In recent years there’s been a great deal of ink spilled on the topic of declining attention spans among America’s youth.
It’s tough to quantify or verify such a phenomenon, but if this trend is as real as its loudest alarmists say it is, then there are many possible causes:
Most folks with even a shred of self-awareness would concede that the constant siren song of social media and other smartphone-related diversions has at least somewhat diminished their ability to focus on a single task for an extended period of time.
And while these temptations have (allegedly) had a negative impact on productivity in schools and offices, they’ve also impacted the entertainment industry in ways both subtle and obvious.
Yes, we’ve spoken before about the decline of family hour in front of the TV and the ways in which social interactions are more difficult now that no one is watching the same shows.
And many have observed that the causes of these trends are complex, multi-faceted, and likely irreversible.
But today, rather than simply fretting over the problems, we’d like to offer a solution.
The Original Blockchain
It’s a concept that might seem baffling in an age of endless entertainment options, a time when each and every one of us can curate our own nightly entertainment experience to match our specific tastes.
But aside from those god-awful two-hour episodes of reality shows, this might be the only way to convince entire households to lock into one network from 8 pm to 10 pm on a weekly basis.
We’re talking, of course, about programming blocks.
Yes, some of our younger readers might not know what the hell we’re talking about, but there was a time — not all that long ago, in fact! — when networks would group somewhat similar shows together with the goal of holding on to an audience throughout the peak hours of primetime.
And here’s the craziest part: It worked!
The most famous of these might be the TGIF block, which ran Friday nights on ABC from 1989 to 2000.
Perfect Strangers, Full House, Family Matters, Step By Step, Boy Meets World, and Sister, Sister were just some of the sitcoms that helped popularize TGIF (and were, in turn, popularized by TGIF).
Steve Urkel, American Trailblazer
The relationship was a symbiotic one, as several of these shows later enjoyed continued success on different nights. But before dispersing these established shows throughout the week, the network wisely used their popularity to help launch new series.
It was an ingenious system. At the height of Urkel-mania, the network would air Family Matters at 8 pm knowing that a significant portion of the audience would stick around for whatever came on at 8:30.
(A testament to the wild popularity of Jaleel White’s signature character is the fact that Urkel made crossover appearances on Full House and Step By Step.)
Sure, for every Boy Meets World there was a Muppets Tonight, Teen Angel, or Odd Man Out, but it was a remarkably successful ploy in those pre-internet days, a time in which many households didn’t even have cable.
The strategy was so successful, in fact, that ABC launched more blocks of loosely related shows, including the unfortunately named The Hump (Wednesday nights), MCTV (“More Cool TV,” Saturday mornings), and I Love Saturday Night (hopefully self-explanatory).
None of those took off, but NBC hit gold by piggybacking on the concept in 1993.
Could It BE Any More Must-See?
Must See TV Thursdays (the concept was later extended to other nights, with mixed results) was a network exec’s dream come true.
At its peak, the lineup kicked off with Friends at 8 pm. Seinfeld batted third at 9, and ER wrapped everything up at 10.
As for 8:30 and 9:30? Well, with those lead-ins you could’ve had Al Gore reading the phone book for half an hour and still scored 30 million viewers.
Caroline in the City, The Single Guy, Suddenly Susan, and Veronica’s Closet may not have earned places in the pantheon of classic sitcoms.
But every one of those mostly forgotten series ran for multiple seasons thanks in large part to the popularity of the shows they were sandwiched between.
And NBC was all about synergy in those days. In terms of marketing, Urkel walked so that Kramer could run.
Sure, the Winslows’ annoying neighbor showed up on other shows from time to time.
But Must See TV upped the ante with events like Blackout Thursday.
This was a 1994 stunt in which all four sitcoms in the lineup at that time (Mad About You, Friends, Seinfeld, and the short-lived Dabney Coleman vehicle Mad Man of the People) centered around the same plot device — a blackout that left Manhattan in a state of total darkness.
Well, that was the idea, anyway.
Unlike the other three series, Seinfeld refused to participate, delivering the classic episode “The Gymnast” instead.
Friends played ball and delivered the beloved installment in which Matthew Perry’s Chandler gets trapped in an ATM vestibule with a supermodel.
The experiment was never repeated, so it might not have been considered a total success. Still, you’ve gotta love the spirit of innovation behind it.
Snick: A Programming Block For Tweens
But perhaps no programming block was as tonally consistent week after week as Nickelodeon‘s Snick.
The Saturday night block marked the only time that the network didn’t switch into classic rerun/Nick at Nite mode promptly at 8 pm.
Instead, the 8 o’clock to 10 pm hours offered slightly edgier content geared toward the brand’s tween audience.
Shows like Clarissa Explains It All, Ren & Stimpy, Pete & Pete, and All That enabled 12-year-olds of the ’90s to enjoy a primetime block all their own.
And the fact that their younger siblings weren’t allowed to stay up late or watch such ribald shows only heightened the excitement.
For many viewers, the experience probably felt like a thrilling glimpse of adulthood.
They might have looked forward to a future in which they might enjoy a themed two-hour block of laugh-tracked shenanigans on a weekday.
Alas, the programming block has now gone the way of the dinner party and affordable groceries.
Which is why, in these divided times, we only hope that some courageous network exec will decide to reunite America with a quartet of goofy, purely apolitical sitcoms.
And then, when this brave soul looks upon the nation that he healed, and asks, in his most nasal Urkel voice, “Did I do that?” we can say, “Yes, Mr. or Mrs. Network Exec. Yes, you did.”
What do you think, TV fanatics?
Should the programming block make a comeback?
Hit the comments section below to share your thoughts.
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