Must See TV - Advertising

Advertising

Thursday nights are coveted by advertisers due to the large proportion of young, affluent viewers who tune in. Of particular interest, movie advertisers promote their titles to this target demographic on Thursday night, in hopes of influencing what movies they see on the following Friday night, the traditional opening night for most films outside of holiday periods.

The "Must See" slogan was created by Dan Holm, a NBC promo producer, during a NBC promo brainstorming session in June 1993 at NBC Burbank. "Must See TV" made its first appearance in NBC promotions in August 1993 and included the day of the week: "Must See TV Thursday." In late summer of 1993, NBC wanted viewers to tune in an hour prior to the popular Seinfeld, and created the "Must See TV" slogan to brand the comedy block. The first "Must See TV" block promo aired during late summer repeats and promoted Mad About You, Wings, and SeinfeldFrasier had not yet premiered. It ended with the words "Get home early for Must See TV Thursday." The "Must See TV" slogan continued in every NBC Thursday night comedy promo throughout the 1993 television season to promote the 8 – 10 p.m. comedy block. When Frasier and Wings moved to Tuesday nights, NBC expanded the second season of the "Must See TV" brand to include the Tuesday night comedy block: "Must See TV Tuesday."

Branding the quality Thursday night line-up began as early as the 1982 fall slogan, "America's Best Night of Television on Television."

On November 3, 1994, NBC's Thursday night lineup features the "blackout Thursday", where three of four sitcoms on primetime had a storyline involving a power outage. Starting with Mad About You episode "Pandora's Box", where Paul Buchman accidentally causes the blackout while trying to steal cable; continuing with Friends episode "The One with the Blackout", where Chandler is trapped in an ATM vestibule with Victoria's Secret model Jill Goodacre; then a Seinfeld non-blackout episode "The Gymnast"; and ending with Madman of the People episode "Birthday in the Big House".

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