TGIF: Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper & crew
This post is an extract from The Retro Machine (Vol 4) posted by Spencer over at RetroJunk.
TGIF posts will be a weekly guest spot that will initially feature Spencer’s writing. If you’re interested in writing a guest post for STWC, please get in contact with us: stwc@stuffthatwascool.com
Remember when it was Friday night and the mood was right? Now, I do realize that TGIF continued until pretty recently, but let’s face it, we never had more fun or were shown how it was done like the TGIF of the late 80’s to mid 90’s. Family Matters, Full House, Step by Step, and Perfect Strangers were always your best reasons for tuning in from 8 to 10pm, but round about 1996, Family Matters was all that was left that was worth watching (Ok…Boy Meets World wasn’t all that bad, but it paled in comparison to the glory days).
As it entered 2000, TGIF became more of a dumping ground for crap sitcoms than a primetime megablock of quality television. But at least we have our memories of a once great empire. I remember back in the day when it was fall season, TGIF would do a “Saturday Morning Preview” of new cartoons that would air the next morning. It was a huge event to be able to see the brand new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon on a Friday night.
I miss my old familiar friends waiting just around the bend and wonder whatever happened to predictability. But luckily these days, on occasion, we might catch an old episode of Full House on ABC Family.
This clip of the intro might help take you back to the days before TBS pushed out the laugh-hindering “House of Payne”:
I hate to be that guy who has to correct minute details when it’s obvious you’re making a point and specifics don’t matter, but you never watched TGIF and saw previews for TMNT. TGIF ran on ABC, TMNT ran on CBS.