1978: What's on TV Wednesday Nights?

It honestly had never occurred to me until my year-by-year nostalgia slog at the HP just how hard I fell in love with newsrooms and newspeople through TV shows like Eight Is Enough and Lou Grant in the wake of Watergate and All the President's Men. In fact, I think Eight Is Enough might've been the most formative for me of all of the newspaper art of the 1970s. 

I really, really dug Dick Van Patten's Tom Bradford, an editor with a secretary and lots of professional respect--but a guy who ultimately seems to spend most of his time and emotional energy hanging out with with his wife, children and friends. Also, he's forever playing football or tennis or some sport. I see now that this dude was a total hero for me. I watched Eight Is Enough regularly when it was on; I skipped a lot of class in my first year or two at Western watching daytime reruns of the show on one of the two channels I could tune in on my dorm-room portable TV, and my wife and I even now and then put on an episode on Tubi (she liked/likes it, too).

So, Eight Is Enough Season 3 is my solid Wednesday-nights TV79 opener.

I don't know that I ever actually loved The Jeffersons, but I did come to love George, Louise and all of their family and friends, as I can't imagine that there's an episode that I haven't seen at least some of. So Jeffersons Season 5 is a likely SelectaVision situation for me at some point later in the evening.

The new shows? Meh.

I think it makes total sense that NBC in 1978 would take a flier on Dick Clark as ringmaster of an SNL for squares, but, in hindsight, it sure seems clear that the Ed Sullivan era was just solidly passed.

I watched a lot of the Vega$ pilot movie, and I found it surprisingly compelling. Still, I never watched that show when I was a kid; it's just not the kind of fun I'm usually looking for from TV. I'm not holding space for it.

Of course, 1978 me will give the new Channel 12 sitcom, In the Beginning, a go. It's clear CBS had high hopes for this Norman Lear sendup of Going My Way. Here is a very entertaining reel of promos that the network put together, apparently, for affiliates or advertisers or some B2B audience, and In the Beginning ("a different kind of comedy with impact for on both children and adults") is introduced as a big-tent Social Gospel meditation:

That back end of TV79 Wednesdays ultimately looks like movie territory for me, however. Here's what most grabbed me from the borrowed-from-box-office summary that TV Guide compiled for the new season:

• Airport '77
• Bad News Bears
• Black Sunday (just for the football parts)
• Blume in Love
• Fun with Dick and Jane
• Gone with the Wind
• Harry and Tonto
• Lady Sings the Blues
• Mother, Jugs and Speed
• Network
• Norman, Is That You?
• Orca
• Prisoner of Second Avenue
• Rocky
• Two-Minute Warning (again, football parts)

1978: What's on TV Tuesday Nights?

Channel 12 did a special preview of The Paper Chase the other night in 1978, and I thought it was excellent! 

However, there's just zero hope of any other network's breaking ABC's hold on me 7-9 Central Tuesday evenings. 

Jumped-the-shark Happy Days is starting Season 6 with an hour-long visit to a Colorado dude ranch. I am embarrassed to admit that I failed to note that Laverne & Shirley Season 4 actually kicked off last week in 1978, so we will have to hope to catch the hour-long "Festival" extravaganza in rerun. As previously noted, Three's Company (Apartamento para Tres) Season 3 gets going with "Double Date." And, then, at 8:30, one of my favorite shows of all time debuts.

For my money, there is no better sitcom pilot than Taxi's first episode, which includes the following phenomenal scene in which the coworkers learn that the pay phone in the garage is broken in such a way that they can place calls anywhere and get their coins back. So Bobby calls the National Theatre of Great Britain; Tony tries to call a Bangkok masseuse whom he met on R&R during the Vietnam War, and Alex initially declines to call his estranged daughter. It's such a clever, clever way to introduce these characters' back stories and shared station in life, and the actors are so immediately lovable and believable.

Well, anyway, I'm back open to offers at 9 Tuesday nights, which means Grandpa Goes to Washington might get some SelectaVision love during that hour.

But, more likely (sorry, Jack Albertson), I'm going to use that hour to catch up on Paper Chase or the last hour of the NBC special or CBS movie. Speaking of which, in the "Wednesday Nights" edition of this HP series, we'll take a look at some of the exciting-to-me movies that the networks have licensed for my pleasure in this dawning, glorious TV79.

1978: What's on TV Monday Nights?

Once NFL78 finishes its regular season, Monday nights portend as a Channel 12 situation from prime-time wire to prime-time wire ...

However, football season is only now getting started and extends to 16 games for the first time, and so here's a coin (apparently created by or for a Lexington TV station, now offered by an eBay seller in Bagdad) embossed with the 1978 lineup of ABC's NFL Monday Night Football games in 1978 for us all to coordinate calendars accordingly ...

As for that 7-8 p.m. Central hour before kickoff, I was never that much of a Kotter guy, anyway, so I'm not going to be any too conflicted about giving WKRP ("a hilarious, new comedy with exceptionally strong youth appeal") a try. And I imagine I will stick right with Phyllis George, whom I love (and with whom I once rode on a helicopter from Barkley Regional to a field somewhere down in Graves, Fulton or Hickman counties), until time for Frank, Howard and Dandy Don on Monday nights this fall or M*A*S*H Season 7 and One Day at a Time Season 4 in the new year.

Finally, I want to send a special 1978 Desk shoutout to Lou Grant (and YouTube compiler "mtmepisodes2"). The show's 1977-78 Season 1 (TV78) was fantastic, and Season 2 episodes don't start until Sept. 25. So that leaves us all time to acquaint or re-acquaint ourselves with "Animal," Mrs. Pynchon, Billie, Joe and all of Lou's new friends around the Los Angeles Tribune newsroom.

CBS Ranks the Top 25 College Basketball Programs of the last 25 Years

1.  Duke:  720-171 (National Champs in 2001, 2010, 2015)

2.  Kansas:  717-175 (2008, 2022)

3.  Connecticut:  590-262 (2004, 2011, 2014, 2023, 2024)

4.  N. Carolina:  639-251 (2005, 2009, 2017)

5.  Michigan St.:  617-254

6.  Kentucky:  651-222 (2012)

7.  Florida:  608-258 (2006, 2007, 2025)

8.  Villanova:  594-258 (2016, 2018)

9.  Syracuse:  579-278 (2003)

10.  Gonzaga:  716-143

11.  Louisville:  559-283 (2013)

12.  Maryland:  545-293 (2002)

13.  Virginia:  527-278 (2019)

14.  Baylor:  513-301 (2021)

15.  Houston:  528-296

16.  Memphis St:  621-236

17.  Arizona:  624-234

18.  Wisconsin:  595-258

19.  Purdue:  544-294

20.  U.C.L.A.:  559-284

21.  Ohio St:  574-277

22.  San Diego St:  579-254

23.  Va. Commonwealth:  587-249

24.  Illinois:  550-302

25.  Creighton:  578-269

I would rearrange the top 10 as follows:

1.  UConn

2.  Duke

3.  Kansas

4.  UNC

5.  Florida

6.  Kentucky

7.  Villanova

8.  Michigan St.

9.  Syracuse

10.  Gonzaga

I think I would also rank UVA ahead of Maryland, and I would put Arizona and Wisconsin ahead of Memphis.  But the rest of the list looks pretty good to me.

NFL Week Two Rankings and Survivor Pick

Here is the latest NFL top ten from ESPN:

1.  Buffalo:  1-0

2.  Philadelphia:  1-0

3.  Baltimore:  0-1

4.  Green Bay:  1-0

5.  Kansas City:  0-1

6.  Washington:  1-0

7.  Los Angeles:  1-0

8.  Detroit:  0-1

9.  San Diego:  1-0

10.  Tampa Bay:  1-0

Miami is number 26.

Once again, the NFL schedulers are generous with the fans.  Tonight, we get the Number-4 Packers hosting Number-6 Washington.  Sunday afternoon we get a Super Bowl rematch, with the Number-5 Chiefs hosting the Number-2 Eagles.  So it should be another good weekend in front of the tube.

Now for Survivor Pool.  We barely made it last week, but in Survivor Pool we just say how, not how many.  This week one game stands out:  the Ravens, at home, are favored by 11 1/2 points over the Browns.  I normally avoid divisional games, but this game is far and away our best chance given the rest of the schedule -- and I really don't think the Ravens are going to start the season oh and two.  So I'm picking Baltimore to survive.

Survivor picks so far (home teams listed first):

1.  Denver 20 - 12 Tennessee