Best of All Possible Thursday Nights

[Alan Brady's Hair]

NBC put a death grip on Thursday nights in the mid-80s, and quickly decided not to stack their four best comedies on the night. They instead used anchor shows at 8 and 9 ET, and put lesser or new shows on the half hours. The stronger shows that weren't run on Thursday night were used to try to build additional strong comedy nights.

So, if NBC had decided to stack its best comedies on Thursday night, what year would that night have had the strongest 2-hour comedy block, and what would the four shows have been?

[Josephbacon]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

NBC put a death grip on Thursday nights in the mid-80s, and quickly decided not to stack their four best comedies on the night. They instead used anchor shows at 8 and 9 ET, and put lesser or new shows on the half hours. The stronger shows that weren't run on Thursday night were used to try to build additional strong comedy nights.

So, if NBC had decided to stack its best comedies on Thursday night, what year would that night have had the strongest 2-hour comedy block, and what would the four shows have been?

If NBC had decided to stack its best comedies on Thursday night in the mid-80s, the strongest 2-hour comedy block would have been in the 1985-1986 television season. The four shows that would have made up this block are:

"The Cosby Show"
"Family Ties"
"Cheers"
"Night Court"
During this time, these shows were all hugely popular and critically acclaimed, making up the "Must See TV" lineup that dominated Thursday nights for years to come. If they had been stacked together, NBC would have created an even more formidable block of comedy programming that would have been difficult for any other network to compete with.

[Alan Brady's Hair]

Okay, thanks!

My thinking is that they peaked in the mid-90s. Mad About You had a great Season 3 in 1994-95, with at least half-a-dozen classic episodes. Friends was in its first season. Seinfeld's Season 5 was the #1 show. Frasier was in its second season, on Tuesday nights. I would schedule them Mad About You-Friends-Seinfeld-Frasier. Other sitcoms NBC had available included: Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Wings, and Newsradio (7 episodes).

I actually like 1995-96 a little better. Mad About You started its fade toward soap opera, but Newsradio's first season was about as good a sitcom season as you could find. Schedule them Friends-Newsradio-Seinfeld-Frasier. NBC's bench got ridiculously deep, with Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Wings, Mad About You, and Third Rock from the Sun, which had a very funny first season.