1978: What's on TV Sunday Nights?

The 6 p.m. Central Sunday block was almost always a disappointment to me. Occasionally, there was a Disney show or 60 Minutes segment that interested me, but, for the most part, I was always rooting for the late-afternoon NFL games to run late or wished this hour would've been given to the local affiliates to plug in old sitcom reruns and game shows.

But, at 7, now we're talking ...

It felt like every other 10-year-old boy in the United States was more into science fiction than I was in 1978, but, still, I was kind of into it. That's how huge science fiction was. I liked Star Wars. I really liked Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And I loved the toys. So while I almost certainly won't stick with it, I'll give Lorne Greene in space a go.

And I'm totally, totally down for Mary Tyler Moore getting a big Sunday-night variety showcase ...

I would've preferred that she just kept on making her sitcom, but this is good. CBS did a giant, self-congratulatory anniversary special over the course of a week this summer in 1978, and I really enjoyed that. Mary Tyler Moore ushered us through that whole deal, and she was just absolutely in command of the role.

So, I have high hopes for Mary, and, indeed, I don't envision myself tuning away from Channel 12 from 7 straight on through 9 on Sunday nights. I'm only OK with All in the Family, but I'll give it a fresh chance at 8 with the cast and story evolutions in light of the Stivics' move. I adore Alice, so I'm locked in there at 8:30.

Neither of the new shows at 9 p.m. grabs me ...

So that's probably when I'll fire up the ol' SelectaVision and a tape of that night's Battlestar Galactica or some NBC Big Event special. Speaking of which, here are the specials scheduled for the 1978-79 TV season that TV Guide has me especially juiced for:

• One in a Million made-for-TV movie, CBS, with LeVar Burton as Detroit Tigers outfielder Ron LeFlore, scheduled for Sept. 26
• A Salute to the American Imagination special, CBS, marking Ford Motor Co.'s 75th year, Oct. 5
• 10th Anniversary Hee Haw special, NBC, Oct. 22
• Bud & Lou made-for-TV movie, NBC, about Abbott & Costello, Nov. 15
• Benji's Very Own Christmas Story, NBC, Dec. 7
• A Woman Called Moses miniseries, NBC, with Cicely Tyson as Harriet Tubman, starting Dec. 11
• Perry Como's Early American Christmas special, ABC, Dec. 13
• Bob Hope All-Star Christmas Show, NBC, Dec. 22
• Dolly & Carol in Nashville special, CBS, starring Parton and Burnett, Feb. 14, 1979
• Roots: The Next Generations miniseries, ABC, starting Feb. 18
• Friendly Fire made-for-TV movie, CBS, with Carol Burnett as the mother of a soldier killed in Vietnam, April 22
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings made-for-TV special, CBS, with Esther Rolle, Ruby Dee and Diahann Carroll starring in the dramatization of Maya Angelou's book, April 29
• Ike: The War Years miniseries, ABC, with Robert Duvall as Gen. Eisenhower, starting May 3

I love television.