TV Tuesday S01E04: FRIDAYS!

In April 1980, the late-night comedy show known as Fridays premiered "live from the Los Angeles basin" featuring the cast of players above with Kenny Loggins as the first musical guest.  More of a fraternal twin to Saturday Night Live than an identical one, Fridays actually topped SNL in the ratings a few times before ultimately being cancelled after 58 episodes over three seasons.

Writer Dennis Perrin did a wonderful write-up of the show's brief history back in January 2012 on splitsider.com, including possible reasons why Fridays has never been released on home video. On a personal note, Fridays arrived at a pivotal time in young HERC's life - the transition from junior high to high school - he has nothing but fond memories of the show's many recurring characters and musical guests, which shaped his sense of humor and musical tastes, respectively.  The show was also the starting point of a weekend full of music on TV for HERC:

Fridays
Fridays immediately followed by The Midnight Special

Saturdays
Amercian Bandstand then Soul Train then America's Top 10 with Casey Kasem followed much later by Saturday Night Live

Sundays
Solid Gold

HERC liked the show so much he joined the offical fan club and got a sweet 3/4 sleeve tee with the show's logo - it is still somewhere here at The Hideaway.  Fast-forward 25 years and HERC stumbles across a collector online, selling Fridays on DVD - the episodes are transferred from VHS recordings so the quality is not that great - but as they say "a little is better than nada".  And there is an entire disc of just the musical performances from the show.  

In January 2013, Shout! Factory announced they had acquired the rights to release Fridays on home video but gave no release date.  The company had previously liberated HERC's second all-time favorite show from studio vaults when they released Freaks and Geeks in 2004.

Earlier this month, the company issued a press release: the Best Of Fridays five disc box set, streeting August 6th with an MSRP of $39.99 although it can be pre-ordered at Amazon for only $29.99.  Based on the other details announced, including celebrity hosts and musical guests, it is possible to deduce what at least nine of the sixteen episodes included in the set will be:

Season One [1980]

episode 03 - The Clash

episode 08 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

episode 10 - Graham Parker and the Rumour

Season Two [1980-1981]

episode 19 - Sir Douglas Quintet

episode 20 - Randy Meisner and the Silverados

Season Three [1981-1982]

episode 01 - Pretenders

episode 02 - Kim Carnes

episode 12 - The Cars

episode 15 - KISS

Devo is also mentioned in the press release but which one (or more?!) of their three appearances (one in each of the show's seasons) will make the set?

Season One

episode 06

Season Two

episode 08

Season Three



episode 03

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have any and or all of these performances in high quality like that Kiss clip?

Share your Fridays memories in the comments.