TV Time Capsule

‘Kate & Allie’ on New Year’s Eve: Cold Pizza, Warm Booze

“New Years Week” continues.

On December 31, 1984, CBS aired “New Year’s Eve,” the “Kate & Allie” episode in which Kate and Allie (Susan Saint James, Jane Curtin) struggle to find something to do on the final night of the year.

The problems begin when they give teenage daughters Emma and Jennie (Ari Meyers, Allison Smith) permission to throw a New Year’s Eve party – and then are told they aren’t invited.

On the big night, Allie rejects all of Kate’s ideas – bowling, riding the Staten Island Ferry, shopping (“Bloomingdale’s was closed!” she whines) – so they sneak into their basement to eat cold pizza and drink warm champagne.

Allie recalls her many holiday disasters (“My Worst Birthday, by Allie Lowell;” “My Worst Christmas, by Allie Lowell”) and by the end of the night, she and Kate are drunk. “You know what? I’ve had a terrible life!” Allie says, laughing.

As midnight approaches, the women count their blessings: Allie is thankful for her kids, her wardrobe, her two pair of lizard shoes – and Kate.

Kate returns the favor: “I put you right behind Emma – and ahead of my calfskin luggage.”

See for yourself: “New Year’s Eve” is part of the “Kate & Allie: The Complete First and Second Seasons” DVD set.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, December 31, 1984:

8: “Hardcastle and McCormick” (ABC), “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” (CBS), “King Orange Jamboree Parade” (NBC)

9: “The Big Red One”* (ABC), “Kate & Allie” (CBS), “Hard Knox”* (NBC)

9:30: “Newhart” (CBS)

10: “Cagney & Lacey” (CBS)

 

The Record

For the week of December 30, 1984:

Top novel: “The Talisman” by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Top song: “Like a Virgin” by Madonna

Top movie: “Beverly Hills Cop”

Top TV show: “Dallas” (CBS)

In the news: War raged in Afghanistan

 

Captions: Allie, played by Jane Curtin, drinks from a bottle of champagne while reminiscing with Kate, played by Susan Stain James in “New Year’s Eve” (top); Allie lays down the law for New Year’s Eve party planners Jennie, played by Allison Smith, and Emma, played by Ari Meyers (middle, bottom).

‘Kate & Allie’ and Wendie Malick!

“Thanksgiving Week” continues.

On November 25, 1985, CBS aired “Thanksgiving,” the “Kate & Allie” episode in which Manhattan divorcee Allie Lowell finally meets Claire, her ex-husband Charles’s new wife.

The episode finds Allie (Jane Curtin) preparing a holiday feast for her family and friends, including best pal and roommate Kate McCardle (Susan Saint James). One by one, Allie’s guests cancel or are called away, leaving her alone with icy Claire (guest star Wendie Malick).

During their tense conversation, Allie realizes her volunteer work undermined her marriage as much as Charles’s medical career and his affair with Claire:

ALLIE: I always thought Charles left me. You say I left him. Maybe we’re both right. Maybe we needed the hospitals and the committees because we didn’t have each other to go home to. Maybe it wasn’t Charles’s fault or my fault or even – God help me – your fault. And maybe – just maybe – the happy ending I always wanted is just what I got.

CLAIRE: So now what do we do? Make friends?

ALLIE: Please. Let’s not push things too far.

“Thanksgiving” ends with everyone dining together peacefully.

See for yourself: “Thanksgiving” is part of the “Kate & Allie: The Complete Third Season” DVD set.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, November 25, 1985:

8: “Hardcastle and McCormick” (ABC), “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” (CBS), “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes” (NBC)

9: “Monday Night Football” (ABC), “Kate & Allie” (CBS), “Mussolini: The Untold Story, Part 2” (NBC)  

9:30: “Newhart” (CBS)

10: “Cagney & Lacey” (CBS)

 

The Record

For the week of November 24, 1985:

Top novel: “The Mammoth Hunters” by Jean M. Auel

Top song: “We Built This City” by Starship

Top movie: “Rocky IV”

Top TV show: “60 Minutes” (CBS)

In the news: Gay leaders began building a political platform

 

 

 

Captions: Kate, played by Susan Saint James, tastes the turkey that Allie, played by Jane Curtin, cooked with cleanser in “Thanksgiving” (top); Wendie Malick as Claire and Allie’s long-dreaded confrontation with her successor as Mrs. Dr. Charles Lowell (middle); CBS’s advertisement for the episode, from TV Guide’s November 23, 1985, issue (bottom). 

‘An Early Frost:’ A Breath of Fresh Air in the Era of AIDS

On November 11, 1985, NBC aired “An Early Frost,” the first TV movie about AIDS – although its greater historical significance may lie in its depiction of gay men, which was unusually honest for the time.

The two-hour film cast Aidan Quinn as Michael, a young Chicago lawyer who discovers he has AIDS – and that he probably contracted the mysterious disease from his live-in boyfriend Peter (D.W. Moffett), who confesses he’s been unfaithful.

Michael leaves Peter and heads home to New England, where he decides to tell his parents that he’s gay and has AIDS.

Michael’s mother Katherine (Gena Rowlands) is upset but supportive; his macho father Nick (Ben Gazzara) is seemingly as anguished to discover that his son is gay as he is to learn that Michael is dying.

Michael’s grandmother (Sylvia Sidney) is more compassionate, telling him he shouldn’t feel ashamed, but his pregnant sister (Sydney Walsh) is afraid to be in the same room with him and shouts him away when he tries to hug her young son.

Of course, Michael also experiences prejudice outside the home: When he suffers a seizure, the paramedics refuse to transport him to the hospital. Later, when a new friend dies of AIDS, Michael watches a nurse toss the man’s possessions into a garbage bag, fearing contamination.

“An Early Frost” doesn’t depict Michael’s death, but it offers viewers some closure: Before the movie ends, Michael and Peter reconcile, and Nick finally accepts his son’s homosexuality.

The final scene shows a smiling Michael telling his parents he loves them as he departs for Chicago, presumably to die at Peter’s side.

Out, Dated

“An Early Frost” – the title comes from a line of dialogue about rose blossoms being nipped prematurely – is typical of the era’s disease-of-the-week TV movies, with the on-screen doctors (including one played by “Lost’s” Terry O’Quinn) delivering dialogue that sounds like it was lifted from a waiting room brochure.

Inevitably, this dates the film: No one, for example, mentions “HIV,” which wasn’t identified as the virus that causes AIDS until six months after the broadcast.

“An Early Frost” also seems old-fashioned in its portrayal of Michael’s life in the closet: The fact that the filmmakers chose to make the character’s coming-out a major subplot underscores how being openly gay in the 1980s was the exception, not the rule.

Contrast this with contemporary series such as “Modern Family,” where another gay lawyer, Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), is out to both his family and coworkers, and Kurt (Chris Colfer), “Glee’s” out-and-proud high school student.

TV’s First Gay Yuppies?

Not everything about “An Early Frost” is outdated; its depiction of Michael and Peter’s relationship was decidedly ahead of its time.

The couple may be prime time’s first gay yuppies: They share a stylish apartment, take expensive vacations and struggle to balance their personal and professional obligations (when Peter confesses his affair, he explains the indiscretion happened when Michael was busy with work).

Michael and Peter never kiss or appear together in bed, but they are affectionate.

As Steven Capsuto notes in “Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television,” the first time viewers see Peter, he is playfully waking Michael for work.

In another scene, the couple performs a variation on what Capsuto calls “one of TV’s classic spousal scenes”: Michael, half-naked, shaves, as Peter sits on the counter.

“The two do not just recite lines that say they are in love: they interact and talk like a couple. They smile spontaneously when they look into each other’s eyes,” Capsuto writes.

Michael and Peter show how far gay men have come in prime time since 1977, when television’s first regular homosexual character – “Soap’s” Jodie, played by Billy Crystal – planned a sex-change operation in order to be with his boyfriend.

The Washington Post’s Tom Shales seemed to hint at this in his review, describing Michael as being “so far removed from the stereotypical homosexual that … he is stereotypically unstereotypical.”

Post-Hudson Hysteria

“An Early Frost” aired six weeks after Rock Hudson became the first major celebrity to die of complications from AIDS.

As the Advocate noted in yesterday’s tribute to the movie, AIDS had claimed just 5,000 lives by 1985, but Hudson’s death sparked hysteria, stoked by nightly news reports on the epidemic.

“An Early Frost” demonstrated prime time entertainment’s ability to educate the public in ways that broadcast journalism couldn’t – or wouldn’t, as the New York Times’ John J. O’Connor noted at the time.

“The single moment of the grandmother’s insisting on kissing her troubled grandson makes an important point far more effectively than a month of breathless newscasts,” O’Connor wrote.

“An Early Frost” is also a reminder of a time when the broadcast networks embraced “prestige projects” that addressed the issues of the day.

Before the film aired, NBC sent viewers guide to hospitals and social services agencies and held advance screenings for science reporters and public health officials.

On the night of the broadcast, Tom Brokaw hosted a late-night special about AIDS, and several NBC stations set up hotlines to answer viewers’ questions about the disease.

An Enduring Legacy

The film was seen in 20 million homes, ranking sixth for the week, and won multiple Emmys and a Golden Globe, but its greatest legacy lies in the way it humanized gay men – not only as victims of AIDS, but also as everyday people.

See for yourself: “An Early Frost” is on DVD.

 

On TV

Here’s the prime-time lineup for Monday, November 11, 1985:

8: “Hardcastle and McCormick” (ABC), “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” (CBS), “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes” (NBC)

9: “Monday Night Football” (ABC), “Kate & Allie” (CBS), “An Early Frost” (NBC)

9:30: “Newhart” (CBS)

10: “Cagney & Lacey” (CBS)

 

The Record

For the week of November 10, 1985:

Top novel: “Texas” by James A. Michener

Top song: “Miami Vice” by Jay Hammer

Top movie: “Death Wish 3”

Top TV show: “The Cosby Show” (NBC)

In the news: Prince Charles and Princess Diana visited Washington

 

 

Captions: “An Early Frost” stars Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands and Aidan Quinn in an NBC publicity photograph (top, photographer unknown); the network’s advertisement for the movie, from TV Guide’s November 9, 1985, issue.

‘Adam’ Draws Praise, Sparks Change

On October 10, 1983, NBC aired “Adam,” a wrenching TV movie that propelled the problem of missing children into the spotlight.

“Adam” dramatized the case of 6-year-old Adam Walsh, who was kidnapped from a Florida shopping mall in 1981, and later found murdered.

The movie starred Daniel J. Travanti and JoBeth Williams as Adam’s parents, John and Reve Walsh, who – in the hours after his abduction – discover the FBI will help find a stolen car, but not a stolen child.

Following Adam’s murder, the Walshes become activists, persuading lawmakers to create a national registry for missing children.

The New York Times’ John J. O’Connor praised the “scrupulous honesty” Travanti and Williams brought to “Adam,” which was seen by 38 million viewers, ranking seventh in the weekly ratings.

At the end of the movie, which aired on a Monday, the Walshes appeared and showed pictures of 55 missing children. By week’s end, three of the kids were reunited with their families.

NBC aired a sequel, “Adam: His Song Continues,” in 1984. The Walshes have continued their activism; since 1988, John Walsh has hosted Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted.”

Convicted serial killer Ottis Toole confessed to Adam’s murder before dying in 1996. Police closed the case in 2008.

 

Also on TV

On October 10, 1983, NBC also aired the family drama “Boone;” CBS broadcast “Scarecrow and Mrs. King,” “AfterMASH,” and the “17th Annual Country Music Association Awards,” in which Alabama was named Entertainer of the Year; and ABC showed “That’s Incredible” and “Monday Night Football,” in which the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 24 to 14.

 

The Record

During the week of October 9, 1983, the number ones were James A. Michener’s “Poland” (novel), Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (song) and “Never Say Never Again” (movie). In Washington, embattled Interior Secretary James Watt quit.

 

 

Caption: NBC’s advertisement for “Adam,” from TV Guide’s October 8, 1983, issue. 

‘L.A. Law’ Hangs Its Shingle

On October 3, 1986, NBC aired the series premiere of “L.A. Law,” an acclaimed drama that started slow but eventually became a hit.

The series focused on a prestigious Los Angeles law firm’s legal eagles, including compassionate Michael Kuzak (Harry Hamlin), ambitious Arnie Becker (Corbin Bernsen) and idealistic Ann Kelsey (Jill Eikenberry).

Steven Bochco, the creative force behind NBC’s Emmy darling “Hill Street Blues,” co-created “L.A. Law,” which mimicked the earlier show’s style, right down to the use of  “hand-held cameras, overlapping dialogue and meandering story lines,” as the New York Times’ John J. O’Connor described it.

Associated Press critic Fred Rothenberg also noted the similarities between the two shows, predicting “L.A. Law” would “do for lawyers what ‘Hill Street Blues’ did for cops – make them three-dimensional humans and not celluloid stick figures. ...… Like ‘Hill Street,’ ‘L.A. Law’ is packed with intertwining stories of power, politics and social and legal concerns.  It doesn’t have the overt violence of ‘Hill Street,’ but emphasizes the emotional mayhem that humans do to one another.”

“L.A. Law” would prove to have something else in common with “Hill Street Blues:” Both shows struggled in their original time slots.

NBC introduced “Hill Street” in January 1981 and scheduled it on Saturday nights, where it barely escaped cancellation at the end of its first season. The show didn’t crack Nielsen’s top 30 until season two, after NBC had moved it to Thursdays.

NBC aired “L.A. Law’s” two-hour pilot as a Monday night movie on September 15, 1986, when it finished fourth in the weekly ratings.

Eighteen days later, the series debuted in its regular Friday 10 p.m. slot, where it tied with one of its direct competitors, CBS’s “Falcon Crest,” for 28th among the week’s 72 prime-time broadcasts.

The following week, “L.A. Law” dipped to 44th, then climbed to 36th in week four. The seesawing continued until December 1986, when NBC shifted the series to Thursdays at 10 p.m. – bouncing “Hill Street Blues” out of the slot it had occupied for five seasons.

The move worked – for “L.A. Law,” at least.

It finished 26th in its first Thursday appearance. Ratings continued climbing, and by season’s end, the series was a fixture of Nielsen’s weekly top 20, where it remained for most of the rest of its eight-year run.

“Hill Street Blues,” although already fading, was shifted to Tuesdays, where it quietly expired in May 1987.

NBC cancelled “L.A. Law” in May 1994, opening the coveted Thursday time slot for “ER,” which debuted the following September and aired for the next 15 seasons.

 

Also on TV

On October 3, 1986, NBC also aired “The A-Team” and “Miami Vice;” ABC broadcast “Webster,” “Mr. Belvedere,” “Sidekicks,” “Sledge Hammer!” and “Starman;” and CBS showed “Scarecrow and Mrs. King,” “Dallas” and the season premiere of “Falcon Crest.”

 

The Record

During the week of September 29, 1986, the number ones were Stephen King’s “It” (novel), “Stuck with You” by Huey Lewis and the News (song) and “Crocodile Dundee” (movie). In Washington, the Senate sanctioned South Africa.

 

  

 

Captions: “L.A. Law” cast members, from left, Jimmy Smits, Richard Dysart, Harry Hamlin, Corbin Bernsen and Jill Eikenberry in a photograph from TV Guide’s September 13, 1986, fall preview issue (top, photo by Mario Casilli); Hamlin, EIkenberry and Bernsen on the magazine’s October 11, 1986, cover (middle, photo by Gene Trindl); NBC’s advertisement for the show’s first Friday-night broadcast from the September 27, 1986, edition.

‘Family Ties Vacation:’ Have Alex, Will Travel

“Sitcoms Go to the Movies,” a retrospective of TV-movies based on sitcoms, begins today and continues through Sunday.

On September 23, 1985, NBC aired “Family Ties Vacation,” a two-hour TV-movie that finds the Keatons summering in England.

The plot: Alex (Michael J. Fox) wins a summer scholarship to Oxford University, so the family uses it as an excuse for a vacation. A spy secretly plants a piece of microfilm in their luggage and before they know it, the Keatons are being pursued by the CIA, the KGB and MI5.

A romantic subplot has dashing Lord William Clive-Hopkins (John Moulder-Brown), Alex’s Oxford roommate, falling for the Keatons’ eldest daughter, Mallory (Justine Bateman).

“It’s quite different for us. It’s more of a romp, a Hitchcockian farce,” Fox told the Associated Press.

NBC commissioned the movie during the previous season, after “Family Ties” shot into Nielsen’s top 10 on the coattails of “The Cosby Show,” the blockbuster freshman sitcom that preceded it on Thursday nights.

“Being behind ‘Cosby’ is not a bad place to be,” Fox told the AP. “I’m not defensive, but we keep the audience from his show. We’re proud of the work we do and don’t feel we’re a success because of charity. We’re in the Top 10 because of the audience we inherit from ‘Cosby,’ but we certainly hold our own.”

Fox and the “Family Ties” cast filmed “Vacation” in June 1985, a few weeks before the release of “Back to the Future” and “Teen Wolf,” two flicks that gave the actor, then 24, back-to-back box-office hits during the summer of 1985.

“Vacation” aired three days before “Family Ties” opened its fourth season with “The Real Thing,” the classic two-part episode in which Alex memorably professes his love for girlfriend Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan) to the tune of Billy Vera’s “At This Moment.”

“Family Ties Vacation” was seen in 19 million homes, ranking 11th for the week – a strong showing, but not as good as the first installment of “The Real Thing,” which drew viewers in 25 million homes and ranked second.

The week’s most-watched broadcast, of course, was “The Cosby Show’s” second-season premiere, which was seen in 27 million homes.

“Family Ties Vacation” is part of the “Family Ties: The Complete Fourth Season” DVD set.

 

Also on TV

On September 23, 1985, NBC also aired the season premiere of “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes;” ABC broadcast the season premiere of “Hardcastle and McCormick” and “ABC Monday Night Football,” in which the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 35 to 24; and CBS showed the season premiere of “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” and “Izzy and Moe,” a TV-movie that reunited “Honeymooners” stars Jackie Gleason and Art Carney in a new table about Prohibition-era con artists.

 

The Record

During the week of September 22, 1985, the number ones were Garrison Keillor’s “Lake Wobegon Days” (novel), Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” (song) and “Back to the Future” (movie). In New York, the World Health Organization reported the number of worldwide AIDS cases surpassed 15,000.

 

  

Captions: Michael J. Fox on TV Guide’s September 21, 1985, cover (top, photo by Peter Kredenser); NBC’s advertisement for “Family Ties Vacation,” also from that issue (bottom).

Monday, Oct. 15, 1984

“Digging Deeper” is a closer look at notable TV moments from the past four decades.

There’s no evidence the “Kate & Allie” episode “Landlady” stirred any controversy when CBS aired it 25 years ago tonight, even though it addresses issues – homophobia, gay relationships, the definition of family – that are as provocative now as they were then.

Nexis and Google searches don’t turn up any old headlines about nervous network affiliates refusing to air “Landlady” or sponsors dropping out before the episode’s broadcast or religious groups threatening boycotts.

Maybe that was the point.

Perhaps the “Kate & Allie” producers conceived “Landlady” not as mechanism to court publicity or goose ratings, but as a tool to educate viewers – to help them develop a deeper appreciation for the everyday challenges facing gay men and lesbians.

If, indeed, this was the producers’ goal, they succeeded.

“Landlady” has divorced mothers and roommates Kate McCardle and Allie Lowell (Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin) facing a big rent increase when the woman who owns their Greenwich Village apartment, Janet Franklin (guest star Gloria Cromwell), discovers they are two families sharing a single-family dwelling.

Unable to afford the rent hike – and unable to find another affordable apartment in Manhattan – Kate and Allie decide to lie to Janet, telling her they’re a lesbian couple – and therefore, one family.

Then Janet, who appears to be in her early 60s, comes out to Kate and Allie, introducing them to her lover of eight years – sweet, cardigan-clad grandmother Miriam Goodman (Chevi Colton).

Janet and Miriam, under the impression Kate and Allie are fresh from the closet, try to counsel them through the coming-out process, even arranging a dance in their honor at the local gay community center.

One lie leads to another, and Kate and Allie grow increasingly guilty about deceiving their new friends, but they conclude they have no other choice.

On the night of the dance, Janet and Miriam drop by the apartment to pick up “the girls,” as Janet has come to refer to Kate and Allie. When Janet accidentally overhears a conversation between them and discovers they’re only pretending to be gay, she’s hurt and angry.

“I am so tired of people who think they have the right to condescend to us – just because we’re different from them,” Janet says.

“Wait a minute,” Kate responds. “You were ready to penalize us $648 a month just because we’re different from you.”

JANET: This apartment is a one-family dwelling!

KATE: Sure, as long as you get to say what a family is.

JANET: Everybody knows what a family is.

KATE: I’m not so sure. A lot of people wouldn’t consider a gay couple a family, but you do. And now, so do we.

MIRIAM (gazing sympathetically at Kate and Allie): Oh Janet.

ALLIE: A family is anybody who wants to share their lives together.

KATE: Right – raise their kids together, put up with each other’s craziness. …

ALLIE: It’s love that defines a family and it could be any kind of love – your kind, our kind, theirs.

KATE: Who’s to say which kind of family is best? You above all people ought to know that.

Janet, having been gently forced to confront her hypocrisy, relents. She still wants Kate and Allie to accompany her and Miriam to the dance.

Allie reminds Janet that she and Kate aren’t really gay. “I won’t tell anybody if you don’t,” a smiling Janet responds.

The resolution may be a little pat, but it doesn’t undermine the brilliance of “Landlady” and the sly way it forces viewers to consider what life in the closet must be like.

As Steven Capsuto writes in his 2000 book “Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television:

The script turns around situations that many closeted people face every day to avoid losing a job or a home: Kate and Allie have to concoct lie after lie, avoid talking about boyfriends and ex-spouses, and remember what lies they have already told.

It’s clear the “Kate & Allie” producers went out of their way to present Janet and Miriam in a positive light: the couple is depicted as happy, well-adjusted and free of angst.

When Miriam tells Kate and Allie she hasn’t seen her grandson Andrew in more than a year, the viewer might expect to find out it’s because the boy’s parents don’t understand Grandma’s lesbianism. Instead, Miriam explains her son-in-law’s job was transferred to Frankfurt.

“Landlady” is also distinguished by the realistic manner in which Kate and Allie deal with their feelings and attitudes toward gay people.

Allie, a suburban Connecticut housewife before her divorce, is visibly nervous around Janet and Miriam. As soon as they depart after inviting Kate and Allie to the dance, Allie tells her roommate, “I don’t care if we have to live on skid row, I am not going to a gay dance!”

Free-spirited Kate is depicted as being much more casual about homosexuality. When Allie asks what she should do if “some woman asks me to dance,” Kate tells her, “What if some man asks you to dance? You either say no or you dance.”

Then, on the night of the big event, when it appears Allie isn’t going to budge from her rocking chair, Kate’s nerves are revealed. “I can’t go without you!” she tells Allie. “What if some woman asks me to dance?”

The episode’s final scene depicts the two couples happily dancing at the gay dance. (A straight couple and a gay male couple can also be seen, although the two men are the least visible.)

“Landlady” leaves open the possibility Janet and Miriam could become recurring characters, but only Miriam appears on the show again, popping up in a 1987 episode about Allie’s surprise birthday party.

The characters may have proven fleeting and “Landlady” may not have drawn much attention when in 1984, but no matter.

Kate and Allie and Janet and Miriam still have something to teach us, and as long as we have reruns, their lessons on love and family will endure.

 

From the Pages of TV Guide

Also airing Oct. 15, 1984:

8 PM ABC WORLD’S GREATEST MYSTERIES

George C. Scott and Arthur C. Clarke (“2001: A Space Odyssey”) are the hosts for a look at some mysteries. Segments on near-death experiences; a grandmother’s premonition of her granddaughter’s fatal accident; and poltergeists. (60 min.)

8 PM CBS SCARECROW AND MRS. KING

Amanda’s life is in jeopardy when a bitter ex-spy threatens to name names in an expose on security agencies’ use of amateur spies. Arlene Francis appears as a TV talk-show hostess. Amanda: Kate Jackson. (60 min.)

Additional Cast

Douglas Harriman … Steve Eastin

Barney Sleece … Michael DeLano

Roland Brooks … Kaz Garas

8 PM NBC TV’S BLOOPERS & PRACTICAL JOKES

Scheduled: Practical jokes on singer Cyndi Lauper, who faces a difficult baby-sitting job; and Joan Van Ark, who must evaluate a play Ted Shackelford wants to invest in. Also: bloopers by the “Family Ties” cast, with commentary by Michael Gross; David Letterman’s visit to a novelty-item exhibition; sports clips with Fred Roggin; silly cinemas; toy commercials. (60 min.)

9 PM ABC NFL FOOTBALL

Green Bay at Denver. (Live)

9:30 CBS NEWHART

In the third-season opener, Dick (Bob Newhart) may not survive a guilty conscience after he unloads Kirk’s face on a gullible buyer (Ray Walston), and then learns that a TV producer (new regular Peter Scolari) is preparing a grossly isleading promo for his new show. Hinton: Ford Rainey.

9 PM NBC V: THE FINAL BATTLE (CC) – Science Fiction

Part 2. The rebels stage a daring rescue at the aliens’ security headquarters and also seek to sabotage their plan to siphon Earth’s water into their giant spaceships. (Repeat; 2 hrs.)

Cast

Mike Donovan … Marc Singer

Julie … Faye Grant

Ham Tyler … Michael Ironside

Robin … Blair Tefkin

Diana … Jane Badler

Martin … Frank Ashmore

[Concludes Friday evening.]

10 PM CBS CAGNEY & LACEY – Crime Drama

The detectives begin a third season as they investigate a child-molestation charge, but the victim’s father refuses to let his 7-year-old daughter testify. Meanwhile, Petrie files a civilian complaint against two fellow officers who mistook him for a thief. Cagney: Sharon Gless. Lacey: Tyne Daly. (60 min.)

Guest Cast

Jeremy Mitchell … John Reilly

Carrie Mitchell … Natalie Gregory

Rhonda Gallegos … Rose Portillo

Traeger … Christopher Rydell