Before it became home to the NFL’s Sunday night game, NBC actually offered some pretty decent stuff on the last night of the weekend. Sure, you have to go back 15 years to get to something of note, but it really is shocking just how destination these now-desolate nights once were.
Of course, the NFL season is only so long, and for most of the year NBC needs to offer some actual creative programming to its viewers. If it were me, I’d take advantage of the many millions of people who grow accustomed to tuning to NBC during the fall and early winter, and air something for their demographic. Or you could go the NBC route and schedule Dateline. Right.
7:00-7:30 Like I said above, the majority of the programming at this hour has been the NFL or Dateline. But from 1982 to 1995, NBC did offer original shows to kick off their Sunday night. Voyagers! was about a couple of people traveling through time fixing mistakes in history (sound familiar, NBC?) — apparently the idea didn’t work any better 30 years ago. Punky Brewster holds many childhood memories for me, but is there still enough there? Our House was a series from a different generation trying to find an audience in the 1980s … and like late Little House on the Prairie, it featured a young Shannen Doherty. The Magical World of Disney landed here from ABC for a bit, while the utter failure of Hull High, a musical teen drama series, should have taught today’s iteration an early lesson. The Adventures of Mark & Brian was the “Morning Zoo” made for TV, and Secret Service reenacted real Secret Service cases, hosted by President Ford’s son. I Witness Video was funniest home videos for the serious minded, Earth 2 was a science fiction adventure, and TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes speaks for itself. Okay, so nothing that screams classic … except for one. Silver Spoons, starring Rick Schroder, is just as corny today as it was then. But watching it on Hulu, I’m reminded of just how much I enjoyed it then, and still do today. It was a fun show. A bit of a rip-off of Richie Rich, but far enough away to not bother me. Plus it’s a second acting credit for Alfonso Ribeiro’s resume!
7:30-8:00 Since most things on at 7:00 were at least hour-longs, there’s almost nothing here to pick from: Punky Brewster, Silver Spoons, and Eerie, Indiana, another science fiction weird-fest. That’s it. Since I can see what comes next, I’m going to make the night a nice comedy block — welcome back Punky Brewster.
8:00-8:30 Now we’re getting somewhere. A lot of shows that top the dream lists of other people. CHiPs, Knight Rider (the original), Family Ties (already on my Thursdays), seaQuest DSV, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Third Watch (I’m surprised this never caught my eye), American Dreams (my wife’s choice — sorry honey!), The West Wing (safe on Wednesday), and Kings. Which isn’t to say that less likely favorites didn’t pop up here too. In fact, there was also Man of the People (all one episode of it), Men Behaving Badly (sounds like Two and a Half Men without the half), and Ed. Then there was the inevitable slide into reality: Weakest Link, The Contender, Grease: You’re the One that I Want!… Nice. Lucky for me, I planned ahead. In 1995, Mad About You got bounced onto Sundays for a bit, and that’s exactly the horse I’m going to ride. All the great things about the show are self-explanatory, and Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser were brilliant.
8:30-9:00 Sparse pickings again, because 8:00 saw a lot of hour-longs. Alfred Hitchcock Presents was so not for me, Valerie was one of those ’80s feel-good family fests that, for my generation, look more aptly like Family Guy, Day by Day did better called Daddy Day Care, Pacific Station sounds as dumb as the cops who inhabited it, Boston Common was about a guy who moved to Boston to spy on his sister in college (enough said), and Jenny’s Jenny McCarthy should have kept her day job. I’m actually going to go back to 1987, when an unconventional family came together on a show called My Two Dads. Not as strong a vehicle for Paul Reiser, but I remember really enjoying the show when I was a kid.
9:00-10:00 Most years, NBC was showing movies at this hour. In fact, that was the case so often that there are only three things to choose from here: Law & Order: Criminal Intent (I could never get into it, even though I’m a fan of SVU), Deal or No Deal, and The Celebrity Apprentice. It would be easy (and understandable) to pass here, but I’ve been loving The Celebrity Apprentice iteration of the show. It’s just so funny to watch these “celebrities” vie to make us remember who they are. The show returns in March, and I’m looking forward to it.
10:00-11:00 The dearth only continues here, although most of these shows had a “somebody” headlining them. UC: Undercover starred Oded Fehr and Vera Farmiga, but couldn’t get off the ground. Boomtown had Donnie Wahlberg … a Celebrity Apprentice potential? The Lyon’s Den was one of Rob Lowe’s many bad choices, and Crossing Jordan … well, that one was somewhat successful, no? Then there was the original Apprentice. Tempting, right? I’ll take a Free Play, and make it an early night. Hey, it did start an hour earlier!
Good times. What does your perfect Sunday night on NBC look like?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jan 27, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
Mad About You was a great show, but I’d never choose it over the combination of acting and comedy on 3rd Rock from the Sun. Plus, Wayne Knight had a stellar turn on the latter.
*POST AUTHOR*
I could laugh at 3rd Rock from the Sun, but as great as John Lithgow, French Stewart, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt consistently were, Jane Curtin kept me from fully enjoying Lithgow, Wayne Knight is Newman and no one else, and Kristen Johnston was so abominably awful that she kept me from ever being able to watch an episode from start to finish.
On the flip side, Richard Kind made any and all poor secondary actors on Mad About You not bother me, he’s so great.
What a surprise; Richard Kind is an actor I actively avoid in guest appearances. I liked Mad About You for the leads.