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Today, we’d call it short-form content. In the late summer of 1993, NBC dubbed it “Must See TV.”
NBC was far ahead of the curve in the summer of 1993 when it embarked on an image campaign that would come to define the network’s
dominance in the 1990s. The fact that this lyrical slogan still resonates more than 30 years later for NBC underscores how deeply ingrained shows like “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “Frasier” and “ER” are in pop culture and in the hearts of fans.
Warren Littlefield and Don Ohlmeyer, then NBC’s top entertainment leaders, knew they had a strong hand to play on Thursday night in the 1993-94 season. Consider the lineup: “Mad About You” (Season 2), “Wings” (Season 5), “Seinfeld” (Season 5) and the debut frame for “Frasier,” capped at 10 p.m. by the final season of “L.A. Law.”
NBC was becoming the home of witty and urbane comedies about young adults and prestige drama series that pushed the envelope. And it was happening just as demand in TV advertising was completing a hard shift to prizing young adult demo ratings rather than the broadest household reach that had been the currency of television for decades.
In preparation for NBC’s big fall launch campaign, marketing chiefs John Miller and Vince Manze were tasked with developing an umbrella marketing slogan to tout the murderer’s row on Thursday night. In the years since, there have been numerous accounts of how “Must See TV” was born — and neither Miller nor Manze have claimed authorship. Littlefield and others have attributed it to NBC promo producer Dan Holm.
In June 1999, Manze told Variety the motto sprang from a promo group meeting. “Someone said it and we said ‘OK.’ That was that,” Manze said.
What everyone remembers clearly is the reason why they developed a bespoke marketing campaign for the night. Ohlmeyer and Littlefield knew the viewing landscape was changing when cable first started to challenge network TV’s dominance.
“Marketing and branding were becoming more and more important in a world where there was lots and lots of choice,” Littlefield told the Archive of American Television in 2011.
From late summer 1993 until the mid-2000s, “Must See TV” promos were a staple on NBC. The spots around fall and midseason premiere dates were elaborate and featured a mix of stars from different shows interacting in some cheeky way. With the benefit of hindsight, industry insiders say “Must See TV” was a prescient example of marketing that served as content. And it did more than promote shows; it defined what viewers could expect from NBC, particularly shows that got the “Must See TV” seal
of approval.
“It created a framework to lump new shows in with shows that were successful. And it gave the audience a shorthand — well, if you like ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Friends’ and ‘Mad About You,’ you’ll love this one,” says Brian Lowry, veteran media critic and former Variety chief TV critic.
Jennifer Storms, NBCUniversal’s chief marketing officer for television and streaming, underscores that the Must See TV era left a sturdy foundation that still helps define aspects of the NBCUniversal brand.
Listen to the full interview with Jennifer Storms on today’s “Daily Variety” podcast here:
“It was a promise to consumers. At the same time, it cemented NBC’s reputation as really the network that was going to define appointment viewing,” Storms says. “We branded the night, not just the shows, which turned a schedule into a cultural ritual. And we built a social contract with consumers. It became that original water cooler moment. And so it did something incredible for us that we carry today.”
As NBCUniversal has evolved on many stages and screens, the importance of setting a tone and a vibe that turns platforms like NBC, Peacock and Bravo into destinations.
“We’ve evolved it and now across the depth and breadth of the company, we always want to be talking about the emotion, the feeling, the experience around our content,” Storms says. “We very much have taken forward to today, and just continue to make [NBC marketing] even bigger and more relevant.”
Of course, then and now, nobody bats a thousand. NBC at its 1990s peak famously had a string of short-lived comedies that struggled even with the benefit of airing behind “Friends” or “Seinfeld,” including “The Single Guy,” “Boston Common,” “Veronica’s Closet” and “Union Square.”
“The umbrella approach with ‘Must See TV’ was a savvy way that made it bigger than one show,” Lowry says.
NBC’s competitors tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to field their own identity-defining branding initiative. ABC stumbled with its over-wrought “TV Is Good” campaign that launched in 1997. However, within three years, ABC would help end NBC’s Thursday dominance (for a time) with the success of quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” while CBS attacked Thursday from another front with “Survivor.”
In the latter half of the 1990s, NBC extended “Must See TV” branding to Tuesday and then Wednesday nights. But Thursday remained the pinnacle, as it has in the modern era up through the days of “The Office,” “30 Rock” “Community” and “Parks and Recreation.”
The impact of the “Must See TV” campaign was so enveloping for NBC that it has been applied retroactively to NBC’s powerhouse Thursday lineup of the 1980s, anchored by “The Cosby Show,” “Cheers,” “Family Ties,” “Night Court,” “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law.” But in fact, no such on-air branding was used in those years. (NBC itself confused the issue in 2004 when it ran promos celebrating “20 Years of Must See TV,” tied to the 20th anniversary of “The Cosby Show.”)
In Lowry’s view, the message of “Must See TV” was also to expressly define the concept of appointment viewing: Watch or you’ll miss out on the buzz. But it only worked because the anchor shows were “Friends” and “Seinfeld” and “ER”-level good.
“‘Must See’ implied appointment viewing — you must see it now or you’re going to be left out. You won’t know what people are talking about at the water cooler,” Lowry says. “It was an extremely effective tool in linking the shows together and making the night feel like an event.”
This story is part of a retrospective series commemorating NBC’s centennial that Variety is publishing through a partnership with NBCUniversal.
(Pictured top: “Seinfeld,” which aired on NBC from 1989 to 1994)
