Friday Night Videos was a music video show broadcast on the American NBC television network from July 29, 1983 to May 24, 2002, and was considered network television’s answer to MTV. Belinda Carlisle was the guest host for the first episode.
Friday Night Videos actually had its roots in a show called The Midnight Special, 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 several more years of struggle on SNL, Ebersol decided to try his hand yet again at a Friday night music show.
In its early years, MTV was still a phenomenon that only a minority of Americans actually could see in their homes, as cable television had not yet penetrated many cities or rural areas. 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 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.
Nick Michaels and Scott Muni were the off-camera announcers.
Wikipedia contributors. Friday Night Videos. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. September 11, 2008, 19:06 UTC. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Friday_Night_Videos&oldid=237769345. Accessed October 8, 2008.
|
