1979 Year In Review


1979

World Events
U.S. Events
World Statistics
U.S. Statistics
Economics
Sports
Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Science
Deaths

'76 - '79
Movies
Music
TV

History/Videos

 

World Events

  • Oil spills pollute ocean waters in Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico (Jan 1, Jun 8, Jul 21, Nov 1)
  • Vietnam and Vietnam-backed Cambodian insurgents announce fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodian capital, and collapse of Pol Pot regime (Jan 7)
  • Shah leaves Iran after year of turmoil (Jan 16); revolutionary forces under Muslim leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, take over (Feb 1 et seq.)
  • Conservatives win British election; Margaret Thatcher is new prime minister (May 3)
  • Carter and Brezhnev sign SALT II agreement (Jun 14)
  • Nicaraguan President General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami (Jul 17); Sandinistas form government (Jul 19)
  • Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 79, British World War II hero, and three others killed by blast on fishing boat off Irish coast (Aug 27); two I.R.A. members accused (Aug 30)
  • Iranian militants seize US embassy in Teheran and hold hostages (Nov 4)
  • Soviet invasion of Afghanistan stirs world protests (Dec 27)

U.S. Events

World Statistics

  • Population: 4.378 billion
  • Nobel Peace Prize: Mother Teresa of Calcutta (India)

U.S. Statistics

  • President: James Earl Carter, Jr.
  • Vice President: Walter F. Mondale
  • Population: 225,055,487
  • Life expectancy: 73.9 years
  • Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 55.7
  • Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 50.2

Economics

  • US GDP (1998 dollars):   $2,557.50 billion
  • Federal spending:   $504.03 billion
  • Federal debt:   $829.5 billion
  • Median Household Income (current dollars):  $16,461
  • Consumer Price Index:   72.6
  • Unemployment:   5.8%
  • Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.15
  • Cost of a gallon of gas: $0.80

Sports

  • Super Bowl: Pittsburgh d. Dallas (35-31)
  • World Series: Pittsburgh d. Baltimore (4-3)
  • NBA Championship: Seattle d. Washington Bullets (4-1)
  • Stanley Cup: Montreal d. NY Rangers (4-1)
  • Wimbledon:
    • Women: Martina Navratilova d. C. Evert Lloyd (6-4 6-4)
    • Men: Bjorn Borg d. R. Tanner (6-7 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-4)
  • Kentucky Derby Champion: Spectacular Bid
  • NCAA Basketball Championship: Michigan St. d. Indiana St. (75-64)
  • NCAA Football Champions: Alabama (12-0-0)

Entertainment

  • Events
    • The Sugar Hill Gang releases the first commercial rap hit, "Rapper's Delight," bringing rap off the New York streets and into the popular music scene.
  • Movies
    • Apocalypse Now
    • All That Jazz
    • Kramer vs. Kramer
    • Breaking Away
  • Music
    • Billboard Top 5 Albums
      • Billy Joel - 52nd Street
      • Bee Gees - Spirits Having Flown
      • Doobie Brothers - Minute By Minute
      • Cars - Cars
      • Supertramp - Breakfast In America
  • Books
    • Penelope Fitzgerald, Rites of Passage
    • Stephen King, The Dead Zone
    • Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song
    • Jayne Anne Phillips, Black Tickets
    • William Styron, Sophie's Choice
    • Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff

Entertainment Awards

    Pulitzer Prizes

  • Fiction: The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
  • Music: Aftertones of Infinity, Joseph Schwantner
  • Drama: Buried Child, Sam Shepard

    Oscars awarded in 1979

  • Best Picture: The Deer Hunter

    Nobel Prize for Literature

  • Odysseus Elytis (Greece)

    Grammys awarded in 1979

  • Record of the Year: "Just the Way You Are," Billy Joel
  • Album of the Year: Saturday Night Fever, Bee Gees, David Shire, Yvonne Elliman, Tevares, Kool and the Gang, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, MFSB, Trammps, Walter Murphy and Ralph MacDonald (RSO)
  • Song of the Year: "Just the Way You Are," Billy Joel, songwriter

    Miss America

  • Kylene Baker (VA)

Science

  • An overheated reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania threatens to melt down. It does not, but 144,000 residents of nearby Middletown are evacuated.
  • The first human-powered aircraft flies across the English Channel: Bryan Allen pilots the Gossamer Albatross from Folkestone, England, to Cap Gris-Nez, France (June 12).
  • The accidental release of anthrax spores at a Soviet bioweapons facility in Sverdlovsk kills several hundred.

    Nobel Prizes in Science

  • Chemistry: Herbert C. Brown (US) and Georg Wittig (West Germany), for developing a group of substances that facilitate very difficult chemical reactions
  • Physics: Steven Weinberg, Sheldon L. Glashow (both US), and Abdus Salam (Pakistan), for developing theory that electromagnetism and the "weak" force, which causes radioactive decay in some atomic nuclei, are facets of the same phenomenon
  • Physiology or Medicine: Allan McLeod Cormack (US) and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield (UK), for developing computed axial tomography (CAT scan) X-ray technique

Deaths

 

Movies

Whether you went to the theatre or the drive-in, whether you actually saw the movie or not, movies played a big part in our culture during the 1970s just as they do today. Here are some of the major movies from 1976 to 1979.

1979

Kramer Vs. Kramer won Best Picture at the Oscars while Superman was #1 at the box office. Dustin Hoffman won Best Actor for Kramer vs. Kramer  and Sally Field won Best Actress for Norma Rae. Here are the major movies of 1979:

  • 10
  • 1941
  • A Little Romance
  • Agatha
  • Alien
  • All That Jazz
  • Amityville Horror
  • And Justice for All
  • Apocalypse Now
  • Being There
  • The Black Hole
  • Black Stallion
  • Breaker Morant
  • Breaking Away
  • Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
  • China Syndrome
  • Concorde Airport '79
  • Electric Horseman
  • Escape from Alcatraz
  • Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
  • Frisco Kid
  • Great Santini
  • Great Train Robbery
  • Hair
  • Hardcore
  • Hurricane
  • Ice Castles
  • The Jerk
  • Kramer vs. Kramer
  • Monty Python's Life of Brian
  • Mad Max
  • Main Event
  • Manhattan
  • Meteor
  • Moonraker
  • Muppet Movie
  • Norma Rae
  • North Dallas Forty
  • The Onion Field
  • Over the Edge
  • The Real Life
  • Richard Pryor Live in Concert
  • Rocky II
  • Scavenger Hunt
  • S.O.S. Titanic
  • Soldier of Orange
  • Star Trek- The Motion Picture
  • Starting Over
  • Tess
  • The Rose
  • Tim
  • Time After Time
  • The Tin Drum
  • Tourist Trap
  • The Villain
  • The Visitor
  • Wanda Nevada
  • The Wanderers
  • The Warriors
  • When a Stranger Calls
  • Yanks

1978

Grease was number one at the box office while The Deer Hunter won Best Picture at the Oscars. Best Actor went to Jon Voight and Jane Fonda won Best Actress, both for Coming Home. Here are some of the other notable pictures of 1978:

  • Animal House
  • Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
  • Autumn Sonata
  • Avalanche!
  • Bad News Bears Go To Japan
  • The Betsy
  • The Big Sleep
  • Big Wednesday
  • Blue Collar
  • The Boys from Brazil
  • The Buddy Holly Story
  • California Suite
  • Capricorn One
  • The Cat from Outer Space
  • The Cheap Detective
  • Coma
  • Comes a Horseman
  • Coming Home
  • Convoy
  • Corvette Summer
  • Days of Heaven
  • Death on the Nile
  • The Deer Hunter
  • Driver
  • Drunken Master
  • The Duellists
  • The End
  • Every Which Way But Loose
  • The Eyes of Laura Mars
  • F.I.S.T
  • Five Deadly Venoms
  • Force 10 From Navarone
  • Foul Play
  • The Fury
  • The Gates Of Heaven
  • Get Out Your Handkerchiefs
  • Go Tell The Spartans
  • Goin' South
  • Gray Lady Down
  • Grease
  • Halloween
  • Heaven Can Wait
  • High Anxiety
  • Hooper
  • I Wanna Hold Your Hand
  • Interiors
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  • Jaws 2
  • The Last Waltz
  • The Lord of the Rings
  • Magic
  • Martin
  • Midnight Express
  • Damien: Omen 2
  • Orchestra Rehearsal
  • Piranha
  • Pretty Baby
  • Return from Witch Mountain
  • Revenge of the Pink Panther
  • Same Time, Next Year
  • Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • Shaolin Master Killer
  • A Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
  • Straight Time
  • Superman
  • The Swarm
  • Thank God It's Friday
  • An Unmarried Woman
  • Up In Smoke
  • Watership Down
  • The Wedding
  • Who Is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe
  • Who'll Stop The Rain
  • Wild Geese
  • The Wiz

1977

The year was a great one for the film industry with at least three truly great films in release. Star Wars was a phenomenon setting an all-time box office record with $127M. Annie Hall won big at the Oscars including the Best Picture award and Close Encounters of the Third Kind missed out on some Oscars because it had the misfortune of being released the same year as Star Wars. Richard Dreyfuss won Best Actor for The Goodbye Girl and Diane Keaton won Best Actress for Annie Hall. Here are some of the other notable pictures of 1977:

  • 1900
  • A Bridge Too Far
  • Aguirre-The Wrath of God
  • Ai No Corrida
  • Airport '77
  • Allegro Non Troppo
  • The American Friend
  • Annie Hall
  • Are You Being Served? The Movie
  • Audrey Rose
  • Bad News Bears in Breaking Training
  • Black Sunday
  • Bobby Deerfield
  • Candleshoe
  • The Car
  • The Cassandra Crossing
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • Cross Of Iron
  • The Deep
  • Desperate Living
  • The Eagle Has Landed
  • Equus
  • Eraserhead
  • The Exorcist II
  • Fun With Dick and Jane
  • The Gauntlet
  • The Goodbye Girl
  • Hardware Wars
  • Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo
  • The Hills Have Eyes
  • The Hobbit
  • The Island of Dr. Moreau
  • Islands in the Stream
  • Jabberwocky
  • Julia
  • Kentucky Fried Movie
  • King Kong
  • The Last Wave
  • The Late Show
  • Looking for Mr. Goodbar
  • MacArthur
  • The Man Who Loved Women
  • Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
  • New York, New York
  • Oh, God!
  • One on One
  • Opening Night
  • Orca
  • The Other Side of Midnight
  • Padre Padrone
  • Pete's Dragon
  • Pumping Iron
  • Rabid
  • Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown
  • Rescuers
  • Rollercoaster
  • Rolling Thunder
  • Saturday Night Fever
  • Semi-Tough
  • Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
  • Slap Shot
  • Slipper and the Rose
  • Smokey and the Bandit
  • Sorcerer
  • The Spy Who Loved Me
  • A Star is Born
  • Star Wars
  • Stroszek
  • Suspiria
  • That Obscure Object of Desire
  • Turning Point
  • Wizards

1976

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was number one at the box office while Rocky won Best Picture at the Oscars. Peter Finch won Best Actor and Faye Dunaway won Best Actress, both for Network. Here are some of the other notable pictures of 1976:

  • Alice, Sweet Alice
  • All The Presidents Men
  • Assault on Precinct 13
  • At the Earth's Core
  • The Bad News Bears
  • Big Bus
  • Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars
  • Blood Sucking Freaks
  • Bound for Glory
  • Buffalo Bill and the Indians
  • Bugsy Malone
  • Burnt Offerings
  • Car Wash
  • Carrie
  • Deep Race
  • The Enforcer
  • F For Fake
  • Family Plot
  • Freaky Friday
  • The Front
  • Gator
  • Grey Gardens
  • Gumball Rally
  • Gus
  • Harlan County USA
  • Heart of Glass
  • J.D.'s Revenge
  • Killing of a Chinese Bookie
  • King Kong
  • Last Tycoon
  • Lipstick
  • Logan's Run
  • Man Who Fell To Earth
  • Marathon Man
  • Message
  • Midway
  • Mother, Jugs and Speed
  • Murder by Death
  • Network
  • Obsession
  • Ode to Billy Joe
  • Omen
  • Outlaw Josey Wales
  • Pink Panther Strikes Again
  • Ritz
  • Robin and Marian
  • Rocky
  • Seven Beauties
  • Seven-Per-Cent Solution
  • Shaggy D.A.
  • The Shootist
  • Silent Movie
  • Silver Streak
  • Small Change
  • Song Remains the Same
  • Sparkle
  • Squirm
  • A Star Is Born
  • Stay Hungry
  • Swashbuckler
  • Taxi Driver
  • Tenant
  • Two-Minute Warning
  • Voyage of the Damned

 

 

Music

Music evolved dramatically in the 1970s as Pop, Rock, Funk, Punk, and Disco all sought their share of the limelight. Here are some of the albums you may have been listening to from 1976 to 1979:

1979

  • Abba - Voulez-Vous
  • B-52's
  • Bee Gees - Spirits Having Flown
  • Billy Joel - 52nd Street
  • Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
  • Cheap Trick - Live At Budokan
  • Chic - Risque
  • Chicago - XIII
  • Clash - London Calling
  • Donna Summer - Bad Girls
  • Eagles - The Long Run
  • Elton John - Victim of Love
  • Elvis Costello, Attractions - Armed Forces
  • Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
  • Graham Parker & The Rumour - Squeezing Out Sparks & Live Sparks
  • J.D. Souther - You're Only Lonely
  • The Knack - Get the Knack
  • Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door
  • Marianne Faithfull - Broken English
  • Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
  • Neil Young, Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps
  • Paul McCartney & Wings - Back to the Egg
  • Philip Glass - Einstein on the Beach
  • Pink Floyd - The Wall
  • Prince
  • Rickie Lee Jones
  • Ricky Skaggs - Sweet Temptation
  • Roches
  • Ry Cooder - Bop Till You Drop
  • Stevie Wonder - The Secret Life Of Plants
  • Talking Heads - Fear Of Music
  • Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedoes
  • Van Morrison - Into the Music
  • XTC - Drums And Wires
  • ZZ Top - Deguello

1978

Disco was so prevalent in 1978 that some of the most unlikely rock acts turned out disc-tinged albums - some successfully (Rolling Stones, Blondie, Rod Stewart) and some not so successfully (Chicago, Elton John). The year also saw the recorded debuts of both Prince and Van Halen, with the latter eventually selling over 10 million copies.

  • A Taste Of Honey
  • Abba - The Album
  • Ace Frehley
  • Al Stewart - Time Passages
  • Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing
  • Big Star - Third and Sister Lovers
  • Billy Joel - 52nd Street
  • Blondie - Parallel Lines
  • Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town
  • Chic - C'est Chic
  • Chicago - Hot Streets
  • The Clash - Give Them Enough Rope
  • Devo - Q- Are We Not Men? A- We Are Devo
  • Dire Straits
  • Doobie Brothers - Minute by Minute
  • Elton John - A Single Man
  • Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
  • Etta James - Deep In The Night
  • Firefall - Elan
  • Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove
  • Ian Dury & Blockheads - New Boots & Panties
  • Joe Ely - Honky Tonk Masquerade
  • John Prine - Bruised Orange
  • Kraftwerk - Man-Machine
  • Linda Ronstadt - Living In The USA
  • Little Feat - Waiting For Columbus (live)
  • Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear
  • Neil Young, Crazy Horse - Comes a Time
  • Patti Smith Group - Easter
  • Paul McCartney & Wings - London Town
  • Poco - Legend
  • Police - Outlandos D'Amour
  • Prince - For You
  • Randy Meisner
  • Rolling Stones - Some Girls
  • Saturday Night Fever (Soundtrack)
  • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Soundtrack)
  • Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food
  • The Band - The Last Waltz (Live)
  • The Cars
  • Van Halen - Van Halen

1977

Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album was more than just album of the Year at the Grammys, it spent an unprecedented 31 weeks at #1 and sent four songs (Dreams, Go Your Own Way, Don't Stop, and You Make Loving Fun) to the top ten - also unprecedented for a group.

However, it was the rise of two "love them or hate them" genres that 1977 is remembered for. Disco acts such as the Bee Gees, Chic, and Andy Gibb began to rule the airwaves while the critics raved about punk bands such as the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.

  • Abba - Arrival
  • Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat
  • Andy Gibb - Flowing Rivers
  • Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever
  • Billy Joel - The Stranger
  • Bread - Lost Without Your Love
  • Carpenters - Passage
  • Chic
  • Chicago - XI
  • The Clash
  • Crosby, Stills and Nash - CSN
  • ELO - Out Of The Blue
  • Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
  • Firefall - Luna Sea
  • Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
  • Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
  • Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
  • The Jam - In The City
  • Jimmy Buffett - Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
  • Kiss - Alive II
  • Linda Ronstadt - Simple Dreams
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors
  • Neil Young - Decade
  • Olivia Newton-John - Making a Good Thing Better
  • Parliament - Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome
  • Percy Thrillington (Paul McCartney) - Thrillington
  • Pink Floyd - Animals
  • Ramones - Rocket to Russia
  • Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation
  • Roberta Flack - Blue Lights in the Basement
  • Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols
  • Talking Heads - '77
  • Television - Marquee Moon
  • Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way
  • Waylon Jennings - Ol' Waylon

1976

  • Aerosmith - Rocks
  • America - Hideaway
  • Bee Gees - Children of the World
  • Bob Dylan - Desire
  • Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live!
  • Boston
  • Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees
  • Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man
  • Carpenters - A Kind of Hush
  • Chicago - X
  • Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band
  • Eagles - Hotel California
  • Eagles - Their Greatest Hits (1971-75)
  • Elton John - Blue Moves
  • England Dan & John Ford Coley - Nights are Forever
  • Firefall
  • Gary Wright - Dream Weaver
  • Graham Parker & The Rumour - Howlin' Wind
  • Hall and Oates - Bigger Than Both Of Us
  • Jackson Browne - The Pretender
  • James Taylor - Greatest Hits
  • Joan Armatrading
  • J.D. Souther - Black Rose
  • Joni Mitchell - Hejira
  • Kate & Anna McGarrigle
  • Kiss - Destroyer
  • Kiss - Rock And Roll Over
  • Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down The Wind
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd - One More From the Road
  • Modern Lovers
  • Neil Diamond - Beautiful Noise
  • Olivia Newton-John - Come On Over
  • Orleans - Waking and Dreaming
  • Parliament - Mothership Connection
  • Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings Over America
  • Paul McCartney - Wings at the Speed of Sound
  • Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive!
  • Ramones
  • Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
  • Warren Zevon
  • Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson - Wanted! The Outlaws

 

 

 

 

TV

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube. Here's what we were watching from 1976 to 1979. Click the links to find out more about each show at the Internet Movie Database.

  1979-80 Ratings    
Rank Show Network Estimated
viewers
1 60 Minutes CBS 21,669,200
2 Three's Company ABC 20,066,900
3 That's Incredible ABC 19,685,400
4 Alice CBS 19,303,900
5 M*A*S*H CBS 19,303,900
6 Dallas CBS 19,075,000
7 Flo CBS 18,617,200
8 The Jeffersons CBS 18,540,900
9 The Dukes of Hazzard CBS 18,388,300
10 One Day at a Time CBS 17,549,000
11 Archie Bunker's Place CBS 17,472,700
12 Eight is Enough ABC 17,396,400
13 Taxi ABC 17,091,200
14 House Calls CBS 16,862,300
15 Real People NBC 16,862,300
16 Little House on the Prairie NBC 16,633,400
17 Happy Days ABC 16,557,100
18 CHiPS NBC 16,404,500
19 Trapper John, M.D. CBS 16,175,600
20 Charlie's Angels ABC 15,946,700
21 Barney Miller ABC 15,946,700
22 WKRP in Cincinnati CBS 15,794,100
23 Benson ABC 15,717,800
24 The Love Boat ABC 15,717,800
25 Soap ABC 15,641,500
26 Diff'rent Strokes NBC 15,488,900
27 Mork & Mindy ABC 15,412,600
28 Fantasy Island ABC 15,336,300
29 Tenspeed and Brown Shoe ABC 15,260,000
30 ABC Sunday Night Movie ABC 15,260,000
       
  1978-79 Ratings    
Rank Show Network Estimated
viewers
1 Laverne & Shirley ABC 22,722,500
2 Three's Company ABC 22,573,500
3 Mork & Mindy ABC 21,307,000
4 Happy Days ABC 21,307,000
5 Angie ABC 19,891,500
6 60 Minutes CBS 18,997,500
7 M*A*S*H CBS 18,923,000
8 The Ropers ABC 18,774,000
9 All in the Family CBS 18,550,500
10 Taxi ABC 18,550,500
11 Eight is Enough ABC 18,476,000
12 Charlie's Angels ABC 18,178,000
13 Alice CBS 17,284,000
14 Little House on the Prairie NBC 17,209,500
15 ABC Sunday Night Movie ABC 16,837,000
16 Barney Miller ABC 16,837,000
17 The Love Boat ABC 16,464,500
18 One Day at a Time CBS 16,092,000
19 Soap ABC 15,868,500
20 The Dukes of Hazzard CBS 15,645,000
21 NBC Monday Night Movie NBC 15,570,500
22 Fantasy Island ABC 15,496,000
23 Vega$ ABC 15,347,000
24 ABC Monday Night Movie ABC 15,272,500
25 CHiPS NBC 15,123,500
26 Stockard Channing in Just Friends CBS 15,049,000
27 Diff'rent Strokes NBC 14,825,500
28 Monday Night Football ABC 14,751,000
29 What's Happening ABC 14,751,000
30 Lou Grant CBS 14,676,500
       
  1977-78 Ratings    
Rank Show Network Estimated
viewers
1 Laverne & Shirley ABC 23,036,400
2 Happy Days ABC 22,890,600
3 Three's Company ABC 20,630,700
4 60 Minutes CBS 17,787,600
5 Charlie's Angels ABC 17,787,600
6 All in the Family CBS 17,787,600
7 Little House on the Prairie NBC 17,568,900
8 Alice CBS 16,912,800
9 M*A*S*H CBS 16,912,800
10 One Day at a Time CBS 16,767,000
11 How the West Was Won ABC 16,402,500
12 Eight is Enough ABC 16,183,800
13 Soap ABC 16,038,000
14 The Love Boat ABC 15,965,100
15 NBC Monday Night Movie NBC 15,819,300
16 Monday Night Football ABC 15,673,500
17 Fantasy Island ABC 15,600,600
18 Barney Miller ABC 15,600,600
19 Project U.F.O. NBC 15,454,800
20 ABC Sunday Night Movie ABC 15,163,200
21 The Waltons CBS 15,163,200
22 Barnaby Jones CBS 15,017,400
23 Hawaii Five-O CBS 14,871,600
24 ABC Monday Night Movie ABC 14,798,700
25 Rhoda CBS 14,652,900
26 The Incredible Hulk CBS 14,507,100
27 Family ABC 14,507,100
28 Welcome Back, Kotter ABC 14,507,100
29 On Our Own CBS 14,288,400
30 The Big Event NBC 14,142,600
       
  1976-77 Ratings    
Rank Show Network Estimated
viewers
1 Happy Days ABC 22,428,000
2 Laverne & Shirley ABC 22,000,800
3 ABC Monday Night Movie ABC 18,512,000
4 M*A*S*H CBS 18,440,800
5 Charlie's Angels ABC 18,369,600
6 The Big Event NBC 17,372,800
7 The Six Million Dollar Man ABC 17,230,400
8 ABC Sunday Night Movie ABC 16,660,800
9 Baretta ABC 16,660,800
10 One Day at a Time CBS 16,660,800
11 Three's Company ABC 16,447,200
12 All in the Family CBS 16,304,800
13 Welcome Back, Kotter ABC 16,162,400
14 The Bionic Woman ABC 15,948,800
15 The Waltons CBS 15,877,600
16 Little House on the Prairie NBC 15,877,600
17 Barney Miller ABC 15,806,400
18 60 Minutes CBS 15,592,800
19 Hawaii Five-O CBS 15,592,800
20 NBC Monday Night Movie NBC 15,521,600
21 Rich Man, Poor Man, Book II ABC 15,379,200
22 Monday Night Football ABC 15,094,400
23 Eight is Enough ABC 15,023,200
24 The Jeffersons CBS 14,952,000
25 What's Happening ABC 14,880,800
26 Good Times CBS 14,596,000
27 Sanford and Son NBC 14,453,600
28 ABC Friday Night Movie ABC 14,382,400
29 The Tony Randall Show ABC 14,311,200
30 Alice CBS 14,240,000