-The theory that family based sitcoms that rose to prominence in the 1980s was gradually losing steam came into the picture. In the process of this, more adult oriented shows centered on the work place and groups of friends got a higher amount of notice.

-ABC opted to put a stronger emphasis on being apart of a corporate entity like Disney, who owns ABC. In other words, they likely choose to rely on "The Wonderful World of Disney" as the main outlet for a family viewing audience.

-Much fresher shows soon grew a tendency of not being able to build an audience for whatever the reasons and were canceled soon after. In the process of this, the already established shows were really aging and even moving to other networks on certain occasions.

-ABC was continuously being defeated in the ratings by NBC by a fairly major and effective margin. At the same time, ABC's shows actually tended to hang around the 80s range on a fairly frequent basis.

I just say that the reason ABC let go of TGIF is because there just was'nt well made programs to fit the bill anymore.

During the early years of TGIF, it was pretty apparent that there was a stronger emphasis on actual family centric sitcoms. In other words, much of the focus was actually on a group of people rather than featuring various characters who were in the backdrop of things for people around their teens. For example, there was Full House, Just the Ten of Us, Dinosaurs, Step By Step, Family Matters, and Camp Wilder.

well, for the lase few years tgif was nothing more than back-to-back episodes of Sabrina the teenage witch!!! usually with a few crappy sitcoms in between like the horrible olsen twins show ... not full house.. the other one.. when they are teens.. with that nanny chick!

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/23/tgif-oral-history-abc/5

But Sabrina, for all its success, would be the programming block’s last hit. An increase in the number of TV sets in households meant that parents stopped watching as much with their kids, and cable was luring away both demographics. By 1997, Family Matters and Step by Step had run their course and moved to CBS, where they helped launch a new Friday night of family comedies under the slogan CBS Block Party. That fiesta was quickly canceled, but over at ABC, with no new sensation poised to revive the brand, there wasn’t much to celebrate, either.

ABC pulled the plug in spring 2000. By then the night was averaging only 9 million viewers, less than half of its former draw. Over the next five years the network would attempt to fill the Friday void with adult comedies and game shows, even trotting out the TGIF name for a lackluster 2003–2005 run. But they were competing with the spirit of something gone yet not forgotten: an irretrievable time in pop culture history that once provided safe refuge and a happy place on the couch.

My theory is this, those viewers that were with TGIF from the start such as teens and kids had simply grown out of it by the mid 90's and were looking to other shows and beloved shows like Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, Step By Step had run their course and junk like Sabrina and Camp Wilder could not keep an audience.

Posts 5 and 6 tell the whole story of why ABC pulled the plug on the block. As sad as it was to see it go and believe me it was sad, it's time had just come. The two huge factors in the demise of the block were listed: One, Family Matters and Step By Step were aging fast...I loved and still love both, they're among my top personal favorite shows ever but you gotta understand at the end of the '96 -'97 season Family Matters had just finished its 8th season! That show right there had lasted waaaay longer than most sitcoms do. Most are lucky to see 4 seasons let alone 8! Step by Step was getting up there too, having just finished its 6th season. So no matter what had happened, both would have ended within a few years. At the end of the '96-'97 season ABC was trying to decide what to do with Family Matters, Step By Step and Boy Merts World. Of the 3 BMW was the youngest show and still had quite a bit of life left-it won renewal easily. That just left the two older shows...for a while there was a lot of back and forth...we're cancelling them, no we'll renew them, back and forth. One idea was give all 3 two year renewals and have them all end at the end of that renewal period. They just suddenly dropped the two older shows and went with BMW. BMW got the 2 year renewal. Once ABC dropped the two older shows Les Moonves picked them up for CBS. His hope was to give them at least 2 more seasons at CBS but that didn't work out.

Why didn't it work out? Well, it has to do with the other half of the equation given in both those excellent posts: Everyone who'd grown up with all 3 shows were getting to the end of High School by the time the two older shows started aging fast. The audience just drifted away sadly. Not because we wanted to but because of getting older ourselves and life things like the end of school. Me personally, the year the two older shows went to CBS that was my last year of High School. I was Senior Class President and had gotten on Homecomimg Court so all of a sudden even my Fridays were busy :( I did my damnedest to keep up with both shows that last year...taping them when I wasn't home and I did watch every Friday I was home but by mid season it was a lost cause. I missed the last half of those shows that season and only just saw their last season about 4 years ago! Don't get me wrong I was upset then I couldn't do more to support them and still am upset over that. It was just my luck of course that season would be my last year of high school!

Is there anything that may have helped the two older shows? Certainly is. ABC should have given the shows to CBS a few years sooner...had they done that myself and a big chunk of the audience still had the free Fridays to follow them over, we'd have gladly done it a few years earlier. I believe with a straight face to this day had they doe that Block Party block would have been a smash hit and that party woulda gone on for quite some time. Exact right idea, exact right two anchor shows, just a few years too late. On ABC's end they were trying to develop Complete Savages which did premiere 6 years later. The thing was a TGIF show both in spirit and atmosphere. I think ABC should have gotten that on faster, put it in the TGIF block and paired it with Boy Meets World. They were extremely compatible and would have kept that whole block going a bit longer. Complete Savages was a goofy, fun little show that deserved a hell of a lot better than it got! I did support that show completely btw.

Sorry for the long post but I've thought a lot over the years what they could have done for the block, if anything could have been done, etc. the simple answer was it was just it's time had come.

The real reason why TGIF disappeared (https://www.grunge.com/36876/real-reason-tgif-disappeared/)

The rise of the multiple TV household

https://img2.grunge.com/img/gallery/the-real-reason-why-tgif-disappeared/the-rise-of-the-multiple-tv-household.jpg

If TGIF brought in big ratings, wouldn't more TV sets mean more viewers? Not really, because by the late '90s, televisions had grown so inexpensive (or the economy was so good, Americans had could blow their disposable income on extra TVs), the majority of households had at least two sets by then.

This meant that the whole family didn't have to watch one show all at the same time anymore. Parents could watch one thing on the TV in their bedroom, while the kids could watch something else on the living room TV. Mom and Dad could finally watch something with sexual situations on HBO in peace, without the kids barging in. Meanwhile, the kids could watch TGIF on their own TV … but without parents lurking, they certainly didn't have to.

ABC wanted cooler shows

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In the late '90s, ABC's bigwigs did what a lot of viewers had already done with TGIF: they grew out of it. Michael Jacobs, executive producer of TGIF shows Boy Meets World and Dinosaurs, told the Los Angeles Times that he kept attending programming development meetings at ABC after the Disney takeover, where he said that "edge" was their "favorite word." Yep, despite the network being bought in 1995 by Disney — a company so obsessed with cleanliness and being conservative, it once banned its park employees from having mustaches — ABC actually wanted fewer shows that appealed to 11-year-olds, and more that appealed to cool young adults. You know, those cool, hip, twentysomethings that stay home on Friday nights and watch network TV.

This vision may have had something to do with the hiring of new ABC president of entertainment Jamie Tarses, who jumped to the alphabet network from NBC after developing cool young adult comedies there, like the mega-hit Friends. In other words, ABC wanted the next Friends, and Step by Step just wasn't it.

Other networks pulled away viewers with their own versions of TGIF

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After ABC canceled TGIF mainstays Family Matters and Step by Step in 1997, CBS picked them up and used them to anchor its own two-hour chunk of gentle family sitcoms. CBS called their blatant ripoff … TGIF. Kidding — they called it Friday Night Block Party, which wasn't nearly as catchy.

Besides Family Matters and Step by Step, the other two shows in the FNBP were Meego, which starred Bronson Pinchot as a wacky alien who is confused and amused by our wacky Earth ways, and The Gregory Hines Show, a family comedy starring America's favorite dancer but featured none of Hines's amazing dancing. As for the other two: while Family Matters and Step by Step were old and tired by then, they still pulled in viewers who wanted their regular, old Friday night shows the way they'd had them for years.

While all the Block Party shows were canceled after one season, due to low ratings, it did manage to cut into ABC's ratings for what still remained on TGIF, which were now teen-oriented shows like Boy Meets World, Clueless and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. The competition ultimately worked to hurt both sides — Clueless fled for UPN in 1997, where it ran far longer than it ever had on ABC, and in 2000, Boy Meets World was canceled, Sabrina moved to the WB, and the TGIF brand was dismantled entirely.

Newer entries in the lineup didn't connect with viewers

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The shows most commonly associated with TGIF are the early ones. As those shows started to age (or rather, the cute kids that starred on them got old and less-cute) and plunge in popularity, ABC filled in the Friday nights gaps with a bunch of new shows that just didn't inspire as many future nostalgia-filled Internet articles as their predecessors.

Seriously, only a true TV buff will remember late-stage TGIF misses like You Wish (about a cool genie), Teen Angel (about a cool teen who was also a cool angel) Brother's Keeper (starring cool teen dream Joey Lawrence and his smaller, less cool clone-brothers), and Hiller and Diller, (about two uncool middle-aged TV sitcom writers). Not even a brand new Muppets series called Muppets Tonight could save the night. If only they had greenlit more genies.

The failure of an Olsen Twins comeback show

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Disney and ABC gave the dying TGIF one last big push in 1998, with the most TGIF sitcom imaginable: a family sitcom called Two of a Kind, starring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. These were the twins who'd played baby Michelle on Full House, except now they were tweens and could talk, and both now appeared on-screen at the same time.

Two of a Kind was developed and produced by Miller-Boyett Productions, the house that had made six shows for TGIF over the years, including Full House, Family Matters, and Step by Step. But Two of a Kind pulled in small ratings, and it went away after a single season. Maybe it was because viewers were flummoxed by the sight of two Olsens at the same time, or that the sweet and cute baby from Full House was now concerned with teen issues instead of saying "you got it, dude!" whenever possible. For whatever reason, Two of a Kind failed to catch on — if the people who literally made TGIF couldn't breathe new life into it, then that proved to everyone involved that TGIF was just about over.

A TGIF reboot didn't work out

https://img3.grunge.com/img/gallery/the-real-reason-why-tgif-disappeared/a-tgif-reboot-didnt-work-out.jpg

In 2003, ABC apparently gave up on creating cool sitcoms for cool grown-ups, and just relaunched the very familiar "TGIF" programming block on Friday nights. The shows were family-friendly, but a tad more sophisticated and older-skewing than they'd been 10 years prior … almost as if it were an attempt to lasso in the exact same viewers that were now 10 years older.

Problem with that shrewd move: those adults either had stuff to do on Fridays now or were watching other stuff on Fridays, because the new TGIF wasn't at all the cultural phenomenon its predecessor was. The lineup included pre-existing shows George Lopez and Life with Bonnie, along with new shows Married to the Kellys and Hope & Faith, the latter starring bubbly talk show host Kelly Ripa, who apparently needed a third job to go with her Live with Regis and Kelly and All My Children gigs.

The lineup did so-so in the ratings, but frequently lost out to CBS dramas like JAG. (You just can't beat JAG!) But "TGIF 2.0" returned in fall 2004, with almost an entirely new lineup. Lopez moved to another night, Bonnie and Kellys were canceled, and joining Hope & Faith were 8 Simple Rules, Less Than Perfect, and Complete Savages. But this new lineup still failed to do what the original had done so well: link the shows in some way, via crossovers or cute hosting segments. Instead, they were just a bunch of random sitcoms clumped together. How are you supposed to watch a whole block of comedies if characters from those sitcoms don't appear on each other's shows?

By the time the 2005-06 season began, only Hope & Faith and Less Than Perfect survived, but they were moved to other nights, and ABC finally stopped branding Friday nights as TGIF. The only vestige of the '90s that still remains on ABC today: the long-running bummer of a newsmagazine called 20/20, our childhood's signal that Friday night fun was done.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/36876/real-reason-tgif-disappeared/?utm_campaign=clip

Hiller and Diller was not a TGIF show. It aired after Home Improvement on Tuesday nights.

I think what ABC should do during Summers & Hiatuses is bring the original classic block back.

8pm Perfect Strangers
8:30pm Full House
9pm Mr.Belvedere
9:30pm Just The 10 Of Us

Than the next week air The next shows that were TGIF and etc.

Overtime Sitcoms we’re becoming dramatic. Innocent Comedy was getting further & further away. Your adult characters were no longer acting like clowns with good hearts.

Now bringing American Housewife to TGIF? I like American Housewife. The original concept of American Housewife was the housewife. TGIF It should be renamed American Family.

i agree. with reboots and revials all the rage these days. i've always thought that abc should do friday night flashback. for example they could do theme nights. examples: shows from the 60's, shows from the 70's shows from the 80's, shows from the 90's, shows from the 00's, the 10's, before they were stars, holiday shows- valentine's day,back to school. halloween, christmas, new years's eve, fun finale night were they broadcast pilots and finales, it was 5, 10 15 or 20 years ago, special issues, oscar winners

The untold truth of TGIF (https://www.looper.com/308922/the-untold-truth-of-tgif/)

TGIF before TGIF

Before the creation of TGIF in 1989, it wasn't like ABC was filling its Friday nights with gritty crime dramas (like CBS does today) or reality shows and newsmagazines (like ABC does today). The branding of TGIF on a Friday-based collection of kid-oriented, family-appropriate sitcoms just made official what the network had been doing on that night for decades. Friday nights on ABC had been the home over the years for The Flintstones, The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, and Webster.

Bob Iger became ABC Entertainment's president in early 1989, not long after programmers had moved established comedies Perfect Strangers and Full House to Fridays. Those shows appealed to people of all ages, and Iger thought that the one-hour block of innocuous sitcoms could be expanded and capture bigger audiences in the process. "A lot of families weren't watching TV together as much as when I was growing up," Iger told Entertainment Weekly. "But I thought, 'If we could program shows where parents and kids could watch together, we'd be better off.'" He supplemented Perfect Strangers and Full House with the Growing Pains spinoff Just the Ten of Us and the Perfect Strangers spinoff Family Matters.

Why TGIF was a success

Even though it was largely a television experiment without precedent, ABC executives had high hopes for TGIF. Why? Well, there are two reasons. Firstly, soothing, gentle comedies would serve as counter-programming to the adult-oriented soaps and dramas the other networks ran on Friday nights. And secondly, the block would address an underserved segment of the population. "As soon as they can get out of the house, teens leave on Friday nights," former ABC executive Ted Harbert told Entertainment Weekly. "You're left with parents and their kids."

So, all the network needed was what Full House producer Robert L. Boyett called "a promotional hook for multiple shows on Friday, a bridge to get from one show to the other and keep people watching." The job fell to promo writer Jim Janicek, inspired to frame TGIF and make it feel like TV franchises of the past. "Every Sunday, we as a family would sit down on the couch and watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom and Disney Sunday Movie. I remember the feeling, and as a kid I was so fond of that, and I really wanted that again," Janicek said.

'Friday Night Laughtacular' doesn't have the same ring

Once given the assignment of collectively grouping its Friday night family-friendly comedies so as to more effectively advertise them as a whole, ABC promotional department writer Jim Janicek first had to come up a name for the block. And he and his team had a lot of ideas. "We had 10,000 different names," he told Entertainment Weekly. Among the rejected ones, there was "Friday Night Funnies, Fresh New Funnies, Friday Fun Club, Friday Laugh Factory, Friday Night Laughtacular, Time for Fun."

"TGIF" was a contender on that early list of possibilities, but Janicek found it potentially problematic. "There was an existing restaurant chain," he said, referring to TGI Fridays, "and there also was the existing phrase, 'Thank God it's Friday,' so part of me was concerned that we would not get through our title." Janicek fully believed ABC would thusly make him come up with a new one. ABC marketing VP Mark Zakarin gunned for TGIF, however, "because it's not just a silly name, it's actually an emotion," as well as already being a highly recognizable phrase. Finally, ABC president Bob Iger allowed the acronym to be used, with a tweak. As he explained, "I said, 'How about calling it 'Thank Goodness It's Funny'?' We didn't want to use God."

TGIF was a showcase for one TV production company

Early in the run of TGIF, ABC conducted audience research to determine just how much the programming block was resonating with viewers. TGIF executive producer Jim Janicek talked to Entertainment Weekly about a representative moment when viewers identified a picture of what he believed to be a Full House actor as "the guy from TGIF." Network executives were worried about differentiation, and that speaks to the striking similarity between TGIF shows. The vast majority of early and golden age TGIF programs all had a similar feel or flavor because they were made by the same company: Miller-Boyett Productions. Among its contributions to ABC's Friday night lineup, there was Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Going Places, and Perfect Strangers.

Even TGIF entries not produced by Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett used the duo's secret formula. "There were two basic elements that we felt were important: One was to give every show some moment of real human connection," Boyett told EW. "The second thing was, we tried to fulfill the fantasy where a dad would sit on the soda and say, 'What's the problem, son? Let's talk.'" Boyett says that element was the creation of Miller, and in TGIF circles, that warm and fuzzy moment came to be known as "Miller Time."

Not every TGIF show was a classic

As each TGIF-loaded Friday night progressed, the shows grew ever so slightly more mature. Agreeable, family fare like Full House, Family Matters, and Step by Step usually occupied the first hour and a half, while the fourth and final slot, beginning at 9:30 PM, was something of a wild card for ABC. In contrast to the consistent success of shows that ran early in the night, shows given the last TGIF spot struggled to find viewers. Among the series that came and went from the 9:30 slot in the '90s were low-rated, forgettable, quickly shuffled out duds like Camp Wilder, Where I Live, Teen Angel, You Wish, and Brother's Keeper.

However, as TGIF aged, so too did TGIF viewers. ABC accommodated their changing tastes with teen-oriented stuff like Boy Meets World, Sister, Sister, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. What didn't work at all for TGIF and ABC was targeting adults. Several times, programmers tried to throw in a sitcom for an older audience, and it rarely worked. TGIF just wasn't the place for a show about TV writers (Going Places), another show about TV writers (Hiller and Diller), or a 20-something rom-com (Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place).

TGIF had two theme songs

Music has traditionally been a big part of TV. Shows have their theme songs, and advertised products are made more familiar with catchy commercial jingles, but TGIF is one of the few times in television history that an amorphous programming block — or a large portion of a network's primetime schedule — received its own theme. TGIF actually had two introductory songs to get viewers pumped up for two full hours of Friday night fun, which not only set the tone and established the TGIF brand but also made it very clear to audiences that the acronym stood not for "Thank God It's Friday," but "Thank Goodness It's Funny."

The first attempt featured an animated intro that included some would-be mascots in a couple of cartoon mice, leading into the famous TGIF actor-led hosting segments. (According to the lyrics, TGIF is "time for fun, time for a good laugh, it's funny.") That version was quickly replaced with the more familiar, long-used theme song asserting that "it's Friday night, and the mood is right," along with a graphical animation featuring the letters "TGIF" and a classical comedy mask flying across the screen.

TGIF had a lot of crossovers

While TGIF shows were mostly made by the same people, and each ran seamlessly into the next thanks to hosting segments, the individual programs that made up the block were mostly self-contained and independent ... except for the occasional, widely hyped, all-encompassing crossover events that recurred through the history of TGIF. Every now and then, the producers of each show would conspire (or take direction from ABC brass) to write around a particular theme or concept, making for a two-hour television event. For example, to hype ABC's three-part Beatles Anthology documentary in 1995, all four TGIF shows featured Beatles songs and Beatles references. Well, not Boy Meets World, which went rogue and welcomed three of the Beatles-like Monkees as guest stars. And in 1997, all four TGIF comedies had wacky, sci-fi plots involving time travel.

Crossovers also served to make it official TGIF canon that its series shared the same fictional universe. In January 1991, Family Matters breakout character Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) found himself out of Chicago and stopping by the Tanners' San Francisco home on Full House, helping Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) to accept the fact that she has to wear eyeglasses. Later that year, Urkel helped out another TGIF character, Step by Step's Mark Lambert (Christopher Castile). They're remote lab partners, and they meet in person when a jetpack-wearing Urkel crash-lands in the Lamberts' backyard. (Of course, he whines out his catchphrase — "Did I do that?" — to the cheers of the studio audience.)

ABC unsuccessfully ported TGIF to other nights

ABC dominated the broadcast TV ratings in the early 1990s and not just on Friday nights with its two-hour lineup of TGIF sitcoms. The network had top 20 comedy hits spread throughout the week, including Roseanne, Coach, Home Improvement, Who's the Boss?, Growing Pains, Head of the Class, and The Wonder Years. Executives figured if the TGIF branding worked so well to promote and bolster its Friday programming, a similar branded block approach could give other nights their own unique sensibility, too.

In 1991, ABC began to apply the TGIF principles, launching The Hump on Wednesday nights (referencing how the day is all about "getting over the hump" before cruising to the weekend). Like TGIF, The Hump got its own special theme song. Unlike TGIF, The Hump didn't have hosting segments. Plus, it disappeared after a few months. ABC tried again in 1992 with I Love Saturday Night, a TGIF clone where the network placed TGIF-appropriate but aging '80s-style sitcoms on their last legs, including Who's the Boss? and Growing Pains. It lasted just weeks, with the shows struggling to compete against NBC's top-rated lineup of adult-oriented comedies like The Golden Girls and Empty Nest.

ABC executives interfered with TGIF plots

Apart from the occasional "very special episode" about underage drinking or another social issue (for which consequences were swiftly and efficiently delivered), TGIF maintained a strict baseline of cleanliness and moral fortitude. After all, they were attracting millions of young viewers each week and assuring parents and big-spending advertisers that they'd get what was promised, so ABC was very hands-on with the content of TGIF programs.

For example, ABC Entertainment executive VP Ted Harbert objected to the Dinosaurs series finale, in which the entire prehistoric dinosaur population dies. He specifically didn't want the show's beloved character Baby Sinclair to die. "I said, 'Ted, they went extinct. I didn't do it. If you're going to cancel the show, I'm going to cancel the dinosaurs," Dinosaurs executive producer Michael Jacobs told Entertainment Weekly.

Herbert also grew incensed when Boy Meets World producers planned to marry the show's central couple, 19-year-olds Cory and Topanga. Jacobs suggested running a poll on ABC's website asking fans if they thought the pair should get hitched. The pro-marriage response was so overwhelming that Harbert ordered Boy Meets World writers to schedule the wedding episode in the highly watched "Sweeps" period.

CBS attempted its own TGIF

ABC's clean and careful packaging of clean and careful sitcoms was met with huge ratings, making TGIF the envy of the other broadcast networks. In 1997, CBS endeavored to make its own block of family-friendly comedies and place it on Friday nights, putting it in direct competition with ABC's TGIF. The other way the Eye Network proved to the Alphabet Network that it wasn't messing around in coming for its throne was poaching two of ABC's longest-running and most TGIF-associated shows. And so, CBS' generically titled Block Party hit the air in September 1997, bookended by Family Matters in the leadoff spot at 8 PM and Step by Step in the last segment at 9:30 PM. In between came new shows Meego, starring Perfect Strangers veteran Bronson Pinchot as a wacky alien, and The Gregory Hines Show.

CBS' gambit was a disaster. Meego was cancelled after six episodes, and The Gregory Hines Show barely lasted a full season. Family Matters and Step by Step were already running on fumes when CBS got them, beginning their ninth and seventh season, respectively, and they got canceled at the end of the 1997-98 TV season. The Block Party concept didn't return for a second year.

The end of TGIF

All things must come to an end, and the TGIF disappeared from ABC in the spring of 2000 after a remarkable, 11-year run. No single incident led to its demise. Instead, it was more of a combination of evolving tastes, the departure of important personnel, and new strategies from corporate overseers.

According to the Los Angeles Times, ratings for TGIF fell over the years due to the rise of homes with multiple TVs (meaning parents and kids didn't watch shows together as much anymore) and the popularity of kid-friendly cable channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. ABC also lost a big part of its TGIF lineup in 2000 when it allowed Sabrina the Teenage Witch to jump to The WB. Plus, it had less appropriate shows in the pipeline after Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett, responsible for shows like Full House and Family Matters, retired after the flop of TGIF entry Two of a Kind. ABC's corporate parent, Disney, also wanted to take chances with shows more provocative than the usual TGIF sitcoms. "'Edge' is now the favorite word in each development meeting," Dinosaurs and Boy Meets World producer Michael Jacobs said.

The TGIF revivals flopped

After ABC officially retired the TGIF branding in 2000 — and all of the programming expectations and promises that came with that moniker — the network struggled to connect with viewers on Friday night. It ran various sitcoms and light reality shows before deciding to revive TGIF for the fall of 2003, just three years after getting rid of the idea.

As far as squeaky clean sitcoms that adults could tolerate but kids could relate to, the offerings of TGIF 2.0 were a mixed bag. George Lopez and 8 Simple Rules resonated with tweens and teens, but the office comedy Less Than Perfect and the behind-the-scenes-of-a-TV-show Life with Bonnie didn't. The TGIF revival ended after two seasons of low ratings. The best performer in the block was the #60-ranked Kelly Ripa vehicle Hope and Faith.

In 2018, ABC tried to tap into any nostalgia felt by original-run TGIF viewers, now well into adulthood and with kids of their own, by reviving its legendary Friday night block once more. Pre-existing and little-watched shows Fresh Off the Boat and Speechless couldn't save TGIF, and the network retired the idea once more.

Read More: https://www.looper.com/308922/the-untold-truth-of-tgif/?utm_campaign=clip

I still to this day don’t understand why they didn’t try to get Fuller House & Girl Meets World those shows could of started remaking the TGIF for Modern times on ABC.

They could of made a Perfect Strangers & Mr.Belvedere & Just The 10 Of Us & Family Matters & Step By Step Revivals as well.

My theory is this, those viewers that were with TGIF from the start such as teens and kids had simply grown out of it by the mid 90's and were looking to other shows and beloved shows like Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, Step By Step had run their course and junk like Sabrina and Camp Wilder could not keep an audience.

Full House made its jump to Tuesday Nights and moved Who's the Boss? to Saturday Nights against The Golden Girls and from 1991-1995, Full House saw their ratings become a Top 10 Hit in the 5th & 6th Seasons

I can remember clearly getting tired of the TGIF shows, I graduated high school in '96 and at the time Sabrina The Teenage Witch wasn't exactly my must see show and Boy Meets World was getting too teen angsty.

It was too bad in 1997 the show Teen Angel which showed potential didn't catch on with viewers as I thought that was funny.

The untold truth of TGIF (https://www.looper.com/308922/the-untold-truth-of-tgif/)

I'm not absolutely, 100% sure this is the exact reason why Miller-Boyett essentially ceased operations after Two of a Kind flopped, but I think that it's a bit more complex than simply saying that they just retired. Miller-Boyett you could argue (http://www.avclub.com/article/uncertain-fate-tvs-most-radical-get-rich-quick-sch-207567), flourished and benefited from Financial Interest And Syndication (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Interest_and_Syndication_Rules) (or fin-syn) Rules.

Basically, these were rules enacted by the the Federal Communications Commission to keep broadcast networks and their in-house production studios from shutting out independent producers. When the FCC repealed those rules around 1993, the networks no longer had an incentive to draw on outside producers when they could produce their own shows and keep the syndication profits for themselves.

It didn't help that everything that Miller-Boyett produced (https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-145212.html) after 1993 like Two of a Kind didn't last longer than a single season.

I'm not absolutely, 100% sure this is the exact reason why Miller-Boyett essentially ceased operations after Two of a Kind flopped, but I think that it's a bit more complex than simply saying that they just retired. Miller-Boyett you could argue (http://www.avclub.com/article/uncertain-fate-tvs-most-radical-get-rich-quick-sch-207567), flourished and benefited from Financial Interest And Syndication (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Interest_and_Syndication_Rules) (or fin-syn) Rules.

Basically, these were rules enacted by the the Federal Communications Commission to keep broadcast networks and their in-house production studios from shutting out independent producers. When the FCC repealed those rules around 1993, the networks no longer had an incentive to draw on outside producers when they could produce their own shows and keep the syndication profits for themselves.

It didn't help that everything that Miller-Boyett produced (https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-145212.html) after 1993 like Two of a Kind didn't last longer than a single season.


The article was updated like 2 days ago so I am assuming one of you people made the article on Looper lol Having said that, the thing that destroyed TGIF in the end was not just Two of a Kind ( Abc's then NEXT Full House) flopping (yes ABC spent lots of money promoting this as the next Full House) but it was Sabrina moving to The WB and Boy Meets World ending. All TGIF was in 2000 was Boy Meets World and Sabrina. So if Sabrina leaves, what do you really have ? ABC was forced to close the block.



The writing was on the wall when CBS fractured the market with it's half baked Block Party along with audiences growing out of the wholesome family sitcom, so ABC played a card the teen witch card with You Wish and Teen Angel ( banking on Sabrina's coat tails) it didn't work. When The WB announced it was making it's own TGIF block the writing was on the block even more when Sabrina moved to The WB's Friday Night block. I remember TGIF feeling very long in the tooth the 1997-1998 school year. I knew it was a matter of time before it ended. It was very obvious

I blame Step By Step.

What a disappointment really for Suzanne Somers fans from Three's Company, we wanted the show to be somewhat good. But it just was an awful show.

Family Matters also got over the top crazy/unwatchable with their Urkel storylines.

I also didn't care for Boy Meets World.

I blame Step By Step.

What a disappointment really for Suzanne Somers fans from Three's Company, we wanted the show to be somewhat good. But it just was an awful show.

Family Matters also got over the top crazy/unwatchable with their Urkel storylines.

I also didn't care for Boy Meets World.


Step by Step had the best theme song in Sitcom history lol

The ironic thing is even though Step by Step was a terrible comeback show for Suzanne Somers as an actor, she became visible enough again with that and Candid Camera hosting, and then appeared a lot on Oprah.

She transitioned from it to her self-help books/ health business to become very rich.

The ironic thing is even though Step by Step was a terrible comeback show for Suzanne Somers as an actor, she became visible enough again with that and Candid Camera hosting, and then appeared a lot on Oprah.

She transitioned from it to her self-help books/ health business to become very rich.

Refresh my memory, but prior to Step By Step wasn't SS already a successful businesswoman via the thighmaster products?

Refresh my memory, but prior to Step By Step wasn't SS already a successful businesswoman via the thighmaster products?

Yes SS just put her back on the TV scene

TGIF back in the past had good shows, its sad nowadays what it has become..

I'm not sure that a block like TGIF could be successful today largely because family oriented mainstream programming is presumably at an all time low. With streaming and people having multiple TVs in the house now, the whole family doesn’t really sit down and watch TV together like they used to, don't you agree.

I'm not sure that a block like TGIF could be successful today largely because family oriented mainstream programming is presumably at an all time low. With streaming and people having multiple TVs in the house now, the whole family doesn’t really sit down and watch TV together like they used to, don't you agree.

it was no competition during that time

no internet
no streaming
no youtube
no social media

The definitive ranking of every TGIF show (https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_definitive_ranking_of_every_tgif_show/s1__30231863#slide_1)

Updated 4 days ago | By LaToya Ferguson

It’s a debate that’s lasted since the dawn of time...well, at least since the late ‘90s. “What is the definitive TGIF series?” The original run of the Friday night block known as ABC’s TGIF ran from Sept. 22, 1989 to Sept. 8, 2000. Thirty different series premiered during the time, and those series are all in contention on this list.

There was a second attempted run at TGIF from 2003-2005, with shows like "George Lopez," "Life with Bonnie" and "Hope & Faith." And since this past 2018-2019 television season, there’s been a third run — including (the since-canceled) "Speechless" and "Fresh Off the Boat." In fact, on the debut night of this third run, the "Speechless" and "Fresh Off the Boat" season premieres both featured Ben Savage and Jaleel White, respectively. "Speechless’" season premiere even featured a very ‘80s sitcom era opening credits sequence (as the fake series "Living Under One Roof," with theme sung by Cedric Yarbrough and Minnie Driver), while "Fresh Off the Boat’s" opening credits sequence cribbed off "Full House."

But returning to the definitive era of TGIF, it’s worth noting that this isn’t necessarily a list based on which was the best series. It's more like which show most captured the feeling of TGIF and which show comes to mind first when you think of TGIF? It’s probably not "Aliens in the Family," you know? And there’s also the point of taking into account that some TGIF shows ultimately changed nights or changed networks altogether. It’s definitely not an easy science to work through.

It was time for TGIF to go because all the kids on the family shows that started the TGIF era were all grown by late 90's and it was no reason to continue

The definitive ranking of every TGIF show (https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_definitive_ranking_of_every_tgif_show/s1__30231863#slide_1)

That ranking is actually pretty well done in my opinion. I'm glad that they didn't rank Full House #1. My only real complaint is I think that Perfect Strangers probably should've been ranked #1. It certainly deserved to rank higher than it did.

That ranking is actually pretty well done in my opinion. I'm glad that they didn't rank Full House #1. My only real complaint is I think that Perfect Strangers probably should've been ranked #1. It certainly deserved to rank higher than it did.


I didnt realize PS was part of TGIF. Maybe because I never watched it and only remember Step by Step

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...
It was too bad in 1997 the show Teen Angel which showed potential didn't catch on with viewers as I thought that was funny.

I loved TEEN ANGEL mostly for Maureen McCormick, who had her most immortal bit from her time as Marcia Brady reenacted by having her get a football in the nose (followed of course by "Oh, My Nose!). I was disgusted when she was dumped halfway through the show's short run to give Jerry Van Dyke (whose MEEGO was cancelled even more quickly) another chance.

I stopped watching Teen Angel when Maureen was let go.

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The TGIF (https://www.reddit.com/r/TGIFsitcoms/) (Thank Goodness It's Friday) lineup was a staple of nostalgic 90s television, offering family-friendly sitcoms on Friday nights that became an iconic part of pop culture. Shows like Full House*, *Family Matters*, *Boy Meets World*, and *Step by Step made TGIF must-watch TV, capturing the hearts of families across America. Launched in 1989 by ABC, TGIF was designed to be a programming block for family entertainment, providing laughs and life lessons in a fun, wholesome way. The lineup became a cultural phenomenon, thanks to memorable characters like Steve Urkel, Cory Matthews, and the Tanner family, and provided a shared viewing experience at the end of the week.

Despite its early success, TGIF saw a steady decline as viewer habits changed with the rise of cable and, later, streaming services. Attempts to revive the block in 2003 and again in 2018—with shows like Fresh Off the Boat and *Speechless*—failed to recapture its former glory. The third revival, in particular, struggled due to increased competition from streaming platforms, inconsistent programming, and the difficulty of drawing in modern audiences with nostalgic branding. While TGIF holds a special place in television history, the failure of its revivals highlights the challenges of adapting a beloved format in an era of on-demand content.

This new edit includes, New Graphics, Clips, Audio Fixed, and Music.

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Today, we dive into the rise and fall of T.G.I.F. The Friday night lineup of TV shows that took over our televisions for 2 hours.

I loved TEEN ANGEL mostly for Maureen McCormick, who had her most immortal bit from her time as Marcia Brady reenacted by having her get a football in the nose (followed of course by "Oh, My Nose!). I was disgusted when she was dumped halfway through the show's short run to give Jerry Van Dyke (whose MEEGO was cancelled even more quickly) another chance.

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Remember TGIF? From the late ’80s through the ’90s, ABC’s Friday night sitcom block was must-see TV — giving us classics like Full House, Family Matters, and Boy Meets World. But not every show was a hit. Some fizzled out almost as soon as they premiered, leaving behind a trail of awkward laughs, strange premises, and secondhand embarrassment.

In this video, we’re counting down 9 of TGIF’s biggest flops- from Mary-Kate & Ashley’s short-lived Two of a Kind, to the cringe-worthy Teen Angel, to the truly baffling alien nanny disaster Meego. These shows had potential, big names, or even a built-in fanbase, but they proved that not all Friday night magic could be bottled twice.

📺 Sit back as we revisit the forgotten side of TGIF history - the sitcoms that made you wonder: “How did this even get on the air?”

👉 Did you watch any of these shows back in the day? Which one do you remember as the worst TGIF experiment? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

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Remember TGIF? When Friday nights meant pizza, pajamas, and back-to-back family sitcoms on ABC? From Full House and Family Matters to Boy Meets World and Step by Step, TGIF defined a generation, but not every show was a hit.

In this video, we’re digging deeper into the other side of TGIF: the forgotten sitcoms that didn’t survive long enough to make it to reruns. From Baby Talk and Going Places to Getting By and Muppets Tonight, we’re counting down the wild misfires, short-lived spin-offs, and “what were they thinking?” moments that tried, and failed, to capture ABC’s Friday night magic.

What (https://poe.com/s/pkc4xPC9UyU0eR86Q3zB) television shows (https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-television-shows-moments-YyS.zCEeTaGMxy0QgNQMWg#0), moments (https://chatgpt.com/s/t_69118cb2617881918d4602dac42e9364), and network decisions (sitcomsonline.com/boards/showpost.php?p=6425167&postcount=6) directly contributed to the ultimate decline (google.com/search?q=What+television+shows,+moments,+and+network+decisions+directly+contributed+to+the+ultimate+decline+of+the+American+Broadcasting+Company+(ABC)+Friday+night+lineup,+"TGIF"+(1989-2000)%3F&sca_esv=79231a2a76414654&sxsrf=AE3TifOBRIE6v17qYtQ1FtqkIlWo39JCYg:1762757437479&udm=50&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ59Aj-dkSgmXWKpa2HWaBZPQGQgJ-TZmoxpS5HKDmDagH4_1PhEqWzaQLA__r5hBkB8u5DrzV_KWHxTTlHcNHNkb0GDXbNlQSipVQ5zA3ZEla-YezkiQWig9gdOC8yU_WO1uwbry9MzOxQDV4cHMXTzJUQzoxA2AkPWrGHFEhJW4Q5uC2GJvaWil-3CylTFxEalnZEQ&aep=1&ntc=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGjouX_-aQAxWi5MkDHVZPM7cQ2J8OegQIERAE&biw=1600&bih=739&dpr=1) of the American Broadcasting Company's (ABC) Friday night lineup (https://x.com/i/grok/share/dtas3jh9jefMgnWOk6rcjvO7C), "TGIF" (https://www.google.com/search?q=What+television+shows%2C+moments%2C+and+network+decisions+directly+contributed+to+the+ultimate+decline+of+the+American+Broadcasting+Company+%28ABC%29+Friday+night+lineup%2C+%22TGIF%22+%281989-2000%29%3F&sca_esv=79231a2a76414654&sxsrf=AE3TifM8TnKouGI-Sp4YXJFADEQK523Otg%3A1762755595793&ei=C4QRaZ6aMI6dwbkPz7-KiQc&ved=0ahUKEwjey_Oo-OaQAxWOTjABHc-fInEQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=What+television+shows%2C+moments%2C+and+network+decisions+directly+contributed+to+the+ultimate+decline+of+the+American+Broadcasting+Company+%28ABC%29+Friday+night+lineup%2C+%22TGIF%22+%281989-2000%29%3F&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAitgFXaGF0IHRlbGV2aXNpb24gc2hvd3MsIG1vbWVudHMsIGFuZCBuZXR3b3JrIGRlY2lzaW9ucyBkaXJlY3RseSBjb250cmlidXRlZCB0byB0aGUgdWx0aW1hdGUgZGVjbGluZSBvZiB0aGUgQW1lcmljYW4gQnJvYWRjYXN0aW5nIENvbXBhbnkgKEFCQykgRnJpZGF5IG5pZ2h0IGxpbmV1cCwgIlRHSUYiICgxOTg5LTIwMDApP0gAUABYAHAAeACQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgCgAgCYAwCSBwCgBwCyBwC4BwDCBwDIBwA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp) (1989-2000)?