Fox TV Plans 5 Nights of Programming : Television: The young network wants to expand its prime-time schedule by fall.

The fledgling Fox TV network is planning to expand to five nights a week of programming by this fall, the company said Friday.

Fox, seen in Los Angeles on KTTV Channel 11, currently is up to three nights of regular, weekly, prime-time programs--Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The so-called “fourth network” debuted in October, 1986, with the late-night, ill-fated Joan Rivers show.

“Our hope is to be at five nights by fall,” Peter Chernin, president of Fox Entertainment Group, told a gathering of the nation’s TV columnists at the Registry Hotel.

He said that the network, owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, is shooting for seven nights a week within two years.

“We’re a little ahead of schedule,” Chernin said.

The first new full-scale night of Fox shows will be Wednesdays, he added. Chernin said that he expected the previously announced Wednesday lineup--a mixture of feature films, TV movies and miniseries--to go weekly by late summer or early fall.

“It will probably be 60 to 40% in favor of theatricals at the start, shifting to 60 to 40, or 70 to 30% in favor of made-for-TV films over a period of time,” he said.

As for the fifth night, “most of our thinking has been leaning toward Fridays,” Chernin said, adding that its programming would be regular series.

If Fox’s plans come off as scheduled, that would mean the young network would fail to be represented only on Tuesdays and Thursdays by fall. Tuesday is the power night of competitor ABC, with its high-rated lineup led by “Roseanne.” Thursdays are dominated by NBC and its smash-hit schedule propelled by “The Cosby Show.”

Chernin also disclosed that three new, weekly Fox series--including one from Francis Ford Coppola--will be launched “in the next two to four months.”

Coppola’s one-hour series is “The Outsiders,” based on the book by S. E. Hinton, which was turned into a motion picture by the director. It concerns a group of impoverished youths known as “greasers” who are in conflict with youngsters from more affluent backgrounds.

Coppola “was very involved in the making of the pilot and the casting,” Chernin said. He said the director is also involved in the show’s stories and reads the scripts.

The two other new series are:

--”Molloy,” a half-hour sitcom about a bright, 13-year-old girl commited to social causes who, after her mother’s death, moves in with her estranged father and his chic Beverly Hills family. Playing the girl is Mayim Bialik, who portrayed Bette Midler’s character as a child in the film “Beaches.”

--”The Kids Are All Right,” a one-hour show focusing on four friends, about 19 years old, who must cope with life after graduation from high school.

Chernin said that the three new series will be given specific time slots after other shows are either canceled or placed on hiatus.

He expressed delight at the ratings and critical reception of Fox’s acerbic new animated series, “The Simpsons.” The show’s impact “exceeds all of our wildest expectations,” he said.

Fox, whose sharp focus on the 18- to 34-year-old audience has been praised for its effectiveness by Madison Avenue, already has established such other well-known series as “Married . . . With Children,” “Cops,” “America’s Most Wanted,” “21 Jump Street” and “The Tracey Ullman Show.”

Chernin said he was uncertain about whether “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” may be coming to an end.