This study of the images of women as portrayed on new television programs in 1987-88 not only compared them with the images of the last season, but examined the similarities and differences between these characters and real life women. Each continuing female character on every new show was coded for race, age, occupation, marital and socioeconomic status, and number of children under 18 years of age. Analyses of these data showed a significant downturn in the number of female characters on television, with a return to male-dominated programs. However, there were some new programs with female characters, and those characters were portrayed in a more realistic fashion than in previous years. In addition, although young, white, single professional women continued to be the dominant profile, there were some working class female and nonprofessional characters in the new programs. While the number of minority female characters has grown, they exist primarily in black situation comedies, and minority females other than blacks were rare. Likewise, television's portrayal of families was beginning to acknowledge the pressures of combining work and family life. Nevertheless, most of the family life portrayed in the 1987-88 season concerned single fathers, with single mothers and nuclear families in the minority. (EW)