Peter James Mann
The Golden Age of T.G.I.F. (1989-1995)
September 22, 1989 started off like any other Friday. People went about their days and came home to either head out or stay in for the evening. For those spending time with their families in their living room in front of the TV, they got to experience a moment of Pop Culture History take place. ABC started airing the iconic T.G.I.F. sitcom block.
ABC began the evening with a cute little animation of Friday the Mouse, the official, and short-lived, mascot of T.G.I.F. for the inaugural run. Then, families tuned in for the season premiere of Full House, which was already a ratings powerhouse. The series premiere of Family Matters followed. It’s also notable that these two shows would be staples of the lineup going forward.
Then viewers got to laugh along to the season premiere of Perfect Strangers, which like Full House was already a big part of the sitcom lineup on ABC. Finally, there was a special preview of Free Spirit, a proto-Sabrina the Teenage Witch, that lasted about as long as Friday the Mouse did.
But by the next seasonal block in 1990, T.G.I.F. became a lot more like how we remember it today. Friday the Mouse and his Tom and Jerry-like antics were gone and in place was a definitive jingle and more defined branding. T.G.I.F. would come up in big bold letters with the show’s stars smiling and promoting the block during interstitials.
And while that trio of shows before the fourth were steady and strong, it was that final show that always seemed to waiver. Free Spirit was quickly replaced by Going Places, which was also replaced by another show after its first season, Baby Talk. That show was based on the film Look Who’s Talking and appeared to lift the fourth slot curse bestowed upon it by Free Spirit. But, like all good curses, by the second season, it too was left on the cutting room floor.
But that second season renewal gave ABC enough hope to pull one of the shows, Full House, out of the line-up and back to Tuesdays, where it would lead the block of sitcoms that included Coach and Roseanne. That left a spot open for a new show titled Step-By-Step. That fourth slot continued to be an issue, with shows like Camp Wilder, Where I Live, and Getting By lasting a season or less. A stand-out was Dinosaurs, which lasted from 1991 to 1993, but ended with the literal apocalyptic asteroid killing everything.
Curses get dark sometimes.
But by the 1993-94 season, ABC debuted Boy Meets World, another iconic sitcom from the era, from the creators of Dinosaurs and the recently completed drama The Wonder Years. This would join a breakout hit from the Tuesday Night lineup moving to T.G.I.F, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, for its second season.
In the interim between seasons, ABC also tried out Sister, Sister during the Spring Sweeps of 1994, and would return in 1995 for a second season. But that, too, fizzled out. Luckily, a newer network called The WB would pick up where the network left off with Tia and Tamara.
But what I consider to be the standout trinity of T.G.I.F: Family Matters, Step-By-Step, and Boy Meets World, were finally on the air simultaneously. And it was just in time for The House of Mouse to come courting one of America’s oldest broadcast television networks for a major merger and acquisition in 1995.
The Silver Age of T.G.I.F. (1996-2000)
While T.G.I.F. was finally getting solid footing, and Tuesdays had juggernauts like America’s Funniest Home Videos, Home Improvement and Full House, other nights floundered against the competition. NBC controlled Saturday thanks to Saturday Night Live, and CBS has had the lockdown on Sunday night ratings for decades. Both networks also deliver better late night options overall when compared to ABC to this day. Besides Tuesdays, the only other major nightly affair on ABC was World News Tonight.
What I’m trying to say is they could have been doing better.
By 1996, after six months of reviews, the acquisition of ABC Networks by The Walt Disney Company was complete. But even T.G.I.F was starting to slide down the ratings peaks into the valley below. Disney used an aggressive strategy, one that had yet to be attempted by ABC. It was one that would show everyone in America who was the new leader in entertainment.
I’m kidding. They did the exact same thing and kept changing the lineup.
The first thing Disney did was take both Family Matters and Step-By-Step, stick them to the back end of the lineup in 1996, only to cancel the shows in 1997. This created the rift in the T.G.I.F world. Both shows were gobbled up by competitor CBS, who created the competing Friday night CBS Block Party.
But Disney didn’t just taketh away, they also giveth in the form of new content. Sabrina The Teenage Witch debuted in 1996 and would stick around until 2000. This, along with Boy Meets World, bolstered the Friday night ratings. Convinced that it was due to the supernatural elements of the show, Disney went extremely hard in that direction. Both You Wish and Teen Angel were around for exactly one season.
Apparently no one saw Free Spirit during that first T.G.I.F. run.
The dynamic duo of late-stage O.G.T.G.I.F. would limp their way to the finish line in 2000, when Disney finally pulled the plug on the iconic block of ABC programming a little after its decade debut. By the end, they were joined by the final season of The Hughleys and the reality show that made O-Town, Making the Band, just in time for the boy band fad to crash land on a deserted island and left to be re-discovered by South Korean Pop Sensations BTS.
Despite this, there are those out there that wish, time and time again, that Disney and ABC would try to reboot T.G.I.F. and bring it back. And all of those people are oblivious to how many times they’ve actually tried.
The Bronze Age of T.G.I.F. (2003-2005)
The first reboot happened just three years later, in 2003. It included the debut of the now syndicated The George Lopez Show, along with Married to the Kellys, Hope & Faith starring Kelly Ripa, and Life with Bonnie. While The George Lopez Show was successful, it began shuffling around the ABC lineup after its first season as a way to get a ratings boost in other areas. Hope & Faith got a chance at a second season, but joined new show Complete Strangers and two shows moved from Tuesdays and Wednesday respectively, 8 Simple Rules and Less Than Perfect.
By 2005, Disney and ABC felt that it was a good reattempt, but ultimately not worth the time given their failures to beat CBS in the same time slots. The comedies were moved around over and over again in an effort to gain stability in the fading television market. While they were able to sell airing rights to other networks, or air them internally on different cable networks across the Disney Conglomerate, ultimately it would take seven more years for ABC to correct their footing on Fridays.
The Lost Age of T.G.I.F.: ABC Comedy Friday (2012-2017)
2012 sees the return of Tim Allen to ABC on a sitcom. Last Man Standing was, in many ways, a spiritual successor to Home Improvement, and aired during a time most considered classical multi-camera sitcoms to be dead. But much like a legacy rock band like Kiss or Metallica on tour, the right act can show everyone that artforms fade, but never really die.
And it was their commitment to the format, and the quality that its predecessor had on Tuesday nights on the same network, that helped to crack CBS’s dominance on Friday nights. Disney paired it with just one other sitcom, Malibu County, which didn’t last very long, but included it in a lineup with recent hit Shark Tank and the iconic news series 20/20, made famous by the legendary Barbera Walters.
And just like that, CBS found itself on the other side of the neighbor’s fence. At least, for a time.
Last Man Standing, Shark Tank, and 20/20 would stay in their slots until 2017, while a revolving door of sitcoms sat upfront in the 8:30 PM time slot like a shield protecting their ratings. The Neighbors, Cristela, and even Dr. Ken starring Ken Jeong couldn’t help the, once again, downward spiral of ratings. By 2017, just six years ago, Disney finally called it quits on ABC Comedy Fridays.
What a perfect time, they thought, to reboot T.G.I.F., yet again.
The Modern Era of T.G.I.F. (2018-2019)
Just four and a half years ago, Disney and ABC tried yet again to reboot T.G.I.F., convinced that this time it would have to work. The nostalgia was there, the former child stars from shows like Boy Meets World, The Wonder Years, and Family Matters were all willing, and able, to return for either new shows or cameos on new shows. Gone were the multi-camera sitcoms and in were the scripted, cinematic and modern ones from ABCs current lineup: Fresh Off The Boat and Speechless, along with a fun new game show involving kids and celebrities hosted by Fred Savage himself, Child Support.
And with stars like Constance Wu and Randall Park already stars with their feature-film roles filming in-between seasons of Fresh Off The Boat, it seemed T.G.I.F. was positioned to finally be the success we all knew it could be.
Until it wasn’t. The move to Friday, along with behind-the-scenes drama with the cast and crew that became quite public, Fresh Off The Boat was ultimately canceled, along with Speechless in 2019, right before the COVID-19 Pandemic. To this day, the ABC Friday Night block consists of Shark Tank, 20/20, and that’s it.
It appears, for now, Disney and Company have perverbally thrown in the towel in regards to Friday night. With the focus on more original programming for Disney+, we could see some more comedies returning, but the era of appointment television may truly be over for legacy networks like ABC.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying, though. No one can say they didn’t try their hardest. But no matter what some might feel are the reasons TGIF can’t regain that magic, I’m still blaming that Free Spirit curse.
