Why U2 Never Appeared On ABC's TGIF After Being Advertised
In the late '80s and '90s, ABC ran a Friday night lineup known as TGIF. With hit sitcoms like "Boy Meets World" and "Step by Step" on the roster, millions of viewers tuned in every week. At one point in 1997, rock legends U2 were even scheduled to crash the block — but they backed out at the very last second.
The man who invented TGIF, ABC's on-air promo writer-producer Jim Janicek, told Entertainment Weekly that the network once hatched a plan to shoot live promos at the launch of U2's PopMart Tour in Las Vegas. To anchor the crossover event, ABC tapped "Boy Meets World" star Danielle Fishel for the gig, and control rooms in New York and Los Angeles were all set to beam the Irish quartet straight into living rooms across the country. So, what went wrong? As it turns out, the globe-touring stadium rockers pulled the plug due to a classic case of stage fright.
"We had made an agreement to get Bono and the Edge on camera with us during TGIF," Janicek recalled to EW. "We're standing there in the green room with Winona Ryder next to us, and we meet Bono and Edge and then they tell us, 'We're so nervous about what we have to do with the show that we can't do this with you right now.'"
Danielle Fishel had to improvise and host the TGIF segment without U2
Because the network had already heavily hyped the appearance, the crew found themselves in a real jam. "We were like, 'What?' We had promoted it and we're like, 'We're gonna look like we got our pants down here,'" Janicek admitted to Entertainment Weekly. Rather than giving up, though, Janicek and Fishel had to scramble and cook something else up — with or without the band. During an interview with The Flaming Nose, Janicek was asked about the wildest moments of his career; he shared that he and Fishel "had to wing an entire night of TGIF LIVE from the stands of a U2 POP Tour Concert in Las Vegas" after Bono and The Edge bailed.
"Danielle and I and our camera crews ran to the top of the stadium, turned around the cameras and filmed back down [on] this huge massive stadium of a crowd," Janicek told EW. Like a pro, Fishel delivered her live segments with U2 rockin' on stage down below in the background. And despite the last-minute curveball, the quick pivot worked. "It turned out fine," Janicek noted, though watching the band perform later left him with one playful thought: "Hey, you were supposed to be on our show!"