1978–79 United States network television schedule

This was the television schedule on all three commercial television networks in the United States for the fall season beginning in September 1978. All times are Eastern and Pacific.

New fall series are highlighted in bold. Series ending their original runs are in italics.

The highest-rated show for the year is colored in lime. The top ten highest-rated shows are colored in yellow. The top 20 highest-rated shows are colored in cyan. The top 30 highest-rated shows are colored in magenta.^[1]

PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, was in operation, but the schedule was set by each local station. On ABC, its news brief, airs all seven nights at 9:58, pm.

Fall Schedule

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Mid-Season Schedule

Sunday

Notes: The one and only airing of Co-Ed Fever was February 4 on CBS at 10:30 P.M. Mr. Dugan was supposed to premiere on CBS March 11 but it was pulled due to complaints from black members of the U.S. Congress.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Summer Schedule

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Pickups and Cancellations

Full Season Pickups

ABC

• Angie
• Barney Miller
• Battlestar Galactica (mid-season)
• Charlie's Angels
• Detective School
• Eight is Enough
• Family (mid-season)
• Fantasy Island
• Happy Days
• Laverne & Shirley
• The Love Boat
• Monday Night Football
• Mork and Mindy
• The Ropers
• Salvage 1 (mid-season)
• Soap
• Taxi
• Three's Company
• Vega$

CBS

• 60 Minutes
• Alice
• The Bad News Bears
• Barnaby Jones
• Dallas
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Hawaii Five-O
• The Incredible Hulk
• The Jeffersons
• Lou Grant
• M*A*S*H
• One Day at a Time
• The Waltons
• WKRP in Cincinnati
• The White Shadow

NBC

• B.J. and the Bear
• The Big Event
• CHiPs
• Diff'rent Strokes
• Hello, Larry
• Little House on the Prairie
• Quincy, M.E.
• Prime Time Sunday
• Real People
• The Rockford Files
• The Wonderful World of Disney

Cancellations and Endings

ABC

• Apple Pie
• Carol Burnett and Company
• Carter Country
• Delta House
• Donny & Marie
• The Hardy Boys
• How the West Was Won
• Lucan
• The Mackenzies of Paradise Cove
• Makin' It
• Operation Petticoat
• Starsky and Hutch
• Welcome Back, Kotter
• What's Happening!!

CBS

• All in the Family (would transform into Archie Bunker's Place the following season)
• The American Girls
• Billy
• Co-Ed Fever (aired once)
• Dear Detective
• Dorothy
• Flying High
• Good Times
• Hanging In
• Husbands, Wives and Lovers
• In the Beginning
• Kaz
• Married: The First Year
• Mary
• Miss Winslow and Son
• Mr. Dugan (cancelled before airing)
• The Mary Tyler Moore Hour
• The Paper Chase (would return on Showtime in 1983)
• People
• Rhoda
• Stockard Channing in Just Friends
• Wonder Woman

NBC

• Brothers and Sisters
• Cliffhangers
• Dick Clark's Live Wednesday
• The Eddie Capra Mysteries
• Grandpa Goes to Washington
• Harris and Company
• Hizzoner
• Joe and Valerie
• Lifeline
• Little Women
• Project UFO
• The Runaways
• Supertrain
• Sword of Justice
• Turnabout
• W.E.B.
• The Waverly Wonders
• Weekend
• Whodunnit!
• Who's Watching the Kids

Technically Part of Next Season

ABC

• Hart to Hart (early premiere)

NBC

• The Facts of Life (four-week tryout run)

References

• Castleman, H. & Podrazik, W. (1982). Watching TV: Four Decades of American Television. New York: McGraw-Hill. 314 pp.
• McNeil, Alex. Total Television. Fourth edition. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-024916-8.
• Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1985). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows (3rd ed.). New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-31864-1.
• Shapiro, Mitchell E (1989). "Television Network Prime-Time Programming, 1948-1988". Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-89950-412-4.