CTV announces fall schedule

Tuesday, June 05, 1979

Robert Martin

Toronto ON -- BY ROBERT MARTIN The sitcom juggernaut rolls on with the announcement of CTV's fall lineup of five new comedy series, four series in the adventure-drama category and the appearance of Buck Rogers on the small screen.


Of these 10 new programs, only one is a Canadian production so we will presumably be watching a lot of sports as the network tries to make its Canadian content quota. The Canadian production is called Whatever Turns You On and stars Les Lye caught between comic youngsters and a different rock band every week.

The other comedies are: Out of the Blue, a fantasy-comedy in which an angel protects a family from the whips and scorns of modern society; The Associates, laughs among the law books in a New York law office; Hart in San Francisco, Ron Moodie plays a Scotland Yard inspector with a permanent case of culture shock; Benson, a soap spin-off in which Robert Guillaume plays a butler who helps an incompetent governor keep his government together. Could be subtitled Soap and Watergate.

In more serious vein, The Littlest Hobo takes to the road. He's a German Shepherd who meets a different human guest star every week.

The Lazarus Syndrome is a medical drama starring Louis Gossett Jr. that promises to be something like Quincy meets Lou Grant.

From Here to Eternity: The War Years picks up as a series where the book and mini-series cum pilot left off last season with more love among the ruins of Pearl Harbor.

Hart to Hart stars Robert wagner and Stephanie Powers in a Nick and Nora Charles routine as a husband and wife jet set detective team.

Buck Rogers stars Gil Gerard as the space hero.

Programs renewed for the coming season are The Waltons, Vegas, Diff'rent Strokes, Circus, Headline Hunters, Stars on Ice, Taxi, Quincy, Live it Up, Soap, Barnaby Jones, Angie, Grand Old Country, Dukes of Hazzard and BJ and the Bear.

CTV specials will include Haywire, based on Brooke Hayward's book about living with her parents Margaret Sullivan and Leland Hayward; Scruples, starring a non-bionic Lindsay Wagner as a Beverly Hills boutique owner; Movieola, Hollywood trots out its old scandals one more time; and Power, starring Joe Don Baker in an imitation of Sylvester Stallone's movie imitation of the life of the late Jimmy Hoffa. Over at CHCH in Hamilton, the big inovation for the fall is The Palace, an hour-long variety show that will be produced at Hamilton Place. Jack Jones is the host, $6-million is the budget for 26 shows and Wendell Wilks and David Close are the producers. Their previous credits include Celebrity Concerts, Live at the Forum and Celebrity Revue. The program has been sold to 100 U.S. television stations.

Other new programs include a comedy, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, 240 Robert, a re-issue adventure show in the style of Emergency, adventure shows Big Shamus, Little Shamus, A Man Called Sloane and Trapper John, M.D. and a locally produced puppet show called Snelgrove Snail that will alternate with Cash for Life lottery draws.