Many people feel like this is the golden age of home entertainment.
Streaming services allow people to watch pretty much whatever they want, whenever they want. If a new series comes out on a platform, you can binge watch the entire season in one or two sittings.
Everything is at your fingertips, so people can watch at their own leisure. And now these services are even toying around with making big cinema releases available to watch at home on the same day they appear in theaters.
Well, to those who want to hammer through a series or watch a first-run movie with a sub-par TV sound system, I say – “Things were better in the 80s”
And I’ll do you one better. I’d put everything on Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and Prime Video up against one network. Actually, one night on one network.
Nothing beat the feeling of watching NBC on Thursday nights in the mid-to-late 80s. Basically, the Cosby Show years.
And I know what you are thinking – “That cloudy-eyed pervert deserves to rot in jail” and you are right. But, that deviant’s show kicked off the best night of family television in TV history.
Cosby’s character, Dr. Cliff Huxtable, and the interactions with his wife and children were about as wholesome as you could stand without being grossly sweet. The show was designed to appeal to the entire family. Cliff mugged for the camera for the dads watching. Wife, Clair kept needling Cliff for all the moms watching. And the children of various ages had their moments to entertain the rest of the family.
I would say the NBC lineup on Thursday nights was at its best from 84-86. Those first three years saw Cosby followed by Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court and Hill Street Blues.
On Family Ties, breakout star Michael J. Fox played a turbo Republican high school student who was always at odds with his former hippie parents. Fox was so good that the other characters were pretty much after-thoughts.
Cheers was another classic with an ensemble cast, launching the careers of Woody Harrelson, Ted Danson and Kelsey Grammer. The barbs thrown around in that Boston bar were more mature, but comedy gold. Norm’s weekly entrance to the bar alone was worth the watch. “What’s shakin’ Mr. Peterson.” “All four cheeks and a couple of chins.” Everybody wishes their favorite watering hole had the vibe of Cheers.
Night Court was more slapstick humor, but it served as a good palate cleanser before the gruff cop drama Hill Street Blues.
The Cosby Show took over the number 1 ratings spot in its second season and didn’t let it go for five years. It tied All in the Family for the most consecutive seasons at number one, a very ironic pairing if you consider the nature of both shows.
In 1986, Cosby, Family Ties and Cheers were the number 1,2 and 3 shows in Nielsen ratings. In 1987 Family Ties was sent out to die on Sunday nights and A Different World, which was a Cosby spinoff show, moved into the number 2 slot.
For the next three years Cosby, A Different World and Cheers all stayed in the top 5 in the Nielsens. The four-hole on Thursday nights rotated through a variety of shows that never really stuck after Night Court ended, including the fledgling season of Seinfeld. The fifth slot stayed with Hill Street Blues through 1987, when stalwart legal drama L.A. Law came in and locked things down.
Cosby took its first stumble in 1990 when it fell to 5 in the Nielsens, while Cheers jumped to number 1. A year later the Cosby Show tumbled to 18 and it was off television a year later.
Thursday night remained a monster for NBC, even without the Huxtables, as Cheers did fine for a few more years and then the network pushed a re-energized Seinfeld into a slot along with Frasier, which was a Cheers spinoff. In 1994 ER made its way to Thursday nights along with a little show called Friends.
All told, Thursday nights on NBC during the 10 year span from 1984-94 was probably the height of family programing on television. Consider this, of the five shows in the Thursday night lineup from 84 to 86, three of them are on TV Guide’s list of the top 50 television shows of all time (Hill Street Blues 14, Cheers 18, Cosby 28). If you look at all shows that aired on Thursday nights during those 10 years, six shows (Cosby, Cheers, Hill Street, ER, Frasier and Friends) made the top 50 list. That means 12% of that list, which included highly regarded cable programs, aired on one network, on one night, during a 10 year span.
But what NBC Thursday nights in the 80s really accomplished was bringing families together to laugh. No streaming in your own bedroom. No watching on a tablet during lunch hour. No binge watching after the kids go to bed. Everyone was together and in a good mood at the same time every week.
Everyone moved into the living room, took their customary seat on the couch, and unwound, together. That doesn’t happen much today. And strangely enough, infamous predator Bill Cosby was the clue that tied so many families together on those Thursday nights.
-Chad Williamson is the managing editor at the Journal-Tribune.