Nick At Nite Will Show Off Spinoff Channel’s Programs

Nick at Nite’s new TV Land spinoff channel isn’t wasting any time strutting its stuff. Its Monday launch - simulcast on Nick at Nite - is a mixed bag, including the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan,” the “lost” 1958 pilot of “Twilight Zone” and even a ‘70s “Sonny & Cher” show featuring Ronald Reagan and Michael Jackson.

The launch-night lineup from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. also features vintage commercials and the pilot episodes of TV Land acquisitions spanning from the ‘50s (the original “Gunsmoke”) to the ‘80s (“Hill Street Blues”).

Nick at Nite hopes the one-night preview will provoke tube lovers to beseech their cable systems to add the new channel. (Nick will still continue airing its nightly sitcoms.)

The launch-night programming will begin at 8 p.m. with an episode of “Love, American Style” that later served as the pilot for “Happy Days.”

Also to be shown are the pilots for series such as “That Girl” (9 p.m.), “Hogan’s Heroes” (9:30 p.m.), “Gunsmoke” (3:30 a.m.), “Mannix” (4 a.m.) and “Petticoat Junction” (2:30 a.m.) Also scheduled are the first episodes of “The Addams Family” (8:30 p.m.), “Hill Street Blues” (11 p.m.) and “St. Elsewhere” (1 a.m.).

A regularly scheduled collection of memorable and unusual programming, under the heading of “Wonders of TV Land,” will be shown every Saturday and Sunday beginning May 4, featuring episodes from series such as the revived “Mission: Impossible” that ran from 1988-90; “Day by Day,” co-starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss; “My Mother the Car”; and Mel Brooks’ “When Things Were Rotten.”