Fridays (TV series)

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Fridays
Format Sketch comedy
Starring Mark Blankfield
Maryedith Burrell
Melanie Chartoff
Larry David
Rich Hall
Darrow Igus
Brandis Kemp
Bruce Mahler
Michael Richards
John Roarke
Stuart Pankin
Narrated by Jack Burns
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 58 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 70/90 minutes
Production company(s) Moffitt-Lee Productions
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run April 11, 1980 (1980-04-11) – April 23, 1982 (1982-04-23)

Fridays is the name of ABC's weekly late-night live comedy show, which aired on Friday nights from April 11, 1980 to April 23, 1982.

Contents

Performers [edit]

Main cast [edit]

Guest stars (seasons 2 and 3) [edit]

Musical guests [edit]

Acts that appeared on Fridays include:

AC/DC, The Clash, and The Stray Cats made their American television debuts on Fridays. At the time of The Stray Cats' appearance, the band had yet to be signed by a record company. During the group's performance, there was a crawl at the bottom of the screen inviting offers from record companies.

Series overview [edit]

Main article: List of Fridays episodes

The program was ABC's attempt to duplicate the success of NBC's Saturday Night Live (especially since SNL was facing a decline in quality in the early 1980s following the departure of show creator Lorne Michaels and the remnants of his original cast). Like SNL, each week Fridays featured music acts and, in the second season, celebrity guest hosts, as well as fake newscasts and spoofs of television shows and commercials.

Three seasons of Fridays aired on ABC. A 12-episode first season aired from April 11, 1980 to July 18, 1980. The show's second season, which contained 25 episodes, aired from September 5, 1980 to May 15, 1981. The show's third and final season, which contained 21 episodes, aired from September 18, 1981 to April 23, 1982, with the last episode airing as a primetime sketch show.

The show was originally 70 minutes in its first season, but was expanded to 90 minutes in season two.

Andy Kaufman incident [edit]

On the February 20, 1981 episode, Andy Kaufman was the host. During a sketch about couples at dinner sneaking away to the bathroom to smoke marijuana, Kaufman, who was known for causing trouble on live TV, broke character and refused to read his lines (saying "I can't play stoned"). Michael Richards got up from the table, grabbed the cue cards and threw them down on the table in front of Kaufman, who responded by throwing a glass of water on Richards. Some of the show's cast and crew members became angry and a small brawl broke out on stage. Since the show was broadcast live, home viewers were able to see most of these events transpire until the network cut the cameras off. Kaufman returned the following week in a taped apology to home viewers. This incident was planned by Kaufman and meant as a prank. Kaufman concocted the event with Bob Zmuda. The only staff members aware of the plan were Richards, Melanie Chartoff, producer John Moffitt and producer/announcer Jack Burns.[1] This incident was reenacted in the 1999 film Man on the Moon, starring Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, Bob Zmuda as Jack Burns, Norm Macdonald as Michael Richards and Caroline Rhea as Melanie Chartoff.

Cancellation [edit]

The series ended in 1982 following ABC's decision to expand Nightline to five nights a week, which moved Fridays to air at midnight instead of 11:30pm. Although by the end of its first season in 1981, Fridays was outperforming Saturday Night Live in the ratings and with viewers who abandoned Saturday Night Live (which was in shambles due to Jean Doumanian's mismanagement of the show) in favor of the funnier, hipper, more entertaining Fridays, the later time slot hurt the show during its second season (which was also made worse by the fact that Saturday Night Live had rebounded—albeit slightly—thanks to a cast and crew overhaul, which including Jean Doumanian's termination and the installation of Dick Ebersol as show runner).

One final attempt was made by ABC to save the show by putting it on in prime time. The episode (broadcast on April 23, 1982) was scheduled against Dallas, which did nothing to help the show's moribund ratings. The series was promptly canceled.

Syndication and DVD release [edit]

A few years after the show's cancellation, Fridays appeared in reruns on the USA Network in the late 1980s. However, the episodes were edited down to 60 minutes (similar to how Saturday Night Live is edited on cable reruns). The reruns were soon pulled after a year.

For the longest time, a home video release of Fridays was considered out of the question, as cast member Michael Richards was said to have signed a deal stating that no episode would be released on any home video format. However, clips of sketches from the show (mostly sketches that featured Richards or Larry David) surfaced on the Seinfeld season three DVD set in the bonus features set. Recently, Shout Factory announced plans to release both seasons of the show on DVD in 2013.[2]

References [edit]

  1. ^ TVparty: Fridays
  2. ^ Lang, Brent (January 22, 2013). ""Dobie Gillis," Larry David series "Fridays" get Shout! Factory release". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 26, 2013. 

External links [edit]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fridays_(TV_series)&oldid=553846378"