Although killed by the Fox network, "21 Jump Street" will be alive and well in Baltimore this season, and so will "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Movie fans will also find many alternatives to the football and other sports crowding weekend network affiliate schedules.
Those are the among the highlights of the fall schedules of rival stations WBFF-Channel 45 and WNUV-Channel 54, which will shake into place over the next few weeks. Here are the changes (with premiere dates in parentheses):
* Channel 45: As noted in an earlier column last week, the local Fox affiliate launched the network's first Saturday children's schedule over the weekend. But other non-network fare dots the Saturday and Sunday lineup.
The popular "Jump Street," for example, with Peter DeLouise, will be seen in two versions. As noted here yesterday, reruns from previous seasons are scheduled at 10 on weeknights. But new episodes (production is continuing despite the Fox cancellation) will be seen at 5 p.m. Sundays beginning Oct. 7. And repeats of each first-run episode are scheduled the following Saturday at 5 p.m.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" also premieres for the season Oct. 7, slotted at 6 p.m. Sundays, with repeats of the new season episodes due the following Saturday at 10 p.m. In addition, repeats from the show's first three seasons will be seen 5 p.m. on Saturdays beginning Oct. 13. (Weeknight airings of "Trek" are lost in the neutral zone this fall.)
Other Saturday fare of note (not including Fox series) includes: ACC sports action at 11:30 a.m.; "M*A*S*H" reruns at 7 p.m. (Sept. 29), a new series "Reunion" at 7:30 p.m. (with James Brolin finding missing people, also Sept. 29), "Comic Strip Live" at 11 p.m. and "Tom Davis' Sports Beat" at midnight.
Sunday shows include: the recently-premiered "Braase & Donovan" sports talk show at noon and a new home and remodeling show at 12:30 p.m., followed by a movie double feature.
* Channel 54: With a few exceptions, the station's weekend fare is movies, movies, movies, and movies. Oh, and did we mention there are some movies?
On Saturdays, for example, the station has a movie double feature at noon, and picks up the celluloid trail again at 8 p.m. with a five-film overnight run of features.
On Sunday, the current "Blondie" movie slot continues at 10:30 a.m., followed by the station's "Movie Marathon" (often with titles built around a central theme, such as the November celebration of The Three Stooges' 60th anniversary) until commercial programming at 8 p.m.
Between the films, syndicated fare includes: from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturdays (Oct. 6), "Super Boy," "Super Force," "V-TV," "Soul Train" and "Star Search;" from 9 to 10:30 a.m. on Sundays, "The New Lassie," "Out of This World," and "What a Dummy" (a ventriloquist sitcom).