Stars in Flashback: ‘Woody Woodpecker,’ ‘Police Woman’ & More Returning TV Classics

Networks and streamers are bringing back the classics. Here’s the who-what-when-where info on a quartet of familiar favorites coming to the small screen this season.

1930s to ’70s: Woody Woodpecker

The latest toon star to pal around with Bugs, Popeye and Tom & Jerry is pretty bore-ing (heh-heh). The Woody Woodpecker Show showcases that brash bird with an hour of shorts every Saturday morning. On September 23: the 1943 Oscar nominee “The Dizzy Acrobat.”

The Woody Woodpecker Show, Saturdays, 8am/7c, MeTV

1970s: Angie Dickinson

Nurse, flight attendant, prostitute, prison inmate: You never knew who glamorous and resourceful Sgt. “Pepper” Anderson, undercover Police Woman, would be next. With Earl Holliman as her flirtatious boss at the LAPD, Dickinson owned this crime drama that paved the way for Charlie’s Angels and Cagney & Lacey.

Police Woman, Saturdays and Sundays, 2am/1c, Great Entertainment Television

1970s: David Cassidy

Come on, get toe-tappy! Really, it’s hard to resist the music of The Partridge Family, from “I Think I Love You” to the earwig theme song, “Come On Get Happy!” The sitcom’s velvet-suited family band—with Shirley Jones as mom Shirley and her real-life stepson, heartthrob Cassidy, as lead singer Keith—performs Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The Partridge Family, Monday, Oct. 2, 9/8c, AXS TV

1970s and ’80s: Erik Estrada

Every warning you’ve heard about the Los Angeles freeway system was borne out on the pileup-happy police drama CHiPs (the “CHP” stands for California Highway Patrol). Still, even a flat tire went down easier when it was Estrada’s Officer Frank “Ponch” Poncherello—he of the blinding smile—answering the call on his motorcycle. Larry Wilcox played his nice-guy partner, Officer Jonathan “Jon” Andrew Baker. All six seasons stream.

CHiPs, Saturday, September 30, Freevee

This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s 2023 Returning Favorites issue. For more first looks at fall’s returning shows, pick up the issue, on newsstands now.