NBC Fall Schedule Promo 1978
Kinescoped Waverly Wonders footage begins at 1:05.
NBC Fall Promos 1978-79
More Waverly Wonders footage (promo starts at 1:40).
NBC Promo for Sept 22,1978
A promo for the final aired episode and Who's Watching the Kids?.
THe Waverly Wonders is a 1978 sitcom aired on NBC. Former Los Angeles Rams player Joe Namath starred as Joe Casey (a role originally intended for Larry Hagman, who instead chose to play J.R. Ewing on the CBS smash Dallas), a has-been basketball player who winds up at Waverly High School in Eastville, Wisconsin teaching history (which he knew nothing about) and coaching the school's basketball team (who hadn't won a game in three years). A preview episode aired on Thursday, September 7, and regular episodes began airing Fridays at 8:00 PM, starting on September 22, all to miserable ratings. It was cancelled after three weeks (leaving five episodes unaired) and, in a stroke of irony, replaced with the much more successful Diff'rent Strokes, starring Maude's Conrad Bain. No video footage of the show has been seen since those four weeks that fall, save for network promos and its segment in the NBC fall preview special.