1970–71 United States network television schedule: Difference between revisions

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The following is the 1970–71 network television schedule for the three major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 1970 through August 1971. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1969–70 season. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.

This was the first time that the top rated show of the season aired on ABC.

New fall series are highlighted in bold.

Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.^[1]

Yellow indicates the programs in the top 10 for the season.

Cyan indicates the programs in the top 20 for the season.

Magenta indicates the programs in the top 30 for the season.

PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, was in operation by October 1970; however, schedules were set by each affiliated station.

In April 1970, Congress passed a law banning the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio, effective January 2, 1971.

This season would be the last one for the traditional 3½-hour prime time schedule.

Sunday

Network		7:00 PM	7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM
ABC	Fall	The Young Rebels		The F.B.I. (10/23.0)		The ABC Sunday Night Movie (28/19.7)
ABC	Winter	Local		The F.B.I. (10/23.0)		The ABC Sunday Night Movie (28/19.7)
CBS	Fall	Lassie	Hogan's Heroes	The Ed Sullivan Show		The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour		The Tim Conway Comedy Hour
	December			The Ed Sullivan Show		The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour		The Honeymooners
	Summer			The CBS Sunday Night Movie				The Ice Palace
	August		Animal World	Comedy Playhouse	The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour		Six Wives of Henry VIII
NBC	Fall	Wild Kingdom	The Wonderful World of Disney (13/22.4) (Tied with Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In)		The Bill Cosby Show	Bonanza (9/23.9)		The Bold Ones: The New Doctors / The Lawyers / The Senator
NBC	Summer	Local			The Red Skelton Show	Bonanza (9/23.9)

NOTE: On CBS, Comedy Playhouse was an anthology series composed of unsold television pilots.

Monday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM
ABC	Fall	The Young Lawyers		The Silent Force	Monday Night Football
	Winter	Let's Make a Deal	The Newlywed Game	The Reel Game	The ABC Monday Night Movie
	Spring	Let's Make a Deal	The Newlywed Game	It Was a Very Good Year	The ABC Monday Night Movie
CBS	Fall	Gunsmoke (5/25.5)		Here's Lucy (3/26.1)	Mayberry R.F.D. (15/22.3)	The Doris Day Show (20/20.7)	The Carol Burnett Show (25/19.8) (Tied with The Partridge Family and NBC Monday Night at the Movies)
	Summer			The Lucy Show reruns			Suspense Playhouse
	Follow-up			The Lucy Show reruns			The CBS Newcomers
NBC	Fall	The Red Skelton Show	Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (13/22.4) (Tied with The Wonderful World of Disney)		NBC Monday Night at the Movies (25/19.8) (Tied with The Carol Burnett Show and The Partridge Family)
	Spring	From a Bird's Eye View
	Summer	From a Bird's Eye View	NBC Comedy Theater
	Follow-up	Specials	Monday Night Baseball

Note: NBC Comedy Theater featured repeats of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, with new introductions by Jack Kelly.

Tuesday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM
ABC		The Mod Squad (11/22.7)		ABC Movie of the Week (6/25.1)			Marcus Welby, M.D. (1/29.6)
CBS	Fall	The Beverly Hillbillies	Green Acres	Hee Haw (16/21.4)		To Rome With Love	CBS News Hour / 60 Minutes
	Winter			Hee Haw (16/21.4)		All in the Family	CBS News Hour / 60 Minutes
	Summer			Cimarron Strip reruns			Specials
NBC	Fall	The Don Knotts Show		Julia	NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies / First Tuesday
	Winter	Julia	The Don Knotts Show
	Summer	The Bill Cosby Show	The Don Knotts Show
	Follow-up	The Bill Cosby Show	Make Your Own Kind of Music

Wednesday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	The Courtship of Eddie's Father	Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy	Room 222	The Johnny Cash Show		Dan August
	Winter		Room 222	The Smith Family (21/20.6)	The Johnny Cash Show		The Young Lawyers
	Summer		Room 222	The Smith Family (21/20.6)	Love on a Rooftop reruns	The Immortal		NFL Action
CBS	Fall	Storefront Lawyers		The Governor & J.J.	Medical Center (8/24.5)		Hawaii Five-O (7/25.0)
CBS	Winter	Men at Law		To Rome with Love	Medical Center (8/24.5)		Hawaii Five-O (7/25.0)
NBC	Fall	The Men from Shiloh (18/21.2)			Kraft Music Hall		Four in One: McCloud / San Francisco International Airport / Night Gallery / The Psychiatrist
NBC	Summer	The Men from Shiloh (18/21.2)			The Des O'Connor Show

Notes: Love on a Rooftop consisted of reruns of the series, which originally aired during the 1966-1967 season. The Men from Shiloh formerly was entitled The Virginian.

Thursday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Matt Lincoln		Bewitched	Barefoot in the Park	The Odd Couple	The Immortal
ABC	Winter	Alias Smith and Jones		Bewitched	Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy	Dan August		Local
CBS	Fall	Family Affair	The Jim Nabors Hour (29/19.5)		The CBS Thursday Night Movies (30/19.3)
CBS	Summer	Family Affair	Lancer reruns		The CBS Thursday Night Movies (30/19.3)
NBC	Fall	The Flip Wilson Show (2/27.9)		Ironside (4/25.7)		Nancy	The Dean Martin Show (24/20.0)
	Winter	The Flip Wilson Show (2/27.9)				Adam-12 (12/22.6)	The Dean Martin Show (24/20.0)
	Summer	NBC Action Playhouse				Adam-12 (12/22.6)	The Dean Martin Summer Show Starring Your Host Vic Damone reruns

Notes: The Dean Martin Summer Show Starring Your Host Vic Damone consisted entirely of reruns of the show of the same name from the summer of 1967. NBC Action Playhouse featured repeats of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, with new introductions by Peter Marshall.

Friday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM
ABC	Fall	The Brady Bunch	Nanny and the Professor	The Partridge Family (25/19.8) (Tied with The Carol Burnett Show and NBC Monday Night at the Movies)	That Girl	Love, American Style	This Is Tom Jones
ABC	Winter	The Brady Bunch	Nanny and the Professor		That Girl	The Odd Couple	Love, American Style
CBS	Fall	The Interns		Headmaster	The CBS Friday Night Movies
	Winter			The New Andy Griffith Show
	Summer			Headmaster (repeats)
NBC	Fall	The High Chaparral		The Name of the Game			Bracken's World
NBC	Winter	The High Chaparral		The Name of the Game			Strange Report

Saturday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Let's Make a Deal	The Newlywed Game	The Lawrence Welk Show		The Most Deadly Game		Local
	Winter	The Lawrence Welk Show		The Pearl Bailey Show		Local
	Summer	The Lawrence Welk Show		The Val Doonican Show		Local
CBS		Mission: Impossible		My Three Sons (19/20.8)	Arnie	The Mary Tyler Moore Show (22/20.3)	Mannix (17/21.3)
NBC	Fall	The Andy Williams Show		Adam-12 (12/22.6)	NBC Saturday Night at the Movies (23/20.1)
NBC	Winter	The Andy Williams Show		NBC Saturday Night at the Movies (23/20.1)				Local

By network

ABC

Returning Series

New Series

Alias Smith and Jones
Barefoot in the Park
Dan August
Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy
The Immortal
It Was a Very Good Year *
Matt Lincoln
Monday Night Football
The Most Deadly Game
The Odd Couple
The Partridge Family
The Pearl Bailey Show *
The Reel Game *
The Silent Force
The Smith Family *
The Val Doonican Show *
The Young Lawyers
The Young Rebels

Not returning from 1969–70:

Animal World (moved to CBS)
The Engelbert Humperdinck Show
The Flying Nun
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
Harold Robbins' The Survivors
Here Come the Brides
The Hollywood Palace
It Takes a Thief
Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters
Johnny Cash Presents the Everly Brothers Show
Land of the Giants
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
The Music Scene
The New People
Now
Paris 7000
Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour
The Smothers Brothers Show

CBS

Returning Series

New Series

Not returning from 1969–70:

NBC

Returning Series

New Series

Not returning from 1969–70:

Note: The * indicates that the program was introduced in midseason.

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.

Additional sources

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.

[BM2-1] 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.

[1]

@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 !August
 | bgcolor="#F0F0F0"|''[[Animal World (TV series)|Animal World]]''
-| bgcolor="#F0F0F0"|''Comedy Playhouse''
+| bgcolor="#F0F0F0"|'''''[[Comedy Playhouse (American TV series)|Comedy Playhouse]]'''''
 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |'''''[[The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour]]'''''
 | colspan="3" bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |'''''[[The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970 TV series)|'''Six Wives of Henry VIII''']]'''''
@@ Line 74: / Line 74: @@
 | bgcolor="#F0F0F0"|''[[The Red Skelton Show]]''
 |}
+'''NOTE:''' On [[CBS]], ''[[Comedy Playhouse (American TV series)|Comedy Playhouse]]'' was an [[anthology series]] composed of unsold [[television pilot]]s.
 == Monday ==
@@ Line 199: / Line 200: @@
 ! bgcolor="#C0C0C0" rowspan="3" | [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]
 ! Fall
-| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" rowspan="3" | ''[[The Courtship of Eddie's Father]]''
+| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" rowspan="3" | ''[[The Courtship of Eddie's Father (TV series)|The Courtship of Eddie's Father]]''
 | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | '''''[[The Danny Thomas Show|Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy]]'''''
 | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | ''[[Room 222]]''
@@ Line 211: / Line 212: @@
 |-
 ! Summer
-| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | ''[[Love on a Rooftop]]''
+| bgcolor="#C0C0C0" | ''[[Love on a Rooftop]]'' reruns
 | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" colspan="2" | '''''[[The Immortal (1970 TV series)|The Immortal]]'''''
 | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | '''''[[NFL Films|NFL Action]]'''''
 |-
@@ Line 230: / Line 231: @@
 | colspan="3" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#00FFFF" | ''[[The Virginian (TV series)|The Men from Shiloh]]'' (18/21.2)
 | bgcolor="#F0F0F0" colspan="2" | ''[[Kraft Music Hall (TV series)|Kraft Music Hall]]''
-| colspan="2" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | '''''[[Four in One]]: [[McCloud (TV series)|McCloud]] / [[San Francisco International Airport (TV series)|San Francisco International Airport]] / [[Night Gallery]] / [[The Psychiatrist (TV series)|The Psychiatrist]]'''''
+| colspan="2" rowspan="2" bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | '''''[[Four in One (TV series)|Four in One]]: [[McCloud (TV series)|McCloud]] / [[San Francisco International Airport (TV series)|San Francisco International Airport]] / [[Night Gallery]] / [[The Psychiatrist (TV series)|The Psychiatrist]]'''''
 |-
 !Summer
@@ Line 236: / Line 237: @@
 |}
-'''Notes:'''  ''[[Love on a Rooftop]]'' consisted of reruns of the series, which originally aired during the [[1966–67 United States network television schedule|1966-1967 season]]. ''[[The Immortal (1970 TV series)|The Immortal]]'' consisted of reruns of the series which were shown in the fall of 1970. ''The Men from Shiloh'' formerly was entitled ''[[The Virginian (TV series)|The Virginian]]''.
+'''Notes:'''  ''[[Love on a Rooftop]]'' consisted of reruns of the series, which originally aired during the [[1966–67 United States network television schedule|1966-1967 season]]. ''The Men from Shiloh'' formerly was entitled ''[[The Virginian (TV series)|The Virginian]]''.
 == Thursday ==
@@ Line 271: / Line 272: @@
 |-
 ! Summer
-| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" colspan="2" | ''[[Lancer (TV series)|Lancer]]'' reruns
+| bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2" | ''[[Lancer (TV series)|Lancer]]'' reruns
 |-
 ! bgcolor="#C0C0C0" rowspan="3" | [[NBC]]
@@ Line 285: / Line 286: @@
 ! Summer
 | colspan="2" bgcolor="#F0F0F0" |''NBC Action Playhouse''
-| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" colspan="2" | ''[[Vic Damone|The Dean Martin Summer Show Starring Your Host Vic Damone]]''
+| bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2" | ''[[Vic Damone|The Dean Martin Summer Show Starring Your Host Vic Damone]]'' reruns
 |}
@@ Line 325: / Line 326: @@
 |-
 ! Summer
-| bgcolor="#F0F0F0" | '''''[[Headmaster (TV series)|Headmaster]]''''' (repeats)
+| bgcolor="#C0C0C0" | '''''[[Headmaster (TV series)|Headmaster]]''''' (repeats)
 |-
 ! bgcolor="#C0C0C0" rowspan="2" | [[NBC]]
@@ Line 389: / Line 390: @@
 {{col-3}}
 '''Returning Series'''
-*''[[The ABC Sunday Night Movie]]''
+*''The ABC Monday Night Movie''
 *''[[ABC Movie of the Week]]''
+*''[[The ABC Sunday Night Movie]]''
 *''[[Bewitched]]''
 *''[[The Brady Bunch]]''
-*''[[The Courtship of Eddie's Father]]''
+*''[[The Courtship of Eddie's Father (TV series)|The Courtship of Eddie's Father]]''
 *''[[The F.B.I. (TV series)|The F.B.I.]]''
 *''[[The Johnny Cash Show (TV series)|The Johnny Cash Show]]''
@@ Line 444: / Line 446: @@
 *''[[The Music Scene (TV series)|The Music Scene]]''
 *''[[The New People]]''
-*''[[ABC News|Now]]''
+*''[[ABC News (United States)|Now]]''
 *''[[Paris 7000]]''
 *''[[Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour]]''
@@ Line 460: / Line 462: @@
 *''[[CBS Thursday Night Movie]]''
 *''The CBS Friday Night Movies''
-*''Comedy Playhouse''
 *''[[The Doris Day Show]]''
 *''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]''
@@ Line 487: / Line 488: @@
 *'''''[[Arnie (TV series)|Arnie]]'''''
 *'''''The CBS Newcomers''''' *
+*'''''[[Comedy Playhouse (American TV series)|Comedy Playhouse]]''''' *
 *'''''[[Headmaster (TV series)|Headmaster]]'''''
 *'''''The Ice Palace''''' *
@@ Line 550: / Line 552: @@
 *'''''[[The Don Knotts Show]]'''''
 *'''''[[The Flip Wilson Show]]'''''
-*'''''[[Four in One]]'''''
+*'''''[[Four in One (TV series)|Four in One]]'''''
 *'''''[[From a Bird's Eye View]]''''' *
 *'''''[[Make Your Own Kind of Music (TV series)|Make Your Own Kind of Music]]''''' *