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1990-91 TV Season
by Billy Ingram
1990-91 season highlights: One of the most notorious flops in TV history was launched in 1990, Cop Rock, produced by Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues) it combined the police genre with musical numbers. Yes, cops at work would break out in a song and dance number for no discernible reason. It was even worse than you can imagine!
Daytime soap opera Dark Shadows (1966-71) was revived for a short time on NBC with an all new cast. That was the problem with the series in my opinion - bad casting. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a huge hit for NBC, as was Law and Order.
Beverly Hills 90210 was a massive hit for fledgling network FOX. Also on FOX, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, a sitcom ripoff of Ferris Bueller's Day Off about a wisecracking teen who can do no wrong. NBC actually launched a sitcom version of Ferris Bueller in the fall that was equally short-lived.
Other TV shows based on movies that aired in 1990-91 include Uncle Buck, In the Heat of the Night, Parenthood, and Bagdad Café.
Get A Life starring Chris Elliot on the other hand was a genuinely funny sitcom that, for some reason, didn't really click with viewers, running for 2 seasons. Elliot's real life father, comedian Bob Elliott (Bob & Ray) played his dad in this sitcom. His mother was portrayed by Elinor Donahue (Father Knows Best). Elliott's character actually dies a grizzly death in twelve episodes.
A mid-season replacement on FOX, The Sunday Comics featured a collection of standup comedians, variety acts, and film shorts produced by comics including Bruce Baum, Gilbert Gottfried, Rich Hall, and Rick Overton. The show was originally hosted by Jeff Altman Pink Lady & Jeff), but in June of 1991 he was replaced by Lenny Clarke (Rescue Me) who's one-season sitcom Lenny on CBS debuted in the fall of 1990. Clark's tenure on The Sunday Comics lasted only until October of 1991; for the rest of the year guest hosts were used until cancellation came in December.
Thanks to the popularity of Tim Burton's Batman, another DC hero raced into primetime, The Flash. Lasting only one season, The Flash starred John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen / Flash. CBS had grand aspirations for this colorful drama, the 2-hour pilot cost $6 million while each subsequent episode was budgeted at around $1.6 million to produce, incredibly expensive at that time. Mark Hamill appeared as guest villain The Trickster while David Cassidy was cast as Mirror Master.
Evening Shade on CBS starred Burt Reynolds, Hal Holbrook, Ossie Davis, Marilu Henner, Charles Durning, and Ann Wedgworth - that may be one of the finest casts of all time. This comedy about an ex-professional football player who returns to a rural town in Arkansas to coach a high-school football team ran for 4 years.
Jim Henson's Dinosaurs debuted mid-season, airing for 3 seasons on ABC, about a family of anthropomorphic puppet dinosaurs, think All In The Family meets The Muppets. Henson died the year before the show aired.
This video montage features all 34 of the shows that debuted in the fall of 1990 (does not include mid-season shows):
New series - ABC
America's Funniest People
Baby Talk
Cop Rock
Davis Rules
Dinosaurs
Eddie Dodd
Gabriel's Fire
Going Places
Hi Honey, I'm Home!
The Man in the Family
Married People
My Life and Times
Under Cover
New series - CBS
The Antagonists
Broken Badges
E.A.R.T.H. Force
Evening Shade
The Family Man
The Flash
Good Sports
Lenny
Over My Dead Body
Sons and Daughters
Top Cops
The Trials of Rosie O'Neill
True Detectives
Uncle Buck
WIOU
You Take the Kids
New series - FOX
Against the Law
American Chronicles
Babes
Beverly Hills, 90210
DEA
Get a Life
Good Grief
Haywire
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
The Sunday Comics
Top of the Heap
True Colors
New series - NBC
The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage
American Dreamer
Blossom
Dark Shadows
Expose
The Fanelli Boys
Ferris Bueller
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Hull High
Lifestories
Law & Order
Parenthood
Sisters
Sunday Best
Working It Out
1990-91 season highlights: One of the most notorious flops in TV history was launched in 1990, Cop Rock, produced by Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues) it combined the police genre with musical numbers. Yes, cops at work would break out in a song and dance number for no discernible reason. It was even worse than you can imagine!
Thanks to the popularity of Tim Burton's Batman, another DC hero raced into primetime, 
