This Day in TV History: A very early previewing of ABC's 1976 Fall season

An interesting article appeared in The New York Times 50 years ago today. The focus is on ABC and its announcement of mass cancellations plus new additions for the upcoming Fall TV season. Here's a gift link:

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/01/archives/marcus-welby-canceled-with-8-other-abc-shows.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XVA.PWKt.o2mt7rWycaH3&smid=url-share

If you aren't interested in reding the whole piece, it leads by mentioning Marcus Welby was once the top-rated program on TV. Other shows getting the axe: Harry O, Swiss Family Robinson, On the Rocks, Good Heavens, Bert D'Angelo/Superstar, Almost Anything Goes, SWAT, and The Rookies. Most of those were not surprises, though the latter two were Aaron Spelling shows that lasted two and four seasons respectively.

The story notes that ABC, a perpetual ratings also-ran, had made inroads in the then-current season, overcoming NBC for second and sometimes winning the week over CBS. ABC announced 9 new shows coming to the network:

The Nancy Walker Show, The Tony Randall Show (not yet titled), variety shows starring Bill Cosby and Captain & Tennille, detective show Most Wanted with Robert Stack, Holmes and Yo-Yo, Mr. T and Tina, and Feather and Father (later The Feather and Father Gang).

OK, that's only 8 series. Didn't they say there were 9 new series?

Almost as an afterthought, the piece ends with this: Charlie's Angels, a series about 3 attractive women detectives, is scheduled Wednesdays at 8.

It's interesting to see this knowing what would end up happening. Most of those new ABC shows were flops--some notorious ones--but of course Charlie's Angels became a top-5 sensation. Overall, ABC rose to number one as Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley became the most-viewed shows on TV, while The Six Million Dollar Man, the ABC Sunday Night Movie, Three's Company, and The Bionic Woman also finished in the top 10.

The only non-ABC series up there were MASH and One Day at a Time from CBS and NBC's The Big Event (really a collection of movies and specials). CBS' big lineup showed some age--for example, an ill-fated move of All in the Family to Wednesdays, where ABC's Baretta was a hit, exposed a vulnerability before the sitcom went back to Saturday.

So the pieces were in place for ABC, but not many of them were mentioned in this article!