For most days of the week, you can look back over your lifetime and say “Thursday was the day Cosby came on”. Here are mine (and I am willing to bet that I misremember at least one). All from prime time.
Monday- Monday Night Football (I’m not sure. This might have aired on Tuesday???)
Tuesday- Tie: Happy Days/A-Team. One knocked the other off the air after a long reign as the Tuesday champ.
Wednesday- Seinfeld. Yes I know it came to prominence on Tuesday vs. Home Improvement, then moved to Thursday where it became a phenomenon, but when it first aired, it came on Wednesdays. That is the day I always associated with Seinfeld.
Thursday_ Tough one. Could be Family Ties, Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, Jessie, or ER (which show doesn’t fit in this list?), but for my money Thursday belonged to Bill.
Friday- Dallas. Back when a top rated show was on the weekend.
Saturday- Facts of Life (again a good show on the weekend).
Sunday- Sixty Minutes. I could say the Simpsons, but I still identify them with Thursday as well. 60 Minutes ALWAYS came on Sunday.
Give me yours and feel free to bash my memory if I associate a show with a day it didn’t air (I know you’d do it anyway, this just makes it more civil )
This reminds me of another reason I consider Thursday night Cosby’s. Back in the 80’s, his show was SO popular, Reagan wanted to address the country, but the speech was scheduled for 7:30 (CST) because they knew better than to bump the Cos.
Saturday: Cops, America’s Most Wanted, and Saturday Night Live
[amusing anecdote from my childhood]
When I was a kid, the family would all gather at Grandma & Grandpa’s for Sunday dinner & pinochle every Sunday. While the adults played cards, my brother and I were instructed to go to the living room to watch Wonderful World of Disney. Problem was, dinner always ended and my brother and I were banished about 45 minutes before WWOD started. That meant that we had to sit through the interminably long Wild Kingdom and listen to that annoying old man talk about animals in excruciating detail and also pimp for Mutual of Omaha® every Sunday.
I don’t think that I can name one for every day of the week (I was six before I even knew there were other stations besides PBS), but I do remember that MacGuyver was Mondays, Star Trek (and later, Babylon 5) was Saturday evenings, and America’s Funniest Home Videos (yeah, go ahead and kick me) was Sundays. I assosciate ER with Thursdays, but of course, that was much later.
Most of the shows I grew up with (Sesame Street, The Great Space Coaster, and The Animaniacs come to mind) were on every day, or at least, every weekday.
Of course I wanted to hear Bush speak, but I must admit I’m grateful they showed all of Friends. I really wanted to see Ross’s reaction.
I, too, fondly recall MacGyver Mondays. I had the biggest crush on him. I also seem to remember Murphy Brown on Tuesdays (I could be wrong). It came on at 9, which was our bedtime. So when they played the opening song, which was very jazzy and dancable (I think it involved snapping), my brother and I would do an impromptu dance around the coffee table. If we were goofy enough, we got to stay up to watch Murphy.
I’m pretty sure Doogie Howser was on Wednesdays (again, I could totally be wrong, but I think so). I used to rush home from ballet class to catch it, because at the tender age of 8, Doogie rocked my world.
And Saturday morning belonged to Saved By the Bell and Calfornia Dreams, plus Scooby, Flintstones, and Jetsons re-runs.
Tuesdays are Buffy and Angel night - problem is, now that Angel is on Mondays, it’s hard to adjust. I have a friend who forgot Angel a couple weeks ago - until I reminded her the next day.
Sundays are definitely the Simpsons and the X-Files - and used to be La Femme Nikita.
A kindred soul! I’m constantly surfing late at night for Forensics shows. The Learning Channel, Discovery Channel, A&E, Court TV and even HBO (gotta love “Autopsy”) have some excellent documentaries.
Monday - Pulkkinen (Finnish comedic series, which separating it from vast majority of Finnish comedic series, is actually quite good.)
Tuesday - Ally McBeal (uh, not that I’d watch it. I just associate it. Yes, that’s the ticket.)
Wednesday - Daria.
Thursday - West Wing.
Friday - Just Shoot Me.
Saturday - Uutisvuoto (in other words, Finnish version of Have I Got News For You.)
Sunday - Simpsons.
Ok, then, maybe you all can help. Back in my youth, Thursday nights on NBC were of course: Cosby, Different World, Cheers, Night Court. But before a Different world premiered, there was another show in it’s time slot. This was when Lisa Bonet was still on Cosby. What show was on at that time? The 8:30 EST time slot, before a different world came on. This has bugged me for a while.
Even though the X-Files is on on Sunday nights (and has been for quite a while), I wll never associate it in my mind with anything but Friday nights. I was about 13, and it seemed like the best show in the world to me. This was before they got mired down (IMO)in all the mythology and history crap. But I’ll always remember looking forward to Fridays in Middle School so I could watch Mulder and Scully.
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