Two new situation comedies starring Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke, respectively, are gone from CBS' schedule, the network announced Tuesday in a schedule shakeup that dumps two of the three CBS shows produced by Grant Tinker's GTG Entertainment. The network, which has ranked last in the ratings so far this season, said ``Annie McGuire,'' starring Miss Moore, would have its last broadcast in its Wednesday time period on Dec. 28, suggesting it might be brought back in the future. But the network said ``The Van Dyke Show'' and ``Raising Miranda,'' the GTG shows, would have their final broadcasts this month. ``Dirty Dancing,'' a half-hour show based on the hit movie of the same name will go ``on hiatus'' in January. ``Simon & Simon,'' the long-running, on-again, off-again detective series, has its last broadcast in its Saturday time period on Dec. 31. CBS left the door open to reviving it yet again. GTG Entertainment was established by former NBC chairman and MTM Productions head Grant Tinker in partnership with Gannett. Tinker founded MTM Productions with his then-wife, Mary Tyler Moore. The third GTG show for CBS, the critically praised ``TV101,'' an hourlong, teen-appeal drama, is being moved next month from its low-rated Tuesday time slot to Wednesday in place of the Moore and Van Dyke shows. GTG has also not fared well with its only other current TV enterprise, the syndicated newsmagazine show ``USA Today: The Television Show,'' though the company insists it is sticking by that show for the long haul. In the most recent ratings from the A.C. Nielsen Co., ``Annie McGuire'' and ``The Van Dyke Show'' were the lowest-rated network shows of the week. ``Raising Miranda'' was the third lowest-rated show last week. Both ``Annie McGuire'' and ``The Van Dyke Show'' had problems from the start. Both pilots were re-shot and the Moore show was partially recast. They then emerged to almost universally negative reviews, even though their stars are two of the most popular sitcom performers ever. Moore and Van Dyke co-starred in ``The Dick Van Dyke Show'' in the 1960s, and Moore starred as Mary Richards in ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' in the 1970s. CBS announced that ``Tour of Duty,'' a Vietnam series, will return to the schedule Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST. ``Dolphin Cove,'' starring Frank Converse as a dolphin researcher in Australia, will join the schedule in January in place of ``Dirty Dancing'' and ``Raising Miranda'' on Saturday night. The Smothers Brothers will also return to the schedule for four shows in January and February.
