Abc To Revamp Saturdy-Night TV

Tue., March 11, 1997

The Washington Post

ABC has announced it will give its floundering Saturday night lineup a complete, if temporary, makeover in time for the May ratings sweeps.

Starting April 12, the network will introduce two short-run dramas, “Leaving L.A.” and “Gun,” and move “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” which is doing a pretty good job of floundering all by itself on Sunday nights, into the 8 p.m. time period, replacing “Dangerous Minds.”

“Dangerous Minds,” about a dedicated inner-city schoolteacher, will complete its season run of 17 episodes March 15.

On subsequent Saturdays until the new schedule kicks in, the World Figure Skating Championships on March 22 will air from 8 to 11, and on March 29, a two-hour special called “About Us: The Dignity of Children” will be followed by “A Gala for the President at Ford’s Theatre,” which was taped in Washington on Sunday night.

As of April 12, “Lois & Clark” will be followed at 9 p.m. by “Leaving L.A.,” described as a serio-comedic drama about “the spirited lives and wild journeys of Los Angeles County Coroner employees.”

The most important credential of “Gun” is that it’s from award-winning producers Robert “The Player” Altman and Jim “Sinatra” Sadwith. The drama is described as following “a high-caliber, semiautomatic, pearl-handled gun as it moves from one unpredictable situation to another each week.”

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