Jim Janicek Meets World

You’ve heard the origin stories of Boy Meets World, but now we go back to the beginning, to hear how one man turned Friday nights into a shocking ratings juggernaut.

 

The gang is talking to Jim Janicek, the marketing whiz kid who created the TGIF programming block for ABC! Hear the story of how he first pitched the idea that completely changed television, and launched the cultural phenomenon that includes “Full House,” Family Matters,” “Perfect Strangers” and yes, “Boy Meets World.”

 

Jim reveals which successful idea he was WRONG about, and we find out what TGIF REALLY stands for, all on an epic episode of…Pod Meets World! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
So I unfortunately have a brand new addiction in my life.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh no, wait, okay, how hold on?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I wanted let's see we name some of the addictions,
because let's talk about Because you say that you have
a new one, I would say, walk it exercise.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
For you is an addiction.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
It is.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Smoking used to be an addiction.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
That was a big one. That was I was also
just really good at it.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, you're so good smoking. You could do it in
the shower, you could do it while running.

Speaker 5 (00:45):
How many packs a day did you smoke seriously at
the height, like.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
At my height, more than one? Between one and two? Yeah, yeah,
I was having I mean.

Speaker 5 (00:55):
I was a cigar at every Oh my god, because
I'm doing a pack like twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah, so I would have.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I would have, but I would have probably thirty to
thirty five cigarettes a day.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I would say, Okay, that's so good. You're so good
at that.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
I was really good at it.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Let's see other addictions. Asking people where they live is
I would consider maybe an addiction needing to know where
everyone's located.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
It's not an addiction so much as just I mean,
I could I could quit that anytime I want it.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Danielle.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
Okay, sure, reading fantasy books.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Oh, reading fantasy books is a good one. Yeah, reading
fantasy books is a good one. Showering, showering so healthy?

Speaker 5 (01:31):
Like, I mean, when do you call like, when do
you call it an addiction? If it's like correct running
or right now right super healthy? And yeah that's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
But I do think the definition of an addiction is
something that without it makes your life like not feel
as good or as harder. Like so even the running
is healthy for you, you can be addicted to the to
like I don't feel well if I don't exert that
much energy, like the adrenaline rush whatever it is, like
the endorphins.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Uh, so you could technically be did to that.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
But I this one is certainly not healthy.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
Oh this new one?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
What is it?

Speaker 4 (02:06):
And I may need your help to break the cycle.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
I have become addicted to awful reddit stories being read
on YouTube by bad voiceover actors.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Wait wait, wait, this is so specific.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Yeah, there are I've got titles for.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
You too, Okay, like bad bad reddit stories meaning like
something kind of catastrophic happens somebody writes a post or
just a stream.

Speaker 6 (02:33):
In some way extreme lots of cheating okay, asshole thing? Yes,
like those are a lot of So, for instance, here's
some titles for you. I heard my wife saying she
didn't want to hug me anymore, so I ignored her forever.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Oh somehow, by the way, that is a twenty two
minute story.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
Honestly that I listened to.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
The entire thing wins in that one? She doesn't want
to be hugged? Who wins? Really exactly?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
My parents urged me to forgive my brother for betraying
me with my ex wife, then demanded I financially support
them in his new family.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
I'm sorry, twenty four minutes of my life.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
That doesn't sound real.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
Oh, I'm sure none of these are.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
There's like the Penthouse forums where it's like, oh, really,
everybody's having sex with four women a day at.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
Their work, Like all stewardesses are exactly exactly when does
the pilot of time to fly the plane?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Like this?

Speaker 4 (03:27):
This is what's happening.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
So my fiance's pre wedding contract demanded forty percent of
my income, so I exposed her at the altar.

Speaker 7 (03:35):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Okay, so you you find these stories, but I'm assuming you.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
Well now they're just on my algorithm. Okay, so that's.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
YouTube channel where we're a voiceover.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
Actor meant but really in.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
Quotes right right, right, Okay, It's like it's just somebody
doing a dramatic reading correct if they are the poster.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Correct without fixing their stumbles or the mispronunciation of words.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
And why do you for hearing it over reading it?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Because, like I put it, like, what I used to
do was educate myself and put on history podcasts and stuff.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
Now I put on these schlockfests of like.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
I got my teacher pregnant and now she wants answers
like stuff, and I'm like, oh, you got to listen
to that while I.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Walk my dog.

Speaker 5 (04:16):
So your podcast listening has basically become a daytime talk.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Show correct absolutely.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
Correct apps like you've just you've just gone to the
bottom of the barrel of like yeah, daytime TV. Yeah,
you gotta get out. You got to pull yourself out
of this tail spend before you Before.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
You do, I have a request, Will you find a
bad Reddit story that like you like and then will
you read one for us as a bonus episode?

Speaker 1 (04:43):
That was the question I was going to ask, is
since I I don't have children, which means I have
a ton of time.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, yeah, I should just.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
My voiceover skills. Yes, that's what I'm to start my
own YouTube channel where I read them well.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
Because you really want to social media back in your life.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Exactly, that's what I need more.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
It doesn't cause any anxiety, that's the beautiful part of it.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
You won't obsessing over whether people like the performance or not.

Speaker 7 (05:09):
No.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, I mean my son got his teacher pregnant. Now
she's demanding marriage. But the DNA test results shock everyone.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Oh man, I need to know that one. But read
by Ron mister super Phil Friedel.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Your step brother needs this money more than you, she
said with a smirk. Three months later, he came to
my office to pitch his startup, only to freeze when
he saw.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
Me sitting behind the desk.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
What I don't even understand that headline?

Speaker 4 (05:35):
You you will? You will when I read it.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
Okay, okay, So hold on, I want to could you
do a little bit of a reading for us because
I want to know, like how you would do it?
Is the because because you like listening to the bad ones,
So would you do it as a sort of bad
reader or would you commit to it. Shakespeare, you're doing
an audiobook of like the Greatest Thing Ever Wrecked?

Speaker 4 (05:57):
That's what I would do?

Speaker 3 (05:58):
You correct their stuffs or like would you pronounce the
words as if they're spelled?

Speaker 2 (06:03):
What would you do?

Speaker 4 (06:05):
I would probably do it the way that the author intended.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Okay, but I mean I do.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Listen to one guy who's the worst who also puts
on whenever a woman is speaking, goes like and that's
when my wife walked in and said.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
But honey, I'm only walking.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
Down and it's like, oh, it kills audiobook. Ability to
do the opposite gender voice is like a major thing,
like if you overdo it, because like there are some
female readers who I love, and then they go to
do every man in the in the book and they're.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Like, hey, we don't throw you don't just talk. Don't
like that.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
And then and then the vice versus exactly what you're
talking about, where it's like every female voice is like
all said, You're like, what what are you doing? Like people,
we get it, you don't have the right, but.

Speaker 4 (06:47):
Just you can just soften or you know you can,
you can do it just a hint.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Yeah, that's so.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
By the way, though a lot I've been realizing from
just an educational standpoint, A lot of fiances cheat with
somebody's brother.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
This is this is a big thing apparently.

Speaker 5 (07:01):
People don't you know, you don't know that many people.
It's like, you know, especially nowadays, it's like you have
a thousand friends online, but who do you actually like
see on a daily especially during COVID It's gonna be
family or slightly extended family.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
And then like, yeah, the writer's already justifying it.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
So you have a nanny that you sleep with. That's
not a thing. That's just part of life. One time
that okay, Shiloh, I don't you know.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
It's just fine.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
I don't blame the two of them. Now I pay
for them to live in there.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Well, that's.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's not a big deal.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
It's it's part of the family.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
It's how you keep The other great thing about it
is they also win AI because AI obviously does a
lot of the voices, and so people always start with like, hi,
I'm Doug twenty four male and my wife Sarah twenty four.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
But right, but the AI doesn't interpret.

Speaker 5 (07:55):
It so much like Penthouse forms because there's always.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Been thirty three forty they do right.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
So it always goes like I'm Doug twenty seven meters
and my wife Carol thirty five feet she and I,
and so it doesn't get the it is.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Because it's reading text not knowing.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
Yes, all right, let's do it this way. Let's actually
produce one of these things.

Speaker 6 (08:19):
I watch music that will do anything, but you and
I can do it.

Speaker 5 (08:25):
But you and I could do extra voices if they.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Read it will say girl, great woman, you just pick
a good story.

Speaker 7 (08:32):
Okay, oh well, so you pick up.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
You pick one, and then we will do it and
will be popular.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
The record saying we should start smoking too does not
help my addiction.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Comes.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
How can we make money off of it? How can
we help you start a social media channel that gets
you income.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
That's what I want to do.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
I want to be the guy who everybody comes to like,
can you please read my am I the asshole story?
And I get to sit in this booth all day
and just really love that.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
I think it's just the voice of all the like
the Civil War documentary and like.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Oh that was that.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
The guy, the one guy who does.

Speaker 7 (09:13):
Ken Burn.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
I think it was David McCullough, who actually he's.

Speaker 5 (09:17):
A historian himself right, yes.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
And has that amazing voice.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
So I want to be that for kind of the
same as a Ken Burns documentary.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
For am I the asshole in love it?

Speaker 3 (09:26):
I love it, Let's do it. I really am very
excited about this. It's like we become a rehab that
sells drugs. Yes, that's what writers about it.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
It's a brilliant thing.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
It's like the time I walked out of the weed
store to see the girl Scout table set up with
the cookies right in front of my weed store. It
was like, here's a thousand dollars. Yeah, like that's the
most brilliant thing in the world.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
Brilliant Girl Scout.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
It is so I okay, great, well, thanks for help
with my addiction.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Thanks for bringing us a great new idea. I'm really
excited about it.

Speaker 5 (09:57):
I'm excited to do so.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
We got to come up what should we call it,
Let's Reddit.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Pod meets Reddit's Good or something as to Reddit meets
world readit, narrate pod narrates.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
We'll work on these, we'll workshop these, we'll come up
with something.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Am I the PMW. We'll figure something. We'll figure something out. Okay, Well,
thanks for the help.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for bringing this to us, Thanks
for giving us an addiction.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Will you got it?

Speaker 5 (10:21):
Let's go get a smokes.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
That's awesome. Welcome to Pod meets World.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
I'm Danielle Fischl, I'm rather strong, and I'm will Fredell
forty eight meters.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
There hasn't been a week that's passed for over thirty
years now that someone hasn't uttered the letters TGI F
at me. As much as the names Topanga, Eric and
Sean or the show title Boy Meets World have defined
our careers, so has that act. A programming block doubling
as a marketing campaign that aired on ABC starting in

(11:05):
the late eighties and straight through the nineties. Featuring mostly sitcoms,
this group of shows was geared to family viewing programs
that could be enjoyed by both kids and parents alike.
Originally debuting in nineteen eighty nine, ABC committed to funny
Friday Nights and evening universally considered comatose for ratings but
ripe for experimentation, and boy did it pay off. TGIF

(11:29):
would not only become the network tent pole, but it
would grow into a cultural juggernaut, changing the medium of
television and.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Viewing habits forever.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Over a ten year period, the block included hits like
Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and Boy Meets World,
with some more fly by Night tenants too, like Where
I Live, Sledgehammer, Aliens in the Family, and Clueless.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
But just as.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Important as these TV shows was the marketing behind the concept.
It included creative commercials, eye catching graphics, hundreds of bumpers
with tgi F talent in between episodes, and even a
disastrous U two concert in an attempt to cross promote
these shows. Yeah I was there for that way. Yeah

(12:16):
I was supposed to interview Bono, of course, Yes I was.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 7 (12:23):
To me.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
They invited us a toy story too.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
I don't think you guys know. I may not have
been doing movies in the summer, but guess who.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Got asked to host all the TGIF bumpers.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
That was me.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
These shows did all have humor in common, but it
was the visionary campaign that tied it all together. And
so how are ideas like this born? How did Friday
go from a virtual TV graveyard to one of the
most profitable nights in ABC history. Well, this week we
are speaking to the man who did it, the writer
and producer from the promotions department whose little idea of

(13:01):
TGIF became a phenomenon and started his prolific career of
molding TV strategy for decades. He was the man behind
the TGIF concept, the visuals, the celebrity segments, the on
location shoots. This was his vision and we couldn't be
more excited to talk to.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Him about it today.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
So this week's guest on Podmeats World, welcome the man
we should actually be thanking for Friday.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
It's Jim janisek.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
How are you are you?

Speaker 7 (13:32):
Oh my gosh, look how old you guys are? Young,
old guy.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
We finally have an honest guest. This is a bad time.

Speaker 7 (13:42):
That's not true. I've seen I've heard many great things
about all your guests that you got.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Well, we could not be more excited to talk to
you today. We have long hoped to speak to a
network executive from the late nineties, but never in our
wildest dreams did we ever think we'd get the chance
to chat with the architect of TGIF.

Speaker 7 (14:05):
Well, thank you.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
I want to first get into how did you start
at ABC?

Speaker 7 (14:10):
Good question, It's six degrees of separation. Same kind of
thing I always tell people that ask that kind of question.
Is when I got to LA. I had worked in
on air advertising and marketing in local television in Denver,
That's where I was raised and had always wanted to
live in LA And immediately, as soon as I could,

(14:31):
you know, packed up the car and got out here
and started making phone calls. And eventually, you know, I
got in front of a gentleman by the name of
Stu Brower who was running on at the time, who's
a great guy, and he gave me a chance, and
I came on board as one of I think there

(14:51):
were probably about twelve of us producers at ABC at
the time, and I was pretty young. I was I
think twenty three, twenty four. And it was a blast.
And then, you know, went to work just like everybody else,
you know, spending a lot of time on stage in
edit base.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
So you were one of twelve producers, were you guys
in a particular department.

Speaker 7 (15:14):
Or just we were? So we were in on air.
So our job was to promote new shows and make
them look appetizing for the people.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
Okay, So and this is the this is the eighties.

Speaker 7 (15:26):
A lot of them were not as easy to promote
as Yours was good, Yours was lovely?

Speaker 4 (15:33):
Was this the eighties?

Speaker 7 (15:35):
This was yeah, So this would have been about eighty four,
so eighty four, eighty five, eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight,
and TDIF came about around eighty eight eighty eighty seven.
I was given the opportunity. So Friday Night used to
be what was considered the death slot. And I was

(15:56):
this guy, you know, young young producer. They and I
was promoting moonlighting and things like that, and it was
a summer and was given the opportunity to basically come
up with something that would help promote Friday Night and
make it appealing. And it was always a mish mash

(16:16):
of stuff. They would just kind of put shows there
that were on their last legs because the network always
believed that most people were out going on dates things
like that. That was kind of the attitude at the time.
And with me, I was raised basically that we got
together on Fridays and Sundays and you know, as a

(16:39):
family and often with our cousins, would have dinner and
then would you know, sit and watch TV. Specifically on
Sunday nights. We would always sit and watch mutual, Omaha's
Wild Kingdom, then Disney Sunday Movie, and it was a
whole experience that we did together. And so it was
summer of eighty seven or eighty eight, I think it

(17:00):
was somewhere in that area, and just so happened that
there were new bosses in charge, so we had I
guess people weren't really paying attention much to us, and
so in summer most of us producers were, you know,
either vacation because again we were between seasons. We weren't
starting to push for fall yet. Okay, so it was

(17:24):
a thing where you know, these they gave me these
comedies and said, okay, so we have full house, mister Velvet,
are perfect strangers and just the ten of us and
you know, go And so I basically took a bunch
of stuff and made up stories and just started doing
crazy things. And so these were cut promos, but we

(17:46):
would get some big names doing the voiceovers for us,
and we I made up stories like you know, Bob Costello, Burbank,
you know, started watching TGIF and suddenly shaved thirty two
strokes off as golf game. You know, funny things like that,
And so we would and We just did this whole
campaign around these made up stories, using stock footage and

(18:09):
things like that to try to get attention, and it
started to work. We started to get a little bit
of attention. Is specifically, my bosses called me and said,
I don't know what kind of drugs you're on, but
keep going, keep a yeah, as the market. Mark Zachern
who was my boss, and he was right under Bob
Iger and so it that's how it started. And then

(18:31):
Stu Brower and I started really looking at it as
Fall came along and said how do we extend that?
And being the young kind of ambitious producer I wanted
to be and you know, growing again, I was twenty
three and my entire goal in life was to be
on set as much as possible, So I proposed to them.

(18:53):
I said, what if we went to the showrunners And
at the time it was millibo At you know, and
Tom Miller were the majority of the shows. And then
we went to them and said, hey, what if we
did these little hosted segments and that you know, they

(19:14):
agreed to try it and see if they could. You know,
what it would be like, and we would come in
after the show, as you know, we'd show up as
you were wrapping and you were tired and ready to
go home, and you and you guys would graciously sit
with us and do something on the couch. And the
whole idea was, you know, everyone thought, oh, the couch,
that seems so weird, wanted to do, you know, and

(19:35):
our whole idea. The idea was to create an arc
across the whole night with the different shows, so that
no matter what show you were watching, you felt like
you were watching with the other shows, that when they
were done with their show, they were sitting down and
with you at home watching you know, watching the shows.
And so yeah, it was just again it was trying
to recreate that thing that I did with my childhood.

(19:58):
And it started to take and you know, one thing
led to another. We got a little bit in trouble
with the FCC because they didn't like the fact that
we were doing that. We were only allowed to do
two and a half minutes I believe it was somewhere
like two and a half minutes of promo before each
or in each programming block, and they classified this as promo.

(20:24):
And so we were like, how do we get how
do we sneak around that? And we went back and
we said, okay, rather than being promotion, we had to
make this more entertaining. We had to crack a few jokes.
We had to do that, and then they would qualify
this as more more part of the entertainment.

Speaker 5 (20:41):
Sounds like original programming, right.

Speaker 7 (20:44):
So we went back exactly and we went back and
we said, okay, how about this, and they said, well,
you still can't use a pod and that's why we
that was a commercial pod at the time. So that's
when we went back to the shows and Miller Boyette
was the first to do it, and we said, will
you cut twenty to thirty seconds out of your credits
each each week and make this happen for us? And

(21:06):
they agreed and that was the start. And then you know,
it's a long story. I don't mean to go on
and on and okay, okay, So ultimately it built from there.
We got it started to get a little rocky again
because it took a while for this to catch on.

(21:27):
It took a good year before it really you know,
started to catch and.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
The we started to get away that you know that
it's catching on is because of the ratings. Like ultimately
you're looking at the numbers things show or how do
you it has like a cultural impact?

Speaker 7 (21:45):
That's a great question. And the ratings and the I
would call it the inflection point happened about a year later.
I don't know if you're familiar, but they would do
Q ratings, so they will hold up a picture, you know,
do you recognize Danielle? You know who is she? And
rather and I don't know if it was with you.
I don't recall who they were doing this test with,

(22:08):
but they said something to the effect of people would go, oh, yeah,
that's the people from tgif right and research research department
went crazy and said, we need to cancel this because
they've lost the names of the shows. They don't know
the names of the shows. And this is where it
comes back to I oh, all credit to Bob Iger.

(22:28):
He stood in the way and he was like, no, no, no, no,
we have a brand. He says, this is something that
we're sticking with. And that's when they started really dumping
money into it and saying, Okay, now we're going to
push and we created you know, original animation and locked
in on the name and and so that's kind of
the just of how it all came to be.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
I mean that's so smard because if you're Bob Iger
and you're going, oh, you mean, all the power.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Isn't with these individual shows. The power is in something.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Editor show we want in there, and people will still go, oh,
it's the new part of tgis so very.

Speaker 7 (23:06):
Very yes, you are exactly right. And it was a
neat thing too. For sales. They used to go to
ad sales caught onto this and basically said, okay, now
we can do tent poling, which is a strategy that's
done where they'll take two strong shows like here's Boy
Meets World and here's Full House, and we'll put something
in between it, or we'll put something just after it

(23:27):
and lead it in and test our new pilots. And
in advertising, rather than saying you just bought you know, hey,
Kellogg's just bought Boy Meets World, Kellogg's wasn't offered Boy
Meets World. They were offered TGIF and so the price
was the same across the whole arc. So wasn't the
case where you got you know, so they were basically

(23:49):
leveraging getting a lot more in the revenues to happen.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
So and to your point, then if people are staying in.
But if people are staying to watch the whole block
partially because there's BTS stuff they're watching the casts do
in between the shows, they're also seeing all those commercials
in between.

Speaker 7 (24:10):
Absolutely, yeah, you are right on target. It's it really
became kind of just a neat little FuMO event we
would call it. So it was, you know, fear missing
app and it was one of those things that the
kids would drive mostly. That's why we'd use you know,
we'd often use the younger cast members to do the
promotions and it worked. It seemed to just catch on

(24:31):
and keep going. So it went on for I think
ten years.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
So now, what was what was the first I mean,
I know the entire night took off, but what was
the first hit show from TJF.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
Was it Perfect Strangers?

Speaker 7 (24:45):
If you ask me, yes, So full House took a
little longer, and Full House didn't always want to be
on Friday night. They were really pushing for Tuesday night
and it, you know, I don't know necessarily why, but
ultimately Full House became kind of that early anchor because
it's skewed to the youngest. Personally, I loved Perfect Strangers

(25:06):
because they were geniuses and just unbelievable. We deliver scripts
to them and they'd be like, oh, that's nice, and
then they come back with these incredible limericks and rhymes
and fun things, and I just I was like, they
were so much fun. You guys too, were so you
guys were always the best to work with. Was never
a no or anything. And I remember, Danielle, when you

(25:27):
and I went to you two, I want.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
To get into that story.

Speaker 7 (25:32):
We just.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
Always been a fan of you too. Personally.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (25:39):
I don't know me too. I don't know Sandy Christmas
was behind that or.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Who was Sandy.

Speaker 7 (25:45):
Sandy Christmas remember that, Jesus sweetheart.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Yeah, she's Miss Sandys.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
When ABC just recently, within the last five years or so,
did a little bring back of t G I f U,
they asked me to do a commercial.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
They brought me back to do a commercial and Sandy
and Christmas was there.

Speaker 7 (26:08):
Yeah, Andy, just a couple of weeks ago. She's a sweetheart.
She's retired now, but just the love of the life.
She was kind of the mama bear of the department
who kept us all straight. We were all young, egotistical,
you know, producers, and she'd be the one coming and going.
You're not doing that, even though she was kind of
assisting us. She was just the greatest of people. So

(26:31):
loved her and she loved connecting people. She was great
with folks. So I remember her and I doing a
special where we we had one day to shoot a
special with Delta Burke and Mark Curry and we had
the back lot of Warner Brothers to our avail and
she and I loaded up a golf cart with cameras
and just were running like crazy all over the place

(26:52):
get things done. And you know, Sandy is the type
that would walk up to anybody, Hey, you you come
over here, you know, can I talk to you? So
it was great. It was lots of fun.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Where did the name TGIF come from? And I want
to know if there were other options that you remember
being pitched around. So it is not thank God it's Friday.
It is thank goodness, it's funny. That's what TGIF stands for.
Thank Goodness, It's funny. So where did that come from?
And what were some other options you guys had?

Speaker 7 (27:37):
So we were talking about things like the Friday Fun Club.
There's a whole list somewhere I probably could dig up,
but I remember that one. You know, It's Friday Night,
lots of little shortism, and I don't recall exactly where
it came from. We had that was on our list.

(27:58):
We were concerned about the restaurants at the time coming
at us, you know, and so we weren't really sure,
but I do remember I was standing at five to
five posts or something. We did our first animation, which
kind of was kind of more childlike, with a little
mouse called Friday the Mouse, which was it was. We

(28:19):
were animating that with a guy by the name of
Bob Kurtz who runs a company. I don't know if
he's still around, but Bob Kurtz and friends did the
original commercials for Shell and for It's the Green Dinosaur.
It was a green animated green dinosaur for a gas
and oil company, and the line was, remember some dinosaur

(28:47):
gave his or her all for that tank of gas
and I and he and he'd always this little animated
dinosaur and I love that dinosaur as a kid. So
I was like, I need to find this guy. So
that's we had hired, and I was with him. We
were animating the open and then Stu Brower and Bob
Iger called and said, we've landed on TG if we

(29:07):
want to call TJF. So that's where we got the name,
and we started animating those letters into the open and
went from there. But we were literally standing by in
a post house about to execute on that because time
was taken. So that's where the name came from. It
was and and Bob, I believe, came up with, Thank goodness,
it's funny to avoid any conflict, Yeah, with any any restaurants.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
And wait, so, just to get my television history right,
Just the Ten of Us was a spin off of
Perfect Strangers.

Speaker 7 (29:41):
I don't know that's a spun.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
From something because the coach was it was it was
a character on another Yes he was, he was. I
can't remember which one it was. That then spun off
into Just the Ten of Us.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
But yeah, yeah, Rachel, Yeah.

Speaker 7 (29:55):
And Just the Ten of Us was Mister Belvedere was
was waning, and Just the Ten of Us was also
kind of on its last season just when we were
were coming in, and then it went to Perfect Strangers.
Full House. You folks came in ninety three, I think
it was something like that, right, yeah, which was great.
You're you were you hit right at the Prime and

(30:18):
where we were rocking and rolling and you were the
perfect show for it. It just, you know, it just
nailed it because you had all the family values, the
kids that you know, the high school. You were right
on target. So it was a no brainer to have
Boime's World there.

Speaker 5 (30:33):
And so I have a question about the network in general.
Did you have a sense of the network having a
personality or a sort of like ideal viewer, like because ABC,
I mean our corner of ABC was very much family,
but was there did you guys have like meetings where
you were like who is our ideal consumer? Who's who's watching?

(30:55):
And like what is AB? How is ABC different than
NBC or Fox? Did you guys know what that was
and what that meant?

Speaker 7 (31:02):
Yeah, it's sort of it's a you know people. Again,
when we were part of Cap Cities, which I think
we had become Disney right around I'm not sure when
Disney came in, but I think early.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
On ninety six, wasn't.

Speaker 7 (31:15):
It, Yeah somewhere, but we were part of caps Cities initially,
so and Cap cityse Murphy and Burke were really genuine
people and would allow us to come to Century City
and be parts of these meetings. The entire network was
only eight hundred people, so that was it. We were,
you know, the whole and most of them were in
the field, so like you know, the fourth floor in

(31:38):
Century City was where the power was. And you know,
there were program execs as you know, you've been there.
You guys were, I'm sure in those offices at the time,
and that you know, that was really it. And then
there were the producers in the field like myself and
on air, and the people running operations over in prospect

(31:58):
a lot and it so it was very much a family.
We all knew each other pretty well and you know,
would run across each other in the hallways. There was
always the question of who, you know, we were because
at that time they were kind of thematically broadcasting depending

(32:21):
on what night of the week you were at. So
you know, there was dramas on certain nights. You know,
Moonlighting was more adult. Okay, so that was Tuesday night
and that was where they put you know, Tuesday night
comedies and things that had a little more adult theme
to them. You know, they were I think Jack and
Mike things like that were over there. It was more

(32:42):
of a mystery you know movie or mystery show. It
was interesting because it's a funny story. I got in
trouble once when I got invited to one of those
programming things, which was it wasn't I wouldn't call it
big trouble, but like it. You know, we're around the
table of about thirty of the top exacts there and

(33:04):
one the gentleman John Scias, who was like a huge
he was way up at the top of uh of
the power chain, was talking and said, you know that
we were talking about NBC because that was the big threat.
You know, NBC was NBC was the hip place, so
talk about that fomo you know, ABC of course was

(33:26):
I won't you know, I want this and I want
to be cool exactly enough of this family, that was
exactly it. There was always that, and we even knew
the people, you know, Tom you know uh Miller John
Miller over was running NBC's uh uh marketing department. We
all were friends and knew and Vince Mansie and all

(33:47):
those folks. But everyone wanted to be everyone else, and
CBS was always the Tiffany network, and it was always
the you know, the older people, and so it was
that battle for that eighteen to thirty five that everybody
thought they wanted it, and you know, we weren't looked
down upon it all for TJF because it became such

(34:10):
a powerhouse. It kind of became a hands off thing,
which was great. But I was like, you, Danielle, I
was kind of like, this is the American Broadcasting Company,
and it should be you know, it should be family, family, family.
We could really nail this. And I made the comment
in this meeting, I was like, aren't we the American

(34:31):
broadcast You know, they were talking about pasting broadcasting and
you know, all the different dimensions of it, and I said,
shouldn't we That cable wasn't really barely there, you know,
there was MTV and stuff like that. But I made
the comment, I said, so, why aren't we considering maybe
narrow casting a little bit toward a very specific audience
like a lot of these so called cable networks are

(34:52):
starting to do. And John Syas looked at me and
he goes, young man, because this is the American Broadcasting Company,
not the narrow casting fucking.

Speaker 4 (35:03):
Go stand in the corner.

Speaker 7 (35:04):
I don't.

Speaker 8 (35:06):
Away.

Speaker 7 (35:07):
I don't think. I don't I don't think I got
invited back to that meeting.

Speaker 8 (35:11):
Oh but it was because this was also I mean,
this was the time if if eighteen thirty five, eighteen
to thirty.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Five is what everybody was was clamoring for, but also
ninety three ninety four the Fox network comes out of
nowhere and you've got children on this Simpsons and they're
going for that kind of It's like they were really
shooting towards that demographic. So everybody, it really made everybody
kind of have to hone their identity because it's like, okay,

(35:38):
now we're young and hips, so you're going to push
NBC more to the middle.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
So then where do you go from there?

Speaker 8 (35:43):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (35:44):
What a street.

Speaker 5 (35:44):
It's a really good question because what for cable networks,
being specific was exactly the way to go, Like you
had to be the channel just for one type of
audience because if you could build that fan base, you
could continue. But yeah, for network MTV simple, it's still
a huge I mean now streamers are asking themselves this
all the time, right because it's like, are you a

(36:05):
Netflix where you just try and be the channel for
everybody or everything?

Speaker 7 (36:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (36:11):
Yeah, so interesting, it's such a big question.

Speaker 7 (36:13):
Yeah, it's it is a fascinating thing, and you know,
to this day is still a battle people have of
trying to find their audience. And I'm kind of a
big believer that you can't please everybody all the time,
and you know, you have to kind of focus on
what you can do. And I'm also a big believer
in stuff I do now that family is that one
place that still has a lot of opportunity. You know,

(36:35):
I don't want to sit on the couch, even though
my daughter is now twenty three, I don't want to
sit on the couch if I had younger ones, yeah,
and watch something and have them start to crack super
sexual jokes or something like that. I just I don't
want to be uncomfortable with that. I want something that's
easy to watch and comfortable and fun. And you know

(36:55):
that's it. So it's uh, I mean, it's interesting.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Was truly the first, because even Must See TV came after.
Like it's like you you invented the idea of labeling
you're a night night or a block as something to
promote itself for a network. So it's it's like, it's
so it's so genius how ABC. I mean, maybe they have,

(37:19):
but I feel like ABC owes you forever and ever.

Speaker 7 (37:23):
And ever, that's very very kind. And I don't know
if I was, if I was before Musty TV, but
I I know. I mean, obviously, Vince and John you know,
did a fantastic job promoting that, and that was the
Thursday night block that was unpenetrable and they they were
great and so we it's it was fun. I thank

(37:48):
you for the nice comments. And ABC did very were
They treated me very well. I stayed with ABC and
Disney for through two thousands doing all kinds of things.
So when I had babies, they called me and said,
we want you to do Big Einstein and I was like,
that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Can we talk a little bit about I think we
pushed it off long enough? How did you not get
invited to this you two thing?

Speaker 4 (38:07):
And what the hell do you know?

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (38:10):
And how is Danielle friends with Bono? And we didn't
know this the entire time?

Speaker 7 (38:13):
What what happened with this?

Speaker 2 (38:16):
The story of the U two shoot?

Speaker 7 (38:18):
The U two shoot? So it uh, you know, obviously
we get called and we're like, so, you know, you
two's launching their new pop album in Vegas and Student's
like you want to go? And you know, maybe we'll
pull in one of the talent. Let's see if we
can do that. And I apologized I was not behind
the decision of who got to go, don't. I don't

(38:38):
know I would if so we we I don't remember
how I think, I know, you know, Danielle, your your
your mom or your agents responded right away and said
she loves him, like okay, So we we go out

(39:03):
there and we're getting ready and it's it's it was
a semi live thing. We were racing the clock and
uh it was So that was a kind of a
first for us. We were used to filming something about
a week in advance and being able to take it
to post and turn it around. And so we had
editors standing by and a satellite window sitting open, and so,

(39:26):
you know, we basically were ready and you know, we're
in the tent getting ready. I don't remember the All
I remember is there were you know, a bunch of
stars around us, and we were getting food or something
and getting ready and we were going to go into
the tent with Bono and Edge and you know, have
them do these little bits like you guys do, and

(39:49):
they were all in on it. And then at the
last minute. They because they were premiering I think their
their record and stuff. They tell us they're like, we're
not going to we don't have time, we don't want
to do this, and so we're like, ah, yeah, so
you did, I did. I did. She got to go
in the tent and meet them and and you know,

(40:11):
so that was great where I'm so glad you did
that because that would have sucked store to speak, I apologize,
but but anyway, then she came out and by then
we kind of formulated, Okay, here's what we're going to do.
So you and I and our photographer ran to the
back of the stands and basically I told Danielle, Okay,

(40:31):
now now pretend you're hosting that just it's about to
happen and go live blah blah. And so we I
don't remember what the script was, but we wrote something
pretty quick and you pulled it off. You did a
great job. And we turned the camera around and it
made it look like she was reporting live from the
concert venue.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
Do you picture like if you picture like the Hollywood
Bowl and being like, okay, we're not ready to interview
people who were going on.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Stage at the Hollywood Bowl.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
And then I'm going, never mind, we don't want to
We're about ready to do this.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
We're canceling it at the last second.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
And then Jim and I looking at each other and
him going all right, let me put something together. Run
to the top of the Hollywood Bowl stairs with the
Hollywood the Bowl behind you, and.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
You're gonna say like, we're here, but you too. He
was about ready the pop and blue and we did.
I said, somebody, it was like take it away at
the start of the show.

Speaker 7 (41:21):
That was exactly. It was the greatest save and got
lots of lots of kudos. I hope you've heard them too.
The network was very happy. They were not disappointed at all.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
So no, they weren't disappointed. They were really happy.

Speaker 4 (41:34):
It was only Rider and I were disappointed.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
It's funny because it was a.

Speaker 7 (41:38):
Good Yeah, you guys could have been you got I
am again. I'm never to live that one down, I guess.

Speaker 4 (41:43):
So we didn't even know about it until ten minutes ago.

Speaker 5 (41:47):
Yeah, until I'm shaking Bono's hand. I'm not I'm not excited.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Listen, guys. It was the Q rating.

Speaker 7 (41:53):
It was the that's when she walked in it, when
she walked in. You know, Bono went You're the girl
from TG.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
So funny.

Speaker 7 (42:05):
It was a very fun concert. It was It was
super cool because we had good seats too. They were
right there pretty much, if I recall, they were up
there in front.

Speaker 5 (42:14):
So was there a big shift when Disney bought the network?
Did it change the did it change your job? Did
it change your day to day experience? What did that mean?

Speaker 7 (42:24):
There were you know, there were always shifting chairs Disney.
You know, there was a lot of fear when Disney
came in that there was gonna be big, big shifts
in that front. But really, for the most part, they
didn't mess with us too much. Obviously programming, and part
of it is because Bob continued to lead, and so

(42:46):
it was, you know, it was Bob's network basically at
the time, and he held that pretty pretty close to heart,
and the people around him, Stut Bloomberg, all those folks,
you know, were the next in line to continue that on.
So didn't get a lot of that. I noticed, at
least a lot. I mean, there were a few new

(43:06):
bosses and programm execs that came in, but to me,
Disney was all about family. So I was kind of like, okay,
we do yeah, yeah, and so and it did. It
worked very well. We were able. The coolest thing that
I think happened when Disney came in was the idea
of synergy. There wasn't a lot we while we as

(43:29):
a night were all about synergy and talking about other
shows and helping promote one another, the network as a whole,
and other shows that were not necessarily about that or
hadn't really learned to do that. And when when the
Disney came in, then all of a sudden, we have
theme parks, we have cruise lines, we have you know,
these other movies that they're doing that we can suddenly

(43:51):
you know, latch onto and do co promotions with and
had a lot more money to work with. Yeah exactly, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Were you also helping to decide what shows were on
T G I F Were you?

Speaker 4 (44:06):
Were you actually picking the content that went on the night.

Speaker 7 (44:10):
We didn't get that much that was in the programming
department's decision. We were involved in meetings like that, so
they you know, we got to hear and and you know,
hear the meetings and go through some of the pitches
and stuff like that. So but I would they listen
to exactly what we thought. No, I wouldn't necessarily.

Speaker 5 (44:30):
Does that mean that you would have to be promoting
something and knowing it was probably not going to catch on?
That that would often happen, right Like you would be
saddled with a show and they'd be pitching you and
You're like, how do I promote this? This is a
stinker that must have happened, right.

Speaker 7 (44:46):
Oh, just a few times.

Speaker 5 (44:52):
Were you ever surprised? Were you ever like this is
probably not okay? Could could you? Because that will be
Can you name a successful where you were like, I
don't get that.

Speaker 7 (45:00):
I will get in trouble if I say it, but
I will say it because I'm nearly retired anyway, and
I probably deserve this. So in one of those big
round table meetings, and I've admitted this to to you know,
Bob Boyette and Tom Miller before, and I've even to
the cast so full house, I was one of the

(45:23):
guys in the meeting. We were in the meeting programming meeting,
and they were talking about the queues and all this stuff.
And again I was young and just learning my roots,
and I was and t g if was barely even there.
I don't think that had even been recognized that much yet.
But I just was like, I didn't get it. I
was just like I because I had been on set

(45:43):
and I watched them feed the little you know, feed
Ashley and Mary Kate Lynes and love them. I mean
I worked with them a ton afterwards, and they were,
you know, they're nothing but sweet. The whole cast was wonderful,
and I just didn't get it. And I was just like,
I don't I don't think they can act. I don't
think they can do the you know. It just wasn't

(46:05):
feel it didn't feel right. And this was their season
one and it did take them two seasons to catch on.
But that's my big oops, I would say.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
And that's also in television allowed a show to grow
though it's like, Okay, the show is not going really well, Well,
we're still going to give.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
It a season or two.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
That just doesn't absolutely get an episode now when you're
out well, but.

Speaker 5 (46:26):
That's what TGIF could afford. I mean, that's part of it.
Like the risk mitigation for the network is also artistically
for the creators. Risk mitigation like that allows them the
chance to like to grail around for a couple episodes,
get their act together and figure out how to you know,
how to make it. Yeah, it's really everybody wins. It
seems like in that situation.

Speaker 7 (46:45):
That was the idea was the whole was greater than
the sum of the parts. That was our line, as
we would if we worked together, we would all do it.
And that became part of the contract if you joined
t G. If you weren't allowed to say I can't,
I'm not doing that, you know you basically you had
to be part of the family, so to speak, and
do things with us.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
Well. I also want to talk about you mentioned it
with the U two one where it could have been
a disaster a shoot, but we saved it. It wasn't
a disaster a shoot in the end. But I do
want to know do you have any stories of true disaster.

Speaker 5 (47:21):
I want to know who refused to do the TJ
But I would love to hear a story of somebody.
You don't have to say, I want to hear what this.

Speaker 7 (47:30):
Yeah, Dinosaurs was very difficult to work with. Kid they were,
but that was you know, that show was very difficult
to do. I mean poor people, those poor people would
be throwing up in the suits because they were so
hot and they were just doing things they were and
the sets were you know, these immense things. So so no,

(47:52):
we didn't have anything. I would say, you know, some
of the craziest, funniest things would happen when you know,
like shooting with the Muppets. The Muppets would you know,
call us out and you know off camera those guys
can be hilarious. Start calling you out. Yeah, I start
calling you out on things you have gonzo bitch and etches,
stuff like that, you know. So I'm trying to think

(48:15):
of other things. We didn't really have big disasters, you know, nothing.
Camp Wilder could sometimes get a little crazy. J Moore
is a nut, you know, I don't know, you know
Jay and so, and we had him for a season
work working with us and he was kind of like
herding cats and you know he was but good guy.

(48:37):
You know he did he meant nothing but good. But definitely, uh, I.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Would say, difficult talent.

Speaker 7 (48:45):
Besides Danielle, I got those guys. Let's see, I don't
really think we did. I mean, we had some that
didn't want to do things, but that's about it. I
mean I think about it now and I'm like, God,
you know, Patrick Duffy and Suzanne and Summers were always
in for things. They would always be willing. You guys
were always willing. You know Karen Miller, who you probably also.

(49:08):
I don't know if you know Karen. I think Sandy
would integrate with you. But Karen was on the side
of Miller Boyett, and she was kind of what I
would She was the Sandy or the the the peacekeeper,
you know, whenever she would feel about what's going on
in the shows. Because we knew you had some shows
that were difficult, and so we would try to stay
away from you when you were in you know, a

(49:30):
heavy production that you had something going that you couldn't
So we would always navigate that through you know, Sandy
or through Karen Miller to get you know, to get
the right cast. So often when people would turn us down,
it was because it was a crazy week or something
was way off, or someone might be sick or you

(49:50):
know that kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
Now, who would decide who would go with whom?

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Because we had Jalil White on and we figured out
as we were sitting here, like T Boy Meets World
and Family Matters never did promos together, and he said,
it's because that they were owned by Warner Brothers and
we were owned by Disney, so they were never allowed
We were never really allowed to connect.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Is that something you remember or was that done by design?

Speaker 7 (50:16):
No, it wasn't done by design. We would have probably
loved to mix cast like that. And part of it
was because of how things were getting paid, so you know,
the network wasn't the network was reimbursing studio for cost
and Warner Brothers was obviously the one studio and so
you know, for the hour two hours ot that we

(50:37):
might pull, that was more the issue than anything as
how do they mix. Now, when we did preview specials
and things like that, we would try to mix a
little bit and you know, get them. But and I
completely forgotten how that you can bring up family matters.
I mean they were great. We had some you know,
there were some conflicts on that show a little bit,

(50:59):
but they would always get through them and and do things,
so it wasn't it wasn't horrible.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
I remember doing the tg IF spots was my first
experience with a teleprompter. Oh, I remember, like it was
really yeah, well yeah, because I was twelve or thirteen
years old. I remember like them rolling in the thing
and putting.

Speaker 7 (51:16):
In I was like, oh my god, so weird. It
makes life much easier. Does so weird?

Speaker 5 (51:23):
Though I hated it, I remember hate it. I was like, no,
I just want to learn the lines. I don't want
to have to look at it. It's so weird.

Speaker 7 (51:27):
I love you guys, did good. I never you never
knew it.

Speaker 5 (51:31):
Yeah, you know you were made to be a good host.
This is why you got a good telegraphs.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Well it is. I do remember. I do remember.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I
do remember back in the day when I got because
I got asked to do a lot of them. I
did a lot of interstitials, a lot of little things
for for tg IF, and I remember them saying, you're
really good at it, and you're super fast. We could
get in and out, we could shoot a bu bunch
of different interstitials all in one time. And I was

(52:02):
because I was quick at reading off the teleprompter. I
was a you could throw me into any situation.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
And I was.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
Always also talk fast.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
I talked fast.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
I have a bunch of I had tons of energy.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Energy, it's all there.

Speaker 7 (52:17):
I don't think we ever had to had to say hey,
can you kinda We never had to say energy, can
you can of just make it like you're having fun?

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Well, we did not.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
It was interesting to hear you talk about reimbursing the production.
We did not get paid for those.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Those were part of.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
That was just it was considered promo, even though you
guys went to the FCC.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Additional stuff.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
But let me tell you something, We did not know that.
But let me tell you something. When I started getting
asked to do more and more of these interstitials, and
I got to a point where I just said I
don't want to.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
It was always on a weekend.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
It was like it was an extra day out of
my schedule where they would want me to go and
do something. You guys, we did a thing where we
went to Danielle's hometown, We went to your Belinda, we
did I was doing a lot of them, and I
just started saying, no, like, these are a lot of them,
and so my mom's this is the.

Speaker 7 (53:18):
One I couldn't talk about being in trouble, you.

Speaker 5 (53:20):
Know, the one you forgot, the one the one I
forgot that I.

Speaker 7 (53:24):
Couldn't bring up of them.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
Went to Judy and said, I don't know what to
do because they want daniel to do these and I
feel bad because it is it's a day out of
Danielle's schedule. She's it's usually or we would do it
on a hiatus week when I'd be back at my
regular school and I would just want to be at
my regular school.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
I was like, I'm on hiatus, I want to go back.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
And so they said, what if we paid her? What
if we paid her a very what Eventually I did?

Speaker 5 (53:50):
They said on YouTube, we were also not getting.

Speaker 7 (53:55):
If you were on set, you didn't get I did not.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
That's colt.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
If I was on set, I did not. If I
was off set, I did, and my mom. So then
my mom came to me and said, okay, they're going
to pay you. And I you know, I never saw
any of my money. My money all went into an account,
and so I was like, so what does this mean
to me?

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Not even just who can account?

Speaker 7 (54:14):
My parents?

Speaker 3 (54:14):
Like my mom was like, all right, whatever the interstitial
money is, I'll let you have it.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
It can be Madli.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
And she would give me like say I'd get paid
seven seven hundred and fifty bucks or something for the
day of whatever it was. She just give me seven
hundred and fifty bucks and I'd go to coffee Bean
and I'd get.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
To go in all yeah, and I was like, this
is amazing. This is more money than teenage Danielle had
ever seen.

Speaker 7 (54:40):
And so it was awesome.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
It did.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
It ended up making it for me my coffee be fun.

Speaker 7 (54:44):
Yeah, great story, that's great story. That is that is awesome. Yeah,
and I don't you know, I know they tried the
best always to make sure no offense. Guys. I mean,
I'm sure if you'd come off set and done something,
it would have gotten you would have gotten paid.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
Oh yeah, it's okay.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
I also made fifty percent less than every other cast
member on the show. Actually, yeah, so the fact that
I got paid a little seven hundred and fifty or
fifteen hundred dollars here and there is Yeah, it was.
It was just a little thing. So you mentioned preview specials.
We are actually about ready to do a recap soon.
But did you do the Boy Meets World Saturday Morning cartoons.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Preview or yeah?

Speaker 7 (55:23):
Yeah, so we did. Yeah, those were us the we
all that kind of fun post work. And I know
you were paid on those. Yeah, yeah, but you had
to be because that came through my company actually, but yeah,
we were. When TJF became a hit, Jenny Treis, who
was president at the time of Children's called and wanted

(55:45):
us to do a lot of interaction and try to
pull a cast because the Gauge group was just a
little younger at Saturday Morning than it was what we
were getting on Fridays. So we were we asked to
get involved with all those and come up with things,
ways to promote new Saturday Morning things, stuff like that.

Speaker 8 (56:06):
So yeah, so wait, can I ask a question then,
and maybe you know this, Why did TGIF end?

Speaker 4 (56:26):
Was it just ratings? I mean, why did it go away?

Speaker 7 (56:30):
Good question? And you know, for me, I had done
some things where I again it had gotten a pretty
you know, I don't know. They again new powers come
in and they want a fresh look and I remember
that they and no offense to them because you know,
they got new marketing execs in that took over when

(56:51):
Mark Zachran left. I think Bob Iger had moved on
to his new powers, and they hire an agency, Chaia Day,
which was the hip agency. Again, this was the fomo
things at the time, and shayat Day got really deeply
involved in things and changed everything to Yellow and Black,

(57:12):
and it was kind of an interesting turn of events.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Promotions on your Couch, Your Friends, the couch your Friend, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's good for you, you know.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
Couch potatoes, the world, all that stuff.

Speaker 7 (57:25):
Yeah, exactly exactly. And so they were edgy and different
and all that stuff. But they came in and made
a lot of dramatic changes on the programming side too,
and suggestions there. And I don't know if it helped
or hurt at all. I mean, it's kind of hard
to how to track. But part of the deal was,
you know, I think they had gone, oh, we're kind
of tired of this, and you know, maybe we should

(57:47):
try something different. And I think we were twelve years
in and I was getting offers to do some other
things too, and I was just like, you know, I again,
it wasn't while I loved every bit of it, we
weren't making huge money on it either, yeah, and so
we were kind of like, Okay, maybe we should start

(58:08):
moving a little more into programming. And so they turned
it over to some other folks in house at ABC,
and I think they kind of died there because they
just did not because they didn't do a good job.
But it just wasn't you know, it wasn't the same.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean you started there at twenty three.
How old were you when you eventually left ABC.

Speaker 7 (58:28):
I left ABC pretty early on and started my own company.
So that's an interesting story too. So I when TGIF
was starting to hit big, I happened to my mom
had gotten very sick with Parkinson's and so my mom
and dad were back in Colorado, and I was kind
of like, and at the time, I was dating a

(58:49):
young lady who also was from Colorado who was not loving.
She worked for Columbia Pictures, for the president of Columbia Pictures,
and was not having fun.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
So glad you said that the way you said it
was like I was dating a young woman who was
not loving.

Speaker 9 (59:03):
I was like, oh God, she wasn't loving her job,
she wasn't loving, wasn't loving her job, and and so
and we all were kind of you know, going to
la Is is tough, and so with the sickness of
my mom, I kind of started to push and go,
I really should be back there with them, And I

(59:25):
went to Bob Iger, I went to Mark Zachron and
Stub Brower, my boss, and said, I you know, I
think I'm going to have to leave because of this
is going on.

Speaker 7 (59:34):
And they marched me into Bob Iger's office and I
was like, oh crap, I'm going to get it. And basically,
you know, we talked about a couple of different things,
and this is how great those people are. Bob looked
at me and said, rather than do that, why don't
you start your own company and we will, you know,

(59:55):
put you under a contract. And that's what they did.
And it went on for for almost twenty years. So
it's they were They were great, and so you know,
I owe a lot to them for being you know,
respectful and kind on that part. So I did go
back to Colorado and flew out almost every week or
you know, the shoots and stuff like that, and then

(01:00:17):
did my edit and worked back in Colorado because there
were a number of sizeable posthouses there and could do that.
So it ultimately all worked out. And then and now
I'm back in La with my wife, a different, different
girl that lay He's awesome and she she we moved

(01:00:38):
to Sant Clementy and so we have a place in
Colorado and in San Clementy and we just live in
a good life.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
So I love that. Good for you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Yeah, cable reactions when you tell them that you created
the tgif block do, people must like lose their minds
about that.

Speaker 7 (01:00:56):
I don't tell them, you don't, I don't sit.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
I've got to brag more.

Speaker 7 (01:01:01):
I don't brag. I don't. I don't tell them unless
they ask or look me up. And so I'm not
a I'm kind of shy about that and not. You know,
it was a product of a lot of people. It
took a lot of collaboration, including you guys to make
it all happen, people to agree, you know, to pull
some strings and be willing to give some of their

(01:01:23):
time to make it go. So it was a wonderful
what would I call it, a wonderful circum you know,
or unique come together of events that just turned into
something incredible. And I was very blessed to be part
of it. So it was neat. I kind of wish

(01:01:43):
I had leveraged it a little more down the road,
but I you know, I didn't. I just kept going
with what came my way and you know, promoted. I
didn't use it enough to get meetings.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Probably would like to meet with you, Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 7 (01:02:02):
I never used that and I I so I never
you know, but I did get to go work for
NBC some and Vince and Tom and you know, do
different things for a number of people. Helped launch Hallmark
and all kinds of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
And that was all Jenask Media. That's your media company, right.

Speaker 7 (01:02:19):
Janask Entertainment and Jens Entertainment or Janasach Media. Yeah. But yeah,
I got to work with a lot of great folks.
I mean, we you know, one thing would lead to another.
When I was back in Colorado, I met the founder
of Stars who has become a good friend in his family,
and we helped launch Stars, and then that led to Hallmark,
you know, and Hallmark was launching and I met Margaret

(01:02:40):
Lesh and Lenn Marino and helped do that and just
one thing goes to another, you know, the Baby Einstein stuff.
It's like, you just kind of that was weird how
that one happened. It's just they had heard that I
had twins, and my twins were like, you're like eighteen
months old. They had Jenny Trias had had me introduced

(01:03:01):
to the people who were doing DVDs at the time
at ABC, and ABC was competing, you know, to get
DVDs out there that was the big market at the time,
and they asked me to come in and try to
develop something to knock off this brand that was was
being a pain in their butt on the shelves. They
couldn't compete with the shelf space. And they showed it

(01:03:24):
to me and it was Baby Einstein and they were like,
this is really doing well and we need to figure
out why. And so I looked at it, and this
was before I had kids, and I was like, oh
my god, what is that? And I couldn't understand it,
couldn't get it. And then a year and a half
went by they didn't do anything with what we had proposed,

(01:03:44):
and I got a call from the head of Home
Entertainment and she said, hey, I want you to I
heard you had twins and you know, having dark circles
under my eye and yeah, I heard you had twins,
and hey, congratulations. And by the way, that brand that
we were talking to you about, we just bought it

(01:04:05):
and would you come in and look at that and
see what did it? And so I met with the
original creators, who were genius in their effort. And you know,
Julie Clark and her husband had generally had basically taken
it from their heart and their envisioned you know, ideas

(01:04:26):
and created this thing that became crack for babies. And
you know, then they and they showed me how to
you know what it was about. There's there's a lot
in timing and there's probably more brain damage in one
of those shows than what you would ever think of
going into other things because of timing and heartbeat tracking
and all this other stuff that we would do. And

(01:04:49):
but and then so my job was to take it
to the next level, add bigger puppet shows do things
which I love puppets because I was working with the
muppets and all those things, so you know, I'll fit.
So I worked. It was fun. Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Well, Jim, you are going to see in the comments
when we post this on social media, but there are
going to be a lot of people who are going
to thank you for your work and for your ideas.
It was really great and gracious of you to come
and spend a little bit of time with us talking
about this.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
You know, working with you doing those promos. It's such
like when we've.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
Talked since starting the podcast about the things we remember
the most, it's actually not the stuff that's the shooting
of the show necessarily, it's all it's us, us.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
In the school room and also us doing the promos.

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
I have so many memories of TGIF promos and of
us saying you know from they were. They were fun,
even if it was we're going to cram this in.
We know your go, go go, you gotta get in.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Thanksgiving, you guys.

Speaker 7 (01:06:04):
Did fantastic and you always nailed it in one or
two takes. It was you were always just amazing and
so and it's so cool to see you guys. I
just and I love that you remember me. I they
probably don't, you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
The minute I saw your picture, it was like the name.
I was like, yeah, I know that name. And then
the minute I saw your picture, I was like, oh
my gosh.

Speaker 7 (01:06:27):
Of course I remember him, remember him and Danielle. Just
quickly I saw you're directing something coming up right? Are
you something right now doing? Remind me what it was.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
I just saw a year fifteen years for ABC.

Speaker 7 (01:06:42):
Yeah, yeah, awesome for you, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
It was a really wonderful experience. You know, hoping they
had ten in their first season. I'm really hoping we
get words soon that they'll be getting a season two
and hopefully a full order, and when that happens, I'm
hoping I'll be back.

Speaker 7 (01:06:58):
That's awesome. It's Tim Allen show, right, Yeah, yeah, I
worked with him once. Filming with Tim Allen was always fun.
He was he was crazy, so we had it. We
did a promo with him getting abducted but by a
UFO and then brought back because they didn't want itsious.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
That's great, So that's funny.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
Well, I'll tell Jonathan it was so nice talking with you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Thank you for being here with absolutely.

Speaker 7 (01:07:26):
I hope we'll see you in person some days. Yeah,
and I love watching your careers blossom. Yeah. I mean,
you guys have done amazing things.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
And lets me do you too, concert going.

Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
Up there?

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
Yeah yeah, let's go.

Speaker 7 (01:07:42):
To the sphere they were Yeah right, that's cool. I
haven't done that yet.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Okay, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Too. By he was there, I mean he was there
for like, first of all, hearing that all of ABC
is like eight hundred people, because you thought it was
thousands on thousands of this army of people that so
to realize it was actually kind of small and spread
out throughout the country and there's meetings with just twenty people.

Speaker 4 (01:08:10):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
Help help Bob Iger, saying to him, don't quit, Yeah,
start a company, company and let us hire you.

Speaker 5 (01:08:19):
Yeah, you think there's has been as successful as see.

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
Yes, let's get him on the show. I think I
bet you Bob will come on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
I would love to have Bob on the show.

Speaker 4 (01:08:28):
Can you imagine? Oh, Man, that'd be great.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
But also, like Jim Janisek gave so and he should,
he gave so much credit to Bob, and he to
all of ABC, but like cam ABC for ten years
because of that twenty three year old kid they hired, Yeah,
owned a night of television.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Yeah for a decade.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
Yeah, it was. It was there, Musty TV. It was
there Thursday that Friday was. I remember moving out to
to when I moved out to La with Spencer, who
worked at Fox the time, and Fox was just up
and coming. He said to me they had a meeting
where they said, oh, we don't even worry about planning
Friday nights. ABC owns Friday Night just like you just
never get it, he said, we did. We're not even
gonna bother and so I just yeah, it was a juggernaut.

Speaker 5 (01:09:11):
It was amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:09:12):
I mean we're talking billions of dollars in revenue yep
for ABC because because that twenty three year old kid.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Was like, you know what my family used to do.
We used to sit around and watch TV as a family.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Yeah, I'm I'm pitching to ABC doing a TGIF night.
We do one Friday night where all the casts get
back together and do like a scene from one.

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
Of their shows now at the age we are now, and.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
We just do a brand new boy meets World scene,
a brand new full house scene, a brand new family
matter scene. You get the perfect strangers.

Speaker 4 (01:09:46):
Guys back together. It'd be a whole night. It'd be
just one a ton of fun.

Speaker 5 (01:09:49):
What kind of weird issues does that involve?

Speaker 7 (01:09:51):
Though?

Speaker 5 (01:09:51):
Like with who knows? Of the shows?

Speaker 4 (01:09:53):
Yeah, who knows?

Speaker 5 (01:09:54):
Can you get the rights to like play the characters
in a different meme?

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:58):
I mean ABC has done this thing now where they're
doing live.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Episodes of like all the old shows with brand new
casts like All in the Family and all this kind
of stuff, So they're thinking outside the box.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Maybe who knows?

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
Pretty great?

Speaker 3 (01:10:10):
Well, thank you all for listening to this episode of
Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Instagram Pod Meets World Show. You can send us your
emails pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
And We've got merch.

Speaker 4 (01:10:22):
I went to my two best friends with a new
addiction and now I'm pregnant with their merch.

Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
Pod Meets Worldshow dot com will.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
Right you want to know?

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
No, you get pregnant with merc.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
Eggst You gotta listen to the new channel who's will
check us out.

Speaker 4 (01:10:42):
We love you all, pod dismissed.

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
Podmeets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Wilfredell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Karp and Amy
Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Tara Sudbaksh producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World
super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle
Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram

(01:11:06):
at Podmets World Show or email us at Podmets Worldshow
at gmail dot com