Creator / TGiF

(aka: TGIF)

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TGIF was a comedy programming block that aired on ABC on Friday nights throughout the 1990s, and then again in the early 2000s and 2010s, with its most recent resurrection coming in the late 2010s. Originally programmed by show producers Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett, along with their partner studio Lorimar (whose library is now part of Warner Bros.), it was most notable in that it managed to defy the Friday Night Death Slot until changes in demographics and viewing habits spelled an end to the block shortly after the turn of the millennium. Some of ABC's most iconic family sitcoms — such as Family Matters, Full House and Boy Meets World — ran as part of this block.

Although ABC had already run a number of hugely successful half-hour comedies on Friday nights in the '80s — including Webster, Mr. Belvedere, Perfect Strangers, and the aforementioned Full House — the block didn't get its TGIF identity until the very end of the decade, 1989. Other than the branding, the block continued on as normal with all programming that had been airing on that night intact, and then being joined by Step by Step, Dinosaurs and Family Matters. (And of course, 20/20 would follow it, but was obviously not considered part of the block.) During the entire decade of the '90s, the block became the dominant family sitcom programming block among all the major U.S. broadcast networks, further bolstered by ABC's Tuesday- and Wednesday-night comedies including Home Improvement and Roseanne. What made TGIF particularly notable was the diverse mix in demographics that the block served; although family-oriented Dom Coms like Family Matters, Full House and Step by Step tended to dominate the block, the block was also successful at serving older teens and young adults (particularly females) with Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Clueless, as well as tween and teen boys with Boy Meets World. As the block moved into the latter part of the decade, programming became increasingly skewed towards the teen and young adult demo, with Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch becoming veteran series bolstered by newcomers You Wish and Teen Angel.

Despite the shift in demographics, TGIF struggled to hold on to an audience. The same teen and young adult demo that had proved lucrative in the '90s, and was just now being sought after by other networks, was quickly abandoning television on Friday nights period in favor of other activities (namely those that took place far outside the home) and the block was starting to get hammered by a then-new phenomenon — web-based entertainment. Sabrina and Boy Meets World ended their runs while ultra-Long-Runners Family Matters and Step by Step made the Channel Hop to CBS — where those two series promptly failed. TGIF died with them, being replaced by the network's answer to shrinking audiences and web-based competition: the Reality Show. Friday night became ABC's prime reality programming night, hosting such shows as Wife Swap, Extreme Makeover and most notably today, the American adaptation of Dragon's Den.

But TGIF wasn't truly dead yet. In 2003, ABC tried reviving the block with comedy and dramedy programming spanning two hours via such shows as The George Lopez Show and 8 Simple Rules. The revival stalled for many of the same reasons which killed the block in the first place, and Friday returned to being ABC's reality show dumping ground. The third revival occurred at the end of 2012 when the Tuesday night comedy Last Man Standing was moved to Friday and paired with newcomer Malibu Country, a Reba McEntire-based vehicle. Last Man Standing survived the move, but Malibu Country failed to survive to the end of the calendar year, and all TGIF branding died with it, this time evidently once and for all. Last Man Standing would be paired with another freshman series, Cristella, which again would fail in its initial run leaving Last Man Standing the Last Show Standing until paired with 2015 fall season breakout hit Dr. Ken. However, ABC elected not to revive the TGIF branding, instead simply referring to the night as "ABC's Comedy Night" ("ABC Funny" in 2016, a name shared with all of ABC's nightly comedy blocks). Meanwhile, Wednesday had become ABC's dominant family sitcom night, with The Middle, The Goldbergs, Modern Family and black•ish. For the 2018 fall season, ABC would again move Tuesday breakout hits, this time Fresh Off the Boat and Speechless, into the Friday-night slot — and this time they yet again revived the TGIF branding with the move, although this rebranding was even more subtle than the 2012 rebranding, effectively mentioned only in passing (its most prominent mention/celebration, in fact, being within the fall '18 season premiere episodes of the shows themselves, with Fresh Off the Boat alluding to/spoofing original TGIF hit Full House and Speechless doing a generic 80s/90s comedy riff).

Also note that TGIF would have a more proper Spiritual Successor in the form of Disney Channel shortly after the block's initial demise. Around the same time that Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Boy Meets World bowed out from ABC's airwaves, Disney Channel found success with much of the same demographic in Lizzie McGuire and That's So Raven. Since Disney Channel catered to the extreme lower end of the same demo that had been tuning in to TGIF, they basically had a captive audience that was too young to party outside the home Friday nights. Today, Friday night remains one of Disney Channel's choice premiere nights, and — after flirting with an older demographic from 2011–14 — it is now solidly in the tween and teen demo viewership. There are also many connections between TGIF and Disney Channel beyond viewer demographics and similar multi-cam format and style — given the number of Crossover events both TGIF and Disney Channel engaged in, most of the shows that had aired on both are now connected into a single shared universe known as the Disney Channel Live-Action Universe.

There's also a TGIT (Thank God It's Thursday) block presently on ABC, although it has no relation to TGIF, being based entirely around hour-long dramas such as Grey's Anatomy and Scandal.

• Aliens in the Family
• Baby Talk, a Look Who's Talking spiritual successor
• Billy
• Boy Meets World
• Camp Wilder
• Clueless
• Dinosaurs
• Getting By
• Going Places
• Family Matters
• Full House
• Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
• Hi Honey, I'm Home!
• Just the Ten of Us
• Mr. Belvedere
• Muppets Tonight
• New Attitude
• Odd Man Out
• On Our Own
• Perfect Strangers
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch
• Sister, Sister
• Step by Step
• Teen Angel
• The Hughleys
• Two of a Kind
• Where I Live
• You Wish

See Also: The Disney Channel Live-Action Universe

Tropes constant across TGIF:

• Crossover: The series in the block — typically the Miller/Boyett produced ones — tended to cross over with each other every so often; sometimes the non M/B shows would get in on it. This happened even after the M/B series left.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The block wasn't even called TGIF originally — it was first promoted as "The Friday Fun Club", with the TGIF branding not launched until September 1989; the hosting segments dated to when Perfect Strangers aired on Wednesdays, and the block was slowly built on that. Even then, non-Miller/Boyett shows such as Just the Ten of Us (a spin-off of Growing Pains) and Mr. Belvedere were part of the block when it began. The familiar theme and graphics weren't implemented until September 1990; prior to that there was a different theme and graphics involving animated mice.