November 7, 1997: ABC does a crossover for its Friday night "TGIF" block of sitcoms, which are aimed at kids, teenagers and their families. Why not: November, along with February and May, are U.S. TV's "sweeps months," where big ideas and unusual stories are shown, in the hopes of attracting more viewers than usual.
(Traditionally, "TGIF" stands for "Thank God It's Friday," meaning the work-week is over, and the weekend can begin. With ABC, it stood for "Thank Goodness It's Funny.")
Starting at 8:00 PM Eastern Time, Sabrina the Teenage Witch airs. The title role originated in Archie Comics, and had previously appeared in a CBS cartoon from 1970 to 1974. Melissa Joan Hart played Sabrina Spellman, her name a pun on witches' "spells," of fictional Westbridge, Massachusetts, not far from Boston, and from Salem, the town which infamously held witch trials in 1692.
Because of this, her cat is named Salem. He's a former warlock (male witch), cursed into living as a cat, voiced by Nick Bakay. In this episode, titled "Inna Gadda Sabrina," he accidentally swallows a magical "time ball," which sends him and Sabrina back to 1967.
She likes that education is more free-form, and that student protests are taken seriously. (In real life at the time, both of these things were true in colleges, and in a few experimental private high schools, but definitely not true in public high schools.) But she also sees that women are not taken seriously in the Sixties, and is relieved to get back to her own time.
In the 8:30 time slot, Boy Meets World, an episode titled "No Guts, No Cory": Salem has learned how to control the time ball, and, somehow, ends up in Philadelphia, 300 miles from home, where he sends 17-year-olds Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong) back to the 1940s, where they go off to fight in World War II.
In the 9:00 slot, You Wish, an episode titled "Genie Without a Cause": Salem appears in Los Angeles -- which, let me remind you, is all the way across the continent from Philadelphia -- and sends teenage brothers Mickey Apple (Alex McKenna) and Travis Apple (Nathan Lawrence) back to 1957.
Apparently, in the TGIF universe (which also included the former Friday-airing sitcoms Full House, Perfect Strangers, and the Perfect Strangers spinoff Family Matters), witches are more powerful than genies, because Genie, a.k.a. "Steve from Canoga Park" (John Ales), gets sent back with them.
Genie embraces Fifties culture, taking on the persona of a Beatnik jazz musician. But Mickey mentions the upcoming launch of Sputnik 1, and when his teacher and classmates wonder how he knows that, he gets mistaken for a Communist. It's been 3 years since the fall of Senator Joe McCarthy, but a Communist is still a bad thing to get called.
Finally, in the 9:30 slot, Teen Angel, an episode titled "One Dog Night": Still in L.A., Salem sends Steve Beauchamp (Corbin Allred) and his best friend Marty DePolo (Mike Damus), now dead but Steve's guardian angel, to 1976. Yes, apparently, in the TGIF universe, angels are also susceptible to witch magic. Finally, Sabrina shows up, catches Salem, and explains everything to Marty. But Marty likes Sabrina, which complicates things.
Sabrina was ABC's attempt to recapture the idea of the 1960s sitcom Bewitched; Boy Meets World, the 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver; You Wish, another 1960s sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie; and Teen Angel was reminiscent of the early 1980s sitcom Out of the Blue, which didn't last long.
But this crossover stunt didn't do much good for You Wish and Teen Angel: The former was canceled, and never aired again; and the latter only made it to the following February.
Sabrina was in the 1st of 4 seasons on ABC, and it lasted another 3 on The WB. Boy Meets World was in the 5th of 7 seasons, and eventually led to a sequel series, Girl Meets World, in which Cory had married Topanga, and the focus was now on their teenage daughter.
*
November 7, 1997 was, naturally, a Friday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 99-94 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Mimi Heat, 99-87 t the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers bet the Boston Celtics, 96-92 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.
* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Washington Wizards, 107-92 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Atlanta Hawks bet the Chicago Bulls, 80-78 at the Georgi Dome in Atlanta.
* The Seattle SuperSonics bet the Indiana Pacers, 99-93 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The Orlando Magic bet the Detroit Pistons, 89-84 at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets, 86-85 at the Compaq Center in Houston. (Formerly known s The Summit, it's now the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")
* The Utah Jazz bet the Denver Nuggets, 91-89 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.
* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-85 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.
* And the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Vancouver Canucks, 108-97 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.
And there were 5 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers and the Dallas Stars played to a tie, 2-2 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.
* The New York Islanders beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, where the newly-moved former Hartford Whalers played until their arena in Raleigh opened in 1999.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 1-1 at the Joe Louis Arena.
* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 in overtime at the Saddledome in Calgary. Scott Young scored the winning goal with 1:16 left in overtime.
* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).
No comments:
Post a Comment