ABC Will Play the Fall Season as ‘Comic Relief’

In response to the continuing Writers Guild of America strike, ABC will fill the holes in its fall schedule with what it calls “comic relief”--a slate of programs that will include repeats of its most popular half-hour comedies, as well as comedy feature films and specials featuring top comedy talents including Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, Garry Shandling and Lily Tomlin.

The network will round out the schedule with sports events including “NFL Monday Night Football” and the Major League Baseball league championships, news specials and an encore presentation of the mini-series “North and South” in a lineup that, ABC says, is designed to counter-program the 1988 Summer Olympics on NBC.

Also, as previously announced, the first 18 hours of Herman Wouk’s “War and Remembrance,” a 30-hour mini-series originally scheduled to begin airing next February, will be presented over seven nights beginning Nov. 13.

ABC’s interim strike schedule, announced Sunday by entertainment president Brandon Stoddard, contains only one new series: “Incredible Sunday,” about unusual people and stories from around the world, hosted by John Davidson. “Sunday” is a reality show that doesn’t require guild writers

The new schedule will run Sept. 17-Oct. 23, when the network hopes to have new programming.

“Scheduling the fall season has been a perplexing task at best, with the Summer Olympics taking place in late September, followed immediately by the baseball playoffs and the World Series, all compounded by the Writers Guild strike,” Stoddard said in a prepared statement.

“Our strategy, while the Olympics are on another network, is quite simply to offer viewers ‘comic relief,’ drawn from some of the best ABC comedy programs on the air, along with comedy movies and specials featuring America’s favorite comedians,” Stoddard continued. “This way, viewers will always know they can turn to ABC for a laugh or two.

“Following the Olympics, we get a breather and happily turn over the prime-time schedule to ABC Sports for its coverage of the baseball playoffs. . . . Then, when the World Series is televised elsewhere, we will re-broadcast ‘North and South.’ ”

In its comic relief efforts, ABC will air repeat episodes of “Growing Pains,” “Who’s The Boss,” “Perfect Strangers,” “Head of the Class,” “Full House” and “Mr. Belvedere” on most weekday evenings. Comedy movies to be shown include “All of Me,” “The Man With One Red Shoe,” “Romancing the Stone,” “Ghostbusters” and “Night Shift,” along with the network television premieres of “Stand By Me” and “Club Paradise.”

Comedy specials will include the new “Best of SCTV” and “The Comedy Club Special,” along with a repeat of “Garry Shandling Alone in Las Vegas.”

Stoddard also discussed some programs that will be ready by mid-season. Along with the previously announced remake of the “Mission: Impossible” series, the network also plans to remake “Police Story,” a series of two-hour made-for-TV movies based on the anthology created by Joseph Wambaugh.

Also for mid-season will be “Trackdown,” a one-hour reality series focusing on New York and Los Angeles police officers tracking parole violators. Specials to air at mid-season include the “Mrs. America Pageant,” an all-new “Battle of the Network Stars,” the reality-based special “Crimes of Passion” and “Look of the Year: Super Model Search.”