This story was originally published in September 2014.
Its being republished today for the 25th anniversaries ofFriendsandER.
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NBCs storied Must-See TV Thursday lineup has seen various iterations over the decades.
Its the schedule NBC birthed in the fall of 1994, when established blockbusterSeinfeldwas married with newcomersFriendsandER.
Almost literally overnight, the TV world changed: Superstars were born, web link fortunes changed.
It became immune, at least on one night, to whatever rivals threw at it.
Things are much different for NBC on Thursday nights now, of course.
NBCs Thursday fortunes have improved since then.Superstorelaunched in 2015, withThe Good Placefollowing a year later.
Thats because the halo of that 1994 schedule still hangs over the connection.
When did NBC execs knowFriendsandERmight be worthy of Thursday berths?
And why did they decide to make another big move just a year later?
How early in the development process did you start thinkingFriendsandERmight be worth scheduling on Thursday?
Warren Littlefield:I would say that both of them were targeted to go into Thursday night.
WithFriends, as we went through the casting process, we got more and more excited.
Not because there were any household, super-well-known star names.
Going into screenings, there was a certain patina, a hope to it.
There was a feeling that if we did it right, this belonged on Thursday night.
That was very much kind of a goal, and a target.
I dont think the the big focus, at least in terms of the comedies, was onFriends.
It was you know, are we gonna make this move?
You were heading into fall 1994 with a 10 p.m. opening, sinceL.A.
Lawwas wrapping its run.
Littlefield:Thats your Must-See TV lineup.
Beckman:We started off believing that thats what we were gonna do.
Just leave Thursday night at least the comedies as is.
Littlefield:But the feeling was, this is how we become the No.
That if we dont get into Tuesday night, then were gonna get blocked out.
The only comedy competition on Tuesday night was from ABC.
And so thats why we took that risk.
You also had Dabney Coleman returning to TV inMadman of the People,and also headed to Thursday.
How did you decide which show went where?
Beckman:The reality was,Friendswas a mediocre-testing pilot.
Littlefield:It was a high weak in the testing.Seinfeldwas absolutely disastrous.
Weak, weak on all levels.
ButFriendswas a high weak, because there was a bubbling young-adult 18-to-34-year-old audience that got its sensibility.
And so, it wasnt considered, like, a full-on 18-to-49 show.
They found it moderately funny, [with an] attractive, young cast.
But it was really it wasnt overly emotionally involving.
And there wasnt a single star that jumped out.
We thought,Well, itll play a little older, and well put it a little later.
AndFriendswill play younger.And, you know, being sandwiched betweenMad About YouandSeinfeld, that was a pretty great opportunity.
Beckman:Madman of the Peoplewas a higher-testing pilot.
Its really that simple.
We likedFriends.Friendswas actually liked more [by NBC execs] than the testing indicated.
We didnt know what we had withFriends.
We didnt know what we had withSeinfeld.
Was it an easier call to scheduleERat 10 p.m. on Thursday?
Littlefield:We didnt have many choices.
L.A. Lawwas over, and you had to find something to replace it.
Littlefield:You know, Steven [Bochco, executive producer ofL.A.
Law] said to me, Hey, I can give you another half-season.
But I just thought it was time.
What were the possibilities for the slot?
Littlefield:We had done an experiment with a Robin Williams episode ofHomicideand played that on Thursday.
And we had probably placed aLaw & Orderthere a couple times.
ButLaw & Orderwas doing very, very nicely, holding up our Wednesday.
Beckman:Law & Orderwas also a show we didnt feel was really a young-appealing show.
It was more 25-to-54.
Beckman:ERjust you know, it had an attractive cast.
It had George Clooney about to explode.
It just felt younger.
Littlefield:And it was more exciting.
Beckman:Also, I will say this.
Littlefield:Thats true.
Several observers questioned the merit of putting a year-old hit against one of TVs most resilient sitcoms.
NBC also made it known that it would scheduleERin theL.A.
Lawtime slot, even though there had already been buzz, CBS was eyeing Thursdays at 10 forChicago Hope.
And then came the four-month wait until September.
Any second thoughts over the summer, particularly when ABC decided to replaceRoseannewithHome Improvementon Tuesdays oppositeFrasier?
Littlefield:We were confident.
We were very confident.
When can I see this show?
I cant wait.I mean, it wasthatpowerful.
And so we looked atChicago Hope, and we said, You know, thats not a bad show.
However, it aintER.
We just had such great confidence as we lived with the decision.
And each week, the intent-to-view data that was coming in continued to give us more confidence.
I mean, I was so impressed with him.
Beckman:Just how he envisioned the show.
I remember showingChicago HopeandERto my wife.
She didnt know which connection they were on.
Afterwards, I said, Well, which one would you watch?
And she didnt even say.
She looked at me and she said, Are you even kidding me?
Then the other was this pristine, squeaky-clean hospital with these high-paid doctors separating conjoined twins.
What are people gonna watch?
Littlefield:The other thing that came out of test audiences is, they perceivedERto be an action hour.
Thats what they called it.
Because of the camera work.
I mean, the density to the storytelling, the active use of the camera.
It was very, very innovative and the audience gobbled it up.
They were saying, Well, its not really a medical drama.
Its an action hour.
And we just kind of smiled:Okay.
What were you thinking aboutFriendsover the summer?
As you noted, the pilot hadnt tested all that well.
They werent going head to head, but it was kind of likeER[and]Chicago Hope.
Littlefield:They putWild Oatson Sunday night, afterMarried With Children.
It was, you know not a very good pilot.
And it died quickly.
Friendsdefinitely suffered from being lumped in with those other youth comedies.
USA Todays Matt Roush was particularly harsh: NBCsFriendsand Foxs sex-crazedWild Oatspander to Generation X singles.Reality Biteswith gingivitis.
Littlefield:Itwasnta perfect pilot.
It was a young cast.
They needed more time together to jell.
This is really absolutely heartfelt, emotional, compelling.
And, by the way, its pretty funny.
We could feel that.
Beckman:By episode two or three, it was like,Wow.
This is funny.It very quickly topped the pilot.
Littlefield:Its what most pilots are supposed to be.
They were fully realized in a pilot.
Its just so rare in a broadcast life that that kind of quality is achieved in a pilot.
Mostly, youre saying, Where does the series go?
Who am I in business with?
What is the potential, and do we bet on this?
And withFriends, the execution of the series was the fulfillment of that bet.
Why did you choose to run theERpilot on a Monday rather than Thursday?
Littlefield:It was a two-hour premiere.
Finance wouldnt let us.
Beckman:And it was premiere week.
It would have preempted the premiere ofSeinfeld.
Littlefield:That would have been financially painful.
I had seen theERpilot probably 26 times.
And that night, Im going back and forth betweenERand the NFL.
And Im like, Were screwed.
This is this is Dallas, Americas team.
Its a nail-biting game.
Its going right down to the final seconds.
With my luck, itll go to overtime.
So it doesnt matter what time zone youre in.
And we woke up the next day, and it was like, These look like theyrepretty good numbers.
Beckman:It did really well.
And you know, we had a regular Monday movie then.
It was a logical place for it.
Beckman:Oh, yeah.
That Friday morning, how did you find out howFriendsandERdid?
So I kind of stayed in the habit of not looking at ratings until I got to the office.
So I got to the office.
And I remember it looked like I was opening up a deck of cards.
Id just go down the column.
But the key number, really, for me, wasntFriends.
Littlefield:Unlike Preston, I couldnt wait.
I gotthe numbersat 6 a.m.Mad About Youcontinued to be everything we wanted it to be.Friendswas glass-half-full.
We expected that there would be a little drop-off; there was some drop-off.
Madman of the Peoplewas okay.
And thenERwas very satisfying.
It was,Okay.
We hoped and believed we would win this.
We felt strongly that we would.
Beckman:And we beatChicago Hope.
There were a lot of people who didnt think we could beatChicago Hope.
What happened the next week?
Beckman:They bothshot in different directions.Chicago Hopetook a big dip.
And we just blew em out of the water.
It was like,Holy shit.
Littlefield:The second week, literally chills went up my spine.
Beckman:The gap between the two shows was scary.
And scary good for us.
I remember looking at that number …
Littlefield:… and it was over for them.
MakingFriendsand Influencing Ratings
AfterERcrushedHopein their second week opposite each other, CBS execs threw in the towel.
(It ended up lasting six seasons and won multiple Emmys.)
Beckman and Littlefield saw an opportunity.Friendsseemed destined not just to be a hit, but an anchor.
While you never again movedERfrom 10 p.m. Thursday, you obviously shiftedFriends.
And not just to 8 p.m., where we all remember it.
In February of 1995, it got the 9:30 p.m. slot behindSeinfeld.
Our scheduling grids reflected that.
I remember at the TCA party, somebody introduced me to Courteney Cox.
She knew who I was, and of course, she immediately started in with me.
She said, Oh, you know, you should put us behindSeinfeld.
And I said to her, Well, thats what were gonna do.
She kind of looked at me like she thought I was bullshitting her.
What was the thinking behind the shift to 9:30?
Littlefield:We had seen the episodes.
And we knew that the future for the show was it was gonna go to Thursday at 8.
It was gonna be that kind of cornerstone Thursday at 8.Seinfeldwould be 9 oclock,ERat 10.
That was the future we were looking at.
I dont think we had many debates about that one, Pres.
We were like, Undeniable.
Beckman:Warrens right.
Remember, this was the era of our imperialist march through the schedule with comedy.
Littlefield:Yes, we did.
Littlefield:There was no second guessing.
You had just airliftedFrasierandWingsfrom Thursday to Tuesday, and it worked.
You then more than made up for it on Thursdays withFriendsandER.
You wanted to shake things up again?
Beckman:We were like, Were just gonna conquer!
We were just gonna conquer the schedule with comedy.
So replacingseaQuest, which had been airing Sundays at 8, withMad About Yougave you another sitcom block.
Littlefield:We got up to 18 comedies.
And we were a business.
We were not a nonprofit company.
The older the show gets, the less youre able to move it.
There was still real strength left inMad About You.
We may have accelerated its decline by the move.
But comedies help keep the schedule young.
It went in, turned on the lights, and established a strong young-adult presence for us.
We also thoughtFriendshad the strength to go into 8 oclock and stay there.
And on that guess we were right.
It never moved again.
And you would dominate on Thursdays well into the next decade.
Regardless of what a local station was doing leading in [at 7:30 p.m.],Friendswas a destination.
Regardless of what was happening at 8:30,Seinfeldwas a destination.
If you didnt, you absolutely felt left out.
It was the place to be in the television universe.
*This article previously stated that The Cosby Show debuted in 1994.
It debuted in 1984.
