May 20, 1989
CBS overhauled its prime-time lineup for the 1989-90 season Friday with the addition of three new comedy series, five new drama series and a revamped version of "West 57th" anchored by Connie Chung.
The new series will feature such established television stars as Richard Chamberlain (of "Dr. Kildare" and mini-series fame), Lindsay Wagner (formerly "The Bionic Woman"), Gerald McRaney (formerly half of "Simon & Simon") and the husband-and-wife team of Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid (formerly of "Frank's Place").
CBS recently finished its second consecutive season in the ratings cellar.
Programs that will not return to CBS in the fall include "Kate & Allie," "The Equalizer," "Dolphin Cove" and the two-hour Tuesday night movie. Also canceled were such mid-season replacement series as "Jesse Hawkes," "Hard Time on Planet Earth," "Live-In" and "Heartland."
Among CBS newcomers dropped earlier in the season were "Dirty Dancing," "Raising Miranda," "Almost Grown," "TV 101" "The Van Dyke Show," "Mary Tyler Moore" and "The Cavanaughs."
Although not on the network's schedule for fall, "Beauty and the Beast" will remain in production and is expected to return as a mid-season replacement.
Here are the new half-hour comedy series on CBS: "Major Dad" (7 p.m. Mondays) stars McRaney as "a peacetime marine who is adjusting not only to life on a stateside base but also to domesticity with his soon-to-be new wife and her three young daughters." The series also stars Shanna Reed as a newspaper reporter and McRaney's fiancee, and Peggy Cass as his "loyal and scrupulously efficient secretary." "The People Next Door" (7:30 p.m. Mondays) stars Jeffrey Jones, Mary Gross and Christina Pickles in a "fantasy-comedy about a successful cartoonist with two kids, a new wife and a vivid imagination that literally springs to life." Anyone remember "My World and Welcome to It"? "The Famous Teddy Z" (8:30 p.m. Mondays) stars Jon Cryer as a talent agency mailroom clerk "who inadvertently becomes the agent for the greatest actor in the world and, in the process, creates enmity with his co-workers." The series is produced by Hugh Wilson, who created "WKRP in Cincinnati" and "Frank's Place."
Here are the new hourlong drama series on CBS: "Rescue: 911" (7 p.m. Tuesdays), a "reality-based" series hosted by William
Richard ChamberlainConnie Chung Shatner, depicts "police, paramedics, firefighters and other emergency specialists risking their lives while responding to pleas for help." "Wolf" (8 p.m. Tuesdays) stars Jack Scalia as a former San Francisco narcotics detective who lives on an old fishing boat and reluctantly agrees to serve as a private investigator for an attorney, played by Nicolas Surovy. "The Hawaiian" (9 p.m. Tuesdays) stars Chamberlain as "a warm, caring and idealistic doctor at a large metropolitan hospital in Hawaii. In his efforts to help his patients, he becomes emotionally involved in their cases." Dr. Kildare redux. "A Peaceable Kingdom" (7 p.m. Wednesdays) stars Wagner as "managing director of a large metropolitan zoo trying to balance the demands of a young family and a 24-hour-a-day job." Tom Wopat (formerly of "The Dukes of Hazzard") also stars as "curator with more than a business-as-usual interest" in Wagner. "Top of the Hill" (8 p.m. Thursdays) stars William Katt (formerly "The Greatest American Hero") as "the newest, youngest and most unlikely member of the U.S. Congress. The 29-year-old surfer and outdoorsman was elected to fill the unexpired term of his ailing father but has no intention of following in his dad's political footsteps." Shades of Dan Quayle? "Snoops" (7 p.m. Fridays) stars the Reids as "an offbeat professional couple based in Washington, D.C." who become entangled in mysterious adventures. An updated version of "The Thin Man."
In addition to "60 Minutes" on Sundays and "48 Hours" on Thursdays, CBS News also will produce a new version of its Saturday news magazine "West 57th," to be anchored by the recently hired Chung.
|