CBS will be looking an awful lot like ABC tonight - and for the foreseeable future on Fridays.
They're calling it the CBS Friday-night Block Party, but it's a ripoff of ABC's long-running T.G.I.F. - a two-hour block of family and/or kid-oriented sitcoms from 7-9 p.m.Heck, the bookends of that block were actually pirated away from ABC. CBS will air "Family Matters" at 7 p.m. and "Step by Step" at 8:30 p.m.
As a matter of fact, CBS's plans fell into place when the network had the opportunity to sign up "Family Matters." ' While some have questioned that decision, CBS President Leslie Moonves isn't backing away from it.
"We think our Friday night absolutely can work," he insisted.
And Urkel and Co. are the cornerstone of his plan.
" `Family Matters' won its time period for about eight years in a row, including this past season," he said. And the audience watching the show is considerably younger than CBS's average audience. And in television, younger audiences translate into higher ad revenues.
"Obviously, one of our goals this year is to get younger," Moonves said. "And the way to do that, we felt, when there was an opportunity to get the show that has been winning its time period - not only in households but in demographics - we saw this as a great opportunity to get younger real quick. And begin a Friday night of our own that will entice the family audience that in the past has not been there for us."
Both ABC refugees are coming to CBS virtually unchanged. In tonight's season premiere of "Family Matters" (7 p.m., Ch. 2), we'll see a slightly more mature Urkel - but he'll still be the same annoying geek he always was.
"Step by Step" returns with the cast pretty much intact. About the only change is plot-driven - Carol (Suzanne Somers) returns to college.
Bronson Pinchot, who co-starred in "Step by Step" last season, has left the show for another Block Party slot - he's starring in "Meego," an extraordinarily silly and juvenile sitcom in which he plays an alien who becomes the nanny to three all-American kids.
(Pinchot's T.G.I.F. roots go way back - his "Perfect Strangers" was a Friday-night staple on ABC in the last '80s and early '90s.)
What struck many critics as odd was the placement of "The Gregory Hines Show" in the middle of CBS's lineup. It's a considerably more intelligent and adult show than the other three sitcoms.
"We think Gregory Hines, while having a great deal of adult appeal - a bit more sophistication certainly than some of the other Friday shows - still has a great deal of appeal for a younger audience," Moonves said. "I think that young boy is a break-out star, and the relationship between the father and the son makes it especially a great family opportunity."
(Although many parents may find the dialogue and subject matter rather adult for the young kids who will be watching "Meego" at 7:30 p.m.)
The feeling at CBS is that they can do T.G.I.F. better than ABC is doing it these days.
"ABC made a big mistake with our show in that it's not a kids show," maintained Jaleel White, better known as "Family Matters' " lovable geek, Urkel. "When T.G.I.F. started off, it was designed to be a night for families - for mothers, fathers, everyone - at the end of the week to gather and watch television programs that were wholesome and that were good enough for everybody.
"And somewhere along the line, Winnie the Pooh and the Muppets started emerging around us, and it became kids' night. And we lost a lot of credibility or respect, I guess, for the shows that we've been doing."
Well, it's certainly debatable whether "Family Matters" is a kids show or not. The same holds true with "Step by Step." And it would be extremely difficult to argue that the childish "Meego" is anything other than a kids show.
On the other hand, ABC hasn't done much to make its T.G.I.F. lineup more accessible to adults this season. The network has gone very heavy on magical fantasy with a witch ("Sabrina") at 7 p.m., a genie ("You Wish") at 8 p.m. and a "Teen Angel" at 8:30 p.m.
(Oddly enough, the only half hour when ABC doesn't go magical - the returning "Boy Meets World" at 7:30 p.m. - CBS is off in fantasy land with "Meego.")
Whatever happens, the Friday-night fight for ratings between CBS and ABC is one of the battles worth watching in the ongoing network war - if only because the thought of Sabrina battling Urkel is so ludicrous.