NBC Will Add Only 4 Hours of New Shows

NBC, riding a record-setting crest of 47 consecutive weekly prime-time victories, said Monday that it will stick with a good thing come fall by adding only four hours of new programming to its nighttime lineup.

Befitting its standing as ratings leader for four years running, NBC said four nights of programming will return intact, two will be freshened up with one half-hour comedy apiece and Friday night will be overhauled with three new hourlong dramas. It was the first announcement by any network of plans for the 1989-90 season. Among the shows NBC will replace are two veterans--”Family Ties,” which had its final broadcast last Sunday, and “Miami Vice,” which will present its final episode this Sunday.

Also scrubbed were a host of first-year entries that had aired at different times this season: “Nightingales,” “Father Dowling Mysteries,” “Unsub,” “Nearly Departed,” “Dream Street,” “The Jim Henson Hour,” “One of the Boys” and “Nick and Hillary” (a revamped, comedy version of the hour drama “Tattinger’s.”)

The new shows are:

- “The Nutt House” (Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m.), a comedy starring Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman as the managers of a family owned New York City hotel. The show, from Touchstone Television, has as executive producers Mel Brooks and Alan Spencer (“Sledge Hammer”).

- “Sister Kate” (Sundays at 8 p.m.), a comedy featuring “Dynasty” star Stephanie Beacham as a no-nonsense nun charged with keeping an unruly band of orphans in check.

- “Baywatch” (Fridays at 8 p.m.), a series from GTG Entertainment, based on an NBC movie starring David Hasselhoff (“Knight Rider”) and Parker Stevenson (“Hardy Boys”) about a group of Malibu lifeguards.

- “Hardball” (Fridays at 9 p.m.), starring John Ashton (“Beverly Hills Cop”) as “a hip cop pushing 45 years old” who is sure he can out-hustle any younger cop on the beat until he is teamed with an irreverent young partner (Richard Tyson).

- “Mancuso, FBI” (Fridays at 10 p.m.), starring Robert Loggia, reprising his role as FBI agent Nick Mancuso from the NBC miniseries “Favorite Son.”