SCHEDULES OF THE PAST: 1993-1994 Fridays

On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Fridays in the 1993-94 season! After this week, the blog will be taking a two week spring break!

ABC	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	Family Matters	Boy Meets World	Step by Step	Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper	20/20
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr				Sister, Sister
May

Since TGIF launched on ABC in 1989, they had some things that worked and some things that didn't on the night but the 1993-94 season gave them the winning formula with four sitcoms that would air for much of the next three seasons on the night. Family Matters continued leading off at 8pm as the highest rated show of the block while the other returning show on the night, Step by Step, slid half an hour back to become the 9pm anchor. A new show launched in between them. Boy Meets World starred Ben Savage as a sixth grader (at the start of the series) and became a beloved show in the block. Savage arrived on ABC just months after his older brother, Fred, ended his run on The Wonder Years on the same network. Meanwhile at 9:30pm, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper moved over from Tuesdays. The series went through an overhaul for its second season with the addition of Nell Carter and Raven-Symone to the cast among others. It made a lot more sense as a Friday show for ABC. Late in the season, it went on a hiatus to make room for Sister, Sister, a comedy starring Tia and Tamera Mowry as twins who were separated at birth. The series did enough to get a second season but there wasn't a place for it on TGIF. As usual, 20/20 wrapped things up at 10pm.

CBS	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00
Sep	It Had to Be You	Family Album	Friday Night Movie
Oct			Bob	Family Album	Picket Fences
Nov	Diagnosis: Murder
Dec			Various Programs
Jan			Burke’s Law
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

CBS had tried a sitcom block to compete with ABC in the 1992-93 season and only one of those shows made it to the 1993-94 season (it was Bob after being moved to Mondays). But that didn't stop them from trying again and they were even less successful the second time around. Friday nights launched with two new series. It Had to Be You starred Faye Dunaway and Robert Urich as an odd couple that falls in love in Boston. The series struggled out of the gate and Dunaway was set to depart (it's not clear if she was fired or left on her own volition). A revamped episode was filmed and the show was slated to return in Winter 1994 or Fall 1994, but that never happened and the revamped version never saw the light of day. At 8:30pm was Family Album, a sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman just a year before Friends. This one starred Peter Scolari and Pamela Reed as parents of a family moving closer to their extended family. They had a very brief overlap with Bob, which returned to the night after nearly dying there the year before. Hearts Afire was slated to be on the night but was delayed for retooling and then sent to Wednesday. Despite the addition of Betty White to the cast, Bob could not improve in the ratings and was cancelled early in its second season. It was a far cry from the long runs of The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart. Family Album, which had moved behind Bob briefly was gone too. Despite the mess of the sitcoms, there was steadiness later in the night with Picket Fences, fresh off an Emmy win for Outstanding Drama Series. It could never find a mass audience but the critical acclaim certainly helped keep it on the air. CBS found more success earlier in the night too once it got out of the sitcom game. In November, they launched Diagnosis: Murder at 8pm. The Dick Van Dyke medical/crime drama had started as a backdoor pilot on Jake and the Fatman and then had three successful TV movies before it became a weekly series. It was the poster child for an old skewing show but the viewership numbers were much better for CBS. In January, they added another older skewing drama to the night with Burke's Law, based on the 1960s cop series of the same name and even bringing back star Gene Barry. It was a TV revival long before that was a popular thing to do. It was renewed despite so-so ratings.

NBC	8:00	9:00	10:00
Sep	Various Programs	Friday Night Movie
Oct	Against the Grain
Nov
Dec
Jan	Viper
Feb
Mar
Apr	Various Programs
May

NBC's Friday night plans included a new drama at 8pm and the return of the wheel of TV movies that had been popular on TV at points in the 70s and 80s. The new drama at 8pm was Against the Grain, a drama about a high school football coach in Texas more than a decade before Friday Night Lights became the definitive Texas high school football show. The cast included a young Ben Affleck and Robin Lively and received mixed reviews but struggled in a very difficult slot. It was gone before the new year despite almost being revived through a unique sponsor arrangement. It was replaced by Viper, a completely different type of show. Viper was an action drama about a United States task force fighting crime in the fictional Metro City and using an assault vehicle masquerading as a Dodge Viper. The series lasted just a few months on NBC but it was picked up by syndication and ended up running three more seasons. NBC had an ambitious plan for its rotating wheel of movies, which it called the NBC Friday Mystery. It would include revivals of Perry Mason and Hart to Hart as well as continuing the Janek movie series. There was also Staying Afloat, a movie starring Larry Hagman that had eyes on becoming a regular series. The movie wheel aired through the whole season but ran into some issues. Raymond Burr died after filming one Perry Mason movie and Staying Afloat never made it to series. The rotating wheel of movies was abandoned after one season.

FOX	8:00	9:00
Sep	The Adventures of Briscoe Country, Jr.	The X-Files
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May

After airing mostly cheap filler on Fridays for much of its existence, FOX finally went all in on Fridays in the 1993-94 season with an ambitious duo of original scripted shows. First up was The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr. The series was a unique spin on the western format and starred Bruce Campbell as a lawyer turned bounty hunter in 1893. The series included elements of science fiction and other oddities for a western. The series earned strong reviews (TV Guide's Jeff Jarvis called it the best new show of the fall) and FOX had high hopes for it. It struggled in the ratings though after a solid start and while it had a cult following, it did not do enough to justify a second season. The show that followed wasn't as high profile in Fall 1993 but ended up having a much bigger impact. The X-Files of course became a pop culture phenomenon but early on, the sci-fi series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson was no sure thing. The series struggled in the ratings but had the opposite trajectory of Briscoe as ratings slowly climbed over the course of the season. That trajectory helped it eke out a renewal but it was no sure thing at the time.

Top Rated Friday Show of 1993-94: 20/20 (#15)

Lowest Rated Friday Show of 1993-94: The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr. (#99)

What would I have watched on Fridays in 1993-94?

The TGIF shows sometimes - probably Boy Meets World more than the others. I would certainly have watched Picket Fences and would have checked out Bob and the other short lived CBS comedies. Maybe Diagnosis: Murder once in awhile because of Dick Van Dyke. I definitely would have sampled Against the Grain.

Tomorrow: Top 10 The Mary Tyler Moore Show Characters!

Monday in Three Weeks: A look at Saturdays in the 1993-94 season!