TGIF (ABC)
Encyclopedia
TGIF was the name of an American
family-friendly prime time
television
programming block on the ABC
network. The name comes from the initials of the popular phrase "Thank God It's Friday
". However, the stars of the lineup touted the acronym as meaning "Thank Goodness It's Funny."
(premiered 1952), Leave It to Beaver
(moved to ABC in 1958 after its first season on CBS
), The Donna Reed Show
(premiered 1958), The Flintstones
(premiered 1960, but was largely an adult-oriented comedy until the birth of Pebbles
in 1963), The Brady Bunch
(premiered 1969), and The Partridge Family
(premiered 1970; this and The Brady Bunch became part of the Friday night lineup at that time). All of these shows are considered television classics today.
in charge of promoting Tuesday and Friday night comedies. Recalling his childhood when his family would gather to watch The Wonderful World of Disney, he was inspired to create a family-oriented comedy block. In 1988, Janicek began gaining support for his concept by approaching the studios and talent of independently-produced ABC shows, promoting the synergy and potential success of the family block brand. With four ABC family comedy programs on board, and the backing of network president Bob Iger, the initial lineup for the block was created.
Before ABC experienced its 1990s fame on Friday nights, its Friday night schedule consisted of hit comedies such as Webster
, Benson
and, for its final season, Diff'rent Strokes
. The block of predominantly family-friendly situation comedies was inaugurated in the 1988-89 season with Perfect Strangers
, Full House
, Mr. Belvedere
, and Just the Ten of Us
. Since the 1987-88 season, Perfect Strangers actors Mark Linn-Baker
and Bronson Pinchot
(in character as Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous, respectively) had been doing program block hosting interstitials
on the Perfect Strangers set, originally during the two-hour Wednesday sitcom block that Perfect Strangers was part of as that season began. In March 1988, Perfect Strangers moved to Friday, and the interstitials went with them. On Fridays, the hosting interstitials concept gained more traction before the family-friendly concept on that night took effect. Pinchot and Linn-Baker would remain the sole hosts of the Friday lineup throughout the 1988-89 season.
Meanwhile, ABC began reformulating its Tuesday night lineup which, for the past several seasons, had consisted of an 8-9 p.m. comedy block followed by two hour-long dramas, most notably with the hit series Moonlighting
airing at 9/8c. Moonlighting, then in its fifth season and starting to fall in the ratings considerably (greatly thanks to the 1988 WGA
strike, which delayed the premiere of many programs for the fall of 1988), was removed from the ABC schedule temporarily in February 1989 when the network decided to expand the Tuesday comedy offerings to two hours. Janicek, in response, came up with the idea promote the restructured lineup under a unified brand name, Terrific Tuesday, to draw audiences to the changes, to reference the two additional sitcoms being offered, and especially as a nod to Who's the Boss?
and the freshman smash hit Roseanne, which now served as a strong anchor for the expanded comedy lineup.
The Terrific Tuesday branding was a success, and ABC urged Janicek to continue the banner name for the following season. At the time of fall schedule upfronts in May 1989, Janicek, as well as ABC, devised the notion of further promoting their family fun-themed Fridays with a brand name. Over the summer months, ABC began promoting the Friday sitcoms under the experimental title, "The Friday Fun Club". While Terrific Tuesday and What-a-Wednesday were both on tap for the 1989-90 fall season, the Friday branding concept was to undergo a revision in time for September.
-tuned backup chorus, sang the lyrics, "Time for fun (thank goodness!)/Time for a good laugh (it's funny!)/Time, time, time, time for fun! (T-T-T-Time!)". The mice held up title cards containing the selected theme lyrics "Thank goodness" and "It's funny!". The sequence concludes with a tall mouse breaking a grandfather clock with a mallet.
Following this was a cut into the hosting interstitial. For the first time, another show's cast assumed hosting duties in place of Perfect Strangers. Dave Coulier
, John Stamos
and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
(alternating as Michelle Tanner) all appeared on the set of Full House
introducing the season and series premieres that night. As they began their first segment, the TGIF name was officially introduced, in which its meaning, "Thank Goodness It's Funny", was re-emphasized from the theme lyrics. Coulier and Stamos also announced that a new policy, in which stars from the other three TGIF programs would rotate in hosting along with them, would begin. Rotating with Full House that season was new arrival Family Matters, Perfect Strangers (whose first night hosting under the TGIF banner was October 13, 1989) and Just the Ten of Us. On the premiere night of TGIF, the new (and ultimately short-lived) comedy Free Spirit
was previewed at 9:30/8:30, with Just the Ten of Us reclaiming its time slot the following week.
During this inaugural season for the format, the TGIF logo was only featured at the start of every hosting segment, appearing in a design where each letter was encased in a tall gray box (as pictured above); the boxes would flip in at the bottom of the screen, stand still for a few seconds, and then turn out. Custom bumpers would appear after the final scene of each program, where normally a short cut of the show's title display and theme would play, denoting the final commercial break. In the first season of TGIF, the bumpers featured more animations of the mice. Two variants were run: the tall mouse popping out of the grandfather clock, and a small mouse being dragged around by a running chainsaw around the clock. The show's in-show logos (as opposed to the shows' logo designs used in network promos) were seen on either side of the clock. The closing animation, which ran after the credits of the 9:30 program (usually Just the Ten of Us), consisted of the same notes, but of the lyrics, "See you next week..here for a good laugh", with the last few notes instrumental.
For most of TGIF's run until the 1999-2000 season, at least one series on the lineup was produced by the team of Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett; the first two were Perfect Strangers and Full House, both of which aired on Friday nights prior to the launch of TGIF. In subsequent years two more Miller/Boyett
series, Perfect Strangers spin-off, Family Matters and the Brady Bunch-inspired Step by Step joined the line-up. During the 1990-91 season, all four TGIF shows were produced by Miller/Boyett; Perfect Strangers, Family Matters and Full House were joined by the short-lived Going Places.
During the most successful years of TGIF, the main characters of one of the Friday prime-time sitcoms would "host" the two-hour block of episodes for that week. Always in character, they would introduce each show and comment on the proceedings afterward. Sometimes, characters from a sitcom that did not air on a Friday night would appear; one time, Daniel Hugh Kelly
, Betsy Brantley
and other stars of the drama Second Noah
hosted TGIF for a week in January 1996, mainly as a cross promotion for their new series. Occasionally, the hosts for the evening would find a common thread between each show. In the late 1980s-early 1990s Fall Seasons, various casts would host Saturday Morning Preview Specials
, which previewed much of new Saturday morning programming
which would air the following day prior to the Disney acquisition of ABC Saturdays.
Also during the 1990-91 season, TGIF was promoted with a series of trading cards featuring publicity shots from Perfect Strangers
, Full House
, and Family Matters
.
(Going Places), Jodie Sweetin
(Full House) and Melanie Wilson
(Perfect Strangers).
For the late spring and summer of 1992, ABC ran a promotional contest that chose winners from around the country to host TGIF for a week from their own homes. The chosen ones were instructed to videotape their own segments from home, giving commentary on the shows that would air on the week they were scheduled to have themselves featured on. Families, individuals, groups of friends, couples, and most prominently teenagers were among the winners.
The voiceover narration format from TGIF stars returned for the late spring and summer of 1993. This time, however, rotating stars would simply voice previews over upcoming episode scenes. As in the 1991 TGIF Trivia, a single star would hold the duties per week. Brandon Call
(Step By Step) and Jo Marie Payton
(Family Matters) were among those who took turns; Payton had the distinction of doing one of her segment narration weeks on August 6, 1993, the series finale night of Perfect Strangers. From 1994 onward, original on-screen hosting segments returned to TGIF for the summer months.
, and Mark Zakaran, then Senior Vice President of Marketing of ABC Entertainment
, appointed Jim Janicek to expand his branding work to other nights and dayparts at ABC.
Janicek's first attempt to replicate the success of TGIF came in August 1991, when ABC rolled out a three-hour Wednesday night comedy block for the 1991-92 fall schedule. Loosely known as The Hump, via the advertising tagline "Over the hump!" ("Three hours of non-stop laughs are guaranteed to get you over the hump!", "That'll get you over the hump!") and the use of a '70s funk-flavored background jingle which chanted, "I've got to get over the hump", the format came complete with promos that had a special graphics scheme, differing from TGIF and ABC's nights of regular, non-concept based lineups. The concept title was another play on a popular catchphrase, in which Wednesday is typically referred to as "hump day" (being the middle of the work week, thus making it "over the hump" toward the weekend).
From August to September 1991, the formation of The Hump consisted of The Wonder Years
, Growing Pains (in the month leading to its move to Saturday nights), Doogie Howser, M.D.
, Davis Rules
(which had already been cancelled in May 1991), Anything but Love
and Married People
(cancelled in March 1991). For the new fall season, the lineup changed to Dinosaurs
replacing Growing Pains at 8:30/7:30c, new sitcom Sibs at 9:30/8:30, and the new sitcom Good & Evil at 10:30/9:30c. The sitcoms that aired between 9:30 and 11:00 (Sibs, Anything but Love, Good & Evil) were separately marketed from the first three programs on The Hump as "comedies made specifically for adults". The "adult" promos for The Hump exclusively featured the funk-flavored song, whereas promos for the 8:00-9:30 shows, and the entire lineup in general, used the instrumental version of ABC's 1991 America's Watching jingle. Unlike TGIF and its future one-off concept I Love Saturday Night, The Hump did not use hosting interstitials or customized bumpers for the last commercial break of each show.
With the cancelation of Good & Evil in late October, which the network claimed was entirely due to its low ratings in a 10:30/9:30c slot (although many advocacy groups claimed it was due to the controversy surrounding the defamatory portrayal of a blind
character), along with the lackluster first-month ratings for Sibs, ABC was convinced that the three-hour comedy block was a failure. The network opted to give the 10/9c slot on Wednesdays back to hour-long dramatic series during November sweeps. The Hump concept aired for the last time on October 30, 1991, and ABC resumed promoting the Wednesday lineup in standard fashion. Sibs was relocated elsewhere on the schedule, and Anything but Love was moved back to into its former 9:30/8:30c slot on Wednesdays. For the weeks of November 6th and 13th, 1991, specials aired in the 10/9c slot, but the official replacement for the time period came with the new series Civil Wars on November 20, 1991.
At the start of the 1991-92 season, Janicek also brought the hosted programming block format to Saturday mornings, under the title MCTV (More Cool TV). This title indicated that after TGIF on Friday nights, there was "more cool TV" just hours away on Saturday morning. Live action stars of the Saturday morning lineup, most notably including the cast of ABC's Land of the Lost
revival, hosted interstitials every half hour. The MCTV segments at times were several seconds shorter than those shot for TGIF. While an opening sequence and custom last-segment show bumpers were included, the theme music used was the instrumental version of ABC's 1991 America's Watching campaign. MCTV was soon abandoned, although not as quickly as I Love Saturday Night, the Saturday primetime concept block which premiered on February 1, 1992.
Also notably airing on MCTV was the cartoon Hammerman
, whose star, MC Hammer
, gave even more meaning to the Saturday morning lineup's moniker. Hammer did show up himself to host MCTV on a few occasions. By the end of the season, Hammerman, as well as the MCTV branding, was cancelled.
Seeing how TGIF dominated primetime on Fridays in the face of typical decreased TV viewership on that night, Janicek and company felt that the same marketing power could translate into success for Saturday night. Saturday, as an even heavier social night not spent at home by viewers in the 18-49 demographics, resulted in most networks airing shows with older demographics, those with family appeal, or programs falling in the ratings on other nights (or in the most political cases, shows that a network no longer has confidence in). NBC had claimed dominant victory on Saturday nights throughout the 1980s and into the '90s, with an eclectic mix of family-themed shows and sophisticated comedies aimed at older-age-group viewers (The Golden Girls
, 227
, Amen
, Empty Nest, et al). ABC, however, had continued to struggle on Saturday nights. Through the end of the 1990-91 TV season, recent programs such as The ABC Mystery Movie and China Beach
had experienced quick death after moving to Saturdays, leading to such bold decisions as moving the nationwide phenomenon Twin Peaks
to Saturday in order to shore up the lineup. After reformatting the Saturday night lineup for the 1991 fall schedule to include an hour of comedy followed by another established drama and a freshman drama, ABC announced plans for a Saturday TGIF offshoot to premiere at mid-season.
Titled I Love Saturday Night, it launched to provide a new night and time for three of ABC
's aging sitcoms, Who's the Boss?
, Growing Pains
(both of which had been comprising the Saturday 8-9 p.m. block since September 1991) and Perfect Strangers
(which was still highly rated, but moved to Saturday to help the declining ratings of Boss and Pains). The newcomer that rounded out the lineup was the Steven Bochco
cartoon Capitol Critters
. Premiering on February 1, 1992, the two-hour comedy block of I Love Saturday Night caused The Young Riders
to move elsewhere on the schedule from Saturdays at 9/8c, while freshman drama The Commish
remained at 10/9c.
I Love Saturday Night was structured exactly like TGIF, with hosts from each show rotating every week, down to its own set of branding graphics and a theme song. The intro to the evening began with a red ABC logo encased inside an animated heart, which bounced around, and then off, the screen. Set against various-colored backgrounds (but most commonly blue), the lineup's title was then spelled out in the opening alongside views of animated suns, moons and palm trees. The theme song itself even had a calypso sound to it, with Jamaican-style male vocals. The lyrics consisted of: S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y../ Saturday Night! / I Love Saturday / Saturday Night. The last two lines were often sung over the show bumpers that led into the last commercial break of each show.
There was heavy promotion for I Love Saturday Night, as ABC was valiantly trying to achieve any remaining life out Who's the Boss? and Growing Pains especially. Those in the industry suspected that Perfect Strangers was moved to this night not necessarily since it could have bolstered the lineup's performance, but because it was part of an ABC agenda to kill the series (ABC's explanation in its move from Fridays was that it didn't fit the new TGIF demographic, ages 10–18). Saturday night on ABC, especially up against NBC's powerhouse lineup of the evening, seemed a surefire place to send even a popular show into considerable ratings decline. This is exactly what happened, as ratings during the entire February sweeps period were the lowest of the season for ABC that night (save for The Commish, which had become successful in its first season), with Perfect Strangers experiencing the largest ratings fall for a series in a single season. After five dismal weeks in the Nielsens, ABC had a rapid loss of faith in I Love Saturday Night; on Saturday, February 29th, the branding concept was used for the last time.
Cast members from all three of the live-action shows hosted I Love Saturday Night in rotation during the five-week run. The schedule was as follows:
February 8, 1992: Kirk Cameron
, Jeremy Miller
& Leonardo DiCaprio
, Growing Pains
February 15, 1992: Tony Danza
& Judith Light
, Who's the Boss?
February 22, 1992✝: Mark-Linn Baker & Bronson Pinchot, Perfect Strangers
February 29, 1992: Kirk Cameron, Jeremy Miller, Ashley Johnson
& Leonardo DiCaprio, Growing Pains
✝Capital Critters and Perfect Strangers did not air on this night, although Pinchot and Linn-Baker did host. The Jaleel White Special aired from 8-9:00pm, followed by Who's the Boss? from 9:00-9:30 and Growing Pains in its regular 9:30 slot.
Beyond the quick demise of I Love Saturday Night, the same lineup, more or less, continued on ABC for the remainder of the 1991-92 season. Capital Critters was canceled in March; this caused the remaining three shows to switch slots in order to provide a choice time period for a mid-season sitcom, the Head of the Class
spinoff Billy, which moved to the lineup (Billy had previously been a part of TGIF from its January 31, 1992 premiere until March). Boss and Pains, meanwhile, had announced the end of their runs in the spring of 1992, but both would remain on Saturdays until summer reruns. These shows aired their 1-hour finales on Saturday, April 25, 1992, along with the series-ending episode of MacGyver
, airing on this night just once. Both Perfect Strangers and Billy would stay with the lineup after Boss and Pains relocated.
Two new sitcoms premiered on Saturdays that spring and summer: Julie, starring Julie Andrews
(with a future TGIF star, Rider Strong
, as Andrews' stepson), and the David Lynch
-produced comedy On the Air. The failure of these programs, along with ABC's decision to not renew Billy for a second season and the announcement that Perfect Strangers was going on a long hiatus, marked the end of any attempt by ABC to program comedies or family fare on that night. Once every few years, ABC would again try to program such shows on Saturday nights with no success. The lone exception in this case was The Wonderful World of Disney, which ABC revived after its was bought by Disney and eventually moved to Saturday nights in 2003.
. To promote the special on the previous Friday, all of the TGIF sitcoms' opening theme songs were each replaced with Beatles songs, regardless of the individual shows' plot with the exception of Boy Meets World
, where the theme was a song by The Monkees
.
, Family Matters
and Step by Step left TGIF and aired on CBS
for the same night (which would be the final season for both). Both shows appeared on CBS Block Party
, a similar sitcom programming block with four sitcoms, but failed with both the lineup and shows only lasting one season. As their Friday evening programming evolved, ABC retired the traditional TGIF logo and phased out the theme song.
ABC began to see sagging ratings
in the TGIF lineup in part due to the audience fracture from the Block Party, which was enough to hurt TGIF even though the Block Party itself was a failure. Popular programs such as Boy Meets World
and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch started experiencing declining ratings. New shows joined the lineup, including the likes of Teen Angel and You Wish, which lasted only a season (or less) before they were dropped.
On November 7, 1997, Salem from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch appeared on all four shows in the TGIF lineup and caused the characters in each show to travel back to a different point in time. On a later episode of Boy Meets World
, Melissa Joan Hart
made a second cameo, as an aside, due to the episode in question involving a coven of witches being thwarted from taking the soul of one of the characters. The cameo features Boy Meets World character Eric describing the event and swearing off witches, not realizing that Sabrina is one.
Musical group Hanson
hosted TGIF leading up to their special Meet Hanson. Between the shows it showed them in the studio, "commanding" the shows to come on, and at one point even incorporating TGIF into their mega-hit song "MMMBop
".
, ABC had discontinued the Friday prime time programming block entirely, with the exception of a Working Comedy comedy block during the fall 2000-2001 season of fading comedies: Two Guys and a Girl
and Norm
, and freshman sitcoms The Trouble With Normal and Madigan Men
, which underperformed. This lineup only lasted one year; ABC then reverted to dramas and reality shows like The Mole (which only lasted three weeks). By then Friday nights were the weakest rating night of the week
, with only a few shows receiving attention, such as CBS' CSI
, which premiered on Friday.
TGIF returned to the air in Fall 2003
with heavy promotion. This included a promo spot employing the pop tune "YMCA
" (sung as T-G-I-F), featuring all four family comedies’ casts seated on a living-room couch. Alex Trebek
briefly served as host and spokesman for the block, but for the majority of the TGIF revival the block aired without a host. That season’s lineup met with only moderate success, seeing a consistent second- or third-place showing against a popular CBS
lineup that included Joan of Arcadia
and JAG
. By early 2005
, ABC had stopped actively promoting the TGIF name, and once again dropped the TGIF block in the fall of 2005.
In Fall of 2005, Hope & Faith
continued to air on Friday nights, Less Than Perfect
was renewed for midseason 2005-2006 airing (April 2006), and George Lopez
was moved to a Tuesday comedy block, then back to its original night of Wednesday. CBS canceled both Joan and JAG in May 2005.
and Wife Swap
and occasional encores of popular dramas, such as Grey's Anatomy
and Desperate Housewives
.
After finishing syndication
periods, remnants of TGIF now occupy the daytime and afternoon lineup on ABC Family
. The cable network airs hour long blocks of the sitcoms, Full House
and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
. Step by Step aired on ABC Family from 2001–2010; Boy Meets World
aired on the channel from 2004–2007, and returned to ABC Family on April 12, 2010. Family Matters currently airs on Nick at Nite
, and Perfect Strangers
and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
have recently aired on ION Television, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper airing from 2007-2008 and Perfect Strangers airing only during the month of October 2007 (though neither one of these two shows are currently syndicated on television as of October 2009).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
family-friendly prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
programming block on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network. The name comes from the initials of the popular phrase "Thank God It's Friday
TGIF
TGIF is an initialism for the phrase "Thank God It's Friday", celebrating the last day of the work/school week before the weekend. Its origin dates to the 1960s. It was first popularized by the restaurant T.G.I. Friday's which was founded in 1965. However, it became mainstream by the late 1970s,...
". However, the stars of the lineup touted the acronym as meaning "Thank Goodness It's Funny."
ABC Friday night legacy: 1950s to 1970s
Family-friendly comedies, which featured families with children as major characters, were a staple of ABC programming going back to the network's earlier sitcoms from the 1950s onward, such as The Adventures of Ozzie and HarrietThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television where it continued its success, running on both radio and TV for a couple of years...
(premiered 1952), Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
(moved to ABC in 1958 after its first season on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
), The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the upper middle class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz appears as her pediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on ABC at 10 pm from September...
(premiered 1958), The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
(premiered 1960, but was largely an adult-oriented comedy until the birth of Pebbles
Pebbles Flintstone
Pebbles Flintstone is a fictional character, the red-haired daughter of Fred and Wilma Flintstone...
in 1963), The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
(premiered 1969), and The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...
(premiered 1970; this and The Brady Bunch became part of the Friday night lineup at that time). All of these shows are considered television classics today.
Enter Jim Janicek
TGIF was created and executive produced by Jim Janicek. Before TGIF’s success, Janicek was a writer and producer for ABC EntertainmentABC Entertainment
ABC Entertainment is a network production company owned by ABC that was created in 1982.The company was previously known as ABC Television Network Productions, ABC Circle Films, and ABC Productions...
in charge of promoting Tuesday and Friday night comedies. Recalling his childhood when his family would gather to watch The Wonderful World of Disney, he was inspired to create a family-oriented comedy block. In 1988, Janicek began gaining support for his concept by approaching the studios and talent of independently-produced ABC shows, promoting the synergy and potential success of the family block brand. With four ABC family comedy programs on board, and the backing of network president Bob Iger, the initial lineup for the block was created.
Before ABC experienced its 1990s fame on Friday nights, its Friday night schedule consisted of hit comedies such as Webster
Webster (TV series)
Webster is an American situation comedy that premiered on ABC on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989...
, Benson
Benson (TV series)
Benson is an American television sitcom which aired from September 13, 1979, to April 19, 1986, on ABC. The series was a spin-off from the soap opera parody Soap ; however, Benson discarded the...
and, for its final season, Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
. The block of predominantly family-friendly situation comedies was inaugurated in the 1988-89 season with Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...
, Full House
Full House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
, Mr. Belvedere
Mr. Belvedere
Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series was based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty...
, and Just the Ten of Us
Just the Ten of Us
Just the Ten of Us is an American sitcom starring stand-up comedian Bill Kirchenbauer as Coach Graham Lubbock, a teacher and the head of a large Catholic family with eight children living in Eureka, California. The series was a spin-off of Growing Pains, in which Kirchenbauer portrayed the same...
. Since the 1987-88 season, Perfect Strangers actors Mark Linn-Baker
Mark Linn-Baker
Mark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director famous for his role as Larry Appleton on the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.-Early life and career:...
and Bronson Pinchot
Bronson Pinchot
Bronson Alcott Pinchot is an American actor. He has appeared in several feature films, including Risky Business, Beverly Hills Cop , The First Wives Club, True Romance, Courage Under Fire and It's My Party...
(in character as Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous, respectively) had been doing program block hosting interstitials
Interstitial program
In television programming, an interstitial program refers to a short program which is often shown between movies or other events, e.g. a cast interview after movies on premium channels...
on the Perfect Strangers set, originally during the two-hour Wednesday sitcom block that Perfect Strangers was part of as that season began. In March 1988, Perfect Strangers moved to Friday, and the interstitials went with them. On Fridays, the hosting interstitials concept gained more traction before the family-friendly concept on that night took effect. Pinchot and Linn-Baker would remain the sole hosts of the Friday lineup throughout the 1988-89 season.
Meanwhile, ABC began reformulating its Tuesday night lineup which, for the past several seasons, had consisted of an 8-9 p.m. comedy block followed by two hour-long dramas, most notably with the hit series Moonlighting
Moonlighting (TV series)
Moonlighting is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes...
airing at 9/8c. Moonlighting, then in its fifth season and starting to fall in the ratings considerably (greatly thanks to the 1988 WGA
WGA
WGA is a three-letter abbreviation for:* Writers Guild of America, an American union** Writers Guild of America, East** Writers Guild of America, West* Web Gallery of Art* Western Golf Association...
strike, which delayed the premiere of many programs for the fall of 1988), was removed from the ABC schedule temporarily in February 1989 when the network decided to expand the Tuesday comedy offerings to two hours. Janicek, in response, came up with the idea promote the restructured lineup under a unified brand name, Terrific Tuesday, to draw audiences to the changes, to reference the two additional sitcoms being offered, and especially as a nod to Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984 to April 25, 1992...
and the freshman smash hit Roseanne, which now served as a strong anchor for the expanded comedy lineup.
The Terrific Tuesday branding was a success, and ABC urged Janicek to continue the banner name for the following season. At the time of fall schedule upfronts in May 1989, Janicek, as well as ABC, devised the notion of further promoting their family fun-themed Fridays with a brand name. Over the summer months, ABC began promoting the Friday sitcoms under the experimental title, "The Friday Fun Club". While Terrific Tuesday and What-a-Wednesday were both on tap for the 1989-90 fall season, the Friday branding concept was to undergo a revision in time for September.
TGIF brand debuts
As a result of ABC and Janicek's plan for Friday brand familiarity, definitive changes occurred to the lineup on Friday, September 22, 1989. An opening sequence for the two-hour block was introduced, featuring animated mice against a gray background. The theme music, featuring a male vocalist and a falsettoFalsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
-tuned backup chorus, sang the lyrics, "Time for fun (thank goodness!)/Time for a good laugh (it's funny!)/Time, time, time, time for fun! (T-T-T-Time!)". The mice held up title cards containing the selected theme lyrics "Thank goodness" and "It's funny!". The sequence concludes with a tall mouse breaking a grandfather clock with a mallet.
Following this was a cut into the hosting interstitial. For the first time, another show's cast assumed hosting duties in place of Perfect Strangers. Dave Coulier
Dave Coulier
David Alan "Dave" Coulier is an American stand-up comedian, impressionist, television and voice actor, and television host. He is well-known for his role as Joey Gladstone on the ABC sitcom Full House, which ran from 1987 to 1995....
, John Stamos
John Stamos
John Phillip Stamos is an American actor, singer and musician best known for his work in television, especially in his starring role as Jesse Katsopolis on the ABC sitcom Full House. Since the cancellation of that show in 1995, Stamos has appeared in numerous television films and series. From 2006...
and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen are American actresses and entrepreneurs.Both have appeared in television and films since infancy. Since then, they have continued their celebrity through numerous television programs, films, interviews, as well as commercial endorsements...
(alternating as Michelle Tanner) all appeared on the set of Full House
Full House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
introducing the season and series premieres that night. As they began their first segment, the TGIF name was officially introduced, in which its meaning, "Thank Goodness It's Funny", was re-emphasized from the theme lyrics. Coulier and Stamos also announced that a new policy, in which stars from the other three TGIF programs would rotate in hosting along with them, would begin. Rotating with Full House that season was new arrival Family Matters, Perfect Strangers (whose first night hosting under the TGIF banner was October 13, 1989) and Just the Ten of Us. On the premiere night of TGIF, the new (and ultimately short-lived) comedy Free Spirit
Free Spirit (TV series)
Free Spirit is an American fantasy sitcom series that ran on ABC during the 1989-1990 television season. The series was originally produced by ELP Communications. It ran from September 22, 1989 to January 14, 1990.-Overview:...
was previewed at 9:30/8:30, with Just the Ten of Us reclaiming its time slot the following week.
During this inaugural season for the format, the TGIF logo was only featured at the start of every hosting segment, appearing in a design where each letter was encased in a tall gray box (as pictured above); the boxes would flip in at the bottom of the screen, stand still for a few seconds, and then turn out. Custom bumpers would appear after the final scene of each program, where normally a short cut of the show's title display and theme would play, denoting the final commercial break. In the first season of TGIF, the bumpers featured more animations of the mice. Two variants were run: the tall mouse popping out of the grandfather clock, and a small mouse being dragged around by a running chainsaw around the clock. The show's in-show logos (as opposed to the shows' logo designs used in network promos) were seen on either side of the clock. The closing animation, which ran after the credits of the 9:30 program (usually Just the Ten of Us), consisted of the same notes, but of the lyrics, "See you next week..here for a good laugh", with the last few notes instrumental.
1990s explosion
With the TGIF moniker permanently in place, more changes in presentation were ahead as the lineup grew even more popular. On Friday, September 21, 1990, the animated mice opening and accompanying theme music was dropped, in favor of new graphics which used the new TGIF name in them officially for the first time. With these new visuals came the "classic" TGIF theme ("It's Friday night/And the mood is right/Gonna have some fun/Show you how it's done, TGIF..").For most of TGIF's run until the 1999-2000 season, at least one series on the lineup was produced by the team of Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett; the first two were Perfect Strangers and Full House, both of which aired on Friday nights prior to the launch of TGIF. In subsequent years two more Miller/Boyett
Miller-Boyett Productions
Miller-Boyett Productions was an American television production company that mainly developed television sitcoms from the 1970s through the 1990s...
series, Perfect Strangers spin-off, Family Matters and the Brady Bunch-inspired Step by Step joined the line-up. During the 1990-91 season, all four TGIF shows were produced by Miller/Boyett; Perfect Strangers, Family Matters and Full House were joined by the short-lived Going Places.
During the most successful years of TGIF, the main characters of one of the Friday prime-time sitcoms would "host" the two-hour block of episodes for that week. Always in character, they would introduce each show and comment on the proceedings afterward. Sometimes, characters from a sitcom that did not air on a Friday night would appear; one time, Daniel Hugh Kelly
Daniel Hugh Kelly
Daniel Hugh Kelly is an American stage, film and television actor. He may be best known for his role on the 1980s ABC TV series Hardcastle and McCormick from 1983-1986 for which he also wrote and directed...
, Betsy Brantley
Betsy Brantley
Betsy Brantley is an American actress.Brantley was born Rutherfordton, North Carolina. She is the older sister of producer/screenwriter Duncan Brantley, and formerly married to Simon Dutton and Steven Soderbergh....
and other stars of the drama Second Noah
Second Noah
Second Noah is a television drama that was broadcast in the United States on ABC television from February 5, 1996 to June 8, 1997-Premise:...
hosted TGIF for a week in January 1996, mainly as a cross promotion for their new series. Occasionally, the hosts for the evening would find a common thread between each show. In the late 1980s-early 1990s Fall Seasons, various casts would host Saturday Morning Preview Specials
Saturday Morning Preview Specials
Saturday morning preview specials were aired on television annually to present previews of each network's fall lineup of Saturday morning children's programming....
, which previewed much of new Saturday morning programming
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
which would air the following day prior to the Disney acquisition of ABC Saturdays.
Also during the 1990-91 season, TGIF was promoted with a series of trading cards featuring publicity shots from Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...
, Full House
Full House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
, and Family Matters
Family Matters (TV series)
Family Matters is an American sitcom about a middle-class African-American family living in Chicago, Illinois, which ran on national television for nine full seasons. The series was a spin-off of Perfect Strangers, but revolves around the Winslow family...
.
Summer months
Within the first few years of TGIF, the hosting interstitials went through variations in on-air activity during the summer months. The regular hosting rotation continued with new segments during the summer of 1990, the final months of the "mice" motif. For the late spring and summer of 1991, ABC decided to relieve the TGIF stars of filming/taping segments from their respective sets. Instead, they had stars do voiceovers for TGIF Trivia, game-like segments made up of episode scenes and multiple choice questions. The trivia quiz provided "A", "B" and "C" choices of events that the home viewer was supposed to choose from for a supposed "single" correct answer; in reality, all choices were correct in each round, as every scene featured was from an actual episode inclusion. Stars that narrated TGIF Trivia included Heather LocklearHeather Locklear
Heather Deen Locklear is an American actress best known for her television roles as Sammy Jo Carrington on Dynasty, Officer Stacy Sheridan on T.J...
(Going Places), Jodie Sweetin
Jodie Sweetin
Jodie Lee Ann Sweetin is an American actress, best known for her role as Stephanie Tanner on the long running television sitcom Full House.-Career:...
(Full House) and Melanie Wilson
Melanie Wilson
Melanie Wilson is an American actress best known for her co-starring role as Jennifer Lyons-Appleton in the ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers. Her other television credits include Family Matters, Step by Step, Simon & Simon and The A-Team...
(Perfect Strangers).
For the late spring and summer of 1992, ABC ran a promotional contest that chose winners from around the country to host TGIF for a week from their own homes. The chosen ones were instructed to videotape their own segments from home, giving commentary on the shows that would air on the week they were scheduled to have themselves featured on. Families, individuals, groups of friends, couples, and most prominently teenagers were among the winners.
The voiceover narration format from TGIF stars returned for the late spring and summer of 1993. This time, however, rotating stars would simply voice previews over upcoming episode scenes. As in the 1991 TGIF Trivia, a single star would hold the duties per week. Brandon Call
Brandon Call
Brandon Spencer Lee Call is an American television and film actor.-Early life and career:Born in Torrance, California, Call began his career as a child actor in 1984 appearing in guest roles on Simon & Simon and Hotel. In 1985, he landed a recurring role on the NBC daytime drama, Santa Barbara...
(Step By Step) and Jo Marie Payton
Jo Marie Payton
Jo Marie Payton is an American television actress, and singer, who starred most notably as Harriette Winslow on the ABC sitcom, Family Matters, and its parent series Perfect Strangers. From 2001 to 2005 Jo Marie Payton provided the voice for Suga Mama Proud on Bruce W. Smith's The Proud Family,...
(Family Matters) were among those who took turns; Payton had the distinction of doing one of her segment narration weeks on August 6, 1993, the series finale night of Perfect Strangers. From 1994 onward, original on-screen hosting segments returned to TGIF for the summer months.
Spin-off Concepts
In the spring of 1991, with TGIF’s meteoric success, Bob Iger, then President of the ABC networkABC Network
ABC Network may refer to any of the following:*American Broadcasting Company, a private television network in the United States.*Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, regional radio and television broadcaster in Japan....
, and Mark Zakaran, then Senior Vice President of Marketing of ABC Entertainment
ABC Entertainment
ABC Entertainment is a network production company owned by ABC that was created in 1982.The company was previously known as ABC Television Network Productions, ABC Circle Films, and ABC Productions...
, appointed Jim Janicek to expand his branding work to other nights and dayparts at ABC.
The Hump
Janicek's first attempt to replicate the success of TGIF came in August 1991, when ABC rolled out a three-hour Wednesday night comedy block for the 1991-92 fall schedule. Loosely known as The Hump, via the advertising tagline "Over the hump!" ("Three hours of non-stop laughs are guaranteed to get you over the hump!", "That'll get you over the hump!") and the use of a '70s funk-flavored background jingle which chanted, "I've got to get over the hump", the format came complete with promos that had a special graphics scheme, differing from TGIF and ABC's nights of regular, non-concept based lineups. The concept title was another play on a popular catchphrase, in which Wednesday is typically referred to as "hump day" (being the middle of the work week, thus making it "over the hump" toward the weekend).
From August to September 1991, the formation of The Hump consisted of The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years is an American television comedy-drama created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII....
, Growing Pains (in the month leading to its move to Saturday nights), Doogie Howser, M.D.
Doogie Howser, M.D.
Doogie Howser, M.D. is an American television comedy-drama starring Neil Patrick Harris as a 16-year-old doctor who also faces the problems of being a normal teenager. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, ABC aired the show from 1989 to 1993 for four seasons totaling 97 episodes.-Plot:Dr....
, Davis Rules
Davis Rules
Davis Rules is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC in 1991 and on CBS in 1992. The series was produced by Carsey-Werner Productions.-Synopsis:...
(which had already been cancelled in May 1991), Anything but Love
Anything but Love
Anything But Love was an American television sitcom, which aired on ABC from March 7, 1989 to June 3, 1992, spanning four seasons and 56 episodes. The show starred Richard Lewis as Marty Gold and Jamie Lee Curtis as Hannah Miller, coworkers at a Chicago magazine with a mutual romantic attraction to...
and Married People
Married People
Married People is an American television situation comedy that aired on ABC as part of its 1990-91 schedule.-Synopsis:The series follows three couples in different stages of their relationships who lived in the same building in New York City...
(cancelled in March 1991). For the new fall season, the lineup changed to Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs (TV series)
Dinosaurs is an American family sitcom that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Television in association with Walt Disney Television and Buena Vista...
replacing Growing Pains at 8:30/7:30c, new sitcom Sibs at 9:30/8:30, and the new sitcom Good & Evil at 10:30/9:30c. The sitcoms that aired between 9:30 and 11:00 (Sibs, Anything but Love, Good & Evil) were separately marketed from the first three programs on The Hump as "comedies made specifically for adults". The "adult" promos for The Hump exclusively featured the funk-flavored song, whereas promos for the 8:00-9:30 shows, and the entire lineup in general, used the instrumental version of ABC's 1991 America's Watching jingle. Unlike TGIF and its future one-off concept I Love Saturday Night, The Hump did not use hosting interstitials or customized bumpers for the last commercial break of each show.
With the cancelation of Good & Evil in late October, which the network claimed was entirely due to its low ratings in a 10:30/9:30c slot (although many advocacy groups claimed it was due to the controversy surrounding the defamatory portrayal of a blind
Blind
Blind may refer to:* The state of blindness, being unable to see* A window blind, a covering for a windowBlind may also refer to:-Electronics, engineering, and science:...
character), along with the lackluster first-month ratings for Sibs, ABC was convinced that the three-hour comedy block was a failure. The network opted to give the 10/9c slot on Wednesdays back to hour-long dramatic series during November sweeps. The Hump concept aired for the last time on October 30, 1991, and ABC resumed promoting the Wednesday lineup in standard fashion. Sibs was relocated elsewhere on the schedule, and Anything but Love was moved back to into its former 9:30/8:30c slot on Wednesdays. For the weeks of November 6th and 13th, 1991, specials aired in the 10/9c slot, but the official replacement for the time period came with the new series Civil Wars on November 20, 1991.
MCTV: More Cool TV
At the start of the 1991-92 season, Janicek also brought the hosted programming block format to Saturday mornings, under the title MCTV (More Cool TV). This title indicated that after TGIF on Friday nights, there was "more cool TV" just hours away on Saturday morning. Live action stars of the Saturday morning lineup, most notably including the cast of ABC's Land of the Lost
Land of the Lost (1991 TV series)
Land of the Lost is a half-hour Saturday-morning children's series that debuted on ABC in the fall of 1991. The series was very popular, ranking #1 on Saturday Mornings during its first season, and ran for an additional season. Re-runs were later picked up by Nickelodeon...
revival, hosted interstitials every half hour. The MCTV segments at times were several seconds shorter than those shot for TGIF. While an opening sequence and custom last-segment show bumpers were included, the theme music used was the instrumental version of ABC's 1991 America's Watching campaign. MCTV was soon abandoned, although not as quickly as I Love Saturday Night, the Saturday primetime concept block which premiered on February 1, 1992.
Also notably airing on MCTV was the cartoon Hammerman
Hammerman
Hammerman is a Saturday morning cartoon, produced by DIC Entertainment and starring pop rapper MC Hammer, which aired for thirteen episodes on ABC.-Synopsis:...
, whose star, MC Hammer
MC Hammer
Stanley Kirk Burrell , better known by his stage name MC Hammer , is an American rapper, entertainer, business entrepreneur, dancer and actor. He had his greatest commercial success and popularity from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s...
, gave even more meaning to the Saturday morning lineup's moniker. Hammer did show up himself to host MCTV on a few occasions. By the end of the season, Hammerman, as well as the MCTV branding, was cancelled.
I Love Saturday Night
Seeing how TGIF dominated primetime on Fridays in the face of typical decreased TV viewership on that night, Janicek and company felt that the same marketing power could translate into success for Saturday night. Saturday, as an even heavier social night not spent at home by viewers in the 18-49 demographics, resulted in most networks airing shows with older demographics, those with family appeal, or programs falling in the ratings on other nights (or in the most political cases, shows that a network no longer has confidence in). NBC had claimed dominant victory on Saturday nights throughout the 1980s and into the '90s, with an eclectic mix of family-themed shows and sophisticated comedies aimed at older-age-group viewers (The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
, 227
227 (TV series)
227 is an American situation comedy that originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, until May 6, 1990. The series starred Marla Gibbs as a sharp-tongued, inner-city resident gossip and housewife, Mary Jenkins...
, Amen
Amen (TV series)
Amen is an American television sitcom produced by Carson Productions that ran from September 27, 1986 to May 11, 1991 on NBC. Set in Sherman Hemsley's real-life hometown of Philadelphia, Amen starred Hemsley as the deacon of a church and was part of a wave of successful sitcoms on NBC in the 1980s...
, Empty Nest, et al). ABC, however, had continued to struggle on Saturday nights. Through the end of the 1990-91 TV season, recent programs such as The ABC Mystery Movie and China Beach
China Beach
China Beach is an American dramatic television series set at an evacuation hospital during the Vietnam War. The title refers to My Khe beach in the city of Da Nang, Vietnam, which was nicknamed "China Beach" by unknown foreigners, most likely Americans...
had experienced quick death after moving to Saturdays, leading to such bold decisions as moving the nationwide phenomenon Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
to Saturday in order to shore up the lineup. After reformatting the Saturday night lineup for the 1991 fall schedule to include an hour of comedy followed by another established drama and a freshman drama, ABC announced plans for a Saturday TGIF offshoot to premiere at mid-season.
Titled I Love Saturday Night, it launched to provide a new night and time for three of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's aging sitcoms, Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984 to April 25, 1992...
, Growing Pains
Growing Pains
Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.-Synopsis:The show's premise is based...
(both of which had been comprising the Saturday 8-9 p.m. block since September 1991) and Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...
(which was still highly rated, but moved to Saturday to help the declining ratings of Boss and Pains). The newcomer that rounded out the lineup was the Steven Bochco
Steven Bochco
Steven Ronald Bochco is a US television producer and writer. He has developed a number of popular television hits including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, as well as some notable flops such as Cop Rock....
cartoon Capitol Critters
Capitol Critters
Capitol Critters is an animated television series about the lives of mice, rats, and roaches who reside in the basement and walls of the White House in Washington, D.C...
. Premiering on February 1, 1992, the two-hour comedy block of I Love Saturday Night caused The Young Riders
The Young Riders
The Young Riders is an American Western television series created by Ed Spielman that presents a fictionalized account of a group of young Pony Express riders based at the Sweetwater Station in the Nebraska Territory during the years leading up to the American Civil War...
to move elsewhere on the schedule from Saturdays at 9/8c, while freshman drama The Commish
The Commish
The Commish is a television series that aired on ABC in the United States from 1991 to 1996. The series focused on the work and home life of a suburban police commissioner in upstate New York....
remained at 10/9c.
I Love Saturday Night was structured exactly like TGIF, with hosts from each show rotating every week, down to its own set of branding graphics and a theme song. The intro to the evening began with a red ABC logo encased inside an animated heart, which bounced around, and then off, the screen. Set against various-colored backgrounds (but most commonly blue), the lineup's title was then spelled out in the opening alongside views of animated suns, moons and palm trees. The theme song itself even had a calypso sound to it, with Jamaican-style male vocals. The lyrics consisted of: S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y../ Saturday Night! / I Love Saturday / Saturday Night. The last two lines were often sung over the show bumpers that led into the last commercial break of each show.
There was heavy promotion for I Love Saturday Night, as ABC was valiantly trying to achieve any remaining life out Who's the Boss? and Growing Pains especially. Those in the industry suspected that Perfect Strangers was moved to this night not necessarily since it could have bolstered the lineup's performance, but because it was part of an ABC agenda to kill the series (ABC's explanation in its move from Fridays was that it didn't fit the new TGIF demographic, ages 10–18). Saturday night on ABC, especially up against NBC's powerhouse lineup of the evening, seemed a surefire place to send even a popular show into considerable ratings decline. This is exactly what happened, as ratings during the entire February sweeps period were the lowest of the season for ABC that night (save for The Commish, which had become successful in its first season), with Perfect Strangers experiencing the largest ratings fall for a series in a single season. After five dismal weeks in the Nielsens, ABC had a rapid loss of faith in I Love Saturday Night; on Saturday, February 29th, the branding concept was used for the last time.
Cast members from all three of the live-action shows hosted I Love Saturday Night in rotation during the five-week run. The schedule was as follows:
- February 1, 1992: Mark-Linn Baker & Bronson Pinchot,
Kirk Cameron
Kirk Thomas Cameron is an American actor best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy Growing Pains , as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor...
, Jeremy Miller
Jeremy Miller
Jeremy James Miller is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Ben Seaver on Growing Pains and its two reunion movies...
& Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
,
Tony Danza
Tony Danza is an American actor best known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards...
& Judith Light
Judith Light
Judith Ellen Light is an American actress. Her television roles include Karen Wolek on the soap opera One Life to Live, Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Claire Meade on ABC's TV series Ugly Betty and Judge Elizabeth "Liz" Donnelly on Law & Order Special Victims Unit.-Early life:Light...
,
Ashley Johnson
Ashley Suzanne Johnson is an American actress, best known for her two-season role as Chrissy Seaver in the TV show Growing Pains, and for her voice work in television series such as Teen Titans and Ben 10 Alien Force....
& Leonardo DiCaprio,
✝Capital Critters and Perfect Strangers did not air on this night, although Pinchot and Linn-Baker did host. The Jaleel White Special aired from 8-9:00pm, followed by Who's the Boss? from 9:00-9:30 and Growing Pains in its regular 9:30 slot.
Beyond the quick demise of I Love Saturday Night, the same lineup, more or less, continued on ABC for the remainder of the 1991-92 season. Capital Critters was canceled in March; this caused the remaining three shows to switch slots in order to provide a choice time period for a mid-season sitcom, the Head of the Class
Head of the Class
Head of the Class is an American sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1991 on the ABC television network. The series follows a group of gifted students in the Individualized Honors Program at the fictional Monroe High School in Manhattan, and their history teacher Charlie Moore...
spinoff Billy, which moved to the lineup (Billy had previously been a part of TGIF from its January 31, 1992 premiere until March). Boss and Pains, meanwhile, had announced the end of their runs in the spring of 1992, but both would remain on Saturdays until summer reruns. These shows aired their 1-hour finales on Saturday, April 25, 1992, along with the series-ending episode of MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
, airing on this night just once. Both Perfect Strangers and Billy would stay with the lineup after Boss and Pains relocated.
Two new sitcoms premiered on Saturdays that spring and summer: Julie, starring Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
(with a future TGIF star, Rider Strong
Rider Strong
Rider King Strong is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Shawn Hunter on the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World.-Early life:...
, as Andrews' stepson), and the David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
-produced comedy On the Air. The failure of these programs, along with ABC's decision to not renew Billy for a second season and the announcement that Perfect Strangers was going on a long hiatus, marked the end of any attempt by ABC to program comedies or family fare on that night. Once every few years, ABC would again try to program such shows on Saturday nights with no success. The lone exception in this case was The Wonderful World of Disney, which ABC revived after its was bought by Disney and eventually moved to Saturday nights in 2003.
Special events
In 1995, ABC scheduled a music special for The Beatles AnthologyThe Beatles Anthology
The Beatles Anthology is the name of a documentary series, a set of three double albums and a book focusing on the history of The Beatles. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all participated in the making and approval of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the...
. To promote the special on the previous Friday, all of the TGIF sitcoms' opening theme songs were each replaced with Beatles songs, regardless of the individual shows' plot with the exception of Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
, where the theme was a song by The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
.
Change
In 19971997 in television
The year 1997 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1997.- Events :-Debuts:-Miniseries:*Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac, a reunion of the 1979–93 series*The Last Don...
, Family Matters
Family Matters (TV series)
Family Matters is an American sitcom about a middle-class African-American family living in Chicago, Illinois, which ran on national television for nine full seasons. The series was a spin-off of Perfect Strangers, but revolves around the Winslow family...
and Step by Step left TGIF and aired on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
for the same night (which would be the final season for both). Both shows appeared on CBS Block Party
CBS Block Party
CBS Block Party was a programming block that aired on the CBS television network during the 1997-1998 television season. The block was similar to, and was intended as direct competition to, ABC's TGIF lineup and aired on Friday nights from 8pm-10pm ET...
, a similar sitcom programming block with four sitcoms, but failed with both the lineup and shows only lasting one season. As their Friday evening programming evolved, ABC retired the traditional TGIF logo and phased out the theme song.
ABC began to see sagging ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
in the TGIF lineup in part due to the audience fracture from the Block Party, which was enough to hurt TGIF even though the Block Party itself was a failure. Popular programs such as Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch started experiencing declining ratings. New shows joined the lineup, including the likes of Teen Angel and You Wish, which lasted only a season (or less) before they were dropped.
On November 7, 1997, Salem from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch appeared on all four shows in the TGIF lineup and caused the characters in each show to travel back to a different point in time. On a later episode of Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
, Melissa Joan Hart
Melissa Joan Hart
Melissa Joan Catherine Hart is an American actress, writer, television director, television producer, singer and businesswoman...
made a second cameo, as an aside, due to the episode in question involving a coven of witches being thwarted from taking the soul of one of the characters. The cameo features Boy Meets World character Eric describing the event and swearing off witches, not realizing that Sabrina is one.
Musical group Hanson
Hanson (band)
Hanson are an American pop rock band formed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by brothers Isaac , Taylor , and Zac Hanson . They are best known for the 1997 hit song "MMMBop" from their major label debut album Middle of Nowhere, which earned three Grammy nominations...
hosted TGIF leading up to their special Meet Hanson. Between the shows it showed them in the studio, "commanding" the shows to come on, and at one point even incorporating TGIF into their mega-hit song "MMMBop
MMMBop
"MMMBop" is a song written and performed by the American pop rock band Hanson from their 1997 album Middle of Nowhere. The song was nominated for two Grammys at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards in February 1998, and is the band's most successful single to date.By any measure, "MMMBop" was phenomenally...
".
Return
By 20002000 in television
The year 2000 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2000.For the American TV schedule, see: 2000-01 United States network television schedule.-Event:-Debuts:-1940s:...
, ABC had discontinued the Friday prime time programming block entirely, with the exception of a Working Comedy comedy block during the fall 2000-2001 season of fading comedies: Two Guys and a Girl
Two Guys and a Girl
Two Guys and a Girl is an American sitcom created by Kenny Schwartz and Danny Jacobson. It ran on ABC from March 10, 1998 to May 16, 2001. 81 episodes were transmitted over four seasons....
and Norm
The Norm Show
The Norm Show is an American television sitcom that ran from 1999 through 2001 on the ABC television network.-Synopsis:...
, and freshman sitcoms The Trouble With Normal and Madigan Men
Madigan Men
Madigan Men is an American television comedy that premiered on ABC in the U.S. on October 6, 2000. The show performed poorly in the ratings and among critics and was canceled on December 18, 2000.-Cast:*Gabriel Byrne as Ben Madigan...
, which underperformed. This lineup only lasted one year; ABC then reverted to dramas and reality shows like The Mole (which only lasted three weeks). By then Friday nights were the weakest rating night of the week
Friday night death slot
The Friday night death slot is a perceived graveyard slot in American television, referring to the concept that a television program in the United States scheduled on Friday evenings is destined for imminent cancellation....
, with only a few shows receiving attention, such as CBS' CSI
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
, which premiered on Friday.
TGIF returned to the air in Fall 2003
2003 in television
The year 2003 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2003.For the American TV schedule, see: 2003-04 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
with heavy promotion. This included a promo spot employing the pop tune "YMCA
YMCA (song)
"Y.M.C.A." is a song recorded by American disco group Village People. It was released in 1978 as the only single from the album Cruisin. The song reached No. 2 on the U.S. charts in early 1979 and reached No.1 in the UK around the same time, becoming the group's biggest hit...
" (sung as T-G-I-F), featuring all four family comedies’ casts seated on a living-room couch. Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...
briefly served as host and spokesman for the block, but for the majority of the TGIF revival the block aired without a host. That season’s lineup met with only moderate success, seeing a consistent second- or third-place showing against a popular CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
lineup that included Joan of Arcadia
Joan of Arcadia
Joan of Arcadia is an American television fantasy/family drama telling the story of teenager Joan Girardi , who sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. The series originally aired on Fridays, 8-9 p.m...
and JAG
JAG (TV series)
JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions...
. By early 2005
2005 in television
The year 2005 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2005.For the American TV schedule, see: 2005–06 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:...
, ABC had stopped actively promoting the TGIF name, and once again dropped the TGIF block in the fall of 2005.
In Fall of 2005, Hope & Faith
Hope & Faith
Hope & Faith is an American sitcom that aired for three seasons on ABC from September 26, 2003, to May 2, 2006. For its first two seasons the show was part of a revived TGIF comedy block....
continued to air on Friday nights, Less Than Perfect
Less Than Perfect
Less Than Perfect is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from October 1, 2002, to June 6, 2006. The show was about a young female office employee and her co-workers...
was renewed for midseason 2005-2006 airing (April 2006), and George Lopez
George Lopez (TV series)
"The George Lopez Show" redirects here. For the late-night program hosted by the same comedian, see Lopez Tonight.George Lopez is an American sitcom starring comedian George Lopez...
was moved to a Tuesday comedy block, then back to its original night of Wednesday. CBS canceled both Joan and JAG in May 2005.
Today
Today, Friday nights on ABC are primarily used to air reality programs such as SupernannySupernanny
Supernanny is a reality TV programme which originated in the United Kingdom about parents struggling with their children's behaviour. The UK version has aired on Channel 4 with E4 showing repeats since 2004. The program returned in 2010...
and Wife Swap
Wife Swap
Wife Swap is a reality television program, originally produced by UK independent television production company RDF Media and created by Stephen Lambert. It was first broadcast in 2003 on the UK's Channel 4. Since 2004, a US version has also been broadcast on the ABC network...
and occasional encores of popular dramas, such as Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
and Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
.
After finishing syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
periods, remnants of TGIF now occupy the daytime and afternoon lineup on ABC Family
ABC Family
ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
. The cable network airs hour long blocks of the sitcoms, Full House
Full House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series)
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem...
. Step by Step aired on ABC Family from 2001–2010; Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the...
aired on the channel from 2004–2007, and returned to ABC Family on April 12, 2010. Family Matters currently airs on Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite is the nighttime Cable network that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon on Sundays from 8.p.m.-7.am., Monday through Fridays from 9 p.m.-7 a.m. and Saturdays from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. . Though it shares channel space with Nickelodeon, A.C. Nielsen Co...
, and Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...
and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from 1992 to 1997, starring Mark Curry and Holly Robinson. The show took place in Curry's hometown of Oakland, California. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions, in association with...
have recently aired on ION Television, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper airing from 2007-2008 and Perfect Strangers airing only during the month of October 2007 (though neither one of these two shows are currently syndicated on television as of October 2009).
TGIF lineup history
| Season | 8:00 PM | 8:30 PM | 9:00 PM | 9:30 PM | 10:00 PM | 10:30 PM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-TGIF | |||||||
| 1985-1986 1985 in television The year 1985 involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1985.For the American TV schedule, see: 1985-86 United States network television schedule.-Events:*January 1 – VH1 launches in the United States.... |
Fall | Webster Webster (TV series) Webster is an American situation comedy that premiered on ABC on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989... |
Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series was based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty... |
Diff'rent Strokes Diff'rent Strokes Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986... |
Benson Benson (TV series) Benson is an American television sitcom which aired from September 13, 1979, to April 19, 1986, on ABC. The series was a spin-off from the soap opera parody Soap ; however, Benson discarded the... |
Spenser: For Hire Spenser: For Hire Spenser: For Hire is a mystery television series based on Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels. The series, developed for TV by John Wilder, differs from the novels, mostly in its lesser degree of detail.... |
|
| Spring | |||||||
| 1986-1987 1986 in television The year 1986 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1986.For the American network television schedule, please see 1986-87 American network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:*September 6 –... |
Fall | Webster Webster (TV series) Webster is an American situation comedy that premiered on ABC on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989... |
Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series was based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty... |
Side Kicks | Sledge Hammer! Sledge Hammer! Sledge Hammer! is an American satirical police sitcom produced by New World Television that ran for two seasons on ABC from 1986 to 1988. The series was created by Alan Spencer and stars David Rasche as Inspector Sledge Hammer, a preposterous caricature of the standard "cop on the edge" character,... |
Starman Starman (TV series) Starman is an American science fiction television series, starring Robert Hays and Christopher Daniel Barnes. The series ran on the ABC network from September 19, 1986 to May 2, 1987... |
|
| Spring | |||||||
| 1987-1988 1987 in television The year 1987 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1987.For American TV schedule, see: 1987–88 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:... |
Fall | Full House Full House Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and... |
Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series was based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty... |
Max Headroom Max Headroom (TV series) Max Headroom is a British-produced American science fiction television series by Chrysalis/Lakeside Productions that aired in the United States on ABC from March 1987 to May 1988. The series was based on the Channel 4 British TV pilot Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future... |
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| Spring | |||||||
| Original Run | |||||||
| 1988-1989 1988 in television The year 1988 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1988.For the American TV schedule, see: 1988-89 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:... |
Fall | Perfect Strangers Perfect Strangers (TV series) Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean... |
Full House Full House Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and... |
Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series was based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty... |
Just the Ten of Us Just the Ten of Us Just the Ten of Us is an American sitcom starring stand-up comedian Bill Kirchenbauer as Coach Graham Lubbock, a teacher and the head of a large Catholic family with eight children living in Eureka, California. The series was a spin-off of Growing Pains, in which Kirchenbauer portrayed the same... |
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| Winter | |||||||
| Spring | |||||||
| 1989-1990 1989 in television For the American TV schedule, see: 1989–90 United States network television schedule.The year 1989 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1989.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:... |
Fall | Full House Full House Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and... |
Family Matters | Perfect Strangers Perfect Strangers (TV series) Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean... |
Just the Ten of Us Just the Ten of Us Just the Ten of Us is an American sitcom starring stand-up comedian Bill Kirchenbauer as Coach Graham Lubbock, a teacher and the head of a large Catholic family with eight children living in Eureka, California. The series was a spin-off of Growing Pains, in which Kirchenbauer portrayed the same... |
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| Winter | |||||||
| Spring | |||||||
| 1990-1991 1990 in television For the American TV schedule, see: 1990-91 United States network television schedule.The year 1990 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1990.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:... |
Fall | Full House Full House Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and... |
Family Matters | Perfect Strangers Perfect Strangers (TV series) Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean... |
Going Places | 20/20 | |
| Winter | |||||||
| Spring | Dinosaurs Dinosaurs (TV series) Dinosaurs is an American family sitcom that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Television in association with Walt Disney Television and Buena Vista... |
Family Matters | Baby Talk and Perfect Strangers Perfect Strangers (TV series) Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean... |
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| 1991-1992 1991 in television For the American TV schedule, see: 1991-92 United States network television schedule.The year 1991 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1991.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:... |
Fall | Family Matters | Step by Step | Perfect Strangers Perfect Strangers (TV series) Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean... |
Baby Talk | 20/20 | |
| Winter | Baby Talk | Billy | |||||
| Spring | Dinosaurs Dinosaurs (TV series) Dinosaurs is an American family sitcom that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Television in association with Walt Disney Television and Buena Vista... |
Baby Talk | |||||
| 1992-1993 1992 in television The year 1992 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1992.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:*Hallmark Hall of Fame .*Guiding Light .*The Today Show .... |
Fall | Family Matters | Step by Step | Dinosaurs Dinosaurs (TV series) Dinosaurs is an American family sitcom that was originally broadcast on ABC from April 26, 1991 to July 20, 1994. The show, about a family of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions and Jim Henson Television in association with Walt Disney Television and Buena Vista... |
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Hangin' with Mr. Cooper is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from 1992 to 1997, starring Mark Curry and Holly Robinson. The show took place in Curry's hometown of Oakland, California. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions, in association with... |
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| Winter | Camp Wilder Camp Wilder Camp Wilder is an American sitcom about a family living in suburban Los Angeles, California, airing as part of ABC's TGIF lineup for half a season .... |
||||||
| Spring | Getting By Getting By Getting By is an American sitcom produced by Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett, with the format created by William Bickley and Michael Warren. The show debuted on ABC's TGIF block, running its first twelve-episode season from March 5, 1993 through May 21, 1993. Shortly after the spring season... |
Where I Live Where I Live Where I Live is an American sitcom that premiered in 1993 as part of ABC's TGIF lineup. The series was created and executive produced by Michael Jacobs and Ehrich Van Lowe.-Synopsis:... |
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| 1993-1994 1993 in television The year 1993 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1993.For the American TV schedule, see: 1993-94 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:... |
Fall | Family Matters | Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Step by Step | Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Hangin' with Mr. Cooper is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from 1992 to 1997, starring Mark Curry and Holly Robinson. The show took place in Curry's hometown of Oakland, California. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions, in association with... |
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| Winter | |||||||
| Spring | Sister, Sister Sister, Sister Sister, Sister may refer to:* Sister, Sister , a TV movie starring Diahann Carroll* Sister, Sister , a thriller starring Eric Stoltz* Sister, Sister , by Andrew Neiderman... |
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| 1994-1995 1994 in television The year 1994 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1994.For the American TV schedule, see: 1994-95 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:... |
Fall | Family Matters | Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Step by Step | Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Hangin' with Mr. Cooper is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from 1992 to 1997, starring Mark Curry and Holly Robinson. The show took place in Curry's hometown of Oakland, California. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions, in association with... |
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| Winter | |||||||
| Spring | On Our Own On Our Own (1994 TV series) On Our Own is an American sitcom that aired on ABC during the 1994-1995 season. The series starred six real life siblings: Jazz, Jocqui, Jake, Jojo, Jurnee, and Jussie Smollett.... |
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| 1995-1996 1995 in television The year 1995 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1995.For the American TV schedule, see: 1995-96 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:... |
Fall | Family Matters | Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Step by Step | Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Hangin' with Mr. Cooper is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from 1992 to 1997, starring Mark Curry and Holly Robinson. The show took place in Curry's hometown of Oakland, California. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions, in association with... |
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| Winter | |||||||
| Spring | Muppets Tonight Muppets Tonight Muppets Tonight is a live-action/puppet television series created by Jim Henson Productions and featuring The Muppets. Much like the "MuppeTelevision" segment of The Jim Henson Hour, Muppets Tonight was a continuation of The Muppet Show, set in a television studio, rather than a theater.-Format:The... and Family Matters |
Aliens in the Family Aliens in the Family Aliens in the Family is an American sci-fi/fantasy sitcom that aired on ABC, conceived as part of its TGIF lineup.-Premise:The show was about single dad Doug Brody , who is abducted by single alien mom Cookie . The two fall in love, get married, and try to live a normal life on Earth as a mixed... and Step by Step |
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| 1996-1997 1996 in television The year 1996 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1996.For the American TV schedule, see: 1996-97 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:... |
Fall | Family Matters | Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series) Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem... / Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Clueless Clueless (TV series) Clueless is a television series spun off from the 1995 teen film of the same name . The series originally premiered on ABC on September 20, 1996 as a part of the TGIF lineup during its first season... / Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series) Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem... |
Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... / Clueless Clueless (TV series) Clueless is a television series spun off from the 1995 teen film of the same name . The series originally premiered on ABC on September 20, 1996 as a part of the TGIF lineup during its first season... |
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| Winter | Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series) Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem... |
Clueless Clueless (TV series) Clueless is a television series spun off from the 1995 teen film of the same name . The series originally premiered on ABC on September 20, 1996 as a part of the TGIF lineup during its first season... |
||||
| Spring | Step by Step | ||||||
| 1997-1998 1997 in television The year 1997 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1997.- Events :-Debuts:-Miniseries:*Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac, a reunion of the 1979–93 series*The Last Don... |
Fall | Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series) Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem... |
Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
You Wish | Teen Angel Teen Angel (TV series) Teen Angel is an American fantasy sitcom that aired during ABC's TGIF Friday night lineup from 1997 to 1998. The series was created by Simpsons writers/producers Al Jean and Mike Reiss.-Synopsis:... |
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| Winter | Step by Step | ||||||
| Spring | Unknown | ||||||
| 1998-1999 1998 in television The year 1998 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1998.For the American TV schedule, see: 1998–99 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:... |
Fall | Two of a Kind | Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series) Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem... |
Brother's Keeper Brother's Keeper (TV series) Brother's Keeper is an American television series that was originally broadcast from 1998 to 1999 on ABC. It was produced by Axelrod-Widdoes Productions and Donald Todd Productions in association with Studios USA Television.... |
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| 1999-2000 1999 in television The year 1999 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1999.For the American TV schedule, see: 1999-00 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:... |
Fall | The Hughleys The Hughleys The Hughleys is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 22, 1998 to April 28, 2000 and on the UPN network from September 11, 2000 to May 20, 2002. It starred comedian D. L... / Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... / Odd Man Out Odd Man Out (TV series) Odd Man Out is an American sitcom that aired on the ABC television network as a part of the TGIF lineup. It aired from September 24, 1999 to January 7, 2000. Created by Ed Decter and John J... |
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series) Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem... |
Odd Man Out Odd Man Out (TV series) Odd Man Out is an American sitcom that aired on the ABC television network as a part of the TGIF lineup. It aired from September 24, 1999 to January 7, 2000. Created by Ed Decter and John J... / The Hughleys The Hughleys The Hughleys is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 22, 1998 to April 28, 2000 and on the UPN network from September 11, 2000 to May 20, 2002. It starred comedian D. L... |
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| Winter | Boy Meets World Boy Meets World Boy Meets World is an American comedy-drama series that chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews, played by Ben Savage, a kid from suburban Philadelphia who grows up from a young boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000 on ABC, part of the... |
Odd Man Out Odd Man Out (TV series) Odd Man Out is an American sitcom that aired on the ABC television network as a part of the TGIF lineup. It aired from September 24, 1999 to January 7, 2000. Created by Ed Decter and John J... and Unknown |
The Hughleys The Hughleys The Hughleys is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 22, 1998 to April 28, 2000 and on the UPN network from September 11, 2000 to May 20, 2002. It starred comedian D. L... |
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| Spring | The Hughleys The Hughleys The Hughleys is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 22, 1998 to April 28, 2000 and on the UPN network from September 11, 2000 to May 20, 2002. It starred comedian D. L... and Unknown |
Making the Band Making the Band Making the Band is an ABC/MTV reality television series that exists in separate iterations, each iteration focusing on a specific music act. It spawned musical acts O-Town, Da Band, Danity Kane, Day26, and Donnie Klang... |
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| 2003-2004 2003 in television The year 2003 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2003.For the American TV schedule, see: 2003-04 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:... |
Fall | George Lopez George Lopez (TV series) "The George Lopez Show" redirects here. For the late-night program hosted by the same comedian, see Lopez Tonight.George Lopez is an American sitcom starring comedian George Lopez... |
Married to the Kellys Married to the Kellys Married to the Kellys is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from 2003 to 2004 with a run of 22 episodes. Set in a suburb of Kansas City, the series stars Breckin Meyer and Kiele Sanchez. The show was a part of the TGIF Friday night line up, after Hope and Faith, airing at 9:30 EST... |
Hope & Faith Hope & Faith Hope & Faith is an American sitcom that aired for three seasons on ABC from September 26, 2003, to May 2, 2006. For its first two seasons the show was part of a revived TGIF comedy block.... |
Life with Bonnie Life With Bonnie Life with Bonnie is an ABC television sitcom that originally aired from 2002 to 2004. The show outlined the life of character Bonnie Malloy, who juggled her personal life and a TV talk show position. The series was created by Bonnie Hunt and Don Lake, and produced by Miss Hunt's company, Bob &... |
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| Spring | The Big House The Big House (2004 TV series) The Big House is an American prime time television sitcom starring actor/comedian Kevin Hart. It ran on the ABC television network in April 2004, lasting for only six episodes.... |
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| 2004-2005 2004 in television The year 2004 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2004.For the American TV schedule, see: 2004–05 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:... |
Fall | 8 Simple Rules 8 Simple Rules 8 Simple Rules is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 17, 2002, to April 15, 2005, with 76 episodes produced over three seasons. It is based on the self-improvement book of the same name. The show starred John Ritter until his death on September 11, 2003... |
Complete Savages Complete Savages Complete Savages is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 2004 to June 2005. It was part of ABC's final TGIF comedy line-up. The show was created by Mike Scully and Julie Thacker and executive produced by Mel Gibson... |
Hope & Faith Hope & Faith Hope & Faith is an American sitcom that aired for three seasons on ABC from September 26, 2003, to May 2, 2006. For its first two seasons the show was part of a revived TGIF comedy block.... |
Less Than Perfect Less Than Perfect Less Than Perfect is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from October 1, 2002, to June 6, 2006. The show was about a young female office employee and her co-workers... |
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