Greatest April Fool's Pranks in TV History: The HA! Network on Nick at Nite - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

stevearino · 08-19-2024, 11:37 AM

https://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_ha_network

A few days ago, yours truly uncovered, per the link above, some interesting piece of information: on April 1, 1990, MTV Networks, from 7 P.M. to 6 A.M. ET / PT, turned over their airwaves and 50 million viewers to one of the biggest April Fool's Day Pranks of ALL TIME: the official launch of the HA! Network, a 24/7 comedy channel primarily showcasing Classic TV Sitcoms from the 1950s to the 1980s, with a few original Programs mixed in; the struggling channel would last exactly 365 days before merging with the HBO-Owned Comedy Channel, also a struggling network, to form what would become known as Comedy Central.

Comedy Central would become fully owned by Viacom (now officially known as Paramount Global) in 2003.

That night, on April 1, 1990, the launch of the HA! Network was seen on Nick at Nite, as well as sister networks MTV and VH-1 before officially launching on April 2, 1990 as a 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a week channel.

If you were lucky that night on April 1, 1990 on Nick at Nite, among the shows and programs you saw that night included the short-lived sitcom "Occasional Wife," starring Michael Callan and Patricia Harty; future Nick at Nite staple "Rhoda," starring Valerie Harper; the 1979 special "Bob & Ray, Laraine, Gilda and Jane"; and the 1984 Jim Carrey sitcom "The Duck Factory."

Frank Gannucci · 08-19-2024, 12:21 PM

I remember Ha! Taking over Nickelodeon on that day at 7p and as a kid, I was upset. This wasn’t mentioned in my newspaper TV Guide (it may have been mentioned in THE TV Guide magazine.)

One of the episodes i remembered them showing was a Saturday Night Love episode where there was a skit where Ronald McDonald got home and went to bed with his wife. (This is when a crawl ran on the bottom of the screen saying this preview was going to end at 11p.) Since Nickelodeon was still supposed to be shown and since this network showed uncut episodes of Saturday Night Live, if social media existed back then, Nick would’ve gotten in trouble with parents. My cable system didn’t get this channel at all until 1996. Also, my cab,e system preempted Nick from 8p-6a so for me instead of the preview ending at 11p, it ended at 8p.

08-19-2024, 11:37 AM	#1
stevearino Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Oct 15, 2017 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 249	Greatest April Fool's Pranks in TV History: The HA! Network on Nick at Nite https://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_ha_network A few days ago, yours truly uncovered, per the link above, some interesting piece of information: on April 1, 1990, MTV Networks, from 7 P.M. to 6 A.M. ET / PT, turned over their airwaves and 50 million viewers to one of the biggest April Fool's Day Pranks of ALL TIME: the official launch of the HA! Network, a 24/7 comedy channel primarily showcasing Classic TV Sitcoms from the 1950s to the 1980s, with a few original Programs mixed in; the struggling channel would last exactly 365 days before merging with the HBO-Owned Comedy Channel, also a struggling network, to form what would become known as Comedy Central. Comedy Central would become fully owned by Viacom (now officially known as Paramount Global) in 2003. That night, on April 1, 1990, the launch of the HA! Network was seen on Nick at Nite, as well as sister networks MTV and VH-1 before officially launching on April 2, 1990 as a 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a week channel. If you were lucky that night on April 1, 1990 on Nick at Nite, among the shows and programs you saw that night included the short-lived sitcom "Occasional Wife," starring Michael Callan and Patricia Harty; future Nick at Nite staple "Rhoda," starring Valerie Harper; the 1979 special "Bob & Ray, Laraine, Gilda and Jane"; and the 1984 Jim Carrey sitcom "The Duck Factory."

08-19-2024, 12:21 PM	#2
Frank Gannucci Member Forum Star Join Date: Mar 05, 2007 Posts: 15,891	I remember Ha! Taking over Nickelodeon on that day at 7p and as a kid, I was upset. This wasn’t mentioned in my newspaper TV Guide (it may have been mentioned in THE TV Guide magazine.) One of the episodes i remembered them showing was a Saturday Night Love episode where there was a skit where Ronald McDonald got home and went to bed with his wife. (This is when a crawl ran on the bottom of the screen saying this preview was going to end at 11p.) Since Nickelodeon was still supposed to be shown and since this network showed uncut episodes of Saturday Night Live, if social media existed back then, Nick would’ve gotten in trouble with parents. My cable system didn’t get this channel at all until 1996. Also, my cab,e system preempted Nick from 8p-6a so for me instead of the preview ending at 11p, it ended at 8p.