Friday Night Videos
Encyclopedia
Friday Night Videos is an American music video
show broadcast on the NBC
television network from July 29, 1983 to December 30, 2000, and was the network's attempt to capitalize on the emerging popularity of music videos as seen on MTV
. Belinda Carlisle
was the guest host for the first episode.
, which dated back to 1973 and, like FNV, was produced by Dick Ebersol
(in conjunction with creator Burt Sugarman
) and aired late Friday nights, until 1981. Ebersol chose to abandon Midnight Special when he took over an ailing Saturday Night Live
, which had experienced serious ratings declines and cast problems under the leadership of Jean Doumanian
. However, after two more years of struggle on SNL, Ebersol decided to try his hand yet again at a Friday night music show. FNV replaced U.S. broadcasts of the Canadian SCTV Network, which had run for two years on Friday overnights after Midnight Special's demise.
In its early years, MTV was still a phenomenon that only a minority of Americans actually could see in their homes, as there were many areas not serviced by cable television, and not all cable television providers offered MTV. Friday Night Videos took advantage of that fact and proved to be the next best thing for many viewers. While it primarily showcased music videos by popular top 40 acts of the day, unlike its cable rival, Friday Night Videos tended to offer more variety; featuring artists from the genres of pop
, rock, R&B
, and rap
.
In the beginning, the show ran 90 minutes long, and consisted of music videos introduced by an off-camera announcer. In addition to this, classic artists of the 1960s and 1970s occasionally appeared in "Hall of Fame Videos", major stars were profiled in "Private Reels", and new clips made their network debuts as "World Premiere Videos".
The most popular feature was "Video Vote". Two videos were played back-to-back, and viewers across the country, with the exception of the West Coast, could call in and vote for one of them, using nationwide 900 numbers
for a small per-call fee. The winning video faced a new challenger the following week. When a video won four consecutive video votes, it was deemed a "retired champion" and two new videos were introduced the week after to start over.
Nick Michaels
and Scott Muni
were the off-camera announcers.
In 1985, FNV began featuring celebrity guests as weekly hosts. As a result of the host banter, the show often would have to slightly shave off bits of the end of the videos to conserve time.
Notable hosts have included:
to 1:30 a.m., as a result of Late Night with David Letterman
, which had become a major ratings hit by that point, adding an additional Friday broadcast at 12:30.
In early 1990, NBC sporadically ran a Saturday morning edition of FNV for viewers who missed the show hours earlier because of its late night timeslot. That fall, the network premiered a clone show on the Saturday morning line up named Saturday Morning Videos, which followed Saved by the Bell
and was basically a campier
version of FNV that targeted the lead-in teenage audience. It was cancelled in 1992.
In late 1990, much like what was occurring gradually on MTV, FNV began to move away from an all-video format. Regular bumper segments were added, featuring various comedians.
In 1991, live in-studio musical performances were added. Tom Kenny
, meanwhile, became the regular on-screen host, while Frankie Crocker
hosted his own feature, "Frankie Crocker's Journal", which highlighted important dates in music history. Crocker later became the host along with Darryl M. Bell
(who was later replaced by Branford Marsalis
in 1993).
In January 1994, after years of falling ratings
and seemingly becoming more and more insignificant in the wake of the cable television
boom that allowed more households to have access to MTV, the show was retooled in an attempt to stay relevant. Moving to NBC Studios
in Burbank
from New York, the name was shortened to Friday Night, and became less of a music video show and more of a general entertainment and variety program, featuring celebrity interviews, stand-up comedy, movie reviews, live performances, viewer polls, and comedy sketches. Subsequently, the show now only made room to air approximately two music videos per episode. The new format also brought two new hosts: comedians Henry Cho
and Rita Sever
. In 1996, Sever took over as sole host. The old Video Vote segment, meanwhile, was brought back and renamed "Friday Night Jukebox."
For the host segments after 1998, Sever would be seated or standing in front of the giant videoscreen on the right side of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno set, near the guest's entrance.
Friday Nights last telecast was December 29, 2000. It was replaced by a stand-up comedy show entitled Late Friday, which lasted for 65 episodes and was in turn replaced by a new Friday edition of Last Call with Carson Daly
, which had previously been seen only Monday through Thursday. The cancellation marked the end of 27 years of NBC programming a distinct weekly late-night show on Fridays.
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
show broadcast on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television network from July 29, 1983 to December 30, 2000, and was the network's attempt to capitalize on the emerging popularity of music videos as seen on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Jo Carlisle is an American singer who gained worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, one of the most successful all-female bands and the first such group whose members wrote their own songs and played their own instruments...
was the guest host for the first episode.
Early years
Friday Night Videos actually had its roots in a show called The Midnight SpecialThe Midnight Special (TV series)
The Midnight Special is an American musical variety series that aired on NBC during the 1970s and early 1980s, created and produced by Burt Sugarman. It premiered as a special on August 19, 1972, then began its run as a regular series on February 2, 1973; its last episode was on May 1, 1981...
, which dated back to 1973 and, like FNV, was produced by Dick Ebersol
Dick Ebersol
Duncan "Dick" Ebersol is an American television executive and a senior adviser for . He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports, producing large scale television events such as the Olympic Games and National Football League broadcasts....
(in conjunction with creator Burt Sugarman
Burt Sugarman
Burt Sugarman is an American television producer best known for producing the 1970s game show Celebrity Sweepstakes, and The Richard Pryor Show.He also produced The Midnight Special and The Wizard of Odds in the 1970s....
) and aired late Friday nights, until 1981. Ebersol chose to abandon Midnight Special when he took over an ailing Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, which had experienced serious ratings declines and cast problems under the leadership of Jean Doumanian
Jean Doumanian
Jean Doumanian is an American producer.Doumanian is probably most well known for her short reign as producer of Saturday Night Live between November 1980 and March 1981...
. However, after two more years of struggle on SNL, Ebersol decided to try his hand yet again at a Friday night music show. FNV replaced U.S. broadcasts of the Canadian SCTV Network, which had run for two years on Friday overnights after Midnight Special's demise.
In its early years, MTV was still a phenomenon that only a minority of Americans actually could see in their homes, as there were many areas not serviced by cable television, and not all cable television providers offered MTV. Friday Night Videos took advantage of that fact and proved to be the next best thing for many viewers. While it primarily showcased music videos by popular top 40 acts of the day, unlike its cable rival, Friday Night Videos tended to offer more variety; featuring artists from the genres of pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, rock, R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, and rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
.
In the beginning, the show ran 90 minutes long, and consisted of music videos introduced by an off-camera announcer. In addition to this, classic artists of the 1960s and 1970s occasionally appeared in "Hall of Fame Videos", major stars were profiled in "Private Reels", and new clips made their network debuts as "World Premiere Videos".
The most popular feature was "Video Vote". Two videos were played back-to-back, and viewers across the country, with the exception of the West Coast, could call in and vote for one of them, using nationwide 900 numbers
Premium-rate telephone number
Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers for telephone calls during which certain services are provided, and for which prices higher than normal are charged. Unlike a normal call, part of the call charge is paid to the service provider, thus enabling businesses to be funded via the calls...
for a small per-call fee. The winning video faced a new challenger the following week. When a video won four consecutive video votes, it was deemed a "retired champion" and two new videos were introduced the week after to start over.
Nick Michaels
Nick Michaels
Nick Michaels is a Canadian broadcaster, writer, producer and narrator.-Career:Born in Montreal, Canada to American parents, he is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada....
and Scott Muni
Scott Muni
Scott Muni was an American disc jockey, who worked at the heyday of the AM Top 40 format and then was a pioneer of FM progressive rock radio.-Biography:...
were the off-camera announcers.
Celebrity hosts
Notable hosts have included:
|
En Vogue En Vogue is an American female R&B vocal group from Oakland, California assembled by music producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy.The group has won more MTV Video Music Awards than any other female group in MTV history, a total of seven, along with four Soul Train Awards, six American Music... and Johnny Gill Johnny Gill Johnny Gill is an American R&B singer-songwriter. He is the sixth and final member of the R&B supergroup New Edition, and was also a member of another supergroup called LSG; with Gerald Levert and Keith Sweat. His signature song "My, My, My" has been included on numerous romantic...
|
Late 1980s/early 1990s
In 1987, the show was cut from 90 minutes to an hour, and its starting time was moved back from 12:30 a.m./ETNorth American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
to 1:30 a.m., as a result of Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
, which had become a major ratings hit by that point, adding an additional Friday broadcast at 12:30.
In early 1990, NBC sporadically ran a Saturday morning edition of FNV for viewers who missed the show hours earlier because of its late night timeslot. That fall, the network premiered a clone show on the Saturday morning line up named Saturday Morning Videos, which followed Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom that aired between 1989 and 1993. The series is a retooled version of the 1988 series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was itself later folded into the history of Saved by the Bell...
and was basically a campier
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
version of FNV that targeted the lead-in teenage audience. It was cancelled in 1992.
In late 1990, much like what was occurring gradually on MTV, FNV began to move away from an all-video format. Regular bumper segments were added, featuring various comedians.
In 1991, live in-studio musical performances were added. Tom Kenny
Tom Kenny
Thomas James "Tom" Kenny is an American actor, voice actor and comedian. He is especially known for his long-running-role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name, as well as the live-action character Patchy the Pirate, Gary the Snail and the French narrator based on...
, meanwhile, became the regular on-screen host, while Frankie Crocker
Frankie Crocker
Frankie "Hollywood" Crocker was a famous New York radio DJ...
hosted his own feature, "Frankie Crocker's Journal", which highlighted important dates in music history. Crocker later became the host along with Darryl M. Bell
Darryl M. Bell
Darryl M. Bell is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as college student Ron Johnson, Jr. on the NBC sitcom A Different World...
(who was later replaced by Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
in 1993).
Format change
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
and seemingly becoming more and more insignificant in the wake of the cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
boom that allowed more households to have access to MTV, the show was retooled in an attempt to stay relevant. Moving to NBC Studios
NBC Studios
The NBC Studios in New York, New York is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and NBC's flagship station WNBC , as well as cable news channel MSNBC.When NBC Universal relocated,...
in Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
from New York, the name was shortened to Friday Night, and became less of a music video show and more of a general entertainment and variety program, featuring celebrity interviews, stand-up comedy, movie reviews, live performances, viewer polls, and comedy sketches. Subsequently, the show now only made room to air approximately two music videos per episode. The new format also brought two new hosts: comedians Henry Cho
Henry Cho
Henry Cho is an American stand-up comedian. His work can be heard nationwide several times weekly on XM Radio's Channel 151, Laugh USA and Sirius Radio's Blue Collar Radio channel 103, Pandora Radio's PG Comedy Radio channel.- Biography :Cho, who is of Korean American descent, was raised in...
and Rita Sever
Rita Sever
Rita Sever is an American television hostess. Sever, who is the youngest of seven children, was born on November 7, 1963 in San Francisco, California. She is best known as the host of the NBC late-night series Friday Night Videos from 1994 to the show's end in 2000. She has also appeared as a host...
. In 1996, Sever took over as sole host. The old Video Vote segment, meanwhile, was brought back and renamed "Friday Night Jukebox."
For the host segments after 1998, Sever would be seated or standing in front of the giant videoscreen on the right side of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno set, near the guest's entrance.
The twilight years
Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....
, which had previously been seen only Monday through Thursday. The cancellation marked the end of 27 years of NBC programming a distinct weekly late-night show on Fridays.