NBC UNVEILS ITS FALL PROGRAMS

NBC, first in prime-time ratings but last in unveiling its 1986-87 schedule, said Wednesday that eight new series, including one that returns Andy Griffith to weekly television in a dramatic format, will be on its comedy-laden roster next fall.

To make room for the newcomers--which represent 6 1/2 hours of new programming, including NBC News’ previously announced “1986” series--such old reliables as “Silver Spoons” “Knight Rider” and “Remington Steele” were dropped.

Each had been on NBC for four seasons. Also axed: “Punky Brewster” and a trio of first-season efforts, “The Last Precinct,” “Blacke’s Magic” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” “Helltown,” “Stingray” and “All Is Forgiven” were dropped earlier.

The new Griffith series may surprise some who expected him to return in a new version of “The Andy Griffith Show” or “Mayberry, R.F.D.” especially after the recent high-rated two-hour “Return to Mayberry” reprise of that bucolic show. Griffith will be folksy in his comeback, but as an Atlanta lawyer on Tuesday nights in “Matlock,” a one-hour courtroom series based on another NBC movie, “Diary of a Perfect Murder,” which scored well in the ratings in March.

Other new one-hour series coming to NBC are:

--”Crime Story,” a Chicago-based, 1960s-era police action show by Michael Mann, executive producer of the contemporary “Miami Vice.”

--”L.A. Law,” a bustling Los Angeles law-office series created by Steven Bochco, co-creator of “Hill Street Blues.”

--”Our House,” a family drama series in which Wilford Brimley of “Cocoon” fame plays a cranky retiree whose love of privacy is disrupted somewhat by the arrival of his recently widowed daughter-in-law (Deirdre Hall) and three grandchildren.

NBC’s fall roster, which shifts eight returning series to new slots on the schedule, has 13 new and returning comedies, which a spokesman called the most in the network’s history. Three of the sitcoms are new. They are:

--”Alf,” starring Max Wright, formerly of “Buffalo Bill,” as as “an ordinary guy caught up in something extraordinary when an Alien Life Force”----identified as a furry puppet named Alf--joins his family.

--”Amen,” starring Sherman Hemsley, late of “The Jeffersons,” in a clerical comedy set in Philadelphia.

--”Easy Street,” sort of a “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” variation starring Lonnie Anderson, formerly of “WKRP in Cincinnati.” Here she plays a rich young widow who angers her in-laws when she brings her down-at-the-heels uncle (Jack Elam) and his scruffy pal (Lee Weaver” to live with them in Beverly Hills.

NBC’s powerhouse four-show Thursday-night comedy lineup, led by “The Cosby Show,” remains unchanged, with the durable police series “Hill Street Blues” continuing to conclude that evening.

But the Peacock network, which has had persistent trouble on Sundays competing against CBS’ high-rated “60 Minutes” and “Murder, She Wrote,” revamped its roster for that night by dropping “Punky Brewster” and “Silver Spoons,” and moving Steven Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories” to Mondays.

NBC now will tackle CBS on Sundays next fall with the new “Our House” and “Easy Street,” which will be followed by Valerie Harper’s “Valerie,” which is moving from 8:30 p.m. Mondays. NBC plans to end the night with various TV-movie offerings.

In another major move, the network shifted the veteran “The A-Team” from Tuesday nights to Fridays, where it will start that evening next fall. The show will be followed by “Miami Vice,” moved an hour back to fight both crime and CBS’ “Dallas.” The new “L.A. Law” will get the 10 p.m. slot previously held by “Vice.”

(For art, fashion and fast-car fans, NBC says that “Vice” will “emphasize darker, richer hues instead of pastels”; that Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas will be clad in newly designed threads, and that they’ll drive a new car, a Ferrari Testarossa.)

On the news front, NBC’s “1986,” a retooled version of “American Almanac,” which got a six-show tryout last season, will air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. The one-hour series, co-anchored by Roger Mudd and Connie Chung, will start a summer run on June 10.

CBS, which ended last season as second in prime-time ratings after six consecutive seasons as No. 1, made public its 1986-87 schedule on May 7 with a conservative roster that offered seven new series totaling only five hours of new programming.

ABC, trying to rebound from two successive seasons as third in prime-time ratings, unveiled its schedule on Monday, installing nine new series that represented 6 1/2 hours of new programming.

(An ABC spokesman quoted in Tuesday’s editions of The Times incorrectly said that his network’s new schedule included seven hours of new programming.)

The schedules of both ABC and NBC were announced a day earlier than planned--in NBC’s case because portions of it had been leaked to the press, while ABC wanted to avoid such leaks, spokesmen for each network said.

Following is NBC’s night-by-night schedule for next season. It is subject to change.

Monday--”Alf” (new); “Amazing Stories”; “NBC Monday Night at the Movies.”

Tuesday--NBC: “Matlock” (new); “Crime Story” (new); “1986” (new).

Wednesday--”Highway to Heaven”; “Gimme a Break”; “You Again”; “St. Elsewhere.”

Thursday--”The Cosby Show”; “Family Ties”; “Cheers”; “Night Court”; “Hill Street Blues.”

Friday--”The A-Team”; “Miami Vice”; “L.A. Law” (new).

Saturday-- “The Facts of Life”; “227”; “The Golden Girls”; “Amen” (new); “Hunter.”

Sunday--”Our House” (new); “Easy Street” (new); “Valerie”; “NBC Sunday Night at the Movies.”