title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: The 2019–20 season saw the Racers go 22–8 in the regular season and finish tied with Belmont atop the OVC standings with a record of 15–3. Murray State earned a share of its third straight regular season OVC Championship, while Belmont earned the No. 1 seed due to a tie-breaker (having a better record against EIU than the Racers did). Sophomores Tevin Brown and KJ Williams were named to the All-OVC First Team prior to entering the 2020 OVC Tournament. The Racers and Belmont squared off in the OVC Championship finale for the third time in the last three years. Murray State won the previous two years but fell this season, 76–75. There was no postseason play forthcoming for the Racers—or anyone else in college basketball—due to the shutdown of spectator sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic that engulfed the world in 2020.


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: The Racers' final OVC season in 2021–22 saw the Racers go on an unprecedented run rarely seen in the program's history. Initially picked to finish 3rd in the conference, the Racers compiled a perfect 18-0 record in conference play, winning the regular season title for the 28th time in program history. During this stretch, the Racers would enter the Top 25 rankings for the first time since the 2014-15 season, reaching as high as #19. In addition, Brown would break the OVC record for most three-pointers made in a career. They would then go on to win both of their OVC tournament games; a dominant semi-final victory over SEMO and a back-and-forth thriller against defending tournament champion Morehead State in the championship game, to secure the program's 18th OVC tournament championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Individually, Brown and Williams were once again named to the All-OVC First Team, being joined by sophomore Justice Hill. Williams was named OVC Player of the Year, while Hill was named the OVC tournament's Most Valuable Player. McMahon himself was named the OVC Coach of the year for his efforts. Earning a No. 7 seed, they defeated San Francisco in the first round of the NCAA tournament before a surprise loss to Saint Peter's in the second round. Two days after Murray's exit from the NCAA tournament, McMahon left to take the head coaching opening at LSU.


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: On March 25, 2022, it was announced that Steve Prohm would be returning to the university as head coach. "As we envisioned the ideal profile for the next Murray State Men's Basketball head coach, it remained abundantly clear a commitment to character, integrity, student-athlete development, community, family and competitive excellence were critically important," said Murray State Director of Athletics, Kevin Saal. "Steve Prohm represents, reflects and personifies these, and many more, qualities. His skill set, experience and genuine love for Murray State will effectively guide our program as we begin our Missouri Valley Conference journey."


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: Starting from the 1987–88 season, the Racers had recorded a winning season for 29 straight years ending in the 2016–17 season. They have won 20 or more games in a season 32 times and three times have won 30 or more. For the first time in school history, the 2014–15 Racers went undefeated (16–0) in the OVC regular season. In their final OVC season in 2021–22, they posted an unprecedented 18-0 OVC regular-season record.


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: NAIA – National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (Was the NAIB until 1952, when it started sponsoring other sports)


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: The Racers have been nationally ranked in eight seasons in either the Associated Press (AP) Poll or the ESPN-USA Today (Coaches) Poll. They were first ranked during the 1950–51 season coached by Harlan Hodges. The Racers received their highest ranking, under coach Steve Prohm, during the 2011–12 season, ranking 9th in the AP Poll and 7th in the Coaches Poll.


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: Murray State's oldest basketball rivalry is with nearby Western Kentucky (WKU). The two teams became archrivals during their time together in the Ohio Valley Conference. Although the schools no longer share their conference affiliation (Western Kentucky joined the Sun Belt Conference in 1982 and Conference USA in 2014), the two schools keep the series alive every few years. The two teams have met in basketball 147 times. For the rest of the Racers' OVC tenure, their primary in-conference rivalry was with Austin Peay State University, a school closer geographically than WKU. In February 2009, ESPN The Magazine highlighted the Austin Peay-Murray State rivalry. Recently the Racers have been building a rivalry with OVC newcomer Belmont. In three consecutive seasons (2017–18 to 2019–20), the Racers and the Bruins met in the OVC Tournament finals, with Murray State winning two of those meetings. With Belmont joining the MVC alongside Murray State, the rivalry will continue in that conference. Murray will have two more built-in regional rivals in the MVC, with Southern Illinois about two hours' drive away and Evansville slightly farther away (and also located in a county whose residents pay Kentucky in-state tuition at Murray State).


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: The Racers have had 17 different head coaches in their history. Carlisle Cutchin has the most wins in school history with 267. Steve Newton has won the most OVC Regular Season titles with four. Steve Newton and Matt McMahon share the most OVC Tournament titles with three apiece. Eleven different coaches have received the OVC Coach of the Year award for a combined 17 times.


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: The Racers have had 25 players selected in the NBA draft, the first being Johnny Reagan by the Chicago Stags in 1948. Twice Murray State has had two players selected in the draft, in 1967 (Herb McPherson, San Diego [now Houston] Rockets, third round; Don Duncan, San Diego Rockets, 10th round) and 1971 (Hector Blondet, Portland Trail Blazers, fifth round; Ron Johnson, Baltimore Bullets [now Washington Wizards], ninth round). Here is a list of Racers picked in the draft that posted minutes in the NBA regular season:


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: The Racers have had six players score over 2,000 points and 41 players score over 1,000 points during their careers. Marcus Brown holds the record for the most points in a single game with 45 against Washington (Mo.) on December 16, 1995. Jeff Martin holds the record for the most points in a single season with 806 during the 1987–88 season.


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: The Racers have appeared in 18 NCAA tournaments. They received their highest ranking in the tournament in 2012 with a 6th seed. They have an overall 5–18 record in tournament games. Popeye Jones holds the single game scoring record with 37 points against Michigan State in 1990.


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: In eight National Invitation Tournament (NIT) appearances, the Racers are 4–8 overall in tournament games.


title: Murray State Racers men's basketball

text: The Racers appeared in the 2014 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). They posted a 5–0 record to be 2014 CIT champions.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: Stefan Quandt (born 9 May 1966) is a German billionaire heir, engineer and industrialist. As of October 2021, his net worth is estimated at US$23.2 billion and ranked at number 89 on Bloomberg Billionaires Index.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: Quandt was born in Bad Homburg to Herbert Quandt and Johanna Quandt. He earned a degree from the University of Karlsruhe where he studied economics and engineering, from 1987 to 1993.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: From 1993–1994, Quandt worked for the Boston Consulting Group in Munich. From 1994 to 1996 he worked for Datacard Group of Minneapolis as a marketing manager in Hong Kong.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: On his father's death in 1982 Quandt inherited 17.4% of BMW, the company his father had saved from bankruptcy in 1959. From further purchases he later owned 23.7% of the company. Following his mother’s death in 2015, Quandt’s voting stake in BMW temporarily increased to 34.19 percent, above a 30 percent threshold which triggered a compulsory takeover offer under German rules. He subsequently asked the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) to be excused from these rules.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: In 2018, Quandt became BMW’s largest single shareholder when his direct ownership increased with shares inherited from his mother, giving him a so-called “blocking stake” of 25.83 percent, worth 13.4 billion euros ($16.6 billion). He currently serves BMW as a deputy chairman of the supervisory board.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: Quandt also inherited from his father substantial holdings in other companies, many of which he has been running through his holding company, Delton AG, since 1989. These include:


title: Stefan Quandt

text: With his mother, Quandt owned 18.3% of Gemplus International, a large digital security company, before its merger to form Gemalto in 2006.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: With a second holding company, Aqton SE, Quandt manages other investments, including in renewable energies:


title: Stefan Quandt

text: Through the non-profit Aqtivator, Quandt supports projects for children, youth, and families with a focus on education, integration, and equal opportunity.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: Following the 2013 elections, Quandt – together with his mother and his sister – made donations to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) totaling 690,000 euros. Ahead of the 2017 elections, he gave 50,000 euros each to both the CDU and liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).


title: Stefan Quandt

text: In autumn 2005, Quandt married Katharina, a software engineer. They have a daughter, born on New Year's Eve that same year. He has been seen watching football matches, but otherwise keeps a low profile. They live in Frankfurt, Germany.


title: Stefan Quandt

text: The Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Award winning documentary film "The Silence of the Quandts" by the German public broadcaster ARD described in October 2007 the role of the Quandt family businesses during the Second World War. The family's Nazi past was not well known, but the documentary film revealed this to a wide audience and confronted the Quandts about the use of slave labourers in the family's factories during World War II. As a result, five days after the showing, four family members announced, on behalf of the entire Quandt family, their intention to fund a research project in which a historian will examine the family's activities during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship. The independent 1,200-page study researched and compiled by Bonn historian, Joachim Scholtyseck, that was released in 2011 concluded: "The Quandts were linked inseparably with the crimes of the Nazis". no compensation, apology or memorial at the site of one of their factories, have been permitted. BMW was not implicated in the report.


title: Dreams (The Cranberries song)

text: "Dreams" is the debut single of Irish rock band the Cranberries. It was originally released in September 1992 and later appeared on the band's debut album, "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" (1993). The song reached the top 50 of the US Hot 100 and the top 30 of the UK Singles Chart in early 1994. A 1990 demo version was released in Ireland only in the summer of that year under their initial band name, the Cranberry Saw Us. At the end of the song, the backing vocals are sung by Mike Mahoney, ex-boyfriend of Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan.


title: Dreams (The Cranberries song)

text: In 2017, the song was released as an acoustic, stripped-down version on the band's "Something Else" album.


title: Dreams (The Cranberries song)

text: According to lead singer Dolores O'Riordan, "Dreams" was written for an early love; she explained, "I wrote that about my first love when I was living in Ireland ... It's about feeling really in love for the first time". The song was later released on a demo tape with "Linger" that helped generate excitement for the band.


title: Dreams (The Cranberries song)

text: Alan Jones from "Music Week" wrote, "A very different track to the long-lasting Linger, Dreams is a more uptempo piece, less melodic but still a good bet."


title: Dreams (The Cranberries song)

text: There are three versions of the video. The first version of the music video features Dolores O'Riordan donning her original hairstyle that is seen on the "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" album cover. The video revolves around O'Riordan with the other band members flashing up throughout the video while she's sitting on in a chair with a cross as a back or a close up of her face and eyes. The video shows a mirrored image of O'Riordan to show she does the background vocals and towards the end the band members fade in and out constantly in front of O'Riordan.


title: Dreams (The Cranberries song)

text: The second version shows the Cranberries performing the song in a dimly lit aquatic-themed room interspersed with shots of geometric flowers hitting water. This video received high rotation on MTV's "120 Minutes" in 1993 before the release of the band's next single, "Linger", and the re-release of "Dreams" worldwide.


title: Dreams (The Cranberries song)

text: The third version, directed by Nico Soultanakis which was most commonly shown in America, shows the Cranberries performing the song in a nightclub. Afterward, Dolores O'Riordan heads out to a house where grave robbers dressed in black have placed a very large tree pile inside. Dolores bathes the tree pile in water and a man is revealed to be buried in the pile. The water frees him and in the final seconds of the video, the man awakens.


title: Dreams (The Cranberries song)

text: English electronic music trio Dario G covered the song as "Dream to Me", with vocals provided by Ingrid Straumstøyl. Released on 22 January 2001 as the lead single from their second album, "In Full Colour", this version reached number one in Romania and the top 10 in Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created "Dallara Automobili".


title: Dallara

text: Dallara is also the sole manufacturer of racing cars for the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Formula 2, Formula 3 and Super Formula Championships. Dallara produces cars for endurance races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona.


title: Dallara

text: The company was founded by designer Gian Paolo Dallara in 1972 in Varano de' Melegari, near Parma, Italy, and started building chassis for sports car racing and hillclimbing, racing in the smaller engine classes. Dallara designed his first Formula Three car for Walter Wolf Racing in 1978. Dallara also had a brief involvement in Formula 3000 in the mid-1980s.


title: Dallara

text: The first F3 car under the Dallara name came in 1981, and the cars became particularly successful in Italy. Since 1985 Dallara drivers have taken the Italian Formula Three Championship every year except 1990. The late 1980s and early 1990s also saw Dallara make inroads into the German and French markets, winning the German title in 1987 and the French in 1987 and 1992.


title: Dallara

text: 1993 was the first year that Dallaras were entered in the British Formula Three Championship and was the beginning of the company's dominance of Formula Three. The new F393 featured major aerodynamic changes compared to its predecessor and introduced a monodamper front suspension layout. The F393 won every race in the Italian, French and German championships that year, while the British series saw numerous entrants – including champion Kelvin Burt – forced to switch from Reynard or Ralt chassis to Dallara in order to remain competitive. TOMS would win the Japanese championship with its own cars in 1993 and 1994 before switching to Dallara chassis. From then on Dallara would dominate the Formula Three market, although Martini had some success in France and Germany in the late 1990s, including Sébastien Bourdais winning the French title in 1999. Since then Dallara has won every major Formula Three title, although Ho-Pin Tung won the 2006 Recaro F3 Cup in a Lola against a field that included several current Dallaras. Dallaras have won the Macau Grand Prix since 1993.


title: Dallara

text: In the company became a Formula One constructor, after being hired by BMS Scuderia Italia to build their chassis. The relationship between the Italian constructor and Beppe Lucchini's racing outfit endured until , with their best result being two third places: one at the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix with Andrea de Cesaris; the other at the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix, thanks to JJ Lehto. The Constructors' Championship results were: no classification in 1988, 8th in 1989 (with 8 points), 15th (with no points) in 1990, 8th in 1991 (with 5 points) and 10th in 1992 (with 2 points) by Pierluigi Martini.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara returned briefly to F1 in 1999, building the test-chassis for Honda's planned but aborted return to the series.


title: Dallara

text: During 2004, Dallara recruited ex-Jordan, Stewart and Jaguar F1 designer Gary Anderson, leading to speculation that the Italian company was working on another F1 project. Late in 2004 the nascent Midland team announced that Dallara would be designing and building their Formula One chassis which was due to be entered for the 2006 season. Following Midland's purchase of the Jordan team for early entry to F1 in 2005, Dallara continued co-operating with the team technically. However, the relationship fizzled out as Midland focussed its resources on developing the existing Jordan infrastructure, and a new Dallara F1 chassis never appeared.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara built the cars for Hispania's entry in the season. The Hispania team's financial problems—which delayed payment of money owed to Dallara and the completion of the cars—and the alleged low quality of the F110 chassis resulted in the two parties officially ending their partnership in May 2010. The car was used in all 2010 races without any development except the graphics. They had only one aerodynamic configuration, used for all races, including Monte Carlo and Monza. Geoff Willis, who joined Hispania in March 2010, criticized the F110, saying that he was disappointed at the quality and level of engineering in the car and that the design of the car was missing a lot of contemplating practices commonly employed in the process of building a Formula One car.


title: Dallara

text: On 15 April 2014 Gene Haas confirmed his new Formula One team, Haas F1 Team, had entered talks to form a partnership with Dallara in 2015 for the build of their first car. On 21 February 2016, the Haas VF-16 was officially unveiled. This arrangement has continued since with Dallara designing all the Haas cars up to and including the season.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara debuted as a chassis supplier at the IndyCar Series in 1997, and has been the single chassis supplier since 2007. The manufacturer has won seventeen of the twenty Indianapolis 500s they have contested. In 2013, Dallara reached its milestone 200th Indy car victory at Barber.


title: Dallara

text: In 2012 the company opened an engineering center in Speedway, Indiana, at the Speed Zone Redevelopment Area near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they produce and assemble the IndyCar. The same building also houses an entertainment center, where visitors can learn how a racing car is manufactured.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara was one of the original three chassis constructors when the Indy Racing League debuted its own chassis formula during the 1997 season. The first model year (1997) was named the IR-7. The cars were most notably differentiated from the competing G-Force chassis by the ovoid shape of the air intake inlet, while the G-Force's were triangular and molded around the roll bar. The IR-8 (1998) and IR-9 (1999) were essentially 1997 model year chassis with various update kits.


title: Dallara

text: Jim Guthrie won Dallara's first Indy car race at Phoenix on 23 March 1997. Eddie Cheever won Dallara's first Indianapolis 500 in 1998, in his Oldsmobile-powered IR-7 chassis.


title: Dallara

text: A new model chassis was introduced for the 2000 season; named the IR-00. When updated for 2001 the chassis was designated as the IR-01 and for 2002 it was referred to as the IR-02.


title: Dallara

text: For the 2003 season, Dallara rolled out the new IR-03 chassis. This chassis would later become the "de facto" "spec-car" in the series. An aerodynamic update kit was released for 2007, which changed its designation to IR-05. In addition, paddle-shifters began seeing use in 2008, further developing and evolving this generation of Dallaras. Chassis bearing both the IR-03 and the IR-05 designations saw use through the end of the 2011 season.


title: Dallara

text: For the 2006 season, over 80% of the field began the season with a Dallara, a possible symptom of Panoz's (manufacturer of the G-Force chassis) perceived lack of interest. This was around the time Panoz began delivering the DP01 chassis to the rival Champ Car series. From 2007 to 2011 all IndyCar teams used the IR-05 chassis, although a few teams entered a Panoz/G-Force chassis into the 2007 Indianapolis 500 singly. Some smaller teams continued to utilize the slightly older IR-03 designated chassis, particularly at Indianapolis, with update kits installed to bring it up to equally competitive ground with the newer-assembled IR-05. Dan Wheldon famously won the 2011 Indy 500 driving a nine year old IR-03.


title: Dallara

text: IndyCar implemented a general chassis and engine development freeze from the start of the 2009 season. The series began focusing on a new chassis/engine package to be rolled out for 2012. By this time, the Dallara IR-03/05 was exclusively paired with the Honda Indy V8, as other engine manufactures had departed.


title: Dallara

text: Starting in 2012, Dallara began providing the common monocoque and suspension parts for the new IndyCar formulae – known as the IndyCar Safety Cell – with the intent that the bodywork and aero parts can and will be provided by other manufacturers. The cars will be branded by the make who provides the "Aero Kit." Dallara rolled out the chassis with its own optional spec aero kit. The aero kit concept was temporarily shelved due to cost concerns, making the Dallara kit the universal spec for 2012-2014. Unique aero kits (manufactured by Chevrolet and Honda, respectively) were introduced for 2015-2017, and Dallara ceased to support and production of their own. In 2018, the third generation of aero kits was introduced for the DW-12, again returning to a universal spec kit for all entries known as UAK18. On 18 October, Dallara confirmed that the 2012 series car would be named after the late IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon (DW-12) in honor of his work testing the car before his death two days prior at Las Vegas, with the new bumper/nerf bar section being featured, it was designed to prevent many similar single-seater crashes such as the one that killed Wheldon.


title: Dallara

text: In 2002, Dallara became the exclusive supplier for World Series by Nissan, a move that allowed them to gain the contract for the World Series by Renault in 2004. Dallara was also appointed by the FIA to be the sole chassis builder of the FIA Formula 2 Championship (formerly GP2 Series) and the new FIA Formula 3 Championship (formerly GP3 Series), giving them a near-monopoly of every motorsport series used as a direct entry point into F1.


title: Dallara

text: In 2007 Dallara created a new car model, known as the "Formulino" ("little formula"), in order to fill the gap between karts and Formula Three. The first series to use the new concept was the ADAC Formel Masters in 2008, and the MRF Challenge also adopted the car.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara has provided the spec chassis to the Indy Lights series, formerly the Infiniti/Indy Pro Series since 2002. For the 2015 Indy Lights season, the car was replaced by the new generation Dallara IL-15, powered by Mazda's 2.0-litre turbocharged MZR-R four-cylinder engine.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara also designed the chassis for the Japanese Super Formula series, formerly known as Formula Nippon, called the Dallara SF19. This update to the previous chassis (the Dallara SF14) followed the FIA's new safety guidelines and added the "halo."


title: Dallara

text: In the early 1980s, Dallara was responsible for the construction of the Lancia LC1 Group 6 prototype as well as the later LC2 Group C car, along with Lancia's partner Abarth. It would not be until 1993 that Dallara returned to endurance racing, although very few chassis would take their name. The first project was the Ferrari 333 SP, made for the new WSC regulations in the IMSA GT Championship. The 333 SP, manufactured at Michelotto, won a great number of races both in North America and Europe. Ferrari also hired Dallara to develop the racing version of the Ferrari F50, the F50 GT, financed by French racing driver Fabien Giroix, but the project was aborted before it got off the ground, in 1998.


title: Dallara

text: As a consequence, the company secured other contracts and built chassis for Toyota (GT-One), Audi (various incarnations of the R8) and Chrysler (the Oreca-run Chrysler LMP). Later, the Chrysler LMP would become Dallara's customer car available to privateers, known as the Dallara SP1, which has also served as a test mule for Nissan's aborted return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. All these cars were competitive in prototype sports car racing, with the Audi R8, in particular, becoming the most dominant chassis in modern times at the 24 Hours and the American Le Mans Series. In 2002, they built the GC21 for use in the Fuji Grand Champion Series; the car was based on the company's F3 cars.


title: Dallara

text: In March 2008 the first Dallara Daytona Prototype appeared, built-in collaboration with Doran for Wayne Taylor's SunTrust Racing team.


title: Dallara

text: In 2015 Dallara was named as one of four constructors for the new LMP2 and DPi class regulations to debut in 2017, using its Dallara P217 chassis.


title: Dallara

text: In 2007, Dallara and KTM produced the KTM X-Bow, a sports car with two seats, which was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 2008.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara also provided engineering services for Renault (R.S. 01), Alfa Romeo (8C and 4C), Bugatti (Veyron and Chiron), Maserati (MC20), and Lamborghini (motorsport variants of the Huracán)


title: Dallara

text: In 2017, Dallara showed its first road car, the Stradale, on the occasion of Gian Paolo Dallara's 81st birthday.


title: Dallara

text: Dallara also produces handbikes, under Z-Bike. They also designed a handbike for Alex Zanardi for the Men's Para-cycling at the Paralympics, leading Zanardi to win 4 gold and 2 silver medals at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics respectively.


title: Dallara

text: For the "Rosetta" probe, Dallara designed the drill that is part of the "Philae" robotic lander. Dallara has also partnered with Raytheon to provide the MALD for the United States Air Force.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: TGIF was an American prime time television programming block that has aired on ABC at various points since the late 1980s. The name comes from the initials of the popular phrase "Thank God It's Friday"; however, the stars of the lineup touted the initialism meaning "Thank Goodness It's Funny." In its various incarnations, the block mainly featured situation comedies aimed at a family audience, and served as a lead-in to the long-running newsmagazine "20/20" (which has been part of ABC's Friday night schedule since September 1987, two years prior to the original launch of "TGIF").


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: The block initially premiered on September 22, 1989, marking one of the first attempts by a major network to brand a programming block (a concept that was concurrently becoming popular among cable networks at the time of its inception), with the goal of encouraging young viewers to watch the entire lineup, instead of just a particular show. The ""TGIF"" block dominated the ratings in the 18–49 demographic for most of the 1990s. However, ratings began declining during the latter half of the decade due partly to Fridays becoming more common for social outings among segments of the block's key demographic as well as the loss and aging quality of many of the lineup's signature shows, culminating in the original incarnation ending after eleven years on September 8, 2000.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: ABC revived the ""TGIF"" brand on September 26, 2003, with its second run lasting only two seasons, ending on September 15, 2005. On May 15, 2018, the network announced that it would revive the block, with the third incarnation, which has launched on October 5, 2018. This newest incarnation of TGIF consisted of a mix of sitcoms and game shows. The incarnation was short-lived, with the block ending for the third time on September 27, 2019.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Family-friendly comedies, which featured families with children as major characters, were a staple of ABC's programming dating back to the network's earlier sitcoms from the 1950s onward, such as "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (which premiered in 1952), "Leave It to Beaver" (which moved to ABC in 1958, after spending its first season on CBS), "The Donna Reed Show" (which premiered in 1958), "The Flintstones" (which premiered in 1960, but was largely an adult-oriented animated comedy until the birth of Pebbles in 1963), "The Brady Bunch" (which premiered in 1969), and "The Partridge Family" (which premiered in 1970; that series and "The Brady Bunch" became part of the Friday night lineup at that time).


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: "TGIF" was created and executive produced by Jim Janicek. Prior to the official launch of the block, Janicek was employed as a writer and producer for ABC Entertainment, who was in charge of promoting the network's Tuesday- and Friday-night comedy lineups. Recalling his childhood when his family would gather to watch "The Wonderful World of Disney", he was inspired to create a family-oriented comedy block. In 1988, Janicek began gaining support for his concept by approaching the studios and talent of independently produced ABC shows, promoting the synergy and potential success of the family block brand. With four ABC family-oriented comedy series on board, and the backing of network president Bob Iger, the initial lineup for the block was created.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Before ABC experienced its success on that night during the 1980s, its Friday night schedule consisted of hit comedies such as "Webster" (which remained on Fridays until its cancellation by ABC in 1987, only to subsequently be renewed by Paramount Television as a first-run syndicated series), "Benson" (which would be cancelled at the end of the 1985–86 season) and "Diff'rent Strokes" (which moved to the network in 1985 after being cancelled after seven seasons by NBC, only to cancelled by ABC following its eighth and final season). The block of predominantly family-friendly situation comedies was inaugurated in the 1988–89 season with three series that were already part of the Friday lineup ("Perfect Strangers", "Full House" and "Mr. Belvedere") and a sophomore series new to that night, "Just the Ten of Us" (a spinoff of "Growing Pains", which originally aired on Tuesdays for its abbreviated first season in the spring of 1988).


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Since the 1987–88 season, "Perfect Strangers" stars Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot (in character as Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous, respectively) had been doing hosted interstitials that were conducted from the "Perfect Strangers" set, originally airing during the two-hour Wednesday sitcom block that their series was part of as that season began. In March 1988, "Perfect Strangers" moved to Fridays, and the interstitials went with them. On Fridays, the hosted interstitial concept gained more traction before the family-friendly concept on that night was actually implemented. Pinchot and Linn-Baker would remain the sole hosts of the Friday lineup throughout the 1988–89 season.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Meanwhile, ABC began reformulating its Tuesday night lineup which, for the past several seasons, had consisted of a comedy block from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time followed by two hour-long dramas, most notably with the hit series "Moonlighting" airing at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. "Moonlighting", then in its fifth season and starting to experience a considerable decline in its ratings (greatly thanks to the 1988 WGA strike, which delayed the premieres of many programs set to launch or return for the 1988 fall season), was placed on a temporary hiatus by ABC in February 1989 when the network decided to add a second hour of comedy offerings onto its Tuesday schedule. Janicek, in response, came up with the idea to promote the restructured lineup under a unified brand name, "Terrific Tuesday", to draw audiences to the changes, to reference the two additional sitcoms that were being offered, and especially as a nod to "Who's the Boss?" and the freshman smash hit "Roseanne", which now served as a strong anchor for the expanded comedy lineup.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: The "Terrific Tuesday" branding was a success, and ABC urged Janicek to continue the banner name for the following season. At the time of the network upfronts that unveiled the upcoming fall schedule in May 1989, Janicek, as well as ABC, devised the notion of further promoting their family fun-themed Fridays with a brand name. Over the summer, ABC began promoting the Friday sitcoms under the experimental title, "The Friday Fun Club". While "Terrific Tuesday" and "What-a-Wednesday" were both on tap for the 1989–90 fall season, the Friday branding concept was to undergo a revision before September.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: As a result of ABC and Jim Janicek's plan for Friday brand familiarity, definitive changes occurred to the lineup on Friday, September 22, 1989. An opening sequence for the two-hour block was introduced, featuring animated mice against a gray background. The theme music, featuring a male vocalist and a falsetto-tuned backup chorus, sang the lyrics, "Time for fun (thank goodness!)/Time for a good laugh (it's funny!)/Time, time, time, time for fun! (T-T-T-Time!)". The mice held up title cards containing the selected theme lyrics "Thank goodness" and "It's funny!" right in the way of an older mouse.. The sequence concludes with the older mouse breaking a grandfather clock with a mallet, which cut to the hosted interstitial.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: For the first time, another show's cast assumed hosting duties for the interstitials in place of the stars of "Perfect Strangers". Dave Coulier, John Stamos and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (alternating as Michelle Tanner) all appeared on the set of "Full House" introducing the season and series premieres that night. As they began their first segment, the "TGIF" name was officially introduced, in which its meaning, "Thank Goodness It's Funny", was re-emphasized from the theme lyrics. Coulier and Stamos also announced that a new policy, in which stars from the other three "TGIF" programs would rotate hosting responsibilities along with them on a week-to-week basis, would begin. Rotating with "Full House" that season were the casts of new arrival "Family Matters", "Perfect Strangers" (whose first night its cast members hosted the Friday lineup under the "TGIF" banner occurred on October 13, 1989) and "Just the Ten of Us". On the premiere night of "TGIF", the new (and ultimately short-lived) comedy "Free Spirit" aired as a preview telecast at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time, with "Just the Ten of Us" reclaiming its time slot the following week.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: During the inaugural season of the format, the "TGIF" logo was only featured at the start of every hosted segment, appearing in a design where each letter was encased in a tall gray box (as pictured to the right); the boxes would flip in at the bottom of the screen, stand still for a few seconds, and then turn out. One of the animated mice from the "TGIF" title sequences was featured on some weeks within the live-action host segments, and was introduced by the actors as the lineup's mascot, known as "Friday the Mouse". Custom bumpers would appear after the final scene of each program, where normally a short cut of the show's title logo and theme would play, denoting the final commercial break.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: During the first season of "TGIF", the bumpers featured additional animations of the mice, including variants that featured the taller mouse popping out of the grandfather clock, a small mouse being dragged around by a running chainsaw around it, the taller mouse walking towards the grandfather clock, thinking it over, and then backtracking, and the taller mouse popping up from the top and bottom of the screen on both sides of the show's title logo. The official title logo for the respective program (as opposed to the logo designs used mainly in network promotions for each show that were used in the block's bumpers in later years) was displayed on either side of the clock. The closing animation, which ran after the credits of the 9:30 program (usually "Just the Ten of Us"), consisted of the same theme music, albeit with the lyrics, "See you next week..here for a good laugh", followed by a few instrumental notes. One such animation involved the taller mouse holding what looked like a parade float likeness of himself, as it flies out of control and he flies around with it. Another shows the mouse walking with a blowtorch and mask on, but he doesn't know that the plug comes lose, so he angrily walks back.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: With the "TGIF" moniker permanently in place, more changes in presentation occurred as the lineup grew in popularity. On September 21, 1990, the animated mice opening and accompanying theme music were dropped from the Friday block, in favor of a new graphics package that officially incorporated the new "TGIF" name for the first time. With these new visuals came the "classic" "TGIF" theme (""It's Friday night/And the mood is right/Gonna have some fun/Show you how it's done, TGIF."").


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: For most of "TGIF"s run until the 1998–99 season, at least one series on the lineup was produced (and in some cases, developed) by the team of Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett, whose relationship with ABC traces back to the premiere of "Love, American Style" – produced by Miller and former producing partner Edward K. Milkis under a development deal with Paramount Television – in 1972. The first two series were "Perfect Strangers" and "Full House", both of which were produced through Miller-Boyett's development deal with Lorimar Television and aired on the network's Friday night schedule prior to the launch of "TGIF". (The latter premiered in September 1987 as part of the network's Friday schedule, while the former concurrently was moved from Wednesdays to Fridays that month.) In September 1989, "Family Matters" – a spin-off of "Perfect Strangers" originally centered solely on the family of Harriette Winslow, who began as a recurring character on its parent series, before becoming centered increasingly around the breakout character of Steve Urkel starting with its second season – joined the lineup.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: All four "TGIF" shows featured as part of the block's 1990–91 schedule were produced by Miller-Boyett, with "Perfect Strangers", "Family Matters" and "Full House" being joined by the short-lived "Going Places". Being a more adult-targeted entry in the 9:30/8:30 "TGIF" slot, "Going Places" initially lagged behind its sister shows; a mid-season retool, one that placed an equal emphasis on underage characters, improved ratings (although "Perfect Strangers" maintained a similar, virtually exclusive focus on adult characters even after moving to "TGIF"). "Going Places" was cancelled after one season in spite of its ratings increase, and was replaced in the 1991–92 season by "Baby Talk", a sitcom based on the film "Look Who's Talking". "Baby Talk" initially scored high ratings as a mid-season replacement on "TGIF" in the spring of 1991 (trying out in the "Going Places" time slot). In its second season, however, ratings collapsed. Also joining the lineup for the 1991–92 season was another Miller-Boyett series, the "Brady Bunch"-inspired "Step by Step" (a vehicle for Suzanne Somers and Patrick Duffy, whose cast also included former "Going Places" co-stars Staci Keanan and Christopher Castile), which went on to become a "TGIF" mainstay for the next six seasons. (The pickup of "Step by Step" as well as the renewal of "Baby Talk" resulted in "Full House" concurrently being moved off the "TGIF" lineup to lead ABC's Tuesday comedy block, alongside hit series "Roseanne" and "Coach" and freshman hit "Home Improvement".)


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: During the most successful years of "TGIF", the main characters of one of the Friday prime-time sitcoms would "host" the two-hour block of episodes for that week. Always in character, they would introduce each show and comment on the proceedings afterward. Sometimes, characters from a series that did not air on the Friday schedule would appear to host. For example, in January 1996, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Betsy Brantley and other stars from the short-lived drama "Second Noah" served as one-time-only guest hosts of "TGIF" as a cross promotion for the new Saturday series. Occasionally, the hosts for the evening would find a common thread between each show. During the fall seasons in the late 1980s and early 1990s, casts from various "TGIF" shows would host Saturday morning preview specials, which outlined much of new programs set to air on the Saturday morning fall schedule (after The Walt Disney Company began programming the network's Saturday morning lineup in 1997, following its prior acquisition of ABC, these preview specials were hosted for the remainer of "TGIF"s run by the hosts of "Disney's One Saturday Morning").


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: When "TGIF" officially launched, weekly promos for the lineup were voiced by actor and resident ABC announcer Robert Ridgely, who had mainly been voicing sitcom promos, including those for Fridays, for a few years before the brand was incorporated. Veteran television personality and announcer Gary Owens, who had been with ABC since 1985 as a primetime promo voiceover, became the sole announcer for weekly "TGIF" promotions beginning with the 1990–91 season. Owens remained as the "voice of "TGIF"" until the end of the 1994–95 season. Also during the 1990–91 season, "TGIF" was promoted with a series of trading cards featuring publicity shots featuring the stars of "Perfect Strangers", "Full House" and "Family Matters".


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: During the first few years of "TGIF", the host interstitials varied during the summer months. The regular hosting rotation continued with new segments during the summer of 1990, the final months of the "mice" motif. For the late spring and summer of 1991, ABC decided to relieve the "TGIF" stars of filming/taping segments from their respective sets. Instead, stars performed voiceovers for "TGIF Trivia", game-like segments made up of episode scenes and multiple-choice questions. The trivia quiz provided "A", "B" and "C" choices of events that the home viewer was supposed to choose from for a supposed "single" correct answer; in reality, all choices were correct in each round, as every scene featured was from an actual episode inclusion. Stars that narrated "TGIF Trivia" included Heather Locklear (of "Going Places"), Telma Hopkins (of "Family Matters"), Jodie Sweetin (of "Full House") and Melanie Wilson (of "Perfect Strangers").


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: For the late spring and summer of 1992, ABC ran a promotional contest that chose winners from around the country to host "TGIF" for a week from their own homes. Those that were chosen were instructed to videotape their own segments from home, giving commentary on the shows that would air on the week they were scheduled to be featured. Families, individuals, groups of friends, couples, and most prominently teenagers were among the winners.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: The voiceover narration format from "TGIF" stars returned for the late spring and summer of 1993. This time, however, a rotation of stars would simply voice previews over upcoming episode scenes. As with the "TGIF Trivia" format in 1991, a single star – among them, Brandon Call ("Step By Step") and Jo Marie Payton ("Family Matters") – would handle the duties each week. Payton, in particular, had the distinction of having one of the weeks she did segment narrations on August 6, 1993, when "Perfect Strangers" (where her "Family Matters" character Harriette Winslow originated) aired its series finale. From 1994 to 1999, original on-camera host segments returned to "TGIF" for the summer.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: In the spring of 1991, with "TGIF"s meteoric success, ABC president Bob Iger and Senior Vice President of Marketing of ABC Entertainment, Mark Zakaran appointed Jim Janicek to expand his branding work to other portions of the ABC entertainment schedule.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Janicek's first attempt to replicate the success of "TGIF" came in August 1991, when ABC launched a three-hour comedy block on Wednesday nights for the 1991–92 season. Loosely known as The Hump, via the tagline "Over the hump!" used in advertisements ("Three hours of non-stop laughs are guaranteed to get you over the hump!", "That'll get you over the hump!") and the use of a 1970s funk-flavored background jingle which chanted, "I've got to get over the hump", the format came complete with promos that used a special graphics scheme, differing from "TGIF" and ABC's nights of regular, non-concept based lineups. The concept title was another play on a popular catchphrase, in which Wednesday is typically referred to as "hump day" (being the middle of the work week, thus making it "over the hump" toward the weekend).


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: From August to September 1991, the formation of "The Hump" consisted of "The Wonder Years", "Growing Pains" (in the month leading to its move to Saturday nights), "Doogie Howser, M.D.", "Davis Rules" (which had been cancelled in May 1991), "Anything but Love" and "Married People" (both of which were cancelled in March 1991), which were all in summer reruns. For the new fall season, the lineup changed to feature "Dinosaurs" replacing "Growing Pains" at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, new sitcom "Sibs" at 9:30 p.m., and the new sitcom "Good & Evil" at 10:30 p.m. The sitcoms that aired between 9:30 and 11:00 ("Sibs", "Anything but Love" and "Good & Evil") were separately marketed from the first three programs on "The Hump" as "comedies made specifically for adults". The "adult" promos for "The Hump" exclusively featured the funk-styled song, whereas promos for the 8:00–9:30 p.m. shows, and the entire lineup in general, used the instrumental version of the 1991 jingle for ABC's "America's Watching" campaign. Unlike "TGIF" and its future one-off concept "I Love Saturday Night", "The Hump" did not use hosted interstitials or customized bumpers for the last commercial break of each show.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: With the cancellation of "Good & Evil" in late October, which the network claimed was entirely due to its low ratings in its 10:30 p.m. slot (although many advocacy groups claimed it was due to the controversy surrounding the defamatory portrayal of a blind character), along with the lackluster first-month ratings for "Sibs", ABC was convinced that the three-hour comedy block was a failure. The network opted to give the 10:00 p.m. slot on Wednesdays back to an hour-long drama, the upcoming legal series "Civil Wars", during November sweeps. "The Hump" concept aired for the last time on October 30, 1991, and ABC resumed promoting the Wednesday lineup in standard fashion. "Sibs" went on hiatus, and "Anything but Love" was moved back into its former 9:30 p.m. Eastern slot on Wednesdays. For the weeks of November 6 and 13, 1991, specials aired in the 10:00 p.m. slot, prior the premiere of "Civil Wars" on November 20.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: At the start of the 1991–92 season, Janicek also brought the hosted programming block format to Saturday mornings, under the title MCTV (More Cool TV). This title indicated that after "TGIF" on Friday nights, there was "more cool TV" just hours away on Saturday morning; this block ran from September 7, 1991 to January 23, 1993. Live-action stars of the network's Saturday morning lineup, most notably including the cast of ABC's "Land of the Lost" revival, hosted interstitials every half-hour. The "MCTV" segments at times were several seconds shorter than those shot for "TGIF". While an opening sequence and custom last-segment show bumpers were included, the theme music used was the instrumental version of ABC's 1991 "America's Watching" campaign. The latter music continued as a part of the "MCTV" scheme in its second year, despite ABC having launched the "It Must Be ABC" image campaign at that time.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Also notably airing on "MCTV" was the cartoon "Hammerman", whose star, MC Hammer, gave even more meaning to the Saturday morning lineup's moniker. Hammer himself appeared as host of "MCTV" on a few occasions. "Hammerman" was cancelled by the end of the 1991–92 season. In the fall of 1992, while the "MCTV" branding continued in use during the Saturday morning schedule, promos for the lineup no longer referenced the "More Cool TV" tagline.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Seeing how "TGIF" dominated prime time on Fridays in the face of typical decreased television viewership on that night, Janicek and company felt that the same marketing power could translate into success for Saturday night. Saturday, as an even heavier social night not spent at home by viewers in the 18–49 demographic, resulted in most networks airing shows with older demographics, those with family appeal, or programs faltering in the ratings on other nights (or in the most political cases, shows that a network no longer has confidence in). NBC had claimed dominant victory on Saturday nights throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, with an eclectic mix of family-themed shows and sophisticated comedies aimed at an older audience (such as "The Golden Girls", "227", "Amen" and "Empty Nest"). ABC, however, had continued to struggle on Saturday nights. Through the end of the 1990–91 television season, recent programs such as "The ABC Mystery Movie" and "China Beach" had experienced a quick death after moving to Saturdays, leading to such bold decisions as moving the nationwide phenomenon "Twin Peaks" to Saturday in order to shore up the lineup. After reformatting the Saturday night lineup for the 1991 fall schedule to include an hour of comedy followed by another established drama and a freshman drama, ABC announced plans for a Saturday "TGIF" offshoot to premiere at mid-season.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Titled I Love Saturday Night, it launched to provide a new night and time for three of ABC's aging sitcoms, "Who's the Boss?", "Growing Pains" (both of which had been comprising the Saturday 8:00–9:00 p.m. block since September 1991) and "Perfect Strangers" (which was still highly rated, but moved to Saturday to help the declining ratings of "Boss" and "Pains"). The newcomer that rounded out the lineup was the Steven Bochco cartoon "Capitol Critters". Premiering on February 1, 1992, the two-hour comedy block of "I Love Saturday Night" coincided with "The Young Riders", which had been airing Saturdays in the 9:00 p.m. Eastern hour, going on a three-month hiatus. Freshman dramedy "The Commish", meanwhile, remained at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: "I Love Saturday Night" was structured exactly like "TGIF", with hosts from each show rotating every week, down to its own set of branding graphics and a theme song. The intro to the lineup began with a red ABC logo encased inside an animated heart, which bounced around, and then off, the screen. Set against various-colored backgrounds (but most commonly blue), the lineup's title was then spelled out in the opening alongside views of animated suns, moons and palm trees. The theme song itself – with the lyrics "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y../ Saturday Night! / I Love Saturday / Saturday Night" – even had a calypso sound to it, with Jamaican-style male vocals. The last two lines of the theme were often sung over the show bumpers that led into the last commercial break of each show.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: The "I Love Saturday Night" lineup received heavy promotion, as ABC was valiantly trying to achieve any remaining life out of "Who's the Boss?" and "Growing Pains" especially. Those in the industry suspected that "Perfect Strangers" was moved to Saturdays not necessarily since it could have bolstered the lineup's performance, but because it was part of an ABC agenda to kill the series (ABC's explanation in its move from Fridays was that it did not fit the new "TGIF" demographic, ages 10–18). Saturday night on ABC, especially up against NBC's powerhouse lineup of the evening, seemed a surefire place to send even a popular show into considerable ratings decline. This is exactly what happened, as ratings during the entire February sweeps period were the lowest of the season for ABC that night (save for "The Commish", which had become successful in its first season), with "Perfect Strangers" experiencing the largest single-season ratings decline for a series. After five dismal weeks in the Nielsens, ABC had a rapid loss of faith in "I Love Saturday Night"; the branding concept for the Saturday lineup was used for the last time on February 29, 1992.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Cast members from all three of the live-action shows hosted "I Love Saturday Night" in rotation during the five-week run:


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: † "Capital Critters" and "Perfect Strangers" did not air on this night, although Pinchot and Linn-Baker did host. "The Jaleel White Special" aired from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m., followed by "Who's the Boss?" at 9:00 and "Growing Pains" in its regular 9:30 slot.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Beyond the quick demise of "I Love Saturday Night", the same lineup, more or less, continued on ABC for the remainder of the 1991–92 season. "Capital Critters" was cancelled in March; this caused the remaining three shows to switch slots in order to provide a choice time period for the "Head of the Class" spinoff "Billy", which moved to the lineup ("Billy" had previously been a part of "TGIF" from its January 31, 1992 premiere until March). "Boss" and "Pains", meanwhile, had announced the end of their runs in the spring of 1992, but both would remain on Saturdays until summer reruns. These shows aired their one-hour finales on Saturday, April 25, 1992, along with the series finale of "MacGyver", which aired on this night for one week only. Both "Perfect Strangers" and "Billy" would remain part of the lineup after "Boss" and "Pains" relocated.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Two new sitcoms premiered on Saturdays that spring and summer: "Julie", starring Julie Andrews (with a future "TGIF" star, eventual "Boy Meets World" cast member Rider Strong, as Andrews's stepson), and the David Lynch-produced comedy "On the Air". The failure of these programs, along with ABC's decision to not renew "Billy" for a second season and the announcement that "Perfect Strangers" was going on a long hiatus, marked the end of any attempt by ABC to program comedies or family fare on that night. ("The Commish" would run until 1996.) Once every few years, ABC would again try to program such shows on Saturday nights with no success. The lone exception in this case was "The Wonderful World of Disney", which ABC revived after it was bought by Disney and eventually moved to Saturday nights in 2003, where it ran until it was discontinued in 2008.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: On November 23, 1995, ABC scheduled a music special for "The Beatles Anthology". To promote the special on the previous Friday (November 17), the respective opening theme songs for all of the "TGIF" sitcoms were replaced with Beatles songs, regardless of the individual shows' plot with the exception of "Boy Meets World", which used a song by The Monkees as its theme that week (as the episode featured a guest appearance by the group's members).


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: On November 7, 1997, all four "TGIF" shows that night had a storyline (TGIF Time Machine, "Time Goes Insane Friday") in which Salem from "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" (voiced by Nick Bakay) caused the characters in each show to travel back to a different point in time – the result of the warlock-turned-anthropomorphic cat having swallowed a "time ball". On an episode of "Boy Meets World" aired the previous week (October 31), Melissa Joan Hart made a second cameo, as an aside, due to the episode in question ("The Witches of Pennbrook") featuring a plot involving a coven of witches being thwarted from taking the soul of supporting main character Jack Hunter (played by Matthew Lawrence); the cameo featured fellow main character Eric Matthews (Will Friedle) describing the event and swearing off witches, not realizing that Sabrina is one.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Musical group Hanson hosted "TGIF" on November 28, 1997 (Thanksgiving Weekend) in the lead-up to their special "Meet Hanson" at 9:30pm. Between each show, segments showed the group in the studio, "commanding" the shows to come on, and at one point even incorporating "TGIF" into their mega-hit song "MMMBop".


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: The Walt Disney Company purchased ABC corporate parent Capital Cities Communications in September 1995, and, after finalizing the sale the following year, began reshaping the network to its preferences beginning in 1997, refocusing its attention towards programming toward teenagers and adult audiences. After a couple years with nearly exactly the same lineup, ABC finally changed things up on Friday night to jump start the fading TGIF lineup. They did it by putting "Step by Step" and "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" on the back burner and launching two new shows that were bookended by popular veterans like "Family Matters" and "Boy Meets World". First up was "Sabrina the Teenage Witch": a fantasy sitcom starring Melissa Joan Hart (based on the Archie comic book character), who had made her name on Nickelodeon earlier in the 1990s. As being a breakout hit, it was the most successful Friday launched by ABC since "Boy Meets World" three years earlier and helped breathe new life into the lineup. It was a buzzy show among ABC's target audience for the night and fit nicely with other teen-centered shows. The other new show was "Clueless", which was based on a hit movie of the same name and starring many of the same cast members. This was the more anticipated on ABC's two new shows on Fridays but it wasn't as successful as "Sabrina the Teenage Witch". ABC pulled it in February and cancelled it at the end of the season. When "Clueless" was pulled off the schedule, it was replaced by "Step by Step". ("Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" didn't make it on the air until the summer when it was burned off on Saturday nights.) As a result of the overhaul to a new audience, longtime "TGIF" staples "Family Matters" and "Step by Step" – both of which had been experiencing steadily declining ratings for the past few seasons, with the latter having its sixth season delayed until the spring of 1997 to accommodate freshman sitcom "Clueless" (based on and created by the writer/director of the 1995 film of the same name) on the block's 1996–97 lineup – were cancelled. ("Clueless" was also cancelled by ABC despite good ratings, only to be picked up for two more seasons by UPN.) The former two would be revived by CBS, where they would serve as the linchpins for a new, competing block airing on the same night, the "CBS Block Party". That block, which aired during the 1997–98 season, failed with both the lineup and all four of its shows (including "The Gregory Hines Show" and another Miller-Boyett series that joined "Family Matters" and "Step by Step", the Bronson Pinchot vehicle "Meego") only lasting one season.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Due to the mega-hit success of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", ABC thought they'd surround it and "Boy Meets World" with other supernatural-themed shows for "the new TGIF". Two more sitcoms to replace "Family Matters" and "Step by Step": "You Wish", a show created and produced by "Boy Meets World" creator Michael Jacobs about a genie living with a family; and "Teen Angel", about a teenager who dies and returns to Earth as his best friend's guardian angel. The problem was that these shows were not endearing as so many successful TGIF shows had been for years, and failed with the critics and audiences, even with the return of Maureen McCormick (formerly Marcia Brady) and the addition of established sitcom star Jerry Van Dyke (who, unusually, had supporting roles on both new shows) to ABC Friday nights. ABC's "TGIF" lineup began to experience sagging ratings during the 1997-98 season in part due to the audience fracture from the "Block Party", which was enough to hurt "TGIF" even though the competing CBS block itself was a failure. Popular programs such as "Boy Meets World" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" started experiencing declining rating due strong competition from CBS's "Kids Say the Darndest Things", "Candid Camera" (successful follow-up replacements to the ill-fated CBS Block Party) and "Dateline NBC"; after eight years: ABC was no longer the top network on Friday nights. The new shows joined the lineup (both supernatural/fantasy-themed comedies designed to mesh with "Sabrina" on the lineup) lasted only a season (or less) before they were cancelled. "You Wish" was pulled in November while "Teen Angel" lasted until February. Save for a two-week run of "Hiller and Diller", ABC simply aired repeats of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Boy Meets World" for the rest of that season (at 8:00pm and 9:30pm respectively, before their new episodes). As part of a network-wide rebranding toward a simplified graphics package, ABC retired the traditional "TGIF" logo and phased out the theme song.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: After a horrible 1997–98 season, The 1998–99 season saw two promising shows in "Two of a Kind" (a starring vehicle for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) and "Brother's Keeper". The network thought that the return of the "Olsen Twins" to ABC would do the trick so they launched the new sitcom in the 8pm slot. "Two of a Kind" ended up being a disappointment. After "Boy Meets World" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" was "Brother's Keeper", a freshman "Odd Couple" themed sitcom about brothers. Both shows had respectable ratings throughout the season, but was cancelled in spring 1999; marking the second year in a row that both new shows added to the lineup had failed. With the ratings for "Boy Meets World" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" continuing to fall, the end was in sight for the original TGIF.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: What would become the final season (1999–2000) of "TGIF"s original run saw additional changes: the hosting segments and skits were officially dropped, the TGIF name was only used for the promos and bumpers (becoming an unnamed block on Friday's), sophomore series "The Hughleys" moved from Tuesdays to Fridays, while the new comedy "Odd Man Out" (a vehicle for then-rising teen actor Erik Von Detten) joined the lineup aftered being heavily promoted in the summer of 1999 as a last ditch effort to save the dying block. In March, ABC launched "Making the Band" (to replace "Odd Man Out") in the midst of the boy band craze from the late 1990s and early 2000s. The show featured eventual convict and boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman putting together a boy band that became O-Town and had a couple successful songs. All four sitcoms that ABC aired on Fridays that season experienced varied fates: "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "The Hughleys" were both cancelled by the network and revived by The WB and UPN, respectively; "Boy Meets World" voluntarily ended its run after seven successful seasons; and "Odd Man Out" was cancelled outright by January 2000.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: The final night of new programming was on May 5, 2000, which featured the hour-long series finale of "Boy Meets World", followed by what was billed as "ABC's series finale" of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" (as it had just been picked up by The WB), which was also expanded to one hour. Repeats of both series continued throughout the summer, with "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" continuing to air in reruns until August 25, 2000 and "Boy Meets World" continuing to air reruns until September 8, 2000 (when ABC aired the first and only original network rerun of that show's series finale) along with the finale of mid-season reality music competition series "Making the Band" (which was later revived on MTV in 2002, after ABC cancelled it). ABC retired the "TGIF" brand shortly thereafter.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: In September 2000, ABC relaunched its Friday sitcom block under the Working Comedy banner for the 2000–01 season: the block featured fading comedies "Two Guys and a Girl" and "Norm", and freshman sitcoms "The Trouble With Normal" and "Madigan Men", which underperformed. This lineup only lasted one year, with all four shows being cancelled by the end of the season ("The Trouble with Normal" lasted only five episodes; its replacement, the found-humor filler "Dot Comedy", was pulled after only one). ABC then opted to running dramas and reality shows such as "The Mole" (which only lasted three weeks). By then, Friday nights were the second-weakest night of the week for television viewership (behind Saturdays), with only a few shows receiving attention, such as CBS's "", which premiered on Friday (in contrast to the other major broadcast networks, CBS has maintained strong ratings for its Friday evening programming for the most part since then). This meant that for the first time since the 1988-1989 television season, ABC promoted Friday night lineups in a standard fashion between 2001 and 2003.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: In the summer of 2001, Disney acquired Fox Family from News Corporation and Saban Entertainment, renaming the channel ABC Family. Disney head Michael Eisner hoped to use ABC Family to repurpose ABC network shows. To meet that end, he decided to revive the "TGIF" block on ABC Family to create additional revenue for ABC's family sitcoms. This effort hit a roadblock due to the fact that ABC did not own the syndication rights to all of its programs. As such, the "new" ABC Family "TGIF" block, which debuted on March 1, 2002, consisted of the recently acquired dramedy "State of Grace", in addition to reruns of ABC's "According to Jim" and, unusual for what was meant to be a sitcom block, repeats of the drama "Alias". Due to poor advertising sales, complaints from ABC affiliates, and show producers concerned that the new block would hurt syndication revenue, ABC Family's "TGIF" was pulled after a few short weeks.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: "TGIF" returned to ABC on September 26, 2003; the relaunched block received heavy promotion in advance, including a promo spot employing the Village People pop tune "YMCA" (sung as "T-G-I-F"), featuring all the casts of all four family comedies seated on a living-room couch. The initial lineup for the revived "TGIF" featured returning comedies "George Lopez" and "Life with Bonnie", and freshmen series "Married to the Kellys" and "Hope & Faith" (the latter serving as a starring vehicle for Kelly Ripa). That season's lineup met with only moderate success, seeing a consistent second- or third-place showing against a popular CBS drama lineup that included "Joan of Arcadia" and "JAG".


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Alex Trebek briefly served as host and spokesman for the block, but for the majority of the "TGIF" revival, the block aired without a host – thereby differing from the concept of the original 1989 to 2000 version. "Hope & Faith" was the only show from the previous season that remained on the Friday lineup for the 2004–05 season ("George Lopez" was moved to ABC's Tuesday comedy block, before being shifted back to its original night of Wednesday; while "Life with Bonnie" and "Married to the Kellys" were both cancelled), with "8 Simple Rules" moving from Tuesdays to anchor the lineup, joined by freshman comedy "Complete Savages" and returning workplace sitcom "Less Than Perfect" (transplanted from Wednesdays).


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: By early 2005, ABC had stopped actively promoting the "TGIF" name. The network discontinued the "TGIF" block for the second time on September 16, 2005; this came despite CBS's cancellations of both "Joan" and "JAG" in May 2005. For the 2005–06 season, "Hope & Faith" continued to air on Friday nights (before moving to Tuesdays, where it ended its run after three seasons amid low ratings opposite Fox powerhouse "American Idol"), while "Less Than Perfect" was renewed as a midseason replacement (returning in April 2006, joining "Hope & Faith" on Tuesdays, where it met the same fate).


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: In recent years, Friday nights on ABC have been primarily used to air reality programs (such as "Shark Tank"), occasional encores of the network's dramas and comedies, and ABC News human interest programming (such as "Primetime: What Would You Do?"). "20/20" remains a stalwart of the Friday night schedule to end the evening.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Those "TGIF" series that had reached, or come close to, the 100 episodes necessary to be syndicated were offered to local stations for a time period, after which they were sold to cable channels. Disney Channel aired re-runs of "Boy Meets World" from 2000 to 2007 and briefly in 2014 (with select episodes from later seasons – particularly, seasons 5-7 – being edited and three other episodes being banned altogether due to mature subject matter) – the latter instance was part of a programming stunt to promote its sequel series, "Girl Meets World", focusing on the children of the earlier sitcom's principal characters Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence-Matthews (and airing in the same Friday night time slot as its predecessor). ABC and Disney Channel sister network ABC Family has rebroadcast episodes of "Boy Meets World" (2004–2007 and since April 2010), "Full House" (2003–2012, and briefly during 2013), "Step by Step" (2001–2010), "Family Matters" (2003–2009), "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" (2007–2011) and "8 Simple Rules" (2007–2014).


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: MTV2 also airs "Boy Meets World" (since 2011) through a separate syndication deal; since 2016, it has shared its rights to "Boy Meets World" with TeenNick, which uses the series as a lead-in to its own 1990s block, "The Splat". Nick at Nite has aired "Full House" (2003–2009, 2010–2011 and 2012-2021), "Family Matters" (2009–2013) and "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" (2014–2015). Ion Television, before its transition to a lineup of all dramas, ran "Perfect Strangers" (only during October 2007) and "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" (2007–2008). Prior to its replacement by Discovery Family in October 2014, the Hub Network also aired "Step by Step" and "Sister, Sister" (which only spent a brief portion of its original ABC run as part of the "TGIF" block) for several months that year.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: On July 27, 2017, Hulu and Warner Bros. Television (whose parent company owns a 10% share of the service through Turner Broadcasting System) announced that Hulu would acquire the digital rights to the library of series owned by Warner, that originally aired on the block; this includes the block's most popular shows, such as "Family Matters", "Full House", "Perfect Strangers", and "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper". Notable shows not included are "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" (owned by CBS Television Distribution) and "Dinosaurs" and "Boy Meets World" (both owned by Disney-ABC Home Entertainment & Television Distribution).


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: On May 15, 2012 (during the upfronts unveiling its 2012–13 schedule), ABC announced the return of family-oriented comedies to its Friday night schedule starting that November, by pairing "Last Man Standing" and freshman sitcom "Malibu Country" together from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, along with returning shows "Shark Tank" and "20/20". The "TGIF" name was not revived, however, with the hour being advertised as "ABC Comedy Friday" for that season. "Happy Endings" moved to the 8:00 p.m. hour (with back-to-back original episodes) on Fridays on March 29 after "Last Man Standing" and "Malibu Country" ended their respective seasons; that move was effectively criticized as a burn-off maneuver due to both the double-episode scheduling and ABC choosing not to renew "Happy Endings" (which had been suffering from declining ratings in its previous Tuesday slot earlier that season) for a fourth season two months later.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Due partly to the continued strength of "Shark Tank" and "20/20" (and to a somewhat lesser degree, "Last Man Standing"), ABC became a challenger for CBS's usual dominance on Friday nights starting with the 2012–13 season. However, the successes of "Last Man Standing" and "Shark Tank" on in their respective Friday slots did not do much to help shore up ratings for the comedies slotted between them in the 8:30 p.m. Eastern time slot, all of which struggled and were eventually cancelled. The one-hour family comedy block returned for the 2013–14 season, with sophomore series "The Neighbors" joining "Last Man Standing", where the former floundered. Another freshman comedy, "Cristela" (a starring vehicle for co-creator Cristela Alonzo), joined "Last Man Standing" on Fridays for the 2014–15 season, only to also be cancelled after the conclusion of its first season. Yet another sitcom, "Dr. Ken" (a star vehicle for former doctor turned stand-up comic Ken Jeong), joined "Last Man Standing" on the block for the 2015–16 season. (Of the four sitcoms paired with "Last Man Standing" on Fridays, "Dr. Ken" was the only series that returned for an additional season, getting a second season renewal for the 2016–17 season.)


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: Both "Dr. Ken" and "Last Man Standing" were canceled in May 2017, with their Friday stablemate "Shark Tank" being moved to Sundays for the 2017–18 fall season. The changes culminated in ABC choosing to revamp its Friday night lineup – despite continued strong ratings for "Last Man Standing" and "Shark Tank" in their respective slots – to focus on drama series, with ABC filling the first two hours of its Friday lineup with returning series "Once Upon a Time" and freshman Marvel superhero drama "Inhumans" for the 2017–18 season. (In the case of "Last Man Standing", its cancellation was cited as being due to the expiration of a contract between 20th Century Fox Television and ABC, in which 20th Century Fox Television covered the show's production costs, after ABC declined to negotiate license fees to prevent it from having to handle production costs going forward.)


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: ABC paid homage to the "TGIF" phrase and branding when it began marketing its Thursday night lineup for the 2014–15 season, consisting entirely of dramas created by Shonda Rhimes ("Grey's Anatomy", "Scandal" and freshman drama "How to Get Away with Murder"), as "TGIT" (Thank God It's Thursday); other than the similarity in name and both airing on the same network, the two blocks are in no way related, and due to their completely divergent parental ratings, meant for different audiences. Station 19 joined TGIT when that show premiered in 2018.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: After experiencing mediocre ratings on Fridays, ABC made several programming moves that resulted in the discontinuance of its Friday drama block after one season. In February 2018, ABC announced that "Once Upon a Time" (which had been experiencing declining viewership throughout its run, with its most noted declines taking place since its fifth season) would end after seven seasons. That May, the network cancelled "Inhumans" after one season, while giving another Marvel series, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." (which replaced "Inhumans" for the 2018 midseason), a sixth season renewal for the network's summer 2019 schedule.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: For its 2018-2019 schedule, ABC announced it bring back comedies to the Friday night slot, with the lineup consisting of returning family sitcoms "Fresh Off the Boat" and "Speechless", along with the game show "Child Support" (which experienced decent viewership for its inaugural season in the winter of early 2018). In July 2018, ABC confirmed that the block would reinstate the "TGIF" name when the lineup debuts on October 5. Unlike the previous incarnations, the block will only consist of an hour of sitcoms, as "Child Support" (which maintains some comedic elements) will occupy the 9:00 p.m. hour. The first promo debuted during "Fresh off the Boat" on August 10, 2018, featuring new graphics and using an updated version of the 1994–96 variant of the block's original theme. In a twist, "Last Man Standing" – which was picked up by Fox for a seventh season after a one-year sabbatical – competed against the "TGIF" block, leading off an hour-long comedy block (Fox's first attempt at airing sitcoms on Fridays since a short-lived effort in the fall of 2009) called FOX Funny Friday, airing in the same time slot that ABC carried it for most of its original run. For its season premiere, the child casts from "Fresh of the Boat" and "Speechless" hosted the lineup: the segments were in the middle of the shows, including the outro.


title: TGIF (TV programming block)

text: For the 2019 season, the block was reduced to one hour, as "20/20" has made its new two-hour format permanent. In September 2019, the TGIF name was once again retired, no longer being mentioned in promos and bumpers, with the block being referred as to "ABC Friday Night;" the remaining sitcoms were dropped by spring 2020 in favor of the returning "Shark Tank".


title: The Gideons International

text: Gideons International is an Evangelical Christian association for men founded in 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin. The Gideons' primary activity, along with their wives in the Auxiliary, is "encouraging each other to do the work of the Lord, focusing on who they are before God, and strengthening the power of their personal testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ". They are most recognized for distributing copies of Scripture free of charge, paid for by freewill offerings from local churches and from members themselves. This Bible distribution is a worldwide enterprise taking place in around 200 countries, territories and possessions. The association's members focus on distributing complete Bibles, New Testaments, or portions thereof. These copies are printed in over 108 languages. The association is most widely known for its Bibles placed in lodging rooms. The Gideons also distribute to hospitals and other medical offices, schools (usually in first year) and colleges, military bases, as well as jails and prisons. The association was named after the Biblical figure Gideon depicted in Judges 6.


title: The Gideons International

text: In 1908, the Gideons began distributing free Bibles. The first Bibles were placed in rooms of the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. Members of The Gideons International currently average distribution of over 70 million Bibles annually. On average, more than two copies of the Bible are distributed per second through Gideons International. As of April 2015, Gideons International has distributed over two billion Bibles.


title: The Gideons International

text: The organization began in the Fall of 1898, when two traveling salesmen, John H. Nicholson of Janesville, Wisconsin, and Samuel E. Hill of Beloit, Wisconsin, met in a hotel room they shared at the Central House Hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin, and discussed the formation of an association. In May 1899, the two met again in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where they decided the goal of their association would be to unite traveling salesmen for evangelism. In July 1899, Nicholson, Hill, and Will J. Knights met at the YMCA in Janesville. Two of them continued with the distribution of the Bibles. Gideons began distributing free Bibles, the work they are most known for, in 1908, when the first Bibles were placed in the rooms of the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana.


title: The Gideons International

text: "Gideon was a man who was willing to do exactly what God wanted him to do, regardless of his own judgment as to the plans or results. Humility, faith, and obedience were his great elements of character. This is the standard that The Gideons International is trying to establish in all its members, each man to be ready to do God's will at any time, at any place, and in any way that the Holy Spirit leads."


title: The Gideons International

text: In keeping with this symbolism, the symbol of the Gideons is a two-handled pitcher and torch recalling Gideon's victory over the Midianites as described in Judges, Chapter 7.


title: The Gideons International

text: Membership in The Gideons International generally consists of current or retired business or professional men (except clergy) aged 21 or older who are members in good standing of an evangelical or Protestant church, and adhere to the core spiritual beliefs of the organization. Wives of Gideons may similarly join the Auxiliary of The Gideons International.


title: The Gideons International

text: In addition to their well-known hotel room Bibles, members of The Gideons International also distribute Bibles to members of the military of various countries, to hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, MPs and students.


title: The Gideons International

text: The covers of the New Testaments distributed by Gideons are color-coded based on which groups they are meant for:


title: The Gideons International

text: During World War II there were Military Issued New Testaments, brown for Army and blue for Navy distributed by the Gideons. In addition to the Desert Camouflage and the Digital Camouflage, there are also Woodland Camouflage editions for the Military.


title: The Gideons International

text: The distribution of Bibles on public school grounds has been an issue because of the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the Establishment Clause in the Constitution. Five Supreme Court cases discuss this issue: "Everson", "McCollum", "Zorach", "Engel", and "Schempp".


title: The Gideons International

text: In 2008, Americans United for Separation of Church and State brought suit against the South Iron R-1 School District in Missouri for allowing the Gideons to distribute Bibles during class time. In 2009, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld a lower court ruling that found the South Iron district's distribution of Bibles to the schoolchildren in their classrooms was unconstitutional. An "attorney representing the South Iron School District in Annapolis, Mo., said the decision allows a new policy to finally be implemented, one that allows any group to hand out literature at the rural district, including information on how children can obtain Bibles."


title: The Gideons International

text: The Gideons International continues to contact youth in America through The Life Book, coordinating with churches and their youth to distribute copies of the Bible in high schools. The Alliance Defending Freedom, as of 2013, maintains that there are "constitutionally permissible ways in which Gideons Bibles may be distributed," and attorneys Rory Gray and Jeremy Tedesco write that the Alliance Defending Freedom sent letters to 174 school districts in Kentucky stating: "Federal caselaw overwhelmingly supports the decision to grant religious and non-religious community groups an equal opportunity to provide literature to willing students." In early 2014, the "Gideons International again distributed Bibles at a public elementary school in Kentucky."


title: The Gideons International

text: The band Clutch references the Gideons in their 2004 song "Profits of Doom" on their album "Blast Tyrant"


title: Lettice Knollys

text: Lettice Knollys ( , sometimes latinized as Laetitia, alias Lettice Devereux or Lettice Dudley), Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester (8 November 1543 – 25 December 1634), was an English noblewoman and mother to the courtiers Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Lady Penelope Rich. By her second marriage to Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, she incurred the Queen's unrelenting displeasure.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: A grandniece of Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn, and close to Elizabeth since childhood, Lettice Knollys was introduced early into court life. At 17 she married Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, who in 1572 became Earl of Essex. After her husband went to Ireland in 1573, she possibly became involved with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. There was plenty of scandalous talk, not least when Essex died in Ireland of dysentery in 1576. Two years later Lettice Knollys married Robert Dudley in private. When the Queen was told of the marriage, she banished the Countess forever from court, effectively curtailing her social life. The couple's child, Robert, Lord Denbigh, died at the age of three, to the great grief of his parents and ending all prospects for the continuance of the House of Dudley. Lettice Knollys' union with Leicester was nevertheless a happy one, as was her third marriage to the much younger Sir Christopher Blount, whom she unexpectedly married in 1589 only six months after the Earl's death. She continued to style herself Lady Leicester.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: The Countess was left rich under Leicester's will; yet the discharge of his overwhelming debts diminished her wealth. In 1604–1605 she successfully defended her widow's rights in court when her possessions and her good name were threatened by the Earl's illegitimate son, Robert Dudley, who claimed that he was his father's legitimate heir, thus implicitly declaring her marriage bigamous. Lettice Knollys was always close to her large family circle. Helpless at the political eclipse of her eldest son, the second Earl of Essex, she lost both him and her third husband to the executioner in 1601. From the 1590s she lived chiefly in the Staffordshire countryside, where, in reasonably good health until the end, she died at age 91 on Christmas Day 1634.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: Lettice Knollys was born on 8 November 1543 at Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire. Her father, Sir Francis Knollys, was a Member of Parliament and acted as Master of the Horse to Prince Edward. Her mother, Catherine Carey, was a daughter of Mary Boleyn, sister to Anne Boleyn. Thus Catherine was Elizabeth I's first cousin, and Lettice Knollys her first cousin once removed. Lettice was the third of her parents' 16 children.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: Sir Francis and his wife were Protestants. In 1556 they went to Frankfurt in Germany to escape religious persecution under Queen Mary I, taking five of their children with them. It is unknown whether Lettice was among them, and she may have passed the next few years in the household of Princess Elizabeth, with whom the family had a close relationship since the mid-1540s. Her parents and the remainder of the family returned to England in January 1559, two months after Elizabeth I's succession. Francis Knollys was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household; Lady Knollys became a senior Lady of the Bedchamber, and her daughter Lettice a Maid of the Privy Chamber.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: In late 1560 Lettice Knollys married Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford. The couple lived at the family seat of Chartley in Staffordshire. Here the two eldest of their five children, the daughters Penelope and Dorothy, were born in 1563 and 1564, respectively. Lettice Devereux returned to court on at least one occasion, in the summer of 1565, when the Spanish ambassador Diego Guzmán de Silva described her as "one of the best-looking ladies of the court" and as a favourite with the Queen. Pregnant with her first son, she flirted with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the Queen's favourite. The Queen found out at once and succumbed to a fit of jealousy. The Viscountess went back to Staffordshire where, in November 1565, she gave birth to Robert, later 2nd Earl of Essex. Two more sons followed: Walter, who was born in 1569, and Francis, who died soon after birth at an unknown date.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: Walter Devereux was raised to the earldom of Essex in 1572. In 1573 he successfully suggested to the Queen a project to plant Englishmen in Ulster. In the autumn he went to Ireland, not to return for two years. During this time Lettice Devereux possibly engaged in a love-affair with the Earl of Leicester; her whereabouts in the following years are largely unknown, though. In 1573 Leicester sent her a present of venison at Chartley from his seat Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, and she made hunting visits to Kenilworth in 1574 and 1576. She was also present in July 1575 when Dudley entertained the Queen with a magnificent 19-days festival at the castle. Elizabeth and the court (including the Earl of Leicester) then progressed to Chartley, where they were welcomed by the Countess of Essex.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: When Walter Devereux returned to England in December 1575, the Spanish agent in London, Antonio de Guaras, reported:As the thing is publicly talked of in the streets, there can be no harm in my writing openly about the great enmity between the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex, in consequence, it is said, of the fact that while Essex was in Ireland his wife had two children by Leicester. ... Great discord is expected in consequence.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: These rumours were elaborated on years later in "Leicester's Commonwealth", a Catholic underground libel against the Protestant Earl of Leicester that satirically detailed his alleged enormities. Here the Countess of Essex, after having a daughter by Leicester, kills a second child "cruelly and unnaturally" by abortion to prevent her homecoming husband from discovering her affair. There is no evidence that any such children ever existed.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: The Earl of Essex returned to Ireland in July 1576. At Dublin, he died of dysentery on 22 September during an epidemic, bemoaning the "frailness of women" in his last words. Rumours of poison, administered by Leicester, immediately sprang up and continued, notwithstanding an official investigation which concluded that Essex had died of natural causes. His body was carried over to Carmarthen, where his widow attended the funeral.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: The Countess' jointure, the lands left to her under her husband's will, was too little to live by and did not comprise Chartley, so that she and her children had to seek accommodation elsewhere. She partly lived in her father's house at Rotherfield Greys, but also with friends; "Leicester's Commonwealth" claimed that Leicester had her move "up and down the country from house to house by privy ways". She pleaded for an augmentation of her jointure with the authorities and, to reach a compromise with the late Earl's executors, threatened "by some froward advice" to claim her dower rights. These would have amounted to one third of the Devereux estate. After seven months of wrangling, she reached a more satisfactory settlement, the Countess declaring to be "content to respect my children more than myself". She equally—though unsuccessfully—tried to move the Queen to forgive Essex' debts to the Crown, which very much burdened the inheritance of her son, the young Earl of Essex.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: Lettice Knollys married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester on 21 September 1578 at around seven o'clock in the morning. Only six other people were present at the Earl's country house of Wanstead Hall in Essex; among these were the bride's father and brother, Francis and Richard Knollys; the bridegroom's brother, Ambrose, Earl of Warwick; and his two friends, the Earl of Pembroke and Lord North. The officiating chaplain Humphrey Tyndall later remarked that the bride wore a "loose gown" (an informal morning dress), which has triggered modern speculation that she was pregnant and that the ceremony happened under pressure from her father. The marriage was, however, in planning between Leicester and his wedding guests for almost a year. While Lettice Devereux may well have been pregnant, there is no further indication as to this. The marriage date coincided with the end of the customary two-years-mourning for a widow.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: Leicester—a widower since 1560—had for many years been in hope of marrying Elizabeth herself, "for whose sake he had hitherto forborne marriage", as he confessed to Lord North. He feared Elizabeth's reaction and insisted that his marriage be kept a secret. It did not remain one for long, the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau, reporting it two months later. When the Queen was told of the marriage the next year, she banished Lettice Dudley permanently from court; she never forgave her cousin, nor could she ever accept the marriage. Even Lady Leicester's movements through London were resented by the Queen, let alone summer visits to Kenilworth by husband and wife.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: Lettice Dudley continued to style herself Countess of Essex for several years into her new marriage. She lived very discreetly, often with her relatives at the Knollys family home in Oxfordshire. In February 1580 she was expecting the birth of a child there. For the birth of Leicester's heir, Robert, Lord Denbigh, in June 1581, she moved to Leicester House on the Strand. A further advanced pregnancy was reported in September 1582 by the French ambassador, yet the outcome is again unknown. The next year Lettice Dudley became officially resident at Leicester House, and Elizabeth was once again furious with the Earl "about his marriage, for he opened the same more plainly than ever before". A few weeks later Michel de Castelnau was a guest at Leicester's palatial mansion: "He especially invited me to dine with him and his wife, who has much influence over him and whom he introduces only to those to whom he wishes to show a particular mark of attention."


title: Lettice Knollys

text: Robert Dudley had been close to the Knollys family since the early 1550s; several of Lettice's brothers had been in his service, and his marriage only enhanced his relations with her siblings. To his four stepchildren he was a concerned and generous stepfather. The Dudleys' domestic life is partly documented in the Earl's accounts. Lettice Dudley financed her personal expenses and servants out of her revenue as Dowager Countess of Essex, and remained largely excluded from society life.


title: Lettice Knollys

text: The three-year-old Lord Denbigh died suddenly on 19 July 1584 at Wanstead. His death shattered the hopes of a dynasty for the House of Dudley. Leicester stayed away from his court duties for a few weeks "to comfort my sorrowful wife for the loss of my little son, whom God has lately taken from us." He also thanked Lord Burghley for—unsuccessfully—pleading with the Queen "on behalf of my poor wife. For truly my Lord, in all reason she is hardly dealt with."


title: Lettice Knollys

text: In 1585 Leicester led an English expedition to assist the rebellious United Provinces against Spain. He incurred Elizabeth's wrath when he accepted the title of Governor-General in January 1586. What had especially kindled her fury was a tale that the Countess of Leicester was planning to follow her husband to the Netherlands "with such a train of ladies, and gentlewomen, and such rich coaches, litters, and side-saddles, as Her Majesty had none, and that there should be such a court of ladies, as should far pass Her Majesty's court here." Thomas Dudley, who informed Leicester about these events, stressed that "this information" was "most false". At this same time the Earl was giving his wife authority to handle certain land issues during his absence, implying they had no plans to meet in Holland. William Davison, whom Leicester had sent to explain his doings to the Queen, described a visit to the Countess during the crisis: "I found her greatly troubled with tempestuous news she received from court, but somewhat comforted when she understood how I had proceeded with Her Majesty."


title: Lettice Knollys

text: The Earl returned to England in December 1586, but was sent again to the Netherlands in the following June—to the grief of his wife, as the young Earl of Essex remarked in a letter. Leicester eventually resigned his post in December 1587. The Countess was with him when he died unexpectedly, possibly of malaria, on 4 September 1588 at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire; they had been on their way to Kenilworth and Buxton. The Earl's funeral at Warwick in October 1588 was attended by his widow as well as numerous members of her family circle.