Fans of ABC’s 1990s “TGIF” programming block with Full House, Boy Meets World and more are in for a huge shock.
“[TGIF] is not ‘Thank God It’s Friday,’” Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel confirmed on the latest episode of her “Pod Meets World” podcast on Monday, February 17.
Confusion about what the initials in “TGIF” stood for has been going for decades, with fans of classic sitcoms like Family Matters, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Step by Step understandably assuming the acronym meant “Thank God It’s Friday.”
Fishel and her “Pod Meets World” cohosts Rider Strong and Will Friedle finally cleared up the mystery once and for all this week when they clarified with “TGIF” creator and executive producer Jim Janicek that the acronym actually stood for “Thank Goodness It’s Funny.”
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“We were [first] talking about things like the ‘Friday Fun Club,’” Janicek revealed on the podcast. “There’s a whole list [of brand names] somewhere I probably could dig up, but I remember that one. You know, ‘It’s Friday Night.’ Lots of little short-isms.”
Janicek went on: “I don’t recall exactly where [‘TGIF’] came from. That was on our list!”
Janicek remembered ABC being uncertain when “TGIF” was pitched because it could have sparked a legal dispute with chain restaurant TGI Friday’s.
“We were animating the open. And then, [ABC executives] Stu Brower and Bob Iger called and said, ‘We’ve landed on TGIF. We wanna call it TGIF,’” he said. “So that’s where we got the name, and we started animating those letters into the open and went from there.”
The TV executive went on: “Bob, I believe, came up with ‘Thank Goodness It’s Funny,’ to avoid any conflict with any restaurant.”
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ABC debuted “TGIF” on September 22, 1989, with a two-hour block of youth-centric sitcoms starting at 8 p.m. with Full House, followed by Family Matters, Perfect Strangers and Just the Ten of Us in subsequent weeks. As the brand grew more popular in the 1990s, hit shows such as Step by Step, Dinosaurs and Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper were added to “TGIF” while Full House and others were cycled out to air on other weeknights.
Janicek told “Pod Meets World” that “TGIF” was successful because it specifically catered to families and young people on a night where they’d usually go out.
“It should be family, family, family. We could really nail this,” the executive remembered telling ABC. “I made the comment in [a meeting with ABC] … they were talking about broadcasting and all the different dimensions of it, but I said … ‘Why aren’t we considering narrow-casting a bit toward a very specific audience? Like a lot of these so-called cable networks are starting to do.’”
Janicek remarked that once “TGIF” proved to be a ratings hit, ABC was largely “hands off” in allowing him to run the branding as he saw fit.
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“TGIF” was retired after the 1999-2000 TV season, where Boy Meets World, The Hughleys, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Making the Band made up the final lineup. ABC has attempted to revamp the brand at various points, including referring to Shonda Rhimes dramas Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder as “TGIT (Thank God It’s Thursday)” from 2014 to 2018.
ABC most recently tried to revive “TGIF” during the 2017-2018 TV season where it used the branding for family sitcoms Fresh Off the Boat and Speechless leading into Fred Savage and Ricky Gervais‘ short-lived game show Child Support. The network has since returned to using “ABC Friday Night” branding for Shark Tank and 20/20 to lead off its weekend schedule.
