Flashback Friday: Friday night TV

Flashback Fridays is a weekly meme here at Lost and Found. The idea is to talk about something from your past - a childhood memory, a favorite vacation, favorite music or movies or TV shows from the past, a special memory from high school or your days as a young adult, a big event in your life (grad, wedding, becoming a parent, going back to school, new job), games you used to play, childhood friends - anything at all. Every week, I'll post a Linky so you can link up your Flashback Friday post and we can hop around to visit each other and enjoy the reminiscing.

My flashback for today is to the 90s and the TGIF lineup on ABC. Do you remember it? I grew up with these shows, and looked forward to them every week. I remember when the shows slowly started to peter out and turned to more adult shows like Hope and Faith, which I had absolutely no interest in. I was so disappointed, and for awhile, I felt kind of lost on Friday nights. It was like the end of an era for me - all these people I felt like I'd grown up with were gone. It’s been 12 years and Friday nights haven’t been the same since.

TGIF originally started out with Perfect Strangers (which I don’t really remember, and I’m not even sure I actually watched), Just the 10 of Us (which I don’t remember at all), Family Matters, and Full House (both of which I loved). Over the years, the shows changed, but there were always at least a few of them that I watched: Step by Step (loved), Boy Meets World (LOVED), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (loved), You Wish (loved, so disappointed it got cancelled early on), Clueless (really liked, although not as much as the movie), Dinosaurs (watched it, but felt sort of meh about it), Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place (also known as 2 Guys and a Girl, also known as the show where I discovered Ryan Reynolds), Making the Band (anyone remember O-Town? I loved them, and it was so cool watching them become a band), Hanging With Mr. Cooper (liked), and Teen Angel (didn't like).

TGIF nights were something my mum and I shared. It was a bonding thing for us. There’s a double generation gap between the two of us (technically she’s old enough to be my grandmother - my parents had me later in life), and yet she watched these crazy, silly teenage shows with me. I know some people will never understand getting so attached to TV shows or fictional characters, but a lot of these shows really shaped me while I was growing up. To this day, I have fond memories of TGIF nights. All these years later I still miss it, and wish a network would come up with a fun lineup of shows. My current lineup (although it’s about to change because each of them is ending for the season) is The Vampire Diaries (the season finale of which was last night, and I’m still reeling…I'll be blogging about that later), CSI: NY, and Blue Bloods. 

I want to get all my favorite TGIF shows on DVD so that I can re-watch them (if I had to choose only one it would be Boy Meets World), and then have them for someday when I have kids. Maybe we can start our own TGIF family night tradition.

Do you remember these shows? Which were your favorites? Do you have a current Friday night lineup, or do you (unlike me) actually have a life and do other things on Friday nights?