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FOX Turns 25

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

It was on this day 25 years ago that the FOX network officially launched with its first night of primetime programming. The listings were "Married With Children" and "The Tracey Ullman Show" starting at 7 PM ET, with those two shows repeating at 8 PM and 9 PM.

FOX was technically already on the air by virtue of the ill-fated "Late Show Starring Joan Rivers" that debuted in 1986.

Here's how FOX looked on their first day on the air.
http://blip.tv/classic-videos/fox-network-premiere-commercials-april-5-1987-4879142

FOX certainly has come a long way since then: from the NFL package to the FOX News Channel, they're a force to be reckoned with in 2012.
 
If you at their Facebook page, the network is pretty much counting today as the actual 25th anniversary of their debut. They're producing a 2-hour anniversary special that will air Sunday, April 22nd, featuring Fox stars past and present.
 
DToTheJ said:
It was on this day 25 years ago that the FOX network officially launched Dumont network returned to the air under its new name and ownership, with its first night of primetime programming since 1956.
Click to expand...

Fixed (if you want to get really nit-picky). ;D
 
DToTheJ said:
FOX certainly has come a long way since then: from the NFL package to the FOX News Channel, they're a force to be reckoned with in 2012.
Click to expand...

I don't watch the NFL so no comment there and the Fox New Channel is cable so the comparison with other OTA networks seems a bit stretched in that regard but Fox has earned widespread derision for its NASCAR broadcasts what with the Looney Tunes-type cartoons, sound effects and yee-haw announcers. 'American Idol' seems like a stretched-out version of a typical Hollywood awards show or perhaps 'The Gong Show' with better lighting.

As far as their scripted offerings I guess you could consider them quantity if certainly not quality competitors with shows like 'The Simpsons' and '24' (the only Fox drama watched in my house but criticized endlessly for unrealistic and repetitive story lines). '24' was proof that a 1940's "spy vs spy" fistfight extravaganza serial would work with today's uneducated masses and both viewers in my house were done with it long before it mercifully came to conclusion. I haven't watched 'Bones" enough to know but it seemed like worthwhile drama. The remainder of Fox programming seems like junk IMHO.

Financially, Fox may be a competitor but I think their "success" has more to do with the lowering of the bar across the industry than anything of quality Fox brings to the table.
 
Wow, 25 years since I was sitting in a bar watching this and thinking "What the ----?"

Time flies!
 
I remember the first night with Joan Rivers. I watched it on WPXT-TV channel 51 of Portland, ME. They switched to WB in 2001 and is now the market's CW affiliate. That market was without an over-the-air FOX affiliate from the fall of 2001 until some time in 2003, when WPFO-TV channel 23 of Waterville/Portland took over (they were PAX affiliated WMPX-TV before that).
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Wow, 25 years since I was sitting in a bar watching this and thinking "What the ----?"

Time flies!
Click to expand...

And I watched it in a college dorm communal room, on a TV that had to date back to the 1960s (it had a record player in it!) and faded color. Now I have HD, but seem to prefer the Fox shows from the early years.
 
landtuna said:
DToTheJ said:
FOX certainly has come a long way since then: from the NFL package to the FOX News Channel, they're a force to be reckoned with in 2012.
Click to expand...

I don't watch the NFL so no comment there and the Fox New Channel is cable so the comparison with other OTA networks seems a bit stretched in that regard but Fox has earned widespread derision for its NASCAR broadcasts what with the Looney Tunes-type cartoons, sound effects and yee-haw announcers. 'American Idol' seems like a stretched-out version of a typical Hollywood awards show or perhaps 'The Gong Show' with better lighting.

As far as their scripted offerings I guess you could consider them quantity if certainly not quality competitors with shows like 'The Simpsons' and '24' (the only Fox drama watched in my house but criticized endlessly for unrealistic and repetitive story lines). '24' was proof that a 1940's "spy vs spy" fistfight extravaganza serial would work with today's uneducated masses and both viewers in my house were done with it long before it mercifully came to conclusion. I haven't watched 'Bones" enough to know but it seemed like worthwhile drama. The remainder of Fox programming seems like junk IMHO.

Financially, Fox may be a competitor but I think their "success" has more to do with the lowering of the bar across the industry than anything of quality Fox brings to the table.
Click to expand...
O U C H !!!
 
I didn't have regular exposure to Fox until our family finally took the plunge into cable TV, sometime around 1993 or 1994. That's the only way we could watch WPMI-TV 15 north of Mobile, AL. (WPMI is now with NBC, thanks to WALA-TV being a part of the 'Big Switch' affiliation shuffle.)

My favorite Fox shows, to date? Excluding shows still on the network:

Animaniacs
Batman: The Animated Series
Bobby's World
Living Single
New York Undercover
Martin
Roc
In Living Color
King of the Hill
Futurama
Malcolm in the Middle
The Bernie Mac Show
 
Duet was actually a well written show. And Babes thanks to the late Wendie Jo Sperber, should've been a hit, despite being a bit much
 
DToTheJ said:
Here's how FOX looked on their first day on the air.
http://blip.tv/classic-videos/fox-network-premiere-commercials-april-5-1987-4879142
Click to expand...

Interesting that they would choose to premiere at the tail end of the season, rather than in the fall of '87. And aside from the obvious need for a '2-hour premiere" for "21 Jump Street", why didn't they begin the five new shows on the same night? Re-running the premieres of new programming, "MWC" and "Tracy Ullman", back to back has become standard practice on cable networks...interesting that Fox more or less did it first.
 
skiwest said:
I wonder if Fox will ever add some late-night programming?
Click to expand...

And take away 1/2 hour of local affiliate rehash of earlier broadcast news and a second replay of TMZ?
 
I was going to post about whether Fox would acknowledge this major milestone until I read about their plans for a 25th anniversary special. For a network with none of what its peers pride themselves on (daily news, full prime time, late night entertainment), it's stunning how influential they've become in a mere quarter century. Should be fun to look back at their history in the silver special; at least they're doing more than my local ABC station that totally ignored its 50th anniversary last year.
 
skiwest said:
I wonder if Fox will ever add some late-night programming?
Click to expand...

They have late-night programming on Saturday nights; usually for repeats of recent programs. Their last successful late-night programs were "Mad TV" and "Talkshow with Spike Feresten".
 
Mark said:
Duet was actually a well written show. And Babes thanks to the late Wendie Jo Sperber, should've been a hit, despite being a bit much
Click to expand...

I remember watching "Duet" reruns on Lifetime in the early 1990s and agree it was a well-written show. As some will call, a follow-up series, "Open House," succeeded "Duet" when it was canceled on FOX. Some of the cast from "Duet" transferred over to "Open House," though Mary Page Keller (the star of "Duet") was essentially demoted on "Open House" as she became a member of an ensemble cast.
 
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