Join the Campaign for Throwback Thursdays

This has been a nostalgic week for those of us who grew up in the ‘80s. First there was the touching John Hughes Oscar tribute on Sunday night, where we saw most of The Breakfast Club cast (minus, Emilio “I’m-A-Director-Now” Estevez) reunited on stage. Last night Ally Sheedy returned as psycho killer Mr. Yang on the USA Network series Psych. And yesterday we got the sad news that the Lost Boy’s Corey Haim died of an apparent drug overdose at the age of 38.

Needless to say, we’ve been mulling over our glory days, as memories of acid washed jeans and Aqua Net hairspray flood our minds.

So we weren’t surprised when we stumbled upon a new Facebook movement to “Bring Back NBC's Classic Thursday Lineup for One Night!” The page (www.facebook.com/classicthursday) is the brainchild of Eric Greenberg whose website justmyshow.com is a haven for retro pop culture fans and features podcast interviews with everyone from Tom Wopat of The Dukes of Hazzard to Beverly D’Angelo from Christmas Vacation to Ted Lange from The Love Boat.

Greenberg’s goal is ambitious – “To convince NBC to air its classic Thursday night lineup in its entirety for one night only.” But stranger things have happened, especially at NBC. And, you have to admit, it wouldn’t hurt the beleaguered network to send some warm and fuzzy good vibes out to fans these days.


NBC has had some great Must See TV Thursday night line-ups over the years but the campaign is focused on the 1985 roster:

8:00pm The Cosby Show
8:30pm Family Ties
9:00pm Cheers
9:30pm Night Court
10:00pm Hill Street Blues

And as for why he’s picked the schedule from 25 years ago, his answer is simple, “You could probably make a case for any one of those four sitcoms to be listed among the best of all time, but the fact that all four were part of the same line up back to back, is pretty unbelievable. It's arguably the greatest comedy lineup in the history of TV. What's the downside?”

We couldn’t agree more.

Don’t worry fans, Eric’s not campaigning for some cheesy reunion show a la the Happy Days debacle of 2005. Greenberg’s clear about what he wants, “Not a documentary. Not a retrospective. Just the best of each of these shows that America loves for one night only.”

But would NBC consider interrupting their regularly scheduled programming on the one night a week that really seems to be working for them? Greenberg has a solution, “I'm not suggesting that NBC should disrupt its current Thursday lineup to turn itself into Nick at Nite. Obviously The Office has a big following and I'm a huge fan of 30 Rock. I'm saying pick one night when they'd otherwise be in reruns, maybe over the summer, and make an event out of it.”

Facebook has been the home of several successful entertainment movements lately. First, I’m With Coco exploded on the scene. Sure, Conan didn’t get to keep his job on the Tonight Show but the groundswell of support hasn’t hurt his future plans. And then Betty White to Hot SNL (please?)! emerged, building to almost 500,000 fans and leading to confirmation from the Golden Girls star will host the late night sketch show on May 8 (the night before Mother's Day).

So why fight for Throwback Thursday now, perhaps Joel Goodson in 1983’s Risky Business said it best, “Sometimes you just gotta say, "What the f*#k, make your move."

Don’t hesitate - join the cause today.