TV: CBS Saturday night comedy lineup of the '70s gets replay

The CBS Saturday primetime lineup of 1975 dominated television in the Nielsen ratings with its unbeatable 8-to-11 p.m. schedule of "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons," "Mary Tyler Moore," "The Bob Newhart Show," and "The Carol Burnett Show."

It was night of Archie hounding "Meathead"; "The Jeffersons" "movin' on up" to the East Side; Mary teasing pompous Ted in the TV newsroom in Minneapolis; Bob putting up with his offbeat Chicago patients; and Carol Burnett trying her best not to break up over the antics of Tim Conway.

While NBC limped along with "Emergency" and ABC aired something called "Griff," millions locked into CBS. Restaurant business took a hit, movie attendance was off, and dating was sometimes delayed until after 11 p.m.

A typical "All in the Family" episode that season, for example, attracted 69 million households. (Last week's top-rated show, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," pulled only 28 million households, according to Nielsen.)

The lineup only lasted one year, but viewers savored every morsel.

On Saturday night (Nov. 1), the TV Land cable channel will reconstruct the CBS lineup by presenting "TV Land Time Warp," an episode of each classic show in the exact timeslot it aired in 1975.6

TV Land selected the episodes because they best represent the 1975 TV season and are particularly funny installments, according to Jaclyn Cohen, vice president of programming for TV Land in New York.

"They are quintessential episodes," she said. "And 'The Jeffersons' was the first episode and with 'Mary,' it was what many think as the funniest episode of the series."

The festivities are a prelude to Sunday night's 75th anniversary of CBS. "CBS at 75," which will salute three-quarters of century of programming on the former Tiffany Network. Walter Cronkite, Angela Lansbury, Alan Alda and Mary Tyler Moore will be on hand for the retrospective to be beamed live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.

But Saturday night, sit back, turn down the lava light, dust off the bean bag chairs, set the VCR, and enjoy.