Jim Janicek Meets World

Summary

Episode Summary: "Jim Janicek Meets World"

Pod Meets World Season [Appropriate Season Number], Episode: Jim Janicek Meets World
Release Date: February 17, 2025
Host/Authors: Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, Ryder Strong
Guest: Jim Janicek, Writer and Producer Behind ABC's TGIF Block

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1. Introduction to the Episode

The latest episode of Pod Meets World seamlessly blends nostalgia with behind-the-scenes insights, taking listeners on a journey through iconic television history. Hosts Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Ryder Strong engage in lively conversations, reminiscing about beloved moments from the classic series "Boy Meets World" while exploring new and intriguing topics.

2. Will Friedle’s New Addiction: Reddit Stories on YouTube

The episode kicks off with a humorous and relatable discussion about personal addictions. Will Friedle confesses, “[02:51] So I unfortunately have a brand new addiction in my life,” sparking a playful exchange among the hosts about various habits and hobbies. The conversation takes an entertaining turn as Will reveals his latest obsession: binge-watching Reddit stories narrated on YouTube by less-than-stellar voice actors.

Will elaborates, “[04:38] And I may need your help to break the cycle. I have become addicted to awful Reddit stories being read on YouTube by bad voiceover actors,” highlighting the quirky nature of his new pastime. Danielle and Ryder join in, chuckling over the absurdity of some of the story titles, such as “[05:12] ‘I heard my wife saying she didn't want to hug me anymore, so I ignored her forever.’”

3. The Idea of Starting a YouTube Channel for Reddit Story Readings

Inspired by Will's addiction, the hosts brainstorm creative solutions to his predicament. Danielle suggests leveraging their collective talents to produce their own readings, saying, “[07:17] Will will read one for us as a bonus episode.” The idea gains traction as they discuss potential formats, vowing to maintain quality and authenticity in their narrations. Quotes like “[08:21] Can you do a little bit of a reading for us?” and “[11:03] I want to be the guy who everybody comes to, like, can you please read my story?” illustrate their excitement and collaborative spirit.

4. Transition to the Main Topic: TGIF Block and Introduction of Jim Janicek

Shifting gears, the conversation transitions to a deeper dive into television history with the introduction of Jim Janicek, the mastermind behind ABC's groundbreaking TGIF programming block. Danielle narrates the significance of TGIF, “[18:00] TGIF would not only become the network tentpole, but it would grow into a cultural juggernaut,” setting the stage for an insightful interview.

5. Interview with Jim Janicek

a. Starting at ABC and Creating TGIF

Jim Janicek shares his journey, “[21:05] It's six degrees of separation,” explaining how his experience in local television marketing in Denver paved the way for his role at ABC. At just 24, Jim was instrumental in revitalizing Friday nights, previously considered a difficult time slot. He recounts, “[22:16] Our job was to promote new shows and make them look appetizing to people,” emphasizing the creative challenges faced.

b. Overcoming Challenges and FCC Regulations

Jim discusses the initial struggles in promoting Friday night programming, “[26:00] We started to get a little bit of attention is specifically my bosses called me and said, I don't know what kind of drugs you're on, but keep going, keep going.” Faced with FCC limitations on promo durations, Jim and his team innovated by turning promotions into entertaining segments, “[27:44] We had to make this more entertaining. We had to crack a few jokes,” ensuring compliance while keeping audiences engaged.

c. Collaboration with Showrunners and Cast Members

A pivotal moment in the creation of TGIF was the collaboration with showrunners like Bob Boyette and Tom Miller. Jim explains, “[28:46] We started to push the idea of creating hosted segments that would tie the night’s programming together,” leading to the integration of casts from various shows interacting in promotional segments. Danielle Fishel’s role as a host is highlighted, “[31:10] Danielle was always the best to work with. Was never a no or anything,” illustrating the seamless teamwork that propelled TGIF’s success.

d. Impact and Success of TGIF

The TGIF block became a phenomenal success, transforming ABC’s Friday nights into a family-friendly viewing staple. Jim notes, “[30:55] It became a neat little FOMO event,” where viewers wouldn’t want to miss out on the collective viewing experience. The strategic placement of popular shows like Boy Meets World, Full House, and Perfect Strangers under the TGIF umbrella ensured consistent high ratings and cultural relevance.

e. Reasons for TGIF’s Conclusion

Despite its decade-long success, TGIF eventually ended due to shifting network strategies and evolving viewer preferences. Jim reflects, “[70:10] So wait, can I ask a question then? And maybe you know this why did TGIF end? Was it just ratings? I mean what, why did it go away?” He attributes the conclusion to new executives and rebranding efforts that sought a fresh approach, “[71:06] They were edgy and different and all that stuff but they came in and made a lot of dramatic changes.”

6. Anecdotes and Memorable Moments

Throughout the interview, Jim shares entertaining anecdotes, such as the near-miss U2 concert collaboration, “[48:27] Danielle, your, you're, you're made to be a good host,” and the behind-the-scenes camaraderie with Sandy Christmas, a beloved figure in ABC’s promotional department. These stories humanize the creative process behind TGIF and highlight the personal connections that fueled its success.

7. Conclusion

The episode concludes with heartfelt appreciation for Jim Janicek’s contributions to television. Danielle expresses gratitude, “[78:53] Jim, you are going to see in the comments when we post this on social media, but there are going to be a lot of people who are going to thank you for your work,” while the hosts reflect on the enduring legacy of TGIF and its impact on their own careers.

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Notable Quotes

• Will Friedle: “[02:51] So I unfortunately have a brand new addiction in my life.”
• Danielle Fishel: “[05:09] Are these, like, infamy asshole things? Yes.”
• Jim Janicek: “[21:05] When I got to LA, I had worked in on-air advertising and marketing in local television in Denver.”
• Jim Janicek: “[30:55] It became a neat little FOMO event.”
• Austin Hankwitz: “[71:06] They were edgy and different and all that stuff but they came in and made a lot of dramatic changes.”

---

Insights and Takeaways

• Creative Innovation: Jim Janicek’s ability to transform a struggling Friday night lineup into the celebrated TGIF block underscores the importance of creative thinking and adaptability in television marketing.

• Collaboration is Key: The success of TGIF was built on strong collaborations between producers, showrunners, and cast members, demonstrating the power of teamwork in achieving groundbreaking results.

• Cultural Impact: TGIF not only boosted ABC’s ratings but also became a cultural phenomenon, influencing how television programming blocks are marketed and consumed.

• Evolving Media Landscape: The eventual end of TGIF highlights the ever-changing nature of media consumption and the need for networks to continuously innovate to stay relevant.

---

Conclusion

Jim Janicek Meets World offers a captivating blend of personal anecdotes, industry insights, and historical context, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the creation and legacy of ABC’s TGIF block. Through engaging dialogue and heartfelt reflections, the episode celebrates the enduring impact of collaborative creativity in the world of television.

Transcript

[Danielle Fishel]

It's Danielle Fishel, Ryder Strong and Will.

[Will Friedle]

Friedle from Pod Meets World.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Jim Janicek]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

So I unfortunately have a brand new addiction in my life.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh no, wait. Okay, hold on. I want to let's name some of the addictions. Because. Let's talk about. Because you said you have a new one. I would say walk, exercise.

[Will Friedle]

It is.

[Danielle Fishel]

Smoking used to be an addiction.

[Will Friedle]

That was a big one. That was. I was also just really good at.

[Danielle Fishel]

It, if we were honest. Yeah. You're so good at smoking.

[Will Friedle]

I was a good one.

[Danielle Fishel]

You could do it in the shower. You could do it while running.

[Ryder Strong]

How many packs a day did you smoke? Seriously?

[Danielle Fishel]

At the height.

[Will Friedle]

Like, at my height, like, more than one? Between one and two? Yeah, Yeah. I was a heavy smoke.

[Ryder Strong]

I mean, I cigarette every. Oh, my God. Because how many cigarettes are in a pack? Like 20.

[Will Friedle]

20. Yeah. So I would have. I would have. I would have probably 30 to 35 cigarettes a day.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay.

[Will Friedle]

I would say.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay. That's so good. You're so good at that.

[Will Friedle]

I was really good at it.

[Danielle Fishel]

Let's see, other addictions. Asking people where they live is. I would consider maybe an addiction needing to know where everyone's located.

[Will Friedle]

It's not an addiction so much as just. I mean, I could. I could quit that anytime I wanted. Daniel.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay, sure.

[Will Friedle]

Reading fantasy books.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh, reading fantasy books is a good one.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, reading fantasy books is a good one. Showering.

[Ryder Strong]

Healthy. Like, right? I mean, when do you call. Like, when do you call it an addiction?

[Danielle Fishel]

If it's like, Correct.

[Ryder Strong]

Running or walking. Super healthy and.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, that's a good question.

[Danielle Fishel]

The definition of an addiction is something that without it makes your life, like, not feel as good or as harder. Like, so even though running is healthy for you, you can be addicted to the. To, like, I don't feel well if I don't exert that much energy. Like, the adrenaline rush, whatever it is, like, the endorphins. So you could technically be addicted to that, but I don't.

[Will Friedle]

This one is certainly not healthy. Oh, this new one.

[Danielle Fishel]

What is it?

[Will Friedle]

And I may need your help to break the cycle. I have become addicted to awful Reddit stories being read on YouTube by bad voiceover actors.

[Danielle Fishel]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. This is so specific. I love this.

[Ryder Strong]

There's so many layers to this.

[Will Friedle]

There are. And I've got titles for you too.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay. Like, bad. Bad Reddit stories. Meaning, like, something kind of catastrophic happens, somebody writes a post, or just extreme in some way.

[Will Friedle]

Extreme. Lots of cheating.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay.

[Ryder Strong]

Are these, like, infamy asshole things? Yes.

[Will Friedle]

Like, those are a lot of. So for instance, here's some titles for you. I heard my wife saying she didn't want to hug me anymore, so I ignored her forever. Oh, somehow. By the way, that is a 22 minute story honestly, that I listened to the entire thing.

[Danielle Fishel]

Who wins in that one? She doesn't want to be hugged.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Who wins?

[Jim Janicek]

Who's losing really?

[Will Friedle]

I guess my parents urged me to forgive my brother for betrayal me with my ex wife. Then demanded I financially support them in his new family. I'm sorry, 24 minutes of my life.

[Ryder Strong]

That doesn't sound real.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, I'm sure none of these. This is like the Penthouse forums where it's like, oh, really? Everybody's having sex with four women a day at their work.

[Ryder Strong]

Like it's like all stewardesses are that available.

[Will Friedle]

Exactly. When does the pilot of time to fly the plane? Like this. This is what's happening. So my fiance's pre wedding contract demanded 40% of my income, so I exposed her at the altar.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay, so you, you find these stories. But. But I'm assuming you.

[Will Friedle]

Well now they're just on my algorithm.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay, so all my YouTube. YouTube channel where. Where a voiceover actor.

[Will Friedle]

Really? In quotes.

[Danielle Fishel]

Right, right, right. Okay.

[Ryder Strong]

It's like it's just somebody doing a dramatic reading.

[Will Friedle]

Correct.

[Ryder Strong]

If they are the poster.

[Will Friedle]

Correct. Without fixing their stumbles or the mispronunciation of words.

[Ryder Strong]

And why do you pre reading it?

[Will Friedle]

Like, because like I put like what I used to do was educate myself and put on history podcasts and stuff. Now I put on these schlock fests of like, I got my teacher pregnant and now she wants answers like stuff. And I'm like, ooh, got to listen to that while I walk my dog.

[Ryder Strong]

So your podcast listening has basically become a daytime talk show.

[Will Friedle]

Correct.

[Danielle Fishel]

Soap opera.

[Will Friedle]

Correct.

[Ryder Strong]

Absolutely. You've just, you've just gone to the bottom of the barrel of like, yeah, daytime tv. Yeah, you gotta get out. You gotta pull yourself out of this tailspin.

[Will Friedle]

But before I do.

[Janice Torres]

How.

[Danielle Fishel]

Before you do, I have a request. Will you find a bad Reddit story that like, you like and then will you read one for us as a bonus episode?

[Will Friedle]

That was the question I was gonna ask is since I don't have children, which means I have a ton of time.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will Friedle]

Should I use my voiceover skills?

[Danielle Fishel]

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

[Will Friedle]

Should start my own YouTube channel where I read them.

[Ryder Strong]

Well, because you really want social media back in your.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Exactly.

[Will Friedle]

That's what I need more. Because it doesn't cause any anxiety. That's the beautiful part of it.

[Ryder Strong]

You won't be reading the comments and obsessing over whether people like the performance or not.

[Austin Hankwitz]

No.

[Will Friedle]

Well, I mean, my son got his teacher pregnant. Now she's Demanding marriage. But the DNA test results shock everyone.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh, man, I need to know that one. But read by one Mr. Super Phil Friedel.

[Will Friedle]

That's what I'm saying. Your stepbrother needs this money more than you. She said with a smirk. Three months later, he came to my office to pitch his startup, only to freeze when he saw me sitting behind the desk.

[Danielle Fishel]

What? I don't even understand that headline.

[Will Friedle]

You.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You will.

[Will Friedle]

You will when I read it.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay. Okay.

[Ryder Strong]

So hold on. I want to. Could you do a little bit of a reading for us? Because I want to know like, how you would do this is the. Because. Because you like listening to the. The bad ones. So.

[Will Friedle]

Right.

[Ryder Strong]

Would you do it as a sort of bad reader or would you commit to it? As if I would Shakespeare.

[Will Friedle]

I would commit.

[Ryder Strong]

Or you're doing an audiobook of like the greatest thing ever written.

[Will Friedle]

Correct. That's what I would do.

[Danielle Fishel]

Correct their stumbles. Or like, would you pronounce the words as if they're spelled? What would you do?

[Will Friedle]

I would probably do it the way that the author intended.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay. Okay.

[Will Friedle]

But I mean, I do listen to one guy who's the worst, who also puts on whenever a woman is speaking goes like. And that's when my wife walked in and said, but honey, I want to.

[Jim Janicek]

Walking down.

[Will Friedle]

And it's like, oh, it kills.

[Ryder Strong]

Audiobook ability to do the opposite gender voice is like a major thing. Like.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Ryder Strong]

If you overdo it. Because like, there are some female readers who I love and then they go to do every man in the. In the book and they're like, hey, what's up, bro? And I'm like, you know, just.

[Will Friedle]

Just talk.

[Danielle Fishel]

We don't need something like that.

[Will Friedle]

And then.

[Ryder Strong]

And then the vice versa. Exactly what you're talking about, where it's like every female voice is like falsetto. You're like, what. What are you doing? Yeah, like people. We get it. You don't have the right. But just. You can just soften or you know, you can, you can do it. Just a hint.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Ryder Strong]

That's so fun.

[Will Friedle]

By the way, though, a lot I've been realizing from just an educational standpoint, a lot of fiance's cheat with somebody's brother. This is a. This is a big thing.

[Ryder Strong]

Apparently people don't, you know, you don't know that many people. It's like, you know, especially nowadays, it's like you have a thousand friends online, but who do you actually like see on a daily. Especially during COVID It's going to be family or slightly extended family.

[Will Friedle]

And Then, like, yeah, writers already justifying it.

[Ryder Strong]

You know, so you have a nanny that you sleep with. That's not a thing. That's just part of life.

[Danielle Fishel]

I mean, as being a man. Time that I slept with Shiloh, I don't.

[Ryder Strong]

You know, it's just fine. I don't blame the two of them now. I pay for them to live in their.

[Will Friedle]

Well, that's the thing.

[Ryder Strong]

But, you know, it's not a big deal. It's. It's part of the family. It's how you keep. You know.

[Will Friedle]

The other great thing about it is they also when AI, because AI obviously does a lot of the voices. And so people always start with like, Hi, I'm Doug, 24, male, and my wife Sarah, 24.

[Danielle Fishel]

That's a female thing, but.

[Will Friedle]

Right. But the AI doesn't interpret it so.

[Ryder Strong]

Much like Penthouse forms because it was always like, I'm 5 foot 8, 33, 42.

[Will Friedle]

But they don't interpret it right. So it always goes like, I'm Doug, 27 meters, and my wife Carol, 35ft, she and I. And so it doesn't get the M and the F right.

[Danielle Fishel]

It is because it's reading text, not knowing. Yes.

[Ryder Strong]

All right, let's do it this way. Let's actually produce one of these things.

[Will Friedle]

I want to.

[Ryder Strong]

Music.

[Danielle Fishel]

That's what narration. The writer will do it as a bonus.

[Ryder Strong]

But you and I can do it. But you and I could do extra voices. If they're saying that you can play the girl, great.

[Danielle Fishel]

I'll be the woman. You just pick a good story.

[Will Friedle]

Okay.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Oh, so you pick.

[Ryder Strong]

You pick one, and then we will do it. And it will be popular.

[Will Friedle]

For the record, saying we should start smoking, too does not help my addiction.

[Danielle Fishel]

You're right. You can come to culture.

[Ryder Strong]

How can we make money off of it? How can we help you start a social media channel that gets you income?

[Will Friedle]

That's what I want to do. I want to be the guy who everybody comes to, like, can you please read my. Am I the asshole?

[Danielle Fishel]

Story?

[Will Friedle]

And I get to sit in this booth all day and just read.

[Ryder Strong]

I think the guy does the voice of all the. Like, the Civil War documentary. And like.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, that was.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

Was that watching Ken?

[Austin Hankwitz]

No, no, no.

[Will Friedle]

The guy.

[Ryder Strong]

The one guy who does all the Ken Burns document.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, Ken Burns. I think it was David McCullough who actually did.

[Ryder Strong]

He's a historian himself, right?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yes.

[Will Friedle]

And has that amazing voice. So I want to be that for kind of the same as a Ken Burns documentary for Am I the asshole in Reddit.

[Danielle Fishel]

I love it. Right, let's do it. I really am very excited about this. It's like we become a rehab that sells drugs.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yes.

[Danielle Fishel]

That's what writer and I want you.

[Will Friedle]

To think about it. It's a brilliant thing. It's like the time I walked out of the weed store to see the Girl Scout table set up with the cookies right in front of my weed store. It was like, here's $1,000.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

Like that's the most brilliant thing in the world.

[Ryder Strong]

Brilliant.

[Will Friedle]

Girl Scout is so I. Okay, great. Well, thanks for help with my addiction.

[Danielle Fishel]

Thanks for bringing us a great new idea. I'm really excited about it.

[Ryder Strong]

I'm excited to do this.

[Will Friedle]

So we gotta come up. What should we call it?

[Ryder Strong]

We gotta come up with some POD meets Reddit.

[Danielle Fishel]

POD meets Reddit's good or something.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't know.

[Ryder Strong]

We'll find it.

[Will Friedle]

Reddit meets world Reddit narrate.

[Ryder Strong]

POD narrates.

[Danielle Fishel]

We'll work on these, we'll workshop these. We'll come up with something.

[Will Friedle]

Am I the pmw? Ooh.

[Ryder Strong]

We'll figure something.

[Will Friedle]

We'll figure something out. Okay, well, thanks for the help.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for bringing this to us. Thanks for giving us an addiction, Will.

[Will Friedle]

You got it.

[Ryder Strong]

Let's go get a pack of smokes.

[Will Friedle]

It's awesome.

[Danielle Fishel]

Welcome to Pod Meats World. I'm Danielle Fischl.

[Ryder Strong]

I'm Ryder Strong.

[Will Friedle]

And I'm Will Friedle. 48 meters.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Danielle Fishel]

There hasn't been a week that's passed for over 30 years now that someone hasn't uttered the letters T, G I F at me. As much as the names Topanga, Eric and Sean or the show title Boy Meets World have defined our careers, so has that acronym a programming block doubling as a marketing campaign that aired on ABC starting in the late 80s and straight through the 90s. Featuring mostly sitcoms, this group of shows was geared to family viewing programs that could be enjoyed by both kids and parents alike. Originally debuting in 1989, ABC committed to funny Friday nights, an evening universally considered comatose for ratings but ripe for experimentation. And boy, did it pay off. TGIF would not only become the network tentpole, but it would grow into a cultural juggernaut, changing the medium of television and viewing habits forever over a 10 year period. The block included hits like Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers and Boy Meets World, with some more Fly by Night tenants too, like Where I Live, Sledgehammer, Aliens in the Family, and Clueless. But just as important as these TV shows was the marketing behind the concept. It included creative commercials, eye catching graphics, hundreds of bumpers with TGIF talent in between episodes, and even a disastrous U2 concert in an attempt to cross promote these shows. Yeah, I was there for that one.

[Ryder Strong]

You were at the concert?

[Will Friedle]

YouTube concert?

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, I was supposed to interview Bono.

[Ryder Strong]

I was gonna say, were you backstage.

[Danielle Fishel]

Hanging out with Me, of course. Yes, I was. Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, it's nice that we. The invite, right?

[Ryder Strong]

They invited us to Toy Story too.

[Danielle Fishel]

I don't think you guys know, I may not have been doing movies in the summer, but guess who got asked to host all the TGIF bumpers?

[Will Friedle]

Apparently.

[Danielle Fishel]

My goodness, that was me.

[Will Friedle]

Yikes.

[Danielle Fishel]

These shows did all have humor in common, but it was the visionary campaign that tied it all together. And so how are ideas like this born? How did Friday go from a virtual TV graveyard to one of the most profitable nights in ABC history? Well, this week we are speaking to the man who did it. The writer and producer from the promotions department whose little idea of TGIF became a phenomenon and started his prolific career of molding TV strategy for decades. He was the man behind the TGIF concept. The visuals, the celebrity segments, the on location shoots. This was his vision and we couldn't be more excited to talk to him about it today. So this week's guest on Pod Meets World welcome. The man we should actually be thanking for Friday, it's Jim Janicek.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Jim, hi.

[Will Friedle]

Hi.

[Danielle Fishel]

How are you?

[Austin Hankwitz]

How are you guys? Oh my gosh, look how old you guys are. Young. Old.

[Danielle Fishel]

Thanks a lot.

[Will Friedle]

We finally have an honest guest. It's about time we have an honest guest.

[Austin Hankwitz]

That's not true. I've seen you, I've heard many great things about all your guests that you have.

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, we could not be more excited to talk to you today. We have long hoped to speak to a network executive from the late 90s. But never in our wildest dreams did we ever think we'd get the chance to chat with the architect of tgif.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, thank you.

[Danielle Fishel]

I want to first get into how did you start at abc?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Good question. It's six degrees of separation. Same kind of thing I always tell people that ask that kind of question is when I got to la, I, I had worked in on air advertising and marketing in local television in Denver. That's was raised and had always wanted to live in la. And immediately, as soon as I could, you know, packed up the, the car and got out here and started making phone calls. And eventually, you know, I got in front of a gentleman by the name of Stu Brower, who was running on air at the time, who's a great guy. And he gave me a chance and I came on board as one of, I think there were probably about 12 of US producers at ABC at the time. And I was pretty young. I was I think 3, 24. And it was a blast. And then you Know, went to work just like everybody else, you know, spending a lot of time in. On stage and in edit base.

[Danielle Fishel]

And so you were one of 12 producers. Were you guys in a particular department or just.

[Austin Hankwitz]

We were. So we were in. On air. So our job was to promote new shows and make them look appetizing to people. So.

[Will Friedle]

And this is the. This is the 80s.

[Austin Hankwitz]

A lot of them were not as easy to promote as yours was. Oh, that's good. Yours was lovely.

[Will Friedle]

Was this the 80s?

[Austin Hankwitz]

This was. Yeah. So this would have been about 84. So 84, 85, 86, 87, 88. And TGIF came about around 88, 87. I was given the opportunity. So Friday night used to be what was considered the death slot. And I was this guy, you know, young producer, and I was promoting Moonlighting and things like that. And it was a summer and was given the opportunity to basically come up with something that would help promote Friday night and make it appealing. And it was always a mishmash of stuff. They would just kind of put shows there that were on their last legs because the network always believed that most people were out going on dates, things like that. That was kind of the attitude at the time. And with me, I was raised basically, that we got together on Fridays and Sundays and, you know, as a family and often with our cousins, would have dinner and then would, you know, sit and watch tv. Specifically on Sunday nights, we would always sit and watch Mutual Omaha's Wild Kingdom, then Disney Sunday movie. And it was a whole experience that we did together. And so it was summer of 87 or 88, I think it was somewhere in that area. And just so happened that there were new bosses in charge. So we had, I guess people weren't really paying attention much to us. And so. And summer, most of us producers were, you know, either vacationing because, again, we were between seasons. We weren't starting to push for fall yet. Okay, so it was a thing where, you know, these. They gave me these comedies and said, okay, so we have full house, Mr. Belvedere, perfect strangers, and just the 10 of us and, you know, go. And so I basically took a bunch of stuff and. And made up stories and. And just started doing crazy things. And so these were cut promos, but we would get some big names doing the voiceovers for us, and we'd. I made up stories like, you know, Bob Costello Burr Bang, you know, started watching TGIF and suddenly shaved 32 strokes off his golf game and, you know, funny things like that. And. And so we would. And we just did this whole campaign around these made up stories, using stock footage and things like that to try to get attention. And it started to work. We started to get a little bit of attention is specifically my bosses called me and said, I don't know what kind of drugs you're on, but keep going, keep going. It was the 80s, yeah. Mark Zakrin, who was my boss, he was right under Bob Iger year. And so it, that's how it started. And then Stu Brauer and I started really looking at it as fall came along and said, how do we extend that? And being the young kind of ambitious producer I wanted to be and, you know, growing again. I was 23 and my entire goal in life was to be on set as much as possible. So I proposed to them. I said, what if we went to the showrunners? And at the time it was Miller, Boyette, you know, Bob Boyette and Tom Miller were the majority of the shows. And then we went to them and said, hey, what if we did these little hosted segments and that, you know, they agreed to try it and see if they could, you know, what it would be like. And we would come in after the show, as, you know, we'd show up as you were rapping and you were tired and ready to go home and you, and you guys would graciously sit with us and do something on the couch. And the whole idea was, you know, everyone thought, oh, the couch, that seems so weird. Why don't you, you know. And our whole idea, the, the idea was to create an arc across the whole night with the different shows so that no matter what show you were watching, you felt like you were watching with the other shows that when they were done with their show, they were sitting down and with you at home watching, you know, watching. And so, yeah, it was just, again, it was trying to recreate that thing that I did with my childhood. And it started to take. And, you know, one thing led to another. We, we got a little bit in trouble with the FCC because they didn't like the fact that we were doing there. We were only allowed to do two and a half minutes. I believe it was somewhere like two and a half minutes of promo before each or in each programming block. And they classified this as promo. And so we were like, how do we get, how do we sneak around that? And we went back and we said, okay. Rather than being promotion, we had to make this more entertaining. We had to crack a few jokes, we had to do that. And then they would qualify this as more, more Part of the entertainment.

[Ryder Strong]

So it was like original programming.

[Danielle Fishel]

Right.

[Ryder Strong]

So we went back another show.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Exactly. And we went back and we said, okay, how about this? And they said, well, you still can't use a pod. And that's why we. That was a commercial pod at the time. So that's when we went back to the shows and Miller Boyette was the to do it. And we said, will you cut 20 to 30 seconds out of your credits each. Each week and make this happen for us? And they agreed. And that was the start. And then, you know, it's a long story. I don't mean to go on and on. Okay, okay. So ultimately it. It built from there. We got. It started to get a little rocky again because it took a while for this to catch on. It took a good year before know started to catch. And the. We started.

[Ryder Strong]

The way that, you know that it's catching on is because of the ratings. Like, ultimately, you're looking at the numbers for each show or how do you know that it has, like a cultural impact there?

[Austin Hankwitz]

That's a great question. And the ratings and the. I would call it the inflection point happened about a year later. I don't know if you're familiar, but they would do Q ratings, so they would hold up a picture. You know, do you recognize Danielle? You know, who is she? And rather, I don't know if it was with you. I don't recall who they were doing this test with, but they said something to the effect of people would go, oh, yeah, that's the people from tgif.

[Danielle Fishel]

Right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And research. Research department went crazy and said, we need to cancel this because they've lost the names of the shows. They don't know the names of the shows. And this is where it comes back to. I owe all credit to Bob Iger. He stood in the way and he was like, no, no, no, no, we have a brand. He says, this is something that we're sticking with. And that's when they started really dumping money into it and saying, okay, now we're going to push. And we created, you know, original animation and locked in on the name. And so that's kind of the. Just of how it all came to be.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, I mean, that's so smart. Because if you're Bob Iger and you're going, oh, you mean all the power isn't with these individual shows. The power. Any show we want in there, and people will still go, oh, it's the new part of tgif.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So sm. Very, very. Yes, you are exactly Right. And it was a neat thing, too, for sales. They used to go to ad sales, caught on to this and basically said, okay, now we can do tent polling, which is a strategy that's done where they'll take two strong shows like here's Boy Meets World and here's Full House, and we'll put something in between it, or we'll put something just after it and lead it and test our new pilots. And in advertising, rather than saying, you just bought, you know, hey, Kellogg's just bought Boy Meets World. Kellogg's wasn't offered Boy Meets World. They were offered tgif. And so the price was the same across the whole arc. So wasn't the case where you got. You know, so they were basically leveraging, getting a lot more in the revenues, too, to make it happen. So.

[Danielle Fishel]

And to your point, then, if people are staying in. If people are staying to watch the whole. Partially because there's BTS stuff they're watching the casts do in between the shows. They're also seeing all those commercials in between.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Absolutely. Yeah. You are right on target. It's. It really became kind of just a neat little FOMO event, we would call it. So it was, you know, fear missing out, and it was one of those things that the kids would drive mostly. That's why we'd use, you know, we'd often use the younger cast members to do the promotions. And it worked. It. It seemed to just catch on and keep going. So it went on for, I think, 10 years now.

[Will Friedle]

What was. What was the first. I mean, I know the entire night took off, but what was the first hit show from tgif? Was it Perfect Strangers?

[Austin Hankwitz]

If you ask me, yes. So Full House took a little longer, and Full House didn't always want to be on Friday night. They were really pushing for Tuesday night. And it, you know, I don't know necessarily, necessarily why, but ultimately, Full House became kind of that early anchor because it skewed to the youngest. Personally, I loved Perfect Strangers because they were geniuses and just unbelievable. We deliver scripts to them, and they'd be like, oh, that's nice. And then they come back with these incredible limericks and rhymes and fun things, and I just. I was like, they were so much fun. You guys, too, were so. You guys were always the best to work with. Was never a no or anything. And I remember, Danielle, when you and I went to U2. Yes.

[Danielle Fishel]

I want to get into that story we just heard.

[Ryder Strong]

Didn't get invited because we weren't invited. Always been a fan of you Too personally, I don't know.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't know. Me too. I don't know. Sandy Christmas was behind that or who was behind it.

[Danielle Fishel]

Sandy too.

[Will Friedle]

Sandy Christmas. I remember that.

[Austin Hankwitz]

She's a sweetheart.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, she's Miss Sandy. She's. When ABC just recently, within the last. Last five years or so did a little bring back of tgif. They asked me to do a commercial. They brought me back to do a commercial. Andy Christmas was there.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Sandy. I saw Sandy just a couple weeks ago. She's a sweetheart. She's retired now.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay.

[Austin Hankwitz]

She is, but just the love of the life. She was kind of the. The mama bear of the department who kept us all straight. We were all young, egotistical, you know, producers. And she'd be the one coming and going. You're not doing. Even though she was kind of assisting us, she was just the greatest of people. So loved her and she loved connecting people. She was great with folks. So I remember her and I doing a special where we. We had one day to shoot a special with Delta Burke and Mark Curry and we had the backlot of Warner Brothers to our avail. And she and I loaded up a golf cart with cameras and just were running like crazy all over the place.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh my gosh.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Get things done. And you know, Sandy is the type that would walk up to anybody. Hey, you here. You know, do that. Can I talk to you? So it was great. It was lots of fun.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Danielle Fishel]

Rewards with Colgate Palmolive rewards available while supplies last. Limit Supply US Only. January 1, 2025 through March 31, 2025 for full terms and conditions, visit cprewards.com.

[Austin Hankwitz]

This is Ashley Kineti from the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Austin Hankwitz]

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[Austin Hankwitz]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Danielle Fishel]

Where did the name TGIF come from? And I want to know if there were other options that you remember being pitched around. So it is not. Thank God it's Friday. It is. Thank goodness it's funny. That's what TGIF stands for. Thank goodness it's funny. So where did that come from? And what were some other options you guys had?

[Austin Hankwitz]

So we were talking about things like the Friday Fun Club. There's a whole list somewhere I probably could dig up. But I remember that one. You know, it's Friday night. Lots of little short isms. And I don't recall exactly where it came from. We had. That was on our list. We were concerned about the restaurants at the time coming at us, you know, and so we weren't really sure. But I do remember I was standing at 5:25 post or something. We did our first animation which kind of was kind of more childlike with a little mouse called Friday the Mouse. Which was. It was. We were animating that with a guy by the name of Bob Kurtz who runs a company. I don't know if he's still around, but Bob Kurtz and friends did the original commercials for Shell and for. It's the green dinosaur. It was a green animated green dinosaur for a gas and oil company.

[Will Friedle]

S O. Sinclair.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It might have. Sinclair. Sinclair. Sinclair.

[Will Friedle]

There it is.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And it was. The line was, remember some dinosaur or gave his or her all for that tank of gas. And I. And he. And. And he'd always be this little animated dinosaur. And I loved that dinosaur as a kid. So I was like, I need to find this guy. So that's who we had hired. And I was with him. We were animating the open. And then Stu Brower and Bob Iger called and said, we've landed on tgif. We want to call tgif. So that's where we got the name. And we started animating those letters into the open and. And went from there. But we were literally standing by in a post house about to. To execute on that because time was ticking. So that's where the name came from. It was. And. And Bob, I believe, came up with. Thank goodness. It's funny to avoid any conflict with. Yeah. With any. Any restaurant.

[Will Friedle]

And wait. So just to get my television history right, just the 10 of us was a spin off of Perfect Strangers.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't know. That's a good question.

[Will Friedle]

Because the coach was. It was. It was a character on another other.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yes, he was. He was.

[Will Friedle]

Can't remember which one it was that then spun off into just the ten of us.

[Austin Hankwitz]

But.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And just the ten of us was. Mr. Belvedere was. Was waning. And just the ten of us Was also kind of on its last season just when we were. We're coming in. And then it. It went to Perfect Strangers. Full House. You folks came in in 93. I think it was something like that, right? Yeah. Which was great. You're. You were. You hit right at the prime where we were rocking and rolling and you were the perfect show for just, you know, it just nailed it because you had all the family values, the kids, you know, the high school. You were right on target. So it was a no brainer to have Boy Meets World there.

[Ryder Strong]

And so I have a question about the network in general. Did you have a sense of the network having a personality or a sort of like ideal viewer? Like. Cause abc, I mean our corner of ABC was very much family and. But was there. Did you guys have like meetings where you were like, who is our ideal.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Sure.

[Ryder Strong]

Consumer? Who's. Who's watching? And like, what is abc? How is ABC different than NBC or fox? Did you guys know what that was and what that meant?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, it's sort of, it's a. You know, people. Again, when we were part of Cap Cities, which I think we had become Disney right around. I'm not sure when Disney came in, but I think early on.

[Will Friedle]

95, 96, wasn't it?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, somewhere. But we were part of Cap cities initially. So in Cap City is. Murphy and Burke were really genuine people and would allow us to come to Century City and be parts of these meetings. The entire network was only 800 people. So that was it. We were, you know, the whole. And most of them were in the field. So like, you know, the fourth floor in Century City was where the power was. And you know, there were program execs as you know, you've been there. You guys were, I'm sure in those offices at the time Y. And that, you know, that was really it. And then there were few the producers in the field like myself and on air and. And the people running operations over in Prospect lot. And it. So it was very much a family. We all knew each other pretty well and you know, would run across each other in the hallways. There was always the question of who, you know, we were because at that time they were kind of thematically broadcasting depending on what night of the week you were at. So, you know, there was dramas on certain nights. You know, Moonlighting was more adult. Okay, so that was Tuesday night and that was where they put, you know, Tuesday night comedies and things that had a little more adult, adult theme to them. You know, they were, I think Jack and Mike, things like that were over there. It was more of a mystery, you know, movie or mystery show was interesting because it's a funny story. I got in trouble once when I got invited to one of those programming meetings which was, it wasn't, I wouldn't call it big trouble, but like it was, you know, we're around the table of about 30, 30 of the top execs there. And one of the gentlemen, John Sias, who was like a huge, he was way up at the top of, of, of the power chain, was talking and said, you know, that we were talking about NBC because that was the big threat. You know, NBC was, NBC was the hip place. So talk about fomo. You know, ABC of course was fomo. I want, you know, I want this, I want to be cool and I want to be cool. Exactly enough of this family. That was exactly it. There was always that. And we even knew the people. You know, Tom, you know, Miller, John Miller over, was running NBC's marketing department. We all were friends and knew each other and Vince Manzie and all those folks, but everyone wanted to be everyone else. And CBS was always the Tiffany network and it was always the, you know, the older people. And so it was that battle for that 18 to 35 that everybody thought they wanted. And you know, we weren't looked down upon at all for TGIF because it became such a powerhouse. It kind of became a hands off thing, which was great. But I was like, you, Danielle. I was kind of like, this is the American Broadcasting Company and it should be, you know, it should be family, family, family. We could really nail this. And I made the concept comment in this meeting. I was like, aren't we the American broadcast? You know, they were talking about casting broadcasting and you know, all the different dimensions of it. And I said, shouldn't we. The cable wasn't really barely there. You know, there was MTV and stuff like that. But I made the comment, I said, so why aren't we considering maybe narrow casting a little bit toward a very specific audience like a lot of these so called cable networks are starting to do. And John Sias looked at me and he goes, young man, because this is the American, American Broadcasting Company, not the narrow casting company.

[Will Friedle]

Go stand in the corner.

[Ryder Strong]

And face away.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't think, I don't, I don't think I got invited back to that meeting.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, but it was because this was Also, I mean, this was the time if, if 18, 35, 18 to 35 is what everybody was, was clamoring for. But also 93, 94, the Fox network comes out of nowhere and you've got children and the Simpsons and they're going for that kind of, it's like they were really shooting towards that demographic.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Right.

[Will Friedle]

So everybody, it really made everybody kind of have to hone their identity because it's like, okay, now we're young and hip, so you're gonna push NBC more to the middle. So then where do you go from there? Wow, what a strange.

[Ryder Strong]

It's a really good question because for cable networks, being specific was exactly the way to go. Like, you had to be the channel just for one type of audience because if you could build that fan base base, you could continue. But yeah, for networking tv, perfect example.

[Will Friedle]

Still a huge question.

[Ryder Strong]

I mean, now streamers are asking themselves this all the time. Right. Because it's like, are you a Netflix where you just try and be the, the channel for everybody or do you.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Try and clear everything? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ryder Strong]

So interesting. It's such a big question.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, it's, it is a fascinating thing. And you know, it to this day is still a battle people have of trying to find their audience. And I, I'm kind of a big believer that you can't please everybody all the time. And you know, you have to kind of focus on, on what you, you can do. And I, I'm also a big believer in stuff I do now that family is that one place that still has a lot of opportunity. You know, I don't want to sit on the couch. Even though my daughter's now 23. I don't want to sit on the couch. If I had younger ones.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And, and watch something and have them start to crack super sexual jokes or something like that. I just, I don't want to be uncomfortable with that. I want something that's easy to watch and comfortable and fun and you know, that's it. So it's, I mean, GIF was truly.

[Danielle Fishel]

The first because even Must see TV came after. Like, it's like you, you invented the idea of labeling a night, a night or a block as something to promote itself for a network. So it's, it's like, it's so, it's so genius how abc, I mean, maybe they have. But I feel like ABC owes you forever and ever and ever.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I, that's very. You're very kind. And I don't know if I was, if I was before Must See tv But I, I know, I mean, obviously Vince and, and John, you know, did a fantastic job promoting that. And that was the Thursday night block that was unpenetrable. And they, they were great. And so we, it's, it was fun. I, I thank you for the nice comments. And ABC did very, they were, they treated me very well. I stayed with ABC through 2000s doing all kinds of things. So when I had babies, they called me and said, we want you to do Baby Einstein. And I was like, that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

[Will Friedle]

Can we talk a little bit about. I think we've pushed it off long enough. How did we not get invited to this YouTube thing? And what the hell is it?

[Austin Hankwitz]

I know. Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

And how is Danielle friends with Bono? And we didn't know this the entire time.

[Austin Hankwitz]

What, what happened with this?

[Danielle Fishel]

Please tell them the story of the U2 shoot.

[Austin Hankwitz]

The U2 shoot. So it's know, obviously we get called and we're like, so, you know, you two's launching their new pop album in Vegas and, and Stu's like, you want to go? And, and you know, maybe we'll pull in one of the talent. Let's see if we can do that. And I apologize, I was not behind the decision of who got to go.

[Will Friedle]

Sure, sure, Jim.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't, I don't know. I would call Sandy on that one. So we, we. I don't remember how. I think I know. You know, Danielle, your, your, your mom or your agents responded right away and said, she loves him. Yeah, it's like, okay, so we, we go out there and we're getting ready and it's, it's, it was a semi live thing. We were racing the clock and it was so that was a kind of a first for us. We were used to filming something about a week in advance and being able to take it to post and turn it around. And so we had editor standing by and a satellite window sitting open. And so, you know, we basically were ready and, you know, we're in the tent getting ready. I don't remember the. All I remember is there were, you know, a bunch of stars around us and we were getting food or something and getting ready. And we were going to go into the tent with Bono and Edge and, you know, have them do these little bits like you guys do, and they were all in on it. And then at the last minute, they, because they were premiering, I think, their, their record and stuff, they tell us, they're like, we're not gonna do. We don't have time. We don't want to do this. And so we're like, yeah, so.

[Will Friedle]

So you didn't.

[Danielle Fishel]

I did.

[Austin Hankwitz]

No, she did. She got to go in the tent and meet them and. And, you know, so that was great. I'm so glad you did that, because that would have sucked, so to speak. I apologize. But. But anyway, then she came out, and by then, we kind of formulated, okay, here's what we're gonna do. So you and I and our photographer ran to the back of the stands, and basically I told Danielle, okay, now. Now pretend you're hosting the. Just. It's about to happen. Go live. And so we. I don't remember what the script was, but we wrote something pretty quick. And. And you pulled it off. You did a great job. And we turned the camera around, and it made it look like she was reporting live from the concert venue.

[Danielle Fishel]

If you picture like. If you picture like the Hollywood bowl and being like, okay, we're about ready to interview people who are going on stage at the Hollywood bowl and then going, never mind. We're. We don't want it. We're. We're about ready to do this. We're canceling it at the last second. And then Jim and I looking at each other and him going, all right, let me put something together. Run to the top of the Hollywood bowl stairs with the Hollywood. With the bowl behind you. And we're. You're gonna say, like, we're here. YouTube is about ready to pop and blah. And we did. I said something. It was like, take it away and start the show.

[Austin Hankwitz]

That was exactly. It was the greatest save. Got. And got lost.

[Will Friedle]

Lots of.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Lots of kudos. I hope you heard them, too. The network was very happy. They were not disappointed at all.

[Danielle Fishel]

No, they weren't disappointed. They were really happy.

[Will Friedle]

It was only Ryder and I were disappointed.

[Danielle Fishel]

It's funny because it was a good.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, you guys could have been. You got. I am again. I've never lived that one down, I guess. So the next.

[Will Friedle]

In all fairness, we didn't even know about it until 10 minutes ago.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah, until I'm shaking Bono's hand. I'm not. I'm not accepting anything.

[Danielle Fishel]

Listen, guys, it was the Q rating. It was the Q rating.

[Austin Hankwitz]

When she walked in.

[Ryder Strong]

By.

[Austin Hankwitz]

When she walked in, you know, Bona went, you're the girl from tgif.

[Danielle Fishel]

So funny.

[Austin Hankwitz]

But it was a very fun concert. It was. It was super cool because we had good seats, too. They were right there, pretty much, if I recall. They were up there in front.

[Ryder Strong]

So was there A big shift when Disney bought the network, like, did it change the, did it change your job? Did it change your day to day experience? What did that mean?

[Austin Hankwitz]

There were, you know, there were always shifting chairs. Disney, you know, there was a lot of fear when Disney came in that there was gonna be big, big shifts in that front. But really, for the most part, they didn't mess with us too much. Obviously programming part of it is because Bob continued to lead. And so it was, you know, it was Bob's network basically at the time. And, and he held that pretty close to heart. And the people around him, Stu, Bloomberg, all those folks were the next in line to continue that on. So didn't get a lot of that. I noticed at least a lot. I mean, there were a few new bosses and program execs that came in, but to me, Disney was all about families. So I was kind of like, okay, perfect marriage.

[Will Friedle]

Perfect marriage. Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And so, and it's, it did, it worked very well. We were able. The coolest thing that I think happened when Disney came in was the idea of synergy. There wasn't a lot. While we as a night were all about synergy and talking about other shows and helping promote one another, the network as a whole and other shows were not necessarily about that or hadn't really learned to do that. And when Disney came in, then all of a sudden we have theme parks, we have cruise lines, we have these other movies that they're doing that suddenly, you know, latch onto and do co promotions with and had a lot more money to work with.

[Ryder Strong]

Send us to Disney.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

[Will Friedle]

Now, were you also helping to decide what shows were on tgif? Were you, were you actually picking the content that went on the night?

[Austin Hankwitz]

We didn't get that much. That was in the programming department's decision. We were involved in meetings like that. So they, you know, we got to hear and, and you know, hear the meetings and go through some of the pitches and stuff like that. So. But I. Would they listen to exactly what we thought? No, I wouldn't necessarily say that.

[Ryder Strong]

Does that mean that you would have to be promoting something and knowing it was probably not going to catch on? That would often happen, right? Like you would be saddled with a show and they'd be pitching you and you're like, how do I promote this? This is a stinker that must have happened. Right, right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Oh, just a few times. There were many.

[Ryder Strong]

Were you ever surprised? Were you ever like, this is probably not okay.

[Will Friedle]

Could, could you?

[Ryder Strong]

Because that'll be. Can you Name a success story where you were like, I don't get this.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I will get in trouble. I will get in trouble if I say it. But I will say it because I'm nearly retired anyway and I, I probably deserve this. So in one of those big round table meetings, and I've admitted this to, to, you know, know Bob Boyette and Tom Miller before, and I've, and even to the cast. So full house. I, I, I was one of the guys in the, Me we were in the meeting, programming meeting, and they were talking about the cues and all this stuff. And again, I was young and, and just learning my roots and I was in TGIF was barely even there. I don't think that had even been recognized that much yet. Yeah, but I just was like, I didn't get it. I was just like, I. Because I, I had been on set and I watched them feed the, you know, feed Ashley and Mary Kate lines and love them. I mean, I worked with them a ton afterwards and they are, they were, you know, they're nothing but sweet. The whole cast was wonderful. And I just didn't get it. And I was just like, right. I, I don't, I don't think they can act. I don't think they can do this. You know, it just wasn't, it didn't feel, it didn't feel right. And, and this was the, their season one, and it did take them two seasons to catch on, but that's my big oops. I would say.

[Will Friedle]

That'S also when television allowed a show to grow, though. It's like, okay, the show's not going really well. Well, we're still going to give it a season or two. That just doesn't happen.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Absolutely.

[Will Friedle]

Get an episode now and you're out.

[Ryder Strong]

Well, but that's what TGIF could afford. I mean, that's part of like, the risk mitigation for the network is also artistically for the creators. Risk mitigation, like, that allows them the chance to, like, sail around for a couple episodes, get their act together and figure out how to, you know, how to make it. Yeah, everybody wins. It seems like in that situation, that.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Was the idea was the whole, was greater than the sum of the parts. That was our line, as we would, if we worked together, we would all do it. And that became part of the contract. If you joined tgif, you weren't allowed to say, I can't. I'm not doing that. You know, you basically had to, you had to be, be part of the family, so to speak. And do things with us.

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, I also want to talk about. You mentioned it with the U2 one, where it could have been a disastrous shoot, but we saved it. It wasn't a disastrous shoot in the end. But I do want to know, do you have any stories of true disaster shoots?

[Ryder Strong]

I want to know who refused to do the TGIs.

[Will Friedle]

I don't have to name names, but.

[Ryder Strong]

I would love to hear a story of somebody being. You don't have to say they're not doing it, but I want to hear what.

[Will Friedle]

Doing this. Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Dinosaur dinosaurs was very difficult to work with. Just kidding. No, no, those dinosaurs. Yeah, they weren't. But that was, you know, that show was very difficult to do.

[Ryder Strong]

I mean, everything people.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Those poor people would be throwing up in the suits because they were so hot and they were just doing things. They were. And the sets were, you know, these immense things. So. So, no, we didn't have anything. I would say, you know, some of the craziest, funniest things would happen when, you know, like shooting with the Muppets. The Muppets would, you know, call us out and, you know, off camera. Those guys can be hilarious. Yeah. Start calling you out on things you have Gonzo bitching at you. Stuff like that, you know, so I'm trying to think of other things we didn't really have. Big disasters, you know, nothing. Camp Wilder could sometimes get a little crazy. Jay Moore is a nut, you know, I don't know if you know Jay. Yeah, he's a nut. And so. And we had him for a season and work with us, and he was kind of like herding cats and, you know, he was. But good guy. You know, he did. He meant nothing but good. But definitely any difficult talent.

[Will Friedle]

Besides Danielle.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Right. Besides me, obviously, got those guys. Let's see. I don't really think we did. I mean, we had some that didn't want to do things, but that's about it. I mean, I think about it now and. And I'm like, God, you know, Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Summers were always in for things. They would always be willing. You guys were always willing, you know, Karen Miller, who you probably also. I don't know if you know Karen. I think Sandy would integrate with you, but Karen was on the side of Miller, Boyette, and she was kind of what I would. She was the Sandy or the. The. The peacekeeper, you know, whenever she would feel about what's going on in the shows. Because we knew you had some shows that were difficult, and so we would try to stay away from you when you were in, you know, a heavy production that you had something going that you couldn't. So we would always navigate that through, you know, Sandy or through Karen Miller to get, you know, to get the right cast. So often when people would turn us down, it was because it was a crazy week or something was way off or someone might be sick or, you know, that kind of.

[Will Friedle]

Now who would decide who would go with whom? Because we had Jaleel White on and we figured out as we were sitting here like tj Boy Meets World and Family Matters never did promos together. And he said it's because that they were owned by Warner Brothers and we were owned by Disney. So they were never allowed. We were never really allowed to connect. Is that something you remember or was that done by design?

[Austin Hankwitz]

No, it wasn't done by design. We would have probably loved to mix cast like that. And part of it was because of who. How things were getting paid. So, you know, the. The network wasn't. The network was reimbursing studio for cost and Warner Brothers was obviously the one studio. And so, you know, for the hour, two hours OT that we might pull, that was more the issue than anything is how do they mix? Now when we did preview specials and things like that, we would try to mix a little bit and, you know, get them, but. And I completely forgot now that you bring up Family Matters, I mean, they were great. We had some, you know, there were some conflicts on that show a little bit, but they would always get through them and, and do things. So it wasn't, it wasn't horrible.

[Ryder Strong]

I remember doing the TGIF spots was my first experience with a teleprompter. I remember, like, really? Yeah, well, yeah, because I was 12 or 13 years old. I remember like them rolling in the thing and putting in. I was like.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And you're like, what's that?

[Ryder Strong]

Oh, my God, it was so weird.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Makes. Makes life much easier, doesn't it?

[Ryder Strong]

Oh, so weird though. I hated it. I remember hating. I was like, no, I just want to learn the lines. I don't want to have to look at it. It's so weird.

[Danielle Fishel]

I love teleprompter.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You guys did good. You never, you never knew it. Yeah, yeah, I'm reading.

[Ryder Strong]

Danielle, you were made to be a good host. You were. This is why you got asked to the YouTube. I love a good deliberate.

[Austin Hankwitz]

She's. She's host.

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, it is. I do remember. I do remember. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I do remember back in the day when I got. Because I got asked to do a lot of them. I. A lot of interstitials, a lot of little things for. For tgif. And I. I remember them saying, you're really good at it and you're super fast. We could get in and out. We could shoot a bunch of different interstitials all in one time. And I was. Because I was quick at reading off the teleprompter, I was a. You could throw me into any situation. And I was always.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You also talk fast.

[Danielle Fishel]

I talk fast. I have a bunch of. I had tons of energy.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Energy.

[Ryder Strong]

It's all there. Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't think we ever had to. Had to say, hey, can you kind of. Yeah, we never had to say, hey, Danielle, can you kind of just make it feel like you're having fun?

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, and it's funny because we did not. We. It was interesting to hear you talk about reimbursing the production. We did not get paid for those. Those were part of. That was considered promo. Yeah, it was considered promo. Even though you guys went to the FCC and said, it's not promo. It's additional stuff.

[Ryder Strong]

You didn't know that.

[Danielle Fishel]

But let me tell you something. We did not know that. But let me tell you something. When I started getting asked to do more and more of these interstitials and I got to a point where I just said, I don't want to. It was always on a weekend. It was like it was an extra day out of my schedule where they would want me to go and do something. You guys, we did a thing where we went to Danielle's hometown. We went to your Belinda. We did. I was doing a lot of them, and I just started saying, no, like, these are a lot of them. And so my mom said, this is the one.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I couldn't talk about being in trouble, you know? Yes.

[Will Friedle]

The one you forgot.

[Austin Hankwitz]

The one you forgot. The one I forgot that I couldn't bring up.

[Danielle Fishel]

My mom went to Judy and said, I don't know what to do because they want Danielle to do these. And I feel bad because it is. It's a day out of Danielle's schedule. She's. It's usually. Or we would do it on a hiatus week when I'd be back at my regular school, and I would just want to be at my regular schools. Like I'm on hiatus and to go back. And so they said, what if we paid her? What if we paid her a very. What if we paid her a very small.

[Ryder Strong]

Get paid.

[Danielle Fishel]

Eventually I did.

[Ryder Strong]

They said, not only were we missing out on YouTube, we were also not getting paid.

[Austin Hankwitz]

If you were on set. If you were on set, you didn't get.

[Danielle Fishel]

I did not. If I was on set, I did not. If I was offset, I did. And my mom. So then my mom came to me and said, okay, they're going to pay you. And I, you know, I never saw any of my money. My money all went into an account. And so I was like, so what does this mean to. Not even just an account. My parents, like, my mom was like, all right, whatever the interstitial money is, I'll let you have it. It can be mad.

[Will Friedle]

There you go.

[Danielle Fishel]

And so she would give me, like, say I'd get paid 7, 750 bucks or something for the day of whatever it was. I. She'd just give me 750 bucks, and I'd go to Coffee Bean, and I'd get to go, yeah. And I was like, this is amazing. This is more money than teenage Danielle had ever seen. And so it was awesome. It did. It ended up making for me my Coffee Bean fund. Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Great story. That's great story. That is. That is awesome. Yeah. And I don't, you know, I know they. They tried the best always to make sure. No offense, guys. I mean, I'm sure if you'd come off set and done something, it would have gotten. You would have gotten paid.

[Danielle Fishel]

It's okay. I also made 50 less than every other cast member on the show.

[Ryder Strong]

On the actual show.

[Danielle Fishel]

So the fact that I got paid a little 750 or $1,500 here and there.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Nice bonus. Yeah, yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

It was just a. It was just a little thing. So you mentioned preview specials. We are actually about ready to do a recap soon. But did you do the Boy Meets World Saturday morning cartoons preview or y.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, so we did. Yeah, those were us. The. The we all. That kind of fun. Those were. And I know you were paid on those, and. Yeah, yeah, we. You had to be, because that came through my company, actually. But, yeah, the. We were. When TGIF became a hit, Jenny Trius, who was president at the time of Children's, called and wanted us to do a lot of interaction and try to pull a cast because the Gage group was just a little younger at Saturday morning than it was, what we were getting at on Fridays. So we were. We were asked to get involved with all those and come up with things, ways to promote new Saturday morning things, stuff like that. So, yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Will Friedle]

So wait, can I ask a question then? And maybe you know this why did TGIF end? Was it just ratings? I mean what, why did it go away?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Good question. And you know for me I had done some things where I again it had gotten pretty, you know, I don't know. They again new powers come in and they want a fresh look and I remember that they and no offense to them because you know they got new marketing execs in that took over when Mark Zakarin left. I think Bob Iger had moved on to his new powers and they hired an agency, Chai A day, which was the hip agency again this was the FOMO things at the time and she Chia Day got really deeply involved in things and changed everything to yellow and black and it was kind of an interesting turn of events.

[Danielle Fishel]

Was that the promotion? That was the sit on your couch.

[Will Friedle]

Your friend, the couch is your friend.

[Ryder Strong]

And yeah, TV is good for you.

[Will Friedle]

Couch potatoes rule the world, all that stuff.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And so they were edgy and different and all that stuff but they came in and made a lot of dramatic changes on the programming side too and suggestions there and I don't know if it helped or hurt at all. I mean it's kind of hard to how to track but part of the deal was, you know I, I think they had gone oh, we're kind of tired of this and you know, maybe we should try something different. And I think we were 12 years in and I was getting offers to do some other things too. And I was just like, you know, I. Again, it wasn't. While I loved every bit of it, we weren't making huge money on it either. And so we were kind of like, okay, maybe we should start moving a little more into programming. And so they. They turned it over to some other folks in house at abc. And I think it kind of died there because they just not. Because they didn't do a good job, but it just wasn't, you know, it wasn't the same.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

I mean, you started there at 23. How old were you when you eventually left ABC?

[Austin Hankwitz]

I left ABC pretty early on and started my own company. So that's an interesting story, too. So I. When TGIF was starting to hit big, I happened. My mom had gotten very sick with Parkinson's, and so my mom and dad were back in Colorado and I was kind of like. And at the time, I was dating a young lady who also was from Colorado who was not loving. She worked for Columbia Pictures, for the president of Columbia Pictures and was not having fun.

[Will Friedle]

And I'm so glad you said that the way you said it, where it's like, I was dating a young woman who was not loving. I was like, oh, God, she wasn't loving her job.

[Austin Hankwitz]

She wasn't loving. Wasn't loving her job. And. And so. And we all were kind of, you know, going, la is. Is. Is tough. And. And I. So with the. The sickness of my mom, I kind of started to push and go, I really should be back there with them. And I went to Bob Iger, I went to Mark Zacharin and Stu Brower, my boss, and. And said, I, you know, think I'm going to have to leave because this is going on. And they marched me into Bob Iger's office and I was like, oh, crap, so I'm gonna get. And. And basically, you know, we talked about a couple different things and. And this is how great those people are. Bob looked at me and said, rather than do that, why don't you start your own company and we will hire, you know, put you under contract. Contract. And that's what they did. And it went on for almost 20 years. So it's. They were. They were great. And so, you know, I owe a lot to them for being, you know, respectful and kind on that part. So I did go back to Colorado and flew out almost every week for, you know, the shoots and stuff like that, and then did my edit and work back in Colorado because there were a number of sizable post houses there and could do that. So, so it ultimately all worked out and wow. Then and now I'm back in LA with my wife. Different, different girl. She's awesome. And she, she, we moved to San Clemente, so we have a place in Colorado and in San Clemente and we just live in the good life, so.

[Danielle Fishel]

I love that. Good for you.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

What are people's reactions when you tell them, them that you created the TGIF block? Do people must like lose their minds about that?

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't tell them.

[Danielle Fishel]

You don't tell anyone.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't sit there.

[Ryder Strong]

You gotta brag more.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't brag. I don't, I don't tell them unless they ask or look me up. And so I, I'm not a, I, I'm kind of shy about that and not, you know, it was a product of a lot of people, it took a lot of, of collaboration, including you guys, to, to make it all happen. People to agree, you know, to pull. Some willing to give some of their time to make it go. So it was a wonderful, what would I call it, a wonderful circum, you know, or unique come together of events that just turned into something incredible. And I'm, I was very blessed to be part of it. So it was neat. I kind of wish I had leveraged it a little more down the road, but I, you know, I, I didn't, I just kept going with what came my way and, you know, promoted. I didn't use it enough to get meetings, probably.

[Danielle Fishel]

Right. TGIF would like to meet with you.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I never use that and I, I, so I never, you know, but I did get to go work for NBC some and Vince and Tom and, and you know, do different things for a number of people, help launch Hallmark and, and all kinds of fun.

[Danielle Fishel]

And that was all with Janusek Media. That's your media company, right? Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Janice Entertainment. Entertainment or janusac Media. Yeah. But yeah, I, I got to work with a lot of great folks. I mean, we, you know, one thing would lead to another. I, I, When I was back in Colorado, I met the founder of Stars, who has become a good friend in his family and we helped launch Stars. And then that led to Hallmark, you know, and Hallmark was launching. And I met Margaret Lesh and, and Lynn Marino and helped do that. And it just, one thing goes to another, another, you know, the baby Einstein stuff. It's like you just kind of, that was weird how that one Happened. It's just they had heard that I had twins, and my twins were like, you're like 18 months old, and they're like. They. Jenny Trias had had me introduced to the people who were doing DVDs at the time at ABC. And ABC was competing, you know, to get DVDs out there. That was the big market at the time. And they asked me to come in and try to develop something to knock off this brand that was being a pain in their butt on the shelves. They couldn't compete with the shelf space. And they showed it to me and it was Baby Einstein. And they were like, this is really doing well and we need to figure out why. And so I looked at it and this was before I had kids. And I was like, oh, my God, what is that? And I couldn't understand it, couldn't get it. And. And then a year and a half went by. They didn't do anything with what we had proposed. And I got a call from the head of. Of home entertainment, and she said, hey, I want you to. I heard you had twins. And, you know, having dark circles under my eyes. Yeah, heard you had twins. And hey, congratulations. And by the way, that brand that we were talking to you about, we just bought it and would you come in and look at that and see what. What did it? And so I met with the original creators who were genius in their effort and, and, you know, Julie Clark and. And her husband had genuinely had basically taken it from their heart and their envisioned, you know, ideas and created this thing that became crack for babies. And, you know, then they. And they showed me how to, you know, what it was about. There's. There's a lot in timing and there's probably more brain damage in one of those shows than what you would ever think of going into other things because of timing and heartbeat tracking and all this other stuff that we would do. And, but. And then. So my job was to take it to the next level, add bigger puppet shows, do things, which I love puppets, because I was working with the Muppets and all those things. So, you know, all fit. So it worked. It was fun. Wow. So.

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, Jim, you are going to see in the comments when we post this on social media, but there are going to be a lot of people who are going to thank you for your work and for your ideas. It was. That's very kind, great and gracious of you to come and spend a little bit of time with us talking about this, you know, working with you, doing those promos. It's Such like when we've talked since starting the podcast about the things we remember the most. Most. It's actually not the stuff that's the, the shooting of the show necessarily. It's all. It's us, Us in the school room and also us doing the promos. I have really many memories of TGIF promos and of us saying, you know, from all.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And all the cuss words that were like, I don't want it.

[Will Friedle]

Do I have to?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Come on.

[Danielle Fishel]

They were, they were fun. Even if it. It was. We're going to cram this in. We know you're. Go, go, go. You got to get in front of the Christmas tree.

[Ryder Strong]

Happy holidays from all of us.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Exact Thanksgiving. You guys did fantastic. And you always nailed it in one or two takes. It was. You were always just amazing. And so. And it's so cool to see you guys. I just. And I, I, I love that you remember me. I do. They probably don't, but you guys.

[Danielle Fishel]

Absolutely. The minute I saw your picture, it was like, the name. I was like, yeah, I know that name. And then the minute I saw your picture, I was like, oh, my gosh.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Of course I remember him. I remember him. And Danielle, just quickly, I saw you're directing something coming up, right. Are you on something right now? Doing what? Remind me what it was. I just saw a promo or something.

[Danielle Fishel]

Years for abc. Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah. How awesome for you. That's awesome.

[Danielle Fishel]

It was a really wonderful experience, you know, hoping they had 10 in their first season. I'm really hoping we get word soon that they'll be getting a season two and hopefully a full order. And when that happens, I'm hoping I'll be back.

[Austin Hankwitz]

That's awesome. It's Tim Allen show, right? Is it? Yeah, I worked with him once. Filming with Tim Allen was always fun. He was. He was crazy. So we had it. We did a promo with him getting abducted by. By a UFO and then brought back because they didn't want him. That's hilarious. That's great.

[Danielle Fishel]

So that's funny. Well, I'll tell Jonathan you said hello.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Pleasure.

[Danielle Fishel]

It was so nice talking with you. Thank you for being here with us.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Absolutely. I hope we'll see you in person someday.

[Danielle Fishel]

So love that.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And I'm. I love watching your careers blossom. I mean, you guys have done amazing things and.

[Danielle Fishel]

Let's meet up for a U2 concert. Yeah. Yeah, let's go to the Sphere.

[Austin Hankwitz]

They are where they were. Yeah, I remember that. That's cool. I haven't done that yet.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay, perfect. Thank you, Jim. Great.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I am so great.

[Ryder Strong]

Great to you all.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You too.

[Will Friedle]

Take care.

[Danielle Fishel]

Anything.

[Will Friedle]

Bye. He was there. I mean he was there for like first of all, hearing that all of ABC is like 800 people. Because you thought it was thousands upon thousands of this army of people that. So to realize it was actually kind of small and spread out throughout the country and there's meetings with just 20 people. That's crazy.

[Danielle Fishel]

How about Bob Iger saying to him, don't quit.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

Start your company and let us hire you.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Ryder Strong]

You think there's a reason Bob Iger has been as successful as he has?

[Will Friedle]

Yes. Let's get him on the show.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I think.

[Will Friedle]

I bet you Bob will come on the show.

[Danielle Fishel]

Man, I would love to have Bob on the show.

[Will Friedle]

Can you imagine?

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh man, that'd be great. But also like Jim Janicek gave so. And he should. He gave so much credit to Bob and he to all of ABC. But like ABC for 10 years because of that 23 year old kid they hired.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

Owned a night of television.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

For a decade.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, it was, it was their Must see tv. It was there Thursday, that Friday it was. I remember moving out to, to when I moved out to LA with Spencer who worked at Fox at the time and Fox was just up and coming. He said to me, they had a meeting where they said, oh, we don't even worry about planning Friday nights. ABC owns Friday night. Just like skip it. He said, we did. We're not even going to bother. And so I just. Yeah, it was a juggernaut. It was amazing.

[Danielle Fishel]

I mean we're talking billions of dollars in revenue for ABC because. Because that 23 year old kid was like, you know what my family used to do? We used to sit around and watch TV as a family.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, I'm. I'm pitching to abc, doing a TGIF night. We do one Friday night where all the casts get back together and do like a scene from one of their shows. Now at the age we are now and we just do a brand new Boy Meets World scene, a brand new Full House scene, a brand new family Matter scene, you get the Perfect Strangers guys back together, it'd be a whole night. It'd be just a ton of fun.

[Ryder Strong]

What kind of weird issues does that involve though? Like with the creators of the shows?

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Who knows?

[Ryder Strong]

Can you get the rights to like play the characters in a different. I don't know.

[Will Friedle]

I mean ABC has done this thing now where they're doing live episodes of like all the old shows with brand new casts, like all in the Family. And all this kind of stuff. So I they they're thinking outside the box maybe, who knows.

[Danielle Fishel]

Pretty great. Well, thank you all for listening to this episode of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram Pod Meets World show. You can send us your emails podmeatsworldshowmail.com and we've got merch.

[Will Friedle]

I went to my two best friends with a new addiction and now I'm pregnant with their merch.

[Danielle Fishel]

Podmeatsworldshow.com will right?

[Austin Hankwitz]

You want to know, don't you?

[Ryder Strong]

You get pregnant with merch.

[Will Friedle]

Exactly. You got listen to the new channel who's the father?

[Danielle Fishel]

Will send us out.

[Will Friedle]

We love you all. Pod Dismissed. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischl, Will Friedel and Ryder Strong, executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman, executive in charge of production Danielle Romo, producer and editor Tara Sudbaksh, producer Matty Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram odmeatsworldshow or email us at podmeatsworldshowmail.com the New Year's here.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Will Friedle]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Jim Janicek]

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