Editing TGIF (TV programming block) (section)

=====''I Love Saturday Night'' (1992)=====
Seeing how ''TGIF'' dominated prime time on Fridays in the face of typical decreased television viewership on that night, Janicek and company felt that the same marketing power could translate into success for Saturday night. Saturday, as an even heavier social night not spent at home by viewers in the 18–49 demographic, resulted in most networks airing shows with older demographics, those with family appeal, or programs faltering in the ratings on other nights (or in the most political cases, shows that a network no longer has confidence in). NBC had claimed dominant victory on Saturday nights throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, with an eclectic mix of family-themed shows and sophisticated comedies aimed at an older audience (such as ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', ''[[227 (TV series)|227]]'', ''[[Amen (TV series)|Amen]]'' and ''[[Empty Nest]]''). ABC, however, had continued to struggle on Saturday nights. Through the end of the 1990–91 television season, recent programs such as ''The [[ABC Mystery Movie]]'' and ''[[China Beach]]'' had experienced a quick death after moving to Saturdays, leading to such bold decisions as moving the nationwide phenomenon ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' to Saturday in order to shore up the lineup. After reformatting the Saturday night lineup for the 1991 fall schedule to include an hour of comedy followed by another established drama and a freshman drama, ABC announced plans for a Saturday ''TGIF'' offshoot to premiere at mid-season.

Titled '''''I Love Saturday Night''''', it launched to provide a new night and time for three of ABC's aging sitcoms, ''Who's the Boss?'', ''Growing Pains'' (both of which had been comprising the Saturday 8:00–9:00&nbsp;p.m. block since September 1991) and ''Perfect Strangers'' (which was still highly rated, but moved to Saturday to help the declining ratings of ''Boss'' and ''Pains''). The newcomer that rounded out the lineup was the [[Steven Bochco]] cartoon ''[[Capitol Critters]]''. Premiering on February 1, 1992, the two-hour comedy block of ''I Love Saturday Night'' coincided with [[Western (genre)|Western]] drama ''[[The Young Riders]]'', which had been airing Saturdays in the 9:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern hour, going on a three-month hiatus. Freshman dramedy ''[[The Commish]]'', meanwhile, remained at 10:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern.

''I Love Saturday Night'' was structured exactly like ''TGIF'', with hosts from each show rotating every week, down to its own set of branding graphics and a theme song. The intro to the lineup began with a red ABC logo encased inside an animated heart, which bounced around, and then off, the screen. Set against various-colored backgrounds (but most commonly blue), the lineup's title was then spelled out in the opening alongside views of animated suns, moons and palm trees. The theme song itself—with the lyrics ''S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y../ Saturday Night! / I Love Saturday / Saturday Night''—even had a [[calypso music|calypso]] sound to it, with [[Jamaica]]n-style male vocals. The last two lines of the theme were often sung over the show bumpers that led into the last commercial break of each show.

The ''I Love Saturday Night'' lineup received heavy promotion, as ABC was valiantly trying to achieve any remaining life out of ''Who's the Boss?'' and ''Growing Pains'' especially, although both series had fallen out of the Nielsen Top 30 following their move to Saturdays (dropping to #76 and #75, respectively, in the ratings for 1991–92). Such efforts to revitalize both series had been undertaken at the start of the season; ''Boss'' resolved the “will-they-or-won’t-they” plotline between lead characters Tony Micelli ([[Tony Danza]]) and Angela Bower ([[Judith Light]]), transitioning from an employee/boss relationship to a couple, while ''Pains'' (which dealt with a showrunner change spurred by creative disagreements with series regular [[Kirk Cameron]], who became a [[born again|born-again]] [[Protestantism|Protestant Christian]] four years earlier, over plot material he considered inappropriate) added a new character, homeless teen Luke Brower ([[Leonardo DiCaprio]], whose character was taken in by the Seaver family at the insistence of eldest son Mike, played by Cameron), in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to appeal to teenage female viewers. Those in the industry suspected that ''Perfect Strangers'' was moved to Saturdays not necessarily since it could have bolstered the lineup's performance, but because it was part of an ABC agenda to kill the series (ABC's explanation in its move from Fridays was that it did not fit the new ''TGIF'' demographic, youth aged 10–18).

Cast members from all three of the live-action shows hosted ''I Love Saturday Night'' in rotation during the five-week run:
* February 1, 1992: Mark-Linn Baker and Bronson Pinchot, ''Perfect Strangers''
* February 8, 1992: Kirk Cameron, [[Jeremy Miller]] and Leonardo DiCaprio, ''Growing Pains''
* February 15, 1992: Judith Light, ''Who's the Boss?''
* February 22, 1992:† Mark-Linn Baker and Bronson Pinchot, ''Perfect Strangers''
* February 29, 1992: Kirk Cameron, Jeremy Miller, [[Ashley Johnson (actress)|Ashley Johnson]] and Leonardo DiCaprio, ''Growing Pains''

† ''Capitol Critters'' and ''Perfect Strangers'' did not air on this night, although Pinchot and Linn-Baker did host. ''The Jaleel White Special''—an hour-long variety special starring the ''Family Matters'' actor—aired from 8:00 to 9:00&nbsp;p.m., followed by ''Who's the Boss?'' at 9:00 and ''Growing Pains'' in its regular 9:30 slot.

Ultimately, the block was neither able to alleviate ABC's struggles with its Saturday prime time lineup or replicate ''TGIF''{{'}}s success. Saturday night on ABC, especially up against NBC's powerhouse lineup of the evening, seemed a surefire place to send even a popular show into considerable ratings decline. This is exactly what happened, as ratings during the entire February sweeps period were the lowest of the season for ABC that night (save for ''The Commish'', which had become successful in its first season), with ''Perfect Strangers'' experiencing the largest single-season ratings decline for a series. After five dismal weeks in the [[Nielsen ratings|Nielsens]], ABC had a rapid loss of faith in ''I Love Saturday Night''; the branding concept for the Saturday lineup was used for the last time on February 29, 1992.

Beyond the quick demise of ''I Love Saturday Night'', the same lineup, more or less, continued on ABC for the remainder of the 1991–92 season. ''Capitol Critters'' was cancelled in March; this caused the remaining three shows to switch slots in order to provide a choice time period for the ''[[Head of the Class]]'' spinoff ''Billy'', which moved to the lineup (''Billy'' had previously been a part of ''TGIF'' from its January 31, 1992 premiere until March). ''Boss'' and ''Pains'', meanwhile, had announced the end of their runs in the spring of 1992, but both would remain on Saturdays until summer reruns. These shows aired their one-hour finales on Saturday, April 25, 1992, along with the series finale of ''[[MacGyver (1985 TV series)|MacGyver]]'', which aired on this night for one week only. Both ''Perfect Strangers'' and ''Billy'' would remain part of the lineup after ''Boss'' and ''Pains'' relocated.

Two new sitcoms premiered on Saturdays that spring and summer: ''[[Julie (TV series)|Julie]]'', starring [[Julie Andrews]] (with a future ''TGIF'' star, eventual ''Boy Meets World'' cast member [[Rider Strong]], as Andrews's stepson), and the [[David Lynch]]-produced comedy ''[[On the Air (TV series)|On the Air]]''. The failure of these programs, along with ABC's decision to not renew ''Billy'' for a second season and the announcement that ''Perfect Strangers'' was going on a long hiatus (concluding its run in the summer of 1993 with an abbreviated six-episode eighth season), halted attempts by ABC to program comedies or family fare – outside of movies – on that night. (''The Commish'' would run for four additional seasons, ending in January 1996.) Once every few years, ABC would again try to program such shows on Saturday nights with no success; for example, during the [[1995–96 United States network television schedule|1995–96]] season, it scheduled ''[[The Jeff Foxworthy Show]]'' and the [[Marie Osmond]]–[[Betty White]] vehicle ''[[Maybe This Time (TV series)|Maybe This Time]]'' during the 8:00&nbsp;p.m. ET hour on that night (the former was replaced in February 1996 by the adult-skewing Tony Danza–[[Lori Loughlin]] romantic comedy vehicle ''[[Hudson Street (TV series)|Hudson Street]]'', which was moved to Saturdays from its original Tuesday slot). The lone exception in this case was ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', which ABC revived after it was bought by Disney and eventually moved to Saturday nights in 2003 (replacing a more general-audience movie showcase that had been airing since the 1999–2000 season, after the network stopped offering first-run series on that night), where it ran until it was discontinued as a weekly film showcase in 2008.