How did it air?

ithink the producers made a mini-movie in 1979 and then brought back the cast and more for a series in 1982 for only 26 episodes which was over a course of 4 years.

I see that this thread is about seven years old, but I was curious about the same thing, so I'll post what I found. According to TV.com's episode listing, the show aired it's first six episodes weekly in 1979. When the show returned in 1980, and for the rest of it's run through 1986, four episodes were shown each year on the first of September, October, November and December.