1970–71 United States network television schedule explained

The following is the 1970–71 network television schedule for the three major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 1970 through August 1971. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1969–70 season. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.

This was the first time that the top rated show of the season aired on ABC.

New fall series are highlighted in bold.

Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.^[1]

Yellow indicates the programs in the top 10 for the season.

Cyan indicates the programs in the top 20 for the season.

Magenta indicates the programs in the top 30 for the season.

PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, was in operation by October 1970; however, schedules were set by each affiliated station.

In April 1970, Congress passed a law banning the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio, effective January 2, 1971.

This season would be the last one for the traditional 3½-hour prime time schedule.

Sunday

Network		7:00 PM	7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	The Young Rebels		The F.B.I. (10/23.0)		The ABC Sunday Night Movie (28/19.7)
	Winter	Local
CBS	Fall	Lassie	Hogan's Heroes	The Ed Sullivan Show		The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour		The Tim Conway Comedy Hour
	December							The Honeymooners
	Summer			The CBS Sunday Night Movie				The Ice Palace
	August		Animal World	Comedy Playhouse	The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour		Six Wives of Henry VIII
NBC	Fall	Wild Kingdom	The Wonderful World of Disney (13/22.4) (Tied with Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In)		The Bill Cosby Show	Bonanza (9/23.9)		The Bold Ones The New Doctors / The Lawyers / The Senator
	Summer	Local			The Red Skelton Show

NOTE: On CBS, Comedy Playhouse was an anthology series composed of unsold television pilots.

Monday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	The Young Lawyers		The Silent Force	Monday Night Football
	Winter	Let's Make a Deal	The Newlywed Game	The Reel Game	The ABC Monday Night Movie
	Spring			It Was a Very Good Year
CBS	Fall	Gunsmoke (5/25.5)		Here's Lucy (3/26.1)	Mayberry R.F.D. (15/22.3)	The Doris Day Show (20/20.7)	The Carol Burnett Show (25/19.8) (Tied with The Partridge Family and NBC Monday Night at the Movies)
	Summer			The Lucy Show reruns			Suspense Playhouse
	Follow-up						The CBS Newcomers
NBC	Fall	The Red Skelton Show	Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (13/22.4) (Tied with The Wonderful World of Disney)		NBC Monday Night at the Movies (25/19.8) (Tied with The Carol Burnett Show and The Partridge Family)
	Spring	From a Bird's Eye View
	Summer		NBC Comedy Theater
	Follow-up	Specials	Monday Night Baseball

Note: NBC Comedy Theater featured repeats of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, with new introductions by Jack Kelly.

Tuesday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC		The Mod Squad (11/22.7)		ABC Movie of the Week (6/25.1)			Marcus Welby, M.D. (1/29.6)
CBS	Fall	The Beverly Hillbillies	Green Acres	Hee Haw (16/21.4)		To Rome With Love	CBS News Hour / 60 Minutes
	Winter					All in the Family
	Summer			Cimarron Strip reruns			Specials
NBC	Fall	The Don Knotts Show		Julia	NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies / First Tuesday
	Winter	Julia	The Don Knotts Show
	Summer	The Bill Cosby Show
	Follow-up		Make Your Own Kind of Music

Wednesday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	The Courtship of Eddie's Father	Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy	Room 222	The Johnny Cash Show		Dan August
	Winter		Room 222	The Smith Family (21/20.6)			The Young Lawyers
	Summer				Love on a Rooftop reruns	The Immortal		NFL Action
CBS	Fall	Storefront Lawyers		The Governor & J.J.	Medical Center (8/24.5)		Hawaii Five-O (7/25.0)
	Winter	Men at Law		To Rome with Love
NBC	Fall	The Men from Shiloh (18/21.2)			Kraft Music Hall		Four in One McCloud / San Francisco International Airport / Night Gallery / The Psychiatrist
	Summer				The Des O'Connor Show

Notes: Love on a Rooftop consisted of reruns of the series, which originally aired during the 1966-1967 season. The Men from Shiloh formerly was entitled The Virginian.

Thursday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Matt Lincoln		Bewitched	Barefoot in the Park	The Odd Couple	The Immortal
	Winter	Alias Smith and Jones			Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy	Dan August		Local
CBS	Fall	Family Affair	The Jim Nabors Hour (29/19.5)		The CBS Thursday Night Movies (30/19.3)
	Summer		Lancer reruns
NBC	Fall	The Flip Wilson Show (2/27.9)		Ironside (4/25.7)		Nancy	The Dean Martin Show (24/20.0)
	Winter					Adam-12 (12/22.6)
	Summer	NBC Action Playhouse					The Dean Martin Summer Show Starring Your Host Vic Damone reruns

Notes: The Dean Martin Summer Show Starring Your Host Vic Damone consisted entirely of reruns of the show of the same name from the summer of 1967. NBC Action Playhouse featured repeats of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, with new introductions by Peter Marshall.

Friday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	The Brady Bunch	Nanny and the Professor	The Partridge Family (25/19.8) (Tied with The Carol Burnett Show and NBC Monday Night at the Movies)	That Girl	Love, American Style	This Is Tom Jones
	Winter					The Odd Couple	Love, American Style
CBS	Fall	The Interns		Headmaster	The CBS Friday Night Movies
	Winter			The New Andy Griffith Show
	Summer			Headmaster (repeats)
NBC	Fall	The High Chaparral		The Name of the Game			Bracken's World
	Winter						Strange Report

Saturday

Network		7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
ABC	Fall	Let's Make a Deal	The Newlywed Game	The Lawrence Welk Show		The Most Deadly Game		Local
	Winter	The Lawrence Welk Show		The Pearl Bailey Show		Local
	Summer			The Val Doonican Show
CBS		Mission: Impossible		My Three Sons (19/20.8)	Arnie	The Mary Tyler Moore Show (22/20.3)	Mannix (17/21.3)
NBC	Fall	The Andy Williams Show		Adam-12 (12/22.6)	NBC Saturday Night at the Movies (23/20.1)
	Winter			NBC Saturday Night at the Movies (23/20.1)				Local

By network

ABC

Returning Series

• The ABC Monday Night Movie
• ABC Movie of the Week
• The ABC Sunday Night Movie
• Bewitched
• The Brady Bunch
• The Courtship of Eddie's Father
• The F.B.I.
• The Johnny Cash Show
• The Lawrence Welk Show
• Let's Make a Deal
• Love, American Style
• Marcus Welby, M.D.
• The Mod Squad
• Nanny and the Professor
• The Newlywed Game
• Room 222
• That Girl
• This Is Tom Jones

New Series

• Alias Smith and Jones
• Barefoot in the Park
• Dan August
• Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy
• The Immortal
• It Was a Very Good Year *
• Matt Lincoln
• Monday Night Football
• The Most Deadly Game
• The Odd Couple
• The Partridge Family
• The Pearl Bailey Show *
• The Reel Game *
• The Silent Force
• The Smith Family *
• The Val Doonican Show *
• The Young Lawyers
• The Young Rebels

Not returning from 1969–70:

• Animal World (moved to CBS)
• The Engelbert Humperdinck Show
• The Flying Nun
• The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
• Harold Robbins' The Survivors
• Here Come the Brides
• The Hollywood Palace
• It Takes a Thief
• Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters
• Johnny Cash Presents the Everly Brothers Show
• Land of the Giants
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
• The Music Scene
• The New People
• Now
• Paris 7000
• Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour
• The Smothers Brothers Show

CBS

Returning Series

• 60 Minutes
• Animal World (moved from ABC)
• The Beverly Hillbillies
• The Carol Burnett Show
• CBS Thursday Night Movie
• The CBS Friday Night Movies
• The Doris Day Show
• The Ed Sullivan Show
• Family Affair
• The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour
• The Governor & J.J.
• Green Acres
• Gunsmoke
• Hawaii Five-O
• Hee Haw
• Here's Lucy
• Hogan's Heroes
• The Jim Nabors Hour
• Lassie
• Mannix
• Mayberry R.F.D.
• Medical Center
• Mission: Impossible
• My Three Sons
• Suspense Playhouse
• To Rome with Love

New Series

• All in the Family *
• Arnie
• The CBS Newcomers *
• Comedy Playhouse *
• Headmaster
• The Ice Palace *
• The Interns
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• The New Andy Griffith Show *
• The Six Wives of Henry VIII *
• The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour *
• Storefront Lawyers
• The Tim Conway Comedy Hour

Not returning from 1969–70:

• The 21st Century
• CBS News Adventure
• CBS Playhouse
• Comedy Tonight
• Get Smart
• The Good Guys
• The Jackie Gleason Show
• Lancer
• The Leslie Uggams Show
• Petticoat Junction
• The Tim Conway Show
• Where's Huddles?

NBC

Returning Series

• Adam-12
• The Andy Williams Show
• The Bill Cosby Show
• Bonanza
• The Bold Ones
• Bracken's World
• Columbo
• The Dean Martin Show
• The Des O'Connor Show
• The High Chaparral
• Ironside
• Jambo
• Julia
• Kraft Music Hall
• The Men from Shiloh
• Monday Night Baseball
• The Name of the Game
• NBC Action Playhouse
• NBC Comedy Theater
• NBC Monday Night at the Movies
• The NBC Mystery Movie
• NBC Saturday Night at the Movies
• Night Gallery
• The Red Skelton Show
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
• Strange Report
• Wild Kingdom
• The Wonderful World of Disney

New Series

• The Don Knotts Show
• The Flip Wilson Show
• Four in One
• From a Bird's Eye View *
• Make Your Own Kind of Music *
• McCloud
• Nancy
• The Psychiatrist *
• San Francisco International Airport

Not returning from 1969–70:

• Andy Williams Presents Ray Stevens
• Daniel Boone
• Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers in London
• The Debbie Reynolds Show
• Dragnet 1970
• I Dream of Jeannie
• Letters to Laugh-In
• My World and Welcome to It
• Then Came Bronson

Note: The * indicates that the program was introduced in midseason.

References

Additional sources

• Castleman, H. & Podrazik, W. (1982). Watching TV: Four Decades of American Television. New York: McGraw-Hill. 314 pp.
• McNeil, Alex. Total Television. Fourth edition. New York: Penguin Books. .
• Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1985). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows (3rd ed.). New York: Ballantine. .

Notes and References

1. Highest-rated series is based on the annual top-rated programs list compiled by Nielsen Media Research and reported in: Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows (9th ed.). New York: Ballantine. .