Hart to Hart started the 79/80 season Sat @10 following Love Boat where it did well. But Fantasy Island was dying Fri @8 so ABC quickly moved it back to follow Love Boat.

Meanwhile ABC"s hit Tuesday line-up was suffering at 10pm where Lou Gosset's medical drama Lazarus Syndrome was squandering the Three's Company/Taxi lead-in. So Hart to Hart was moved there, the numbers went up and Bob & Stephanie became a Tuesday night stalwart.

MASH debuted in 72 on Sunday night b/w Anna & The King (TV version of King And ! and Sandy Duncan, one of the oddest lineups ever. MASH struggled but fared better when Dick Van Dyke became the lead in and Mannix the lead out.

Then in Fall 73 it moved to Sat after All in The Family. Needless to say that worked - and MASH finished #4 for the season.

Wasn’t Cagney and Lacey moved after being cancelled twice? The ratings started to improve before the famous letter writing campaign saved it fully(and Tyne Daly’s Emmy win that season helped)? It moved to Mondays and that third season finally made them a top 10 show.

On 4/29/2026 at 4:00 PM, Khan said:

And also, a sign of the times. "Taxi" was like "M*A*S*H" and "WKRP in Cincinnati": a '70's sitcom trying to survive in the Very Special Episode '80's

That is such a great way to describe that era. Even as a kid I remember watching WKRP reruns and thinking it felt modern enough to be airing then instead of having been cancelled for almost a decade. The 80’s had some great, witty and well made sitcoms that could also pull off depth like Cheers, The Cosby Show, Golden Girls, Designing Women, etc. It also had a lot of middle of the road kind of stuff like Who’s the Boss, Webster, Growing Pains, Full House, etc. And I watched those shows too when they aired, but they don’t hit the same way and they are often really basic.