Friday felt different even before school ended.
The whole weekend was sitting there waiting. Whatever homework was stuffed into a backpack could wait. Saturday morning was still impossibly far away. There was nowhere to be at 7:30 the next morning.
And if you were a kid in the ’90s, Friday night already had plans.
At 8:00, TGIF started.
Maybe there was pizza. Maybe soda was allowed. There was a favorite spot on the couch, or a place on the floor three feet from the television despite repeated warnings that sitting that close was somehow going to destroy your eyes.
Then the ABC logo appeared, the TGIF bumper came on, and Friday night had officially started.
You Didn’t Have to Decide What to Watch
The lineup changed over the years.
Full House. Family Matters. Step by Step. Boy Meets World. Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper.
Depending on when you were born, your version of TGIF probably looked a little different.
But the arrangement was basically the same. One show ended and the next one started.
Everybody had a favorite. There was probably also one show you wouldn’t have gone looking for on your own.
You watched that one too.
There was no menu to scroll through and no real decision to make. At 8:00, this was what was on.
It sounds limiting now, with thousands of shows and movies available at any time. Back then, nobody spent half the night trying to figure out what to watch.
The Commercials Were Part of It
Nobody needs to pretend commercials were good.
But they gave everyone time to run to the bathroom, grab another slice of pizza or refill a drink. Take too long and someone yelled from the other room:
“IT’S BACK ON!”
Then came the sprint back.
The show wasn’t going to wait because you couldn’t find the straw for your Capri Sun. It went on whether you were watching in L.A., Chicago, or New York City.
Even the spaces between shows belonged to TGIF. ABC had bumpers and promos that carried the night from one sitcom into the next. When one show’s credits rolled, there was no reason to reach for the remote because everybody knew what was next.
The Television Was Somewhere
The television was in a room.
There might have been another small TV upstairs or one in the parents’ bedroom. But the good television, the one everyone watched, had a permanent address.
That’s where everybody ended up.
Brothers and sisters were there. Parents might sit down for one show and disappear for the next. Somebody could be playing with toys on the floor and only half paying attention. The pizza box was still on the coffee table, someone had the blanket you wanted and somebody else was blocking the screen.
It wasn’t some perfect scene of family togetherness. Everyone was probably annoying each other.
But everyone was in the same room watching the same thing.
Today, four people can be in the same house watching four different shows on four different screens. It’s convenient, but it doesn’t put everybody on the couch at 8:00.
You Watched Shows You Would Never Choose
Not everything had to be something you specifically wanted to watch.
Sometimes it was simply next.
Maybe Boy Meets World was the favorite but Sabrina was fine. Maybe you were there for Family Matters and stayed for whatever followed it. It didn’t matter enough to leave.
So all of it got absorbed. You knew the characters and their houses and could recognize a show from the first few seconds of its theme song.
You knew Urkel was going to destroy something and somehow be allowed back into the Winslows’ house the following week.
There were misunderstandings that could have been resolved in 30 seconds if anyone behaved like a normal human being. Somebody learned a lesson. Occasionally there was a Very Special Episode that got much heavier than expected from the same people who had just spent three weeks dealing with UrkelBot.
Some of it was great. Some of it wasn’t.
You watched anyway.
Eight O’Clock Used to Be Late
As an adult, 8:00 barely qualifies as nighttime.
At eight years old, it absolutely did.
TGIF occupied that exciting part of childhood when bedtime got pushed because tomorrow wasn’t a school day. Making it through the whole lineup could feel like an accomplishment.
The shows even told you how late it was without looking at a clock. If Boy Meets World was starting, the night had reached a certain point. Make it to the last show and you were really staying up.
Maybe somebody fell asleep on the couch. Maybe the parents said one more show. Maybe you insisted you weren’t tired while barely keeping your eyes open.
And when it finally ended, tomorrow was Saturday.
Then You Stopped Being Home at 8:00
There probably wasn’t a final TGIF.
Nobody sat down one night knowing this was the last time.
You just got older.
Friday nights started filling up with other things. Friends’ houses, football games, the mall, the movies. Eventually somebody got a driver’s license, which meant an entire group of teenagers could spend hours driving around and accomplishing almost nothing.
At some point, being home at 8:00 stopped being the plan.
Maybe TGIF was still on. Maybe the lineup had changed by then. You just weren’t paying attention anymore.
Television Doesn’t Tell Time Anymore
Streaming fixed nearly every annoying thing about old television. Miss an episode and it was still there. You could pause when somebody left the room, start whenever you wanted and watch three episodes in a row.
But television used to organize time.
A show was on at a particular hour. If you wanted to see it, you had to be there. So did everyone else who wanted to see it.
That’s part of why certain theme songs can still put you in a room you haven’t seen in 25 years. Friday night can still conjure a couch, a pizza box, a television across the room and the feeling that the weekend had only just begun.
Boy Meets World is still there. So is Full House. They’re easier to find now than they ever were then.
What you can’t pull up is 8:00 on a Friday night when you’re ten years old and the whole weekend is still ahead of you.
TGIF wasn’t special because television was better then.
It was special because Friday night happened to everybody at once.