I just found out that the finale, "The Last Show" aired on March 19th, 1977. Is there a reason why that is? Were there no May Sweeps back in the late 70's? It seems so sudden that it would be in March.

If I am not mistaken a lot of shows in the 70s had the last episode in March--dont know why, and I dont remember hearing much about sweeps week back then.

If I am not mistaken a lot of shows in the 70s had the last episode in March--dont know why, and I dont remember hearing much about sweeps week back then.
Each season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show ran for 24 episodes. If the series was not preempted for any reason, it should have run a bit shy of six months. If the show started in September, as was the norm, it should then have ended in March. The way shows are scheduled today, there is no way of calculating when a season might begin or end.

Should have asked how M*A*S*H aired its series finale in 28 February 1983. The police drama Adam-12 aired its series finale in May of '75. In modern times, Boston legal aired its series finale in December of 2008. Now if a show gets cancelled and airs its last episode in February, would that indicate cancellation at midseason?

I'm not sure about the 70's but I know in the 80's, the tv season ended officially in April although there were a handful of episodes held back for May Sweeps.

Should have asked how M*A*S*H aired its series finale in 28 February 1983. The police drama Adam-12 aired its series finale in May of '75. In modern times, Boston legal aired its series finale in December of 2008. Now if a show gets cancelled and airs its last episode in February, would that indicate cancellation at midseason?
Forgot about M*A*S*H. I went to a party to watch that. At least the networks ran the seasons in a somewhat straightforward manner back then. I was a fan of the late ABC series V which had a lousy schedule. Four episodes run, then off the air for three months, then four more shows; etc. How can any show, espcially one with a continuous story line be expected to hold an audience with a schedule like that?

Didn't they run fewer repeats during the season back then? I always thought that's why season and series finales used to air earlier in the year.

Didn't they run fewer repeats during the season back then? I always thought that's why season and series finales used to air earlier in the year.

I don't remember repeats being run at all during the regular season back in the '70s. I think it happened occasionally, but it was rare. Prime time television was pretty predictable in those days. Returning series would have their season premiere in September -- and pretty much every show had their premiere within the same week or two -- and new episodes would be rolled out for the next six months, then after that there would be six months of reruns. I always dreaded the end of the summer because it meant going back to school, but the silver lining was that shortly after the school year began, new episodes of my favorite shows would be on the air.

I think I have the repeat of the Finale on CBS that aired in September of 1977.

But that was way too early for a tv season to end back in the 70's.

Back in the first half of the 1960's, TV seasons went into early June.
Then around the 65-66 Season, the TV season started ending around April.
When you got to the 1970's, the TV season ended in early March.

I read something on these boards a while back about cigarette commercials (or lack of) being the reason for the shorter TV seasons. I didn't get what was being talked about since I read the posts very quickly. Would anybody here know anything about this?

As for MTM, if you check the air dates, you will see that MTM season usually ended the first week of March.

Back in the first half of the 1960's, TV seasons went into early June.
Then around the 65-66 Season, the TV season started ending around April.
When you got to the 1970's, the TV season ended in early March.

I read something on these boards a while back about cigarette commercials (or lack of) being the reason for the shorter TV seasons. I didn't get what was being talked about since I read the posts very quickly. Would anybody here know anything about this?

As for MTM, if you check the air dates, you will see that MTM season usually ended the first week of March.


So that means it shouldn't have been many repeats during the season since it ended so early.

I do think there were fewer reruns during the regular season than today. Also Mash had a shortened final season of only 16 episodes which is why it ended in February that year.

I do think there were fewer reruns during the regular season than today.

That might be why some tv shows had flashback episodes. Since there were fewer repeats, it gave those who had not seen certain episodes the chance to.