TV channels with a multihour major lineup on a specific day

Cafe Society
1

When I was a kid ABC had TGIF on friday. The shows would vary (full house, perfect strangers, family matters, etc), but it meant 2 hours of friday night sitcoms followed by 20/20.

In the mid to late 90s, NBC had must see thursday which has Seinfeld and Friends, plus whatever other shows they could fit in that time slot to build them up.

Sunday has always had a lot of shows on Fox. Right now it is various animation shows, but when I was younger it was Married with Children and other shows.

I remember as a teenager, on saturday night there’d be a police lineup on Saturday on Fox. They’d have several episodes of cops followed by America’s most wanted.

I don’t get cable or satellite, and haven’t used them in a while.

Are there other days where a particular channel has a lot of hit shows back to back, and basically make a multi hour viewing event?

2

Some candidates

3

Sure. Back in the early 1970, ABC had kid-focused shows from 7:30 (The Brady Bunch) through 9 (the other shows were Nanny and the Professor and The Partridge Family).

In the early 1980s, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island dominated Saturday night.

In the later 1980s NBC was hugely successful on Thursday with Cosby, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court and L A Law

4

That article talks about CBS Saturdays in 1974-1975, but 1973-1974 was even more of a blockbuster with MAS*H following All in the Family.

You know how TV programmers complain no one watches TV on Saturday night? From 1971-1976 at least two (more often three) of the top 10 programs were CBS comedies on Saturday night. College kids during those years built parties around watching CBS on Saturday night.

5

Here’s a trip down memory lane:

I selected 1966–67, which IMHO represented the decade’s peak of TV programming. The only thing missing is, unfortunately, McHale’s Navy on Tuesday nights (right after Combat!), which was replaced by The Rounders. :frowning:

6

NBC had a pretty good night in Fridays in 1974 - “Sanford and Son” “Chico and the Man” “Rockford Files” and “Police Women” - three of which were top 30 series for that season.

7

Saturday morning cartoons often tried to brand themselves in that way, to keep kids from changing the channel.

8

Like this one: The Krofft Supershow - Wikipedia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS_TmRtoO2k

9

David Letterman once said something like “NBC could put melting cheese on between Friends and Seinfeld and it’d still make the top ten.”

Melting cheese would probably have gotten better ratings than Suddenly Susan or Veronica’s Closet.

If you have a lineup that can plop in really horrible shows and still win the night, you are on fire.

10

The Thursday night prime time lineup on ABC is the Shonda Rhimes block which ABC markets as “Thank God It’s Thursday” or TGIT.