The 1988–89 network television schedule for the four major English language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers primetime hours from September 1988 through August 1989. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series cancelled after the 1987–88 season.
PBS is not included; member stations have local flexibility over most of their schedules and broadcast times for network shows may vary.
New series are highlighted in bold.
All times are U.S. Eastern Time and Pacific Time (except for some live sports or events). Subtract one hour for Central, Mountain, Alaska and Hawaii-Aleutian times.
Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.[1]
See main article: 1988 Writers Guild of America strike. The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike lasted between March 7 and August 7. During the strike, production on scripted television series across all of the major television networks was suspended. The writers' strike forced the networks to postpone the start of the fall 1988 schedule later than usual; rather than the traditional late-September/early-October start, new and returning series had their premieres delayed until late October and into November. In the interim, the networks had to rely on a hodgepodge of programming, including reruns, films, entertainment and news specials, program-length political advertising, and unscripted original series (e.g. CBS' High Risk); NBC and ABC also benefited from sports programming (NBC relied on the Summer Olympics in September and the World Series in October, while ABC had postseason baseball coverage and moved up the start time for the early weeks of Monday Night Football from 9 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET to replace MacGyver, which was not yet ready with new episodes at the time). Even though previous strikes of Hollywood employees occurred in 1980 and 1981, those strikes only had a minor effect on the production of television programs that aired in the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons. The 1988–89 television season was thus the first of three television seasons to have its start delayed due to issues outside of the control of the major networks; the next two instances occurred in the 2001–02 season (due to the networks' news coverage of the September 11 attacks) and the 2020–21 season (due to the suspension of television productions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic).
| Network | 7:00 p.m. | 7:30 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Incredible Sunday | Mission: Impossible | The ABC Sunday Night Movie | ||||||
| Winter | Great Circuses of the World | Special programming | ||||||||
| Spring | Incredible Sunday | Moonlighting | ||||||||
| Summer | Have Faith | The ABC Sunday Night Movie | ||||||||
| Late summer | MacGyver | The ABC Sunday Night Movie | ||||||||
| CBS | 60 Minutes | Murder, She Wrote | CBS Sunday Movie | |||||||
| Fox | Fall | 21 Jump Street | America's Most Wanted | Married... with Children | It's Garry Shandling's Show | The Tracey Ullman Show | Duet | Local programming | ||
| Summer | Totally Hidden Video | Married... with Children | It's Garry Shandling's Show | The Tracey Ullman Show | Duet | |||||
| NBC | The Magical World of Disney | Family Ties | Day by Day | NBC Sunday Night Movie | ||||||
Notes:
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Monday Night Football | |||||
| November | MacGyver | Monday Night Football | |||||
| Winter | The ABC Monday Night Movie | ||||||
| Mid-winter | The ABC Monday Mystery Movie | ||||||
| CBS | Fall | Newhart | The Cavanaughs | CBS Monday Night Movie | |||
| Mid-fall | Coming of Age | ||||||
| Winter | Kate & Allie | Murphy Brown | Designing Women | Almost Grown | |||
| Spring | Live-In | Heartland | Newhart | Kate & Allie | |||
| Summer | Kate & Allie | Doctor Doctor | |||||
| Mid-summer | Kate & Allie | Designing Women | Newhart | ||||
| NBC | Fall | ALF | The Hogan Family | NBC Monday Night at the Movies | |||
| Spring | Nearly Departed | ||||||
| Mid-spring | The Hogan Family | ||||||
(*) B.L. Stryker, Columbo, Gideon Oliver
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Who's the Boss? | Roseanne | Moonlighting | Thirtysomething | ||
| Winter | The Wonder Years | Roseanne | Anything but Love | ||||
| Spring | Have Faith | ||||||
| Summer | Coach | ||||||
| CBS | Fall | High Risk | CBS Tuesday Movie | ||||
| Late fall | TV 101 | ||||||
| Winter | Tour of Duty | ||||||
| Summer | CBS Summer Playhouse | ||||||
| NBC | Fall | Matlock | NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies | ||||
| Mid-fall | In the Heat of the Night | Midnight Caller | |||||
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Growing Pains | Head of the Class | The Wonder Years | Hooperman | China Beach | |
| Spring | Coach | ||||||
| Mid-spring | The Robert Guillaume Show | ||||||
| Summer | Hooperman | ||||||
| CBS | Early fall | Live! Dick Clark Presents | The Equalizer | Wiseguy | |||
| Fall | The Van Dyke Show | Annie McGuire | |||||
| Winter | TV 101 | ||||||
| Mid-winter | Hard Time on Planet Earth | Jake and the Fatman | |||||
| NBC | Fall | Unsolved Mysteries | Night Court | Baby Boom | Tattingers | ||
| Mid-fall | My Two Dads | ||||||
| Winter | Nightingales | ||||||
| Mid-winter | Quantum Leap | ||||||
| Summer | Knight & Daye | Miami Vice | |||||
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Special programming | ||||||
| Mid-fall | Knightwatch | Dynasty | Special programming | |||||
| Winter | A Fine Romance | HeartBeat | ||||||
| Spring | Thursday Night Baseball | |||||||
| CBS | Fall | 48 Hours | CBS Thursday Night Movie | |||||
| Mid-fall | Paradise | Knots Landing | ||||||
| Winter | The Equalizer | |||||||
| Summer | The Cavanaughs | Coming of Age | The Equalizer | |||||
| Mid-summer | The Equalizer | Knots Landing | ||||||
| NBC | The Cosby Show | A Different World | Cheers | Dear John | L.A. Law | |||
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Perfect Strangers | Full House | Mr. Belvedere | Just the Ten of Us | 20/20 | |
| Summer | Full House | Mr. Belvedere | Perfect Strangers | ||||
| CBS | Fall | Beauty and the Beast | Dallas | Falcon Crest | |||
| Summer | CBS Friday Movie | ||||||
| NBC | Fall | Sonny Spoon | Something Is Out There | Miami Vice | |||
| Winter | Father Dowling Mysteries | Miami Vice | Unsub | ||||
| Spring | The Jim Henson Hour | Quantum Leap | |||||
| Mid-spring | Miami Vice | Dream Street | |||||
| Summer | Highway to Heaven | NBC Friday Night at the Movies | |||||
| Network | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | Fall | Murphy's Law | ABC Saturday Night Movie | ||||
| Mid-fall | ABC Saturday Night Movie | Murphy's Law | |||||
| Winter | Mission: Impossible | A Man Called Hawk | |||||
| Spring | Men | ||||||
| Mid-spring | A Man Called Hawk | ABC Saturday Night Movie | |||||
| CBS | Early fall | First Impressions | Frank's Place | Specials | West 57th | ||
| Fall | Dirty Dancing | Raising Miranda | Simon & Simon | ||||
| Mid-fall | Live! Dick Clark Presents | ||||||
| Winter | Dolphin Cove | Dirty Dancing | Raising Miranda | ||||
| Mid-winter | The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour | ||||||
| Late winter | TV 101 | ||||||
| Spring | Paradise | Jesse Hawkes | |||||
| Summer | Tour of Duty | ||||||
| Fox | Fall | The Reporters | Beyond Tomorrow | Local programming | |||
| Winter | COPS | Beyond Tomorrow | |||||
| Spring | COPS | The Reporters | |||||
| NBC | Fall | 227 | Amen | The Golden Girls | Empty Nest | Hunter | |
| Spring | One of the Boys | ||||||
| Mid-spring | 227 | One of the Boys | |||||
| Late spring | Amen | ||||||
| Summer | My Two Dads | 13 East | |||||
Note: On CBS, Frank's Place consisted of reruns of the 1987-88 sitcom. On ABC, ABC Saturday Mystery Movie was supposed to air 9-11 p.m., but production delays amidst the strike force the move to Mondays.
Returning Series
New Series
Not returning from 1987–88:
Returning Series
New Series
Not returning from 1987–88:
Returning Series
New Series
Not returning from 1987–88:
Returning Series
New Series
Not returning from 1987–88:
Note: The * indicates that the program was introduced in midseason.
+ These shows returned as "backup" programming in midseason.
@ Formerly known as Valerie's Family.