What Might've Been: Code Red (1981)

 It had been six years since Irwin Allen's last series for ABC, an adaptation of Swiss Family Robinson, had aired. By 1981, Allen had switched his tack from 20th Century Fox to Columbia Pictures Television, and sold one final entry to ABC. 

However, the network didn't do Allen any favors by placing Code Red on Sunday nights, where three previous Allen series---Swiss Family Robinson, Land of The Giants, & Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea, had finished their runs. We have discussed a number of times in the past about networks scheduling shows on nights where certain personnel, usually actors, had thrived in the past. Allen never sold another series after Code Red was cancelled.

Code Red was framed as a family drama set against the backdrop of a fire company. Lorne Greene was accustomed to family drama (Bonanza, Battlestar Galactica), and played the fire chief, whose two oldest sons (Andrew Stevens, Sam J. Jones) were part of his battalion. An adopted younger son (Adam Rich, fresh from Eight is Enough) became a junior member of the team.

Let's take a look at the series opener.

Had it been on any other night, maybe it succeeds. ABC had tried a half hour series, Firehouse, on Thursdays seven years earlier, and that failed. 60 Minutes was now firmly entrenched on Sundays over at CBS, despite frequent delays for football overruns. Ballgame over.

No rating. My folks preferred Disney or syndicated programming.