Laverne and Shirley," "The Bionic Woman," and "Donny and Marie" in January 1976 ("One Day at a Time" debuted in December 1975);

"The White Shadow" and "Diff'rent Strokes" in November 1978;

"Real People" in the spring of 1979 (not sure of the premiere date);

"Knots Landing" in (I believe) November 1979;

"That's Incredible!" in January 1980;

"Dynasty" in January 1981.


And I can think of four monster hits that started as summer shows: "The Lawrence Welk Show" and "The $64,000 Question" in 1955;
"Hee Haw" and "The Johnny Cash Show" in 1969.

 

[Route66Fan]

One that I can think of is Perfect Strangers which premiered on ABC on March 25, 1986.

 

[Cool_guy81]

The A-Team premiered on NBC in January 1983.

Quantum Leap premiered on NBC in March 1989.

 

[Cool_guy81]

The A-Team premiered on NBC in January 1983.

Quantum Leap premiered on NBC in March 1989.

Also Three's Company premiered March 1977.

 

[NoDakObserver]

Happy Days first aired on January 15, 1974.

 

[onairb2014]

Two shows that began with short runs in August 1976 did reasonably well; ABC's 'What's Happening!!'(Debuted August 5), and CBS's 'Alice'(started August 31, about as late as a 'summer' show could be back then). Both shows ran four weeks, then returned in November.

In the 80s, ABC's 'Moonlighting'('85) and NBC's 'In The Heat of the Night'('88) had March premieres.
ABC's 'The Wonder Years' had its debut on 1/31/88(post-Super Bowl), then was off for February due to the Winter Olympics. All the anticipation led to high ratings.

 

[installLSC]

Two iconic series that debuted on January 12: Batman (1966) and All in the Family (1971).

 

[TVCOOL]

How about Fox's prime time lineup that debuted on the weekend of April 5, 1987?

 

[bmasters1981]

More on Emergency!: it started on NBC on Saturday, Jan. 15, 1972 w/a pilot film on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, then became a regular series one week after.

 

[Cool_guy81]

Also syndication started Star Trek Deep Space Nine in January 1993, Babylon 5 in February 1993, Kung Fu the Legend Continues in January 1993, Pointman in January 1995, Time Trax in January 1993, Hercules the legendary journeys in January 1995, Jack of all Trades and Cleopatra 2525 in January 2000.