Last night (Thursday), the DJ Joe D family settled in on a cold February evening for 3 hours straight of prime-time situation comedy viewing.
With the exception of 30 minutes during the 3 hours, all the shows we watched were the current Thursday evening comedy lineup on NBC. From 8PM to 11PM, NBC currently has 6 sitcoms on in a row including favourites like The Office and 30 Rock!
Starting in January, for the first time in many years...NBC began to show situation comedies in the 10PM-11PM block, which for many years was reserved for drama (with a brief exception early in the 2009-10 season where they had the horrible and controversial Jay Leno show).
We like sitcoms and believe the shows on NBC's Thursday night lineup are some of the best currently. Historically, NBC's Thursday night block of comedies and drama was known as "Must-See TV" with many classic & long time shows residing there, especially starting in the mid-1980's and into the late 1990's!
Below is a chart I found highlighting NBC's Thursday night prime time lineup over the years, starting with the 1980-81 season and detailing the lineup every 5 seasons after that until present day 2011! The "Must See TV" era began between 1980 and 1985; from a ratings perspective, NBC "owned" the evening from the beginning of that era until the early 2000's:
I added the chart as more of a nostalgic trip back to memory lane. Here you can see the dominance of such shows as The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends and ER! All long running, highly rated and in most sense of the phrase, classic TV!
You can also see some real duds filling the schedule--trying to take advantage of the rating powerhouse shows that were on before or after them. Who actually remembers Four Kings, Boston Common and, of course, Joey?
A lot of the shows that were big misses during the late 90's and throughout the period 2000 to 2010 resulted from how network tv had reinvented itself as the place to go for reality programming along with the competition from the U.S. cable networks (i.e., HBO, Showtime, etc.).
This era was difficult on traditional network television because for the first time, viewers had more choice and viewing options and NBC was not the only place to be on a Thursday night!
Have a look through the chart and if you want...leave some comments here about your thoughts about how the schedule changed throughout the years and what memories you have about these lineups!
I do like what NBC is doing now with their Thursday nights...especially since most of the rest of their lineup is filled with sub-par reality shows now. I miss the days when Thursday night was truly the night of Must See TV!
