TGIT

If you grew up in the same decade as I did, the night to be plopped in front of your TV was Friday. This worked out well for me, since as I child I had little social life. TGIF was my Friday night. Perfect Strangers - I'm there Balki. Full House - You got it dude. Family Matters - Well, lets just say I identified with Urkel. TGIF was my childhood, even though it slowly got worse as I grew up, which I can't determine whether was because I was getting older and wiser or because Step-By-Step and Dinosaurs started airing.

Not much has changed since I was a kid, I still have little social life, I am approximately the same height and I spend a lot of time in front of the TV. However, what has changed is the quality of programming. For a long period of my life there was no night of TV like TGIF. There were good individual shows - Seinfeld, Friends, Joe Millionaire -but no solid full nights of great television. I am now, however, on the verge of declaring Thursday night as the new TGIF. TGIT is very good. (I am aware that TGIT doesn't really work, since Tuesday also starts with "T." Clearly, the only solution is to remove Tuesday from our weeks - FOUR DAY WORK WEEK!!!!)

TGIT is anchored by The Office which has established itself as one of the funniest shows on television. It is the Full House of TGIT. However, my favorite comedy right now is Parks and Recreation. This show got off to a really slow start last season, but has seemingly found its stride and now, I think is hilarious. These shows hold down the 8:30 & 9pm time slots. The 8pm slot is occupied by Saturday Night Live Weekend Update which is the smartest thing SNL has done in a long time. Despite the fact that SNL has been getting worse and worse, they are wise to have made the best part of the show its own separate being. Community comes on at 9:30 - I am up in the air about this show. It had a lot of hype, but so far it is just ok. Also, and I am not sure if this counts, but Fringe comes on at 9pm on FOX and with a DVR I kind of consider it part of TGIT as well since I can record it (Same, holds true for the promising Flash Forward.)

It may not be the comedic stylings of Carl Winslow (most underrated character on Family Matters) but TGIT is getting there.