Cashing In On MTV’s Success
As many of you are aware, I grew up in rural Louisiana with very few options when it came to television. My family could watch local ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates as well as PBS and an independent station (when the weather was right) that would eventually become a FOX affiliate. Cable television was nowhere in sight for our family, and as a kid growing up in the 80’s and early 90’s, I was very jealous of my friends that lived in town and had access to MTV. My only real option was the NBC late night series Friday Night Videos. Although the series ran from 1983 to 2002, my interaction with it was primarily during the mid 80’s and early 1990’s, when celebrities would host the show.
As a pre-teen and teenager I would loyally tune into the show on Friday nights. Almost all of the music was pop or adult oriented rock, but every now and then a few rockers would slip into the lineup. Most of the hosts were pop stars and television and film celebrities, but a few rockers like David Lee Roth and Ozzy Osbourne did host the show.
I would often record episodes on VHS tapes and rewatch them during the week. One of the episodes that really stuck with me over the years was a Christmas special hosted by the New Kids On The Block. It also guest starred Calvert DeForest (perhaps best known as Larry “Bud” Melman from Late Night With David Letterman) dressed as Santa Claus. It featured a video for the song Just Between You And Me by Lou Gramm, the lead singer for Foreigner who would exit the band in 1990. It came off of his second solo album, Long Hard Look. That video and song were hammered into my brain because of Friday Night Videos and I still sing it to this day.
The series had a number of notable hosts over the years. To name just a few, the show was hosted by Pee Wee Herman, Michael J. Fox and Justine Bateman, Bobby Brown, members of Duran Duran, Madonna, and Johnny Gill. The show would drop the celebrity hosts in 1991. In fact, the 1990’s would see the series shift in format and eventually be renamed Friday Night. This is when I quit watching the series. It became more focused on stand up comedy and would continue to expand on this format until the show was finally cancelled in 2002.
I still have fond memories of staying up late, eating too much, and drinking way too much Coke and Dr. Pepper while watching videos from some of the most popular musical acts in the mid to late 80’s. I also remember my parents fussing at me for staying up all hours of the night just to watch music videos. It was a phenomenon that was completely new to them and they didn’t understand it nor did they want to understand it. Thinking about this show brings back a ton of memories and I really, really miss watching it.
Thanks for reading my post. I think I might just hop onto YouTube and see if their are any episodes of Friday Night Videos available to watch. Do you remember this show? Let me know in the comments.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 