1988–89 United States network television schedule
The 1988–89 network television schedule for the four major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers primetime hours from September 1988 through August 1989. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1987–88 season.
PBS is not included; member stations have local flexibility over most of their schedules and broadcast times for network shows may vary.
New series are highlighted in bold.
All times are U.S. Eastern Time and Pacific Time (except for some live sports or events). Subtract one hour for Central, Mountain, Alaska and Hawaii-Aleutian times.
Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.[1]
Impact of the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike
The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike lasted between March 7 and August 7. During the strike, production on scripted television series across all of the major television networks was suspended. The writers' strike forced the networks to postpone the start of the fall 1988 schedule later than usual; rather than the traditional late-September/early-October start, new and returning series had their premieres delayed until late October and into November. In the interim, the networks had to rely on a hodgepodge of programming, including reruns, films, entertainment and news specials, program-length political advertising, and unscripted original series (e.g. CBS' High Risk); NBC and ABC also benefited from sports programming (NBC relied on the Summer Olympics in September and the World Series in October, while ABC had postseason baseball coverage and moved up the start time for the early weeks of Monday Night Football from 9 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET to replace MacGyver, which was not yet ready with new episodes at the time). Even though previous strikes of Hollywood employees occurred in 1980 and 1981, those strikes only had a minor effect on the production of television programs that aired in the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons. The 1988–89 television season was thus the first of three television seasons to have its start delayed due to issues outside of the control of the major networks; the next two instances occurred in the 2001–02 season (due to the networks' news coverage of the September 11 attacks) and the 2020–21 season (due to the suspension of television productions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Legend
- Light blue indicates local programming.
- Gray indicates encore programming.
- Blue-gray indicates news programming.
- Light green indicates sporting events.
- Red indicates series being burned off and other irregularly scheduled programs, including specials and movies.
- highlight Yellow highlights indicates the top-10 most watched programs of the season.
- highlight Cyan highlights indicates numbers 11-20 most watched programs of the season.
- highlight Magenta highlights indicates numbers 21-30 most watched programs of the season.
- highlight Highlights indicates that it falls in multiple of the above categories.
Sunday
| Network | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Incredible Sunday | Mission: Impossible | The ABC Sunday Night Movie | |||||
| Winter | Great Circuses of the World | Special programming | |||||||
| Spring | Incredible Sunday | Moonlighting | |||||||
| Summer | Have Faith (R) | The ABC Sunday Night Movie | |||||||
| Late summer | MacGyver (R) | The ABC Sunday Night Movie | |||||||
| CBS | 60 Minutes (5/21.7) | Murder, She Wrote (8/19.9) | CBS Sunday Movie (27/16.1) (Tied with Knots Landing) | ||||||
| Fox | Fall | 21 Jump Street | America's Most Wanted | Married... with Children | It's Garry Shandling's Show | The Tracey Ullman Show | Duet | Local programming | |
| Summer | Totally Hidden Video | Married... with Children (R) | It's Garry Shandling's Show | The Tracey Ullman Show (R) | Duet (R) | ||||
| NBC | The Magical World of Disney | Family Ties | Day by Day | NBC Sunday Night Movie (22/16.3) (Tied with The Hogan Family and The Wonder Years) | |||||
Notes:
- Quantum Leap had a two-hour premiere Sunday, March 26, 1989, on NBC.
- The Jim Henson Hour briefly replaced The Magical World of Disney on May 14, 1989, and again between July 9-July 30.
Monday
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Monday Night Football (15/17.5) (Tied with ALF) | |||||
| November | MacGyver | Monday Night Football (15/17.5) (Tied with ALF) | |||||
| Winter | The ABC Monday Night Movie | ||||||
| Mid-winter | The ABC Monday Mystery Movie* (29/15.4) (Tied with Dallas) | ||||||
| CBS | Fall | Newhart | The Cavanaughs | CBS Monday Night Movie | |||
| Mid-fall | Coming of Age | ||||||
| Winter | Kate & Allie | Murphy Brown | Designing Women | Almost Grown | |||
| Spring | Live-In | Heartland | Newhart | Kate & Allie | |||
| Summer | Kate & Allie (R) | Doctor Doctor | |||||
| Mid-summer | Kate & Allie (R) | Designing Women (R) | Newhart (R) | ||||
| NBC | Fall | ALF (15/17.5) (Tied with Monday Night Football) | The Hogan Family (22/16.3) (Tied with the NBC Sunday Night Movie and The Wonder Years) | NBC Monday Night at the Movies (25/16.2) (Tied with Amen) | |||
| Spring | Nearly Departed | ||||||
| Mid-spring | The Hogan Family (22/16.3) (Tied with the NBC Sunday Night Movie and The Wonder Years) | ||||||
(*) B.L. Stryker, Columbo, Gideon Oliver
Tuesday
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Who's the Boss? (7/20.8) | Roseanne (2/23.8) | Moonlighting | Thirtysomething | ||
| Winter | The Wonder Years (22/16.3) (Tied with The Hogan Family and the NBC Sunday Night Movie) | Roseanne (2/23.8) | Anything but Love (10/19.0) | ||||
| Spring | Have Faith | ||||||
| Summer | Coach | ||||||
| CBS | Fall | High Risk | CBS Tuesday Movie | ||||
| Late fall | TV 101 | ||||||
| Winter | Tour of Duty | ||||||
| Summer | CBS Summer Playhouse | ||||||
| NBC | Fall | Matlock (13/17.7) | NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies | ||||
| Mid-fall | In the Heat of the Night (18/17.3) | Midnight Caller | |||||
Wednesday
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Growing Pains (13/17.6) (Tied with L.A. Law) | Head of the Class (20/17.1) | The Wonder Years (22/16.3) (Tied with The Hogan Family and the NBC Sunday Night Movie) | Hooperman | China Beach | |
| Spring | Coach | ||||||
| Mid-spring | The Robert Guillaume Show | ||||||
| Summer | Hooperman | ||||||
| CBS | Early fall | Live! Dick Clark Presents | The Equalizer | Wiseguy | |||
| Fall | The Van Dyke Show | Annie McGuire | |||||
| Winter | TV 101 | ||||||
| Mid-winter | Hard Time on Planet Earth | Jake and the Fatman | |||||
| NBC | Fall | Unsolved Mysteries (17/17.4) | Night Court (21/16.9) | Baby Boom | Tattingers | ||
| Mid-fall | My Two Dads | ||||||
| Winter | Nightingales | ||||||
| Mid-winter | Quantum Leap | ||||||
| Summer | Knight & Daye | Miami Vice | |||||
Thursday
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Special programming | |||||
| Mid-fall | Knightwatch | Dynasty | Special programming | ||||
| Winter | A Fine Romance | HeartBeat | |||||
| Spring | Thursday Night Baseball | ||||||
| CBS | Fall | 48 Hours | CBS Thursday Night Movie | ||||
| Mid-fall | Paradise | Knots Landing (27/16.1) (Tied with The CBS Sunday Movie) | |||||
| Winter | The Equalizer | ||||||
| Summer | The Cavanaughs | Coming of Age | The Equalizer (R) | ||||
| Mid-summer | The Equalizer | Knots Landing (R) | |||||
| NBC | The Cosby Show (1/25.6) | A Different World (3/23.0) | Cheers (4/22.3) | Dear John (11/18.5) | L.A. Law (13/17.6) (Tied with Growing Pains) | ||
Friday
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Perfect Strangers | Full House | Mr. Belvedere | Just the Ten of Us | 20/20 | |
| Summer | Full House (R) | Mr. Belvedere (R) | Perfect Strangers (R) | ||||
| CBS | Fall | Beauty and the Beast | Dallas (29/15.4) (Tied with The ABC Mystery Movie) | Falcon Crest | |||
| Summer | CBS Friday Movie | ||||||
| NBC | Fall | Sonny Spoon | Something Is Out There | Miami Vice | |||
| Winter | Father Dowling Mysteries | Miami Vice | Unsub | ||||
| Spring | The Jim Henson Hour | Quantum Leap | |||||
| Mid-spring | Miami Vice | Dream Street | |||||
| Summer | Highway to Heaven | NBC Friday Night at the Movies | |||||
Saturday
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Murphy's Law | ABC Saturday Night Movie | ||||
| Mid-fall | ABC Saturday Night Movie | Murphy's Law | |||||
| Winter | Mission: Impossible | A Man Called Hawk | |||||
| Spring | Men | ||||||
| Mid-spring | A Man Called Hawk | ABC Saturday Night Movie | |||||
| CBS | Early fall | First Impressions | Frank's Place (R) | Specials | West 57th | ||
| Fall | Dirty Dancing | Raising Miranda | Simon & Simon | ||||
| Mid-fall | Live! Dick Clark Presents | ||||||
| Winter | Dolphin Cove | Dirty Dancing | Raising Miranda | ||||
| Mid-winter | The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour | ||||||
| Late winter | TV 101 | ||||||
| Spring | Paradise | Jesse Hawkes | |||||
| Summer | Tour of Duty | ||||||
| Fox | Fall | The Reporters | Beyond Tomorrow | Local programming | |||
| Winter | COPS | Beyond Tomorrow | |||||
| Spring | COPS | The Reporters | |||||
| NBC | Fall | 227 | Amen (25/16.2) (Tied with The NBC Monday Movie) | The Golden Girls (6/21.4) | Empty Nest (9/19.2) | Hunter (19/17.2) | |
| Spring | One of the Boys | ||||||
| Mid-spring | 227 | One of the Boys | |||||
| Late spring | Amen (R) | ||||||
| Summer | My Two Dads | 13 East | |||||
Note: On CBS, Frank's Place consisted of reruns of the 1987-88 sitcom.
By network
ABC
CBS
Fox
| Returning Series
| New Series | Not returning from 1987–88:
|
NBC
Note: The * indicates that the program was introduced in midseason.
+ These shows returned as "backup" programming in midseason.
@ Formerly known as Valerie's Family.
References
- ^ Highest-rated series is based on the annual top-rated programs list compiled by Nielsen Media Research and reported in: Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows (9th ed.). New York: Ballantine. ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.