But 35 years ago, Saturday night was "must-see TV" before such a thing existed.Perhaps more people were staying home in those days.
The country was in the midst of a recession that was brought on in large part by the OPEC oil crisis of 1973. As a result, oil prices quadrupled.
And there was a lot of drama playing out on America's TVs in early 1974.
President Nixon and Congress were engaged in a tug-of-war over the White House tapes. Nixon even referred to it in his State of the Union address in late January, declaring, "One year of Watergate is enough."
Anyway, let's take a look at a Saturday night nearly 35 years ago — Feb. 9, 1974.
On Monday, Feb. 4, Patricia Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, launching a real-life drama that went on for more than a year.
The Saturday after Hearst was abducted, Americans settled in for an evening of classic entertainment on CBS.
The evening began with what is now regarded as a classic episode from the No. 1-rated program in television, "All in the Family," called "Archie Eats and Runs."
Archie came home to an evening meal of beef and mushroom stew. By the time he finished dinner, his son-in-law Mike came in with the news that a brand of canned mushrooms had been recalled.
Edith wasn't sure if it was the brand she bought. She used all the cans in the stew and threw away the empties. But, to be on the safe side, Mike and Edith took Archie to the hospital. But Gloria, who had the flu, didn't go. "You can't go to the hospital," Mike told her in a memorable line as he and Edith led Archie out the front door. "You're sick!"
Immediately following "All in the Family" was "M*A*S*H," which left the Saturday night lineup for its third season but continued to thrive on weeknights for nearly a decade.
On Feb. 9, "M*A*S*H" aired one of its best episodes of the season, "Crisis," in which supply lines were cut during a brutally cold stretch of weather.
In this episode, Frank Burns coined the phrase, "lounge lizard at war," and Henry Blake advised everyone, with the wind howling noisily outside the tent, to "keep the brass monkeys in tonight."
Next on the schedule was the No. 9-rated program in television that year, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
The show had reached its ratings peak — even though it remained on the air for another three seasons — but it still had some of its most classic moments left to come, including the Feb. 9 episode, in which the vain and intellectually challenged Ted Knight won a long-coveted Teddy Award after an intense campaign and was introduced to broadcast news legend Walter Cronkite.
"Well, Walter," Ted said, putting his arm around Cronkite's shoulder, "let's talk shop. What words do you have trouble pronouncing?"
The next show on the schedule was only in its second season but it was rated solidly in the Top 20, "The Bob Newhart Show."
On Feb. 9, Newhart's neighbor, Howard, was introduced to Bob's sister. Howard fell hopelessly in love with her, but there was a complication. She was getting married to someone else.
CBS closed out the evening's schedule with the one-hour "Carol Burnett Show," the best of the music and comedy variety shows — a TV genre that doesn't seem to exist in prime time anymore.
On that February night, the guests were Vincent Price and Joel Grey, and the program featured some clever skits, including one in which Burnett played a hotel's switchboard operator who listened in on guests' calls.
Without a doubt, some Saturday night programs were better than others in 1974. But, 35 years ago, Saturday night had a reputation for quality programming that people would have stayed home to see, even in a robust economy.
