ABC Going to Bat With New Monday Lineup

TV or not TV. . . .

THE OMEN: The big news of the February ratings sweeps was that one out of three TV viewers tuned out the networks.

It’s probably a lost cause, but ABC is trying to stem, even reverse, the tide.

A key to the strategy, announced last week, is dumping its Monday movies for a full night of series.

ABC is dreaming of 1981, when its all-series lineup on Mondays came up with “Dynasty.” Within a few years, the whole raunchy Carrington clan, switched to Wednesdays, and had the nation by the tail.

Anyway, come Monday, April 16, ABC follows “MacGyver” with a Western, “The Young Riders,” and a newspaper drama, “Capital News.”

ABC’s trying to tear up CBS’ best lineup, which includes “Murphy Brown” and “Designing Women.” That lineup already took a blow last week with the announcement that “Newhart” is calling it quits after this season.

“Murphy Brown” and “Designing Women” can probably withstand anything. They’d be in the Top 10 on NBC.

But “The Young Riders,” now on Thursdays, is hoping the teen magazine readers who make it No. 2 in fan mail behind The New Kids on the Block, can throw some ratings weight.

And maybe viewers who got in the habit of another newspaper drama, “Lou Grant,” on Monday nights will latch on to “Capital News.”

Maybe not, of course. But how else would network programmers find something to do?

OK, here’s the hard part:

What shows preceded and followed “Dynasty” in its 1981 launching?

Are we starting to sound like Todd Donoho? Yeah. So let’s end this fast.

“That’s Incredible!” preceded “Dynasty.” And “Foul Play,” a lighthearted crime series with Deborah Raffin and Barry Bostwick, followed it.

GAMBLE: And here’s ABC’s rationale for scheduling the much-awaited mystery serial “Twin Peaks” opposite the awesome “Cheers.” Well, figures ABC, one-third of network viewers are watching “Cheers” anyway, and the rest are looking for something different--so let’s give them something really different. “Twin Peaks” is different, all right. Just take a gander when it debuts as a two-hour special April 8.

BATTLE STATIONS: Sure, KTLA Channel 5 is confident that Hal Fishman & Co. can withstand Jerry Dunphy as he leads KCAL Channel 9 in this week’s new three-hour, prime-time newscast. But KTLA’s not taking any chances. “Trusted. Credible,” it headlines print ads for Fishman to combat KCAL’s media blitz for Dunphy. And Fishman’s a pilot too. So there.

MODERN TIMES: Stroke of genius to use that robot on the Dave Letterman show. It throws letters away as well as he does, and seems eerily human at times. Great chance for mind games--thinking of the future, with a host who knows just how to play it for viewers. And, oh yeah, Letterman had a couple of major leaguers playing catch in an NBC hallway because of the baseball lockout. Tom Hanks grabbed a bat and laid down a nice bunt.

IN THE MOOD: Jack Jones, fine voice and all, never knocked me out as a performer--but he did the other night on KCET Channel 28 as a band singer with the Glenn Miller orchestra. Perfect niche--wrong era, alas.

CENTRAL CASTING: Caught Elliott Gould in CBS’ “Stolen: One Husband” and, at least on my TV set, he could pass for Fred Gwynne’s younger brother. Can’t miss in solid motion picture character parts for years to come.

TRIBUTE: The end of CBS’ March 18 movie, “Gunsmoke: The Last Apache,” notes that it’s dedicated to the memory of Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty) and writer Ron Bishop. In 1964, Brooks Atkinson, longtime drama critic of the New York Times, described “Gunsmoke” as TV’s “most ennobling and instructive weekly lesson.” And if you go by number of seasons (20) and audience rankings, it’s the No. 1 series of all time, according to the Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows.

CLASS ACTS: What a loss that both “Newhart” and “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” announced within days of each other that they’re halting production this spring. And wouldn’t it be terrific if fast-growing Fox TV, which runs Shandling’s series in prime time, grabbed him to finally fill its late-night talk-show slot and help round out the network’s lineup?

BULLETIN BOARD: If you missed the award-winning drama “Mandela” on HBO in 1987, you can catch it Wednesday night at 8 on Fox’s KTTV Channel 11. Danny Glover portrays Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader recently released from a South African prison, and Alfre Woodard is his wife, Winnie.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: ABC, meanwhile, reruns its hit miniseries with Oprah Winfrey, “The Women of Brewster Place,” Sunday and Monday. The idea is to whet your appetite for the weekly half-hour series based on the show. It’s called “Brewster Place,” and it arrives later this season with Winfrey as the star and producer.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Now that CBS has reinstated Andy Rooney,” says comic Marty Brill, “how do we get them to suspend ‘The Bradys’?”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .