Though The Cosby Show helped revive the sitcom in the 1984-85 season, the fall of 1985 featured no sitcom showdowns. By the fall of 1986, though, the networks had enough sitcoms on their schedules that it was inevitable some would be scheduled opposite each other.

Kate & Allie vs. Alf on Monday at 8:00 p.m. (ET)

With veteran series Scarecrow and Mrs. King, TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes, and Hardcastle and McCormick all vacating the Monday night at 8:00 timeslot, the three networks saw an opportunity to improve their ratings in the slot. CBS made a bold shift, moving Kate & Allie, the 15^th-ranked show the previous season, up one hour. ABC countered with a second-season series, MacGyver—a borderline renewal. NBC scheduled Alf, an unusual sitcom about an alien living with a typical family. While Kate & Allie would be followed by new sitcom My Sister Sam, Alf was paired with Amazing Stories, an anthology series that only scored okay ratings on Sundays the previous season.

The season opened on September 22 with Kate & Allie (19^th place) performing well in its new, earlier timeslot. Alf was decently sampled, finishing in 31^st place; however, it fell to 50^th the next week. Kate & Allie remained in the top 20 most subsequent weeks, while Alf recovered from a weak week two and landed in the top 40 consistently, doing particularly well when Kate & Allie had the night off. MacGyver was never a factor in the race. Alf continued to sneak up on Kate & Allie as the season progressed, finishing 20^th on March 2, just behind Kate & Allie’s 18^th-place showing. Alf got a boost when NBC replaced Amazing Stories with the sitcom Valerie in mid-March. Alf finally won the timeslot on April 6 and May 4, finishing 19^th both weeks, while Kate & Allie was 24^th and 26^th, respectively. For the season, Kate & Allie (19^th place) topped Alf (28^th), but it was clear the timeslot was up for grabs in the coming season.

Winner: Kate & Allie

Perfect Strangers/Head of the Class vs. Together We Stand/Better Days on Wednesday from 8:00-9:00

With NBC’s Highway to Heaven dominating the Wednesday at 8:00 timeslot by finishing in 14^th place during the 1985-86 season, CBS and ABC decided to counterprogram sitcoms for the fall of 1986. ABC had the advantage of starting the night with Perfect Strangers, which was a top ten hit during a spring run in 1986. Head of the Class, starring WKRP in Cincinnati’s Howard Hesseman as the teacher of a class of gifted students followed at 8:30. CBS didn’t have enough incumbent comedies to fill the slot, so it went with two newcomers, Together We Stand and Better Days. Together We Stand starred Elliott Gould, Dee Wallace, and Ke Huy Quan and was based on a 1974 episode of The Brady Bunch that served as a backdoor pilot for a proposed sitcom called Kelly’s Kids. Better Days was a fish-out-of-water comedy with a mostly no-name cast.

ABC smartly debuted Perfect Strangers and Head of the Class against reruns on September 17. Perfect Strangers was good for 13^th place, while Head of the Class showed signs of being a hit with a 5^th-place finish. With Highway to Heaven back the next week, both shows dropped a bit but still did well, with Perfect Strangers in 22^nd and Head of the Class in 17^th. Together We Stand got off to a strong start with a couple of Monday preview episodes landing in the top 25. However, in its first Wednesday showing, it fell to 68^th place. Better Days did even worse, debuting in 70^th place out of 73 programs. Perfect Strangers (32^nd) and Head of the Class (21^st) easily outrated their sitcom competition that night. Together We Stand and Better Days rose slightly when their ABC competition was pre-empted for two weeks. However, when ABC’s sitcoms returned on October 29, Together We Stand fell to 64^th, and Better Days finished 69^th. CBS pulled both shows from the schedule after those showings. For Better Days, a rare for this era single-camera sitcom, this marked the end of its run. Together We Stand returned later in the season without Gould and with a new name, Nothing Is Easy. It was not much more successful this time and disappeared after this season. Perfect Strangers (35^th for the season) and Head of the Class (30^th) cooled off a little but were still quite competitive with Highway to Heaven (24^th).

Winners: Perfect Strangers/Head of the Class

The Facts of Life/227 vs. Life With Lucy/The Ellen Burstyn Show on Saturday from 8:00-9:00

NBC’s veteran combo of Gimme a Break and The Facts of Life easily won the first hour of prime time Saturday during the 1985-86 season, as part of a popular comedy lineup that included The Golden Girls at 9:00. Because The Facts of Life (28^th) was higher-rated than Gimme a Break, it moved into the 8:00 slot for the fall of 1986. 227, which followed The Golden Girls the previous season and finished 21^st in the ratings, moved up to the 8:30 timeslot.

Needing something to give these popular shows a run, ABC went with a big gun. TV legend Lucille Ball agreed to return in her first weekly sitcom in 12 years. Life With Lucy starred Ball as a grandmother sparring with her longtime co-star Gale Gordon, who portrayed her business partner and rival grandparent. ABC was so high on Ball that it purchased the show without a pilot and gave it a full season order. In another coup, ABC landed Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn for her sitcom debut, The Ellen Burstyn Show, which co-starred Elaine Stritch and Megan Mullally.

Just as ABC did on Wednesday, the network hoped to jump-start its Saturday comedy lineup with early premieres on September 20. Despite terrible reviews, Life With Lucy started in 23^rd place. The Ellen Burstyn Show, an odd tonal match with Life With Lucy, debuted in 31^st place. While those were okay numbers, ABC had to be disappointed that Lucy didn’t open with blockbuster numbers like Head of the Class received a few nights earlier. The bad news got worse the next week when Life With Lucy fell to 57^th place, and The Ellen Burstyn Show finished 61^st out of 65 shows. An hour-long episode of The Facts of Life led the timeslot with a 30^th-place finish. While Facts dropped to 41^st place the next week, Lucy fell even further to 66^th place. The Ellen Burstyn Show was 71^st, destroyed by 227, which opened in 17^th. Lucy and Ellen were preempted the next week, while The Facts of Life and 227 were off the two weeks after that. Even without sitcom competition, Life With Lucy fell to a disastrous 62^nd out of 64 shows on October 25. The Ellen Burstyn Show did even worse, finishing 63^rd.

The next time the sitcoms went head-to-head, The Facts of Life finished 31^st, with 227 in 18^th. Life With Lucy and The Ellen Burstyn Show once again fell near the bottom of the ratings, 71^st and 72^nd, respectively, out of 74 shows. A week later, Facts jumped into the top 20 and 227 into the top 15, as Lucy and Ellen remained in the 70s. ABC soon announced that both sitcoms were being pulled from the lineup, with the promise of a later return. With their fates announced, on November 15, they were the two lowest-rated shows for the week, with The Ellen Burstyn Show taking the honors for last place. While The Ellen Burstyn Show had some leftover episodes burned off during the summer, Life With Lucy never returned. Production was stopped after 13 episodes, with five segments unaired. Though critics chastised the 75-year-old Ball and 80-year-old Gordon for performing slapstick, the stunts these healthy seniors performed looked safe. The two turned in fine performances, but the supporting cast was weak, and the scripts were often poor. Plus, it had become increasingly difficult to draw viewers on Saturday night, especially for ABC and CBS, because NBC already had successful shows occupying many of those precious eyeballs. By the way, The Facts of Life (31^st for the season) and 227 (14^th) continued to do well, while ABC and CBS couldn’t make a dent in their ratings.