Friday Night Videos

Among the things most closely associated with the Eighties are music videos. MTV (which was originally short for Music Television) launched on August 1 1981 and brought attention to an art form that had actually existed in some way, shape, or form for decades (an example being the Soundies of the Forties). Despite the importance of MTV in the history of music videos, it seems likely that most people in the Eighties may have seen their first music video elsewhere. Quite simply, they might have seen it on the long running TV show Friday Night Videos.

Friday Night Videos debuted on July 29 1983 on NBC. It was produced by Dick Ebersol, who had been Director of Weekend Late Night Programming at NBC from 1974 to 1981 and served as a producer on The Midnight Special. At the time a TV show devoted to music videos probably made a a lot of sense to NBC. Even before the launch of MTV interest had been growing in music videos. Once MTV launched, music videos became something of a fad, with music video shows debuting on various cable channels and in syndication. While MTV was largely responsible for launching the music video fad, as of 1983 it was still unavailable to many American households. In 1983 only 40.5% of all homes in the United States had cable television. Of those households, there were many that were not on cable systems that offered MTV as part of their line-up. With Friday Night Videos, then, NBC could capitalise on the music video fad.

Friday Night Videos originally aired at 12:30 AM Eastern and it was ninety minutes in length. The first video aired on the programme was "Beat It" by Michael Jackson. Originally Friday Night Videos differed from MTV in several respects. Rather than relying on on-screen VJs, Friday Night Videos used off-screen announcers (originally Nick Michaels and later Scott Muni and yet later Frank Crocker). MTV in its early days focused primarily on rock and pop music, playing almost exclusively white artists. It would not be until Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" in 1983 that the cable channel would air music videos by black artists. In contrast, Friday Night Videos played a wide variety of musical acts, not only rock and pop, but also R&B and rap. Among the features of Friday Night Videos in its early days was "Video Vote." During the Video Vote two music videos would be played back to back and then viewers (except for those on the West Coast) could call via a 900 number to vote for one of the videos. The winning video would return the next week to face a new challenger.

The success of Friday Night Videos would lead rival network ABC to launch its own music video show. ABC Rocks debuted on June 22 1984 and aired at 12:00 AM Friday night (or Saturday morning, if you prefer). ABC Rocks would not prove to be a success. Much of this might have been due to the fact that it was only a half hour in length at a time when Friday Night Videos was a full 90 minutes. ABC Rocks last aired on August 2 1985, only a little over a year after its debut.

Friday Night Videos actually won an Emmy Award. It was in 1985 that it won the Emmy for Outstanding Graphic and Title Design.  The titles were designed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel.

Friday Night Videos would change over the years. It was on October 18 1985 that Friday Night Videos began featuring guest hosts on each show. The very first guest hosts were Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Lisa Bonet of The Cosby Show. It was in 1987 that Late Night With David Letterman, which had aired for only four nights a week since its debut in 1982, expanded to five nights a week. Friday Night Videos was then cut to an hour a week and began airing at 1:30 AM Eastern. It was in 1990 that NBC created a spinoff of Friday Night Videos. Saturday Morning Videos aired for a half hour on Saturday mornings. Because of its time slot, it was naturally geared towards a younger audience than that of Friday Night Videos. It proved much less successful, lasting only until 1992.

It would be in late 1990 that yet another change would occur with Friday Night Videos, as the show began featuring segments centring on comedians and so on. The guest hosts would come to an end on March 29 1991. The year 1991 would see even more changes to Friday Night Videos. On April 5 1991 Tom Kenney, later the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, became the show's on-screen host. At the same time Frankie Crocker, who had been the show's announcer, began appearing on screen in his own segment, "Frankie Crocker's Journal," which covered important dates in music history. Tom Kenny would not remain as the host of Friday Night Videos. Eventually Frankie Crocker would take over as the show's host. He would be succeeded by Darryl M. Bell and still later by Branford Marsalis.

As the years passed, ratings for Friday Night Videos gradually declined. The music video fad had ended in the late Eighties, with many of the music video shows on various cable shows and in syndication being cancelled towards the end of the decade. At the same time the number of American households with cable television had increased. By 1993 62.5% of all homes in the United States had cable. Naturally, this meant more people had access to MTV. It is for that reason that the format of Friday Night Videos was changed entirely.

It was on January 14 1994 that the title of Friday Night Videos was shortened to Friday Night. While one to two music videos would still be shown, the focus of the show was now general entertainment. Friday Night now featured live performances, stand-up comedy, comedy sketches, movie reviews, and celebrity interviews. The show's two new hosts were Henry Cho and Rita Sever. There was also a new segment, "The World According To Copeland," with Brian Copeland offering humorous commentary on a variety of topics. Friday Night would change over the years. Eventually the segments with Brian Copeland would fall by the wayside. Rita Sever became the show's sole host in 1996 and would remain its host for the rest of its run.

Ratings for Friday Night would grow and by 2000 it was experiencing the highest ratings it ever had. Unfortunately, NBC decided that the show cost too much. It was then on December 29 2000, after having debuted as Friday Night Videos in 1983, that Friday Night aired for the last time. It was replaced by an entirely new show titled Late Friday, which focused exclusively on stand-up comedians. Late Friday would prove much less successful than Friday Night Videos had. It went off the air in May 2002 when Last Call with Carson Daly expanded to five nights a week.

Today Friday Night Videos is largely forgotten, but the show did have an impact. At a time when the majority of Americans did not have access to MTV, it introduced many people to the concept of "music videos." Even in its original format as a show primarily devoted to music videos, it outlasted the many music video shows that had proliferated on cable and in syndication in the Eighties. Certainly a run of seventeen years for any show would be impressive. In some respects Friday Night Videos was nothing remarkable. After all, it was merely a show that aired music videos. That having been said, it brought music videos to its largest audience up to that point and it remained on the air for years.