Last year's Emmy nominees for Best Comedy Series gave us a wide array of different shows. Something like Abbott Elementary has little in common with Barry, and Ted Lasso isn't much like Only Murders in the Building. What they all share though is that they are stellar and hilarious series. They're also vastly different from comedy shows of the past. Barry might have some laughs, but its story of a hitman (Bill Hader) is pretty dark, and more of a drama. Only Murders in the Building has two of comedy's all-time giants in Steve Martin and Martin Short, but the show is centered around solving murders. The rest of the pack, including The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Hacks all cover their share of deeper and darker issues as well. What We Do in the Shadows might be side splittingly hilarious, but it's still about killer vampires. Comedies weren't always so dark or serious. A perfect example of this is the 90s sitcom. While edgier shows like Seinfeld and Roseanne ruled the decade, there was joy to be found in the wholesome comfort food of ABC's Friday night lineup, simply called TGIF for "Thank Goodness It's Funny."

RELATED: Was ‘90s Must-See TV Really Must-See?

From the Very Beginning, TGIF Was Always About Family

The cast of Full House all sitting together in the living room looking at Danny Tanner, played by Bob Saget, in shock
Image via ABC

Before the days of excessive content around every corner, not just from cable, but streaming services, YouTube, and social media, families sat down together on a certain night of the week to watch their favorite show. There was no pushing a button to add it to a list and binge later. You watched an episode at the time it came out, or you missed it until summer reruns. With network TV designed around that idea of families sitting together, ABC producer Jim Janicek came up with an idea that would make family togetherness their focus. Not just kids, not just adults, but everyone. “It was all about comedy. It was all about getting together,” Janicek said of TGIF in a 2019 BuzzFeed interview. “It was all about sitting down and taking a load off for the week and laughing together. This was a place we created where they could sit with their kids on the couch and enjoy a whole night of laughs. The celebrities, the stars, the kids around the neighborhood were all making appointments to be there on Friday nights. It became more popular than going to the movies.”

That Friday night time slot is what made TGIF so successful. It wouldn't have worked if the same lineup of shows had aired on, say, a Tuesday night, where kids are getting ready for bed and going to bed early for school the next morning, with mom and dad perhaps not too far behind them. Friday was the end of the week. Mom and Dad could relax a little. There was no work the next day. They didn't need to worry about getting kids ready for bed just yet. And if you were a kid during the TGIF era, it was an almost magical time. On Friday nights you could stay up later. You had the next two days off from school. Cartoons might be the next morning, but on Friday night you watched the live action sitcoms whose humor didn't go over your head. You felt just a little bit older. From 8-10 pm, kids felt like they had some control in a world that no longer felt so much bigger than them. At 10, when 20/20 with Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters came on, the adults regained full control, but for those two hours, the kids had a say too.

'Family Matters' and 'Step by Step' Dominated TGIF

An official photo of the cast of Family Matters
Image via Warner Bros. 

The TGIF block started in 1989 with Full House, Family Matters, and Perfect Strangers for the first few years. Those three sitcoms took up the 8-9:30 timeslot. 9:30 was more troublesome. Throughout its runs, no new show ever lasted long at that time. Now forgotten shows like Just the Ten of Us, Baby Talk, and Billy came and went. Hangin' With Mr. Cooper had a decent run on Fridays in the mid 90s, but the first half of the decade was ruled by Family Matters and later Step by Step.

Full House was there in the beginning before moving to Tuesdays in 1991, and Perfect Strangers was there until 1992. Family Matters (which was a spinoff of Perfect Strangers), however, spent almost its entire run (1989-1997) on TGIF, as did Step by Step, which aired on the TGIF lineup from 1991-1997. Both Family Matters and Step by Step were so popular on TGIF that CBS tried to recreate that magic when they took possession of both shows and put them on their own Friday night block for the 1997-98 season. In 1993, TGIF introduced Boy Meets World, a sort of modern take on Wonder Years, which was ironic, as its child lead, Ben Savage, was the younger brother of Fred Savage. It lasted until 2000, spending its entire run on Fridays, but as we left the 90s and entered a new millennium, it was time for TGIF to leave as well.

TGIF Worked Because It Was Wholesome

The Fosters and the Lamberts hugging each other and smiling in an official poster for Step by Step
Image via ABC

What made TGIF work was its wholesome simpleness. The shows didn't have an all encompassing plot that carried an entire season. The characters weren't mean or deceitful or incredibly selfish for the most part. They were a far cry from what you'd seen on Seinfeld, Roseanne, or Frasier. And there certainly weren't any murders or hitmen like in today's comedies. TGIF sitcoms gave us the basics, even down to the set. Most focused on the family home, specifically the living room and kitchen (which look so similar in each series), with just one camera, not multiple ones with multiple cuts, leaving today's shows feeling like a movie. Yes, there was laughter in the background, which is certainly a thing of the past, but it wasn't a laugh track. Those were live studio audiences excited to watch these happy, wholesome characters interact with each other.

To watch a TGIF show now can feel a bit dated if you didn't grow up with it. Today, Bill Hader, the hero of Barry, is killing someone almost every episode, but on Fridays in the 90s, the drama was so wholesome that it feels almost ridiculous in today's era. A typical Full House episode had Danny Tanner (Bob Saget) teaching a life lesson as he tries to settle a quarrel between his kids. Family Matters found its drama in the annoying kid next door, Steve Urkel (Jaleel White). He would constantly and innocently hit on the daughter, Laura Winslow (Kellie Shanygne Williams), or break something in the house, much to the annoyance of the father, Carl (Reginald VelJohnson). A random episode of Step by Step would see the kids having a party while the parents are away, and then having to clean it up before they got home. Uh-oh!

TGIF was easy, uncomplicated, G-rated drama. That's why audiences loved it. It was comfort food. It was something you watched while you relaxed. The shows made you laugh, they made you feel good, but they didn't raise your heartbeat or make you wonder what would happen next. Friday night was a time to unwind and let go of the week's stresses. That's what TGIF was for. There would be conflict, as every story needs, but it was easily resolved, with every family drama wrapped up in half an hour, and the family coming together again with a hug as the audience clapped. For kids watching, there was a little lesson that could be learned, even by Mom and Dad too, but you didn't leave an episode bummed out by a shocking twist or frustrated by a cliffhanger.

TGIF Shows Still Touched On Deeper Themes

Cory, played by Ben Savage, talking to Stuart, played by guest star Fred Savage on Boy Meets World
Image via ABC

TGIF wasn't too simple, however. There was more going on than an easy-breezy sitcom. In Full House, Danny was a widower. The other adult characters live with him because he can't do it on his own. In Step by Step, we meet a man and a woman (Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers) who are newly married and creating a new family with their children from previous marriages. Family Matters took a look at a Black family, with a little focus on their race here and there, but mostly showing that a Black person in the 90s could do anything a white person could do. Carl Winslow was a cop. Steve Urkel was a genius. And the family was together. There were no stereotypes forced on their characters. Boy Meets World lost a little of its easy wholesomeness in later years, where plots grew to be more serious than childhood crushes or acne. The show gave us the pain of growing up too, where sometimes there wasn't anything to laugh about.

In the 2000s, as the internet and reality TV exploded, there was no longer a huge audience for the wholesome plots of TGIF. 9/11 and two wars only took us further away from those simple times. To watch them today is like looking through a snow globe at what we perceived to be easier times, when anything could be solved by a nice talk and a feel good hug, all in thirty minutes or less.