America's Watching ABC

America's Watching ABC was a slogan used on the ABC television network for the 1990 and 1991 seasons. This popular advertising campaign is closely identified with the heyday of many hit family-oriented comedies and shows aired on the network at this time. Among them were Perfect Strangers, Full House, Doogie Howser, M.D. Family Matters, Roseanne, The Wonder Years, and others. Many more hit shows that eventually helped ABC reach number one again later in the 1990s premiered under this campaign (America's Funniest People in 1990, Home Improvement and Step by Step in 1991). However, dramas and other genres were still in at ABC, with shows such as MacGyver, thirtysomething, and Life Goes On running through this campaign.

1990-91: ABC star Sing-Along aka Continuation of 1989 Jingle Melody

The first version of America's Watching ABC contained familiar elements carried over from the last Something's Happening campaign of 1989-90; the jingle melody, a similar graphics package, and the theme singer, Jill Colucci. This time around, for the brand new campaign, the lyrics were entirely re-written from the previous year's, to fit The New slogan. The full-length promo, and its shorter variants, had the ABC stars looking at the camera and singing along, very clearly, to the song. The stars would either be on the set of their series, or in a generic setting just for the promo. Most would Appear with the entire casts of shows (all singing in unison); however, Roseanne Barr is the only cast member of Roseanne that appears to represent her show. She is in gag scenes that show a crowd of young girls around her that not only look just like her (by wearing wigs that modeled her bowl cut) but dress exactly like her as well. Similarly, Richard Dean Anderson is the only cast member of MacGyver that shows up. Bob Saget of Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos holds the distinction of appearing in the promo on behalf of two different programs; in the ones representing AFHV, Saget appears in a kitchen setting, using a camcorder while he sings. These clips are shown at least four times. To demonstrate his presence in Full House, Saget appears only once in a close-up head shot with John Stamos and Dave Coulier. The timing of this promo setup couldn't have been better for Saget; soon after, both AFHV and Full House would crack the Nielsen Top 10, making Saget the first actor to have two Top 10 series running simultaneously.

The middle portion of the full-length advertisement contained brief clips of the new fall 1990 programs (unlike 1989's full-length promo, which did a complete fall schedule of sorts). The only program shown here that didn't premiere on time was the sitcom Baby Talk. In the clip, Connie Sellecca is seen as the show's adult star, picking up her baby son. However, shortly after this promo began airing in the summer of 1990, Sellecca dropped out of the project before it hit the air. Her departure delayed Baby Talk's premiere, while producers eventually replaced her with recent Newhart refugee Julia Duffy. Once all ordered episodes were completed with Duffy, Baby Talk finally premiered in March 1991.

After the mid-section, the stars resume singing the jingle. The main portion ends with John Stamos picking up and holding one of Full House's Olsen twins (as Michelle Tanner), as the closing graphics sway in over Mary-Kate or Ashley's face. The lettered America's Watching logo travels across the screen in front of silver and red wall backdrops; this view explodes, as we see the opening of a tunnel passageway in which the lettered ABC logo passes through. The "ABC" lettering then rests against a circular table (just like the table they sat on in the 1988 Something's Happening setup, but only tilted in the opposite direction), and the America's Watching logo is under the "ABC". Most shorter variants ended with this logo display.

From this point, the full length promo was abridged, with a scene featuring Coach's Craig T. Nelson doing a mock football team meeting with the home audience. He demonstrates the main chorus lyrics of America's Watching ABC:

A - Feel the beat, yeah
B - Move your feet, yeah
C - Sing it loud, now
Join the crowd now (yeah)
From the heartland
Sea to shining sea
Oh, America is watching ABC!

Even though that was the main chorus, Nelson left out the lines that went From the heartland/Sea to shining sea on his chalkboard.

The extended section of the full-length promo then proceeds with a funny, dancing dwarf from the cult hit Twin Peaks, holding on to a pole saying "Let's rock!". (For this reason alone, many people hold the 1990 America's Watching campaign as a true novelty because this was the only campaign promo that Twin Peaks was ever a part of.) The duration of the extended portion displays the lyrics of the jingle on the screen, accompanied by an animated, bouncing ABC beach ball over the words. During this, various stars either pretend to look at the activity before them on the screen, or dance along to the rest of the song. The long promo finally ends with random hands hitting a real-life ABC beach ball as the view closes to black. Jill Colucci's voice can clearly be heard on the extended portion, as nobody was singing over her.

Two shows that were still very much part of the network's primetime lineup were not featured at all in any of the 1990 promos. The sitcoms Head of the Class and Anything But Love both ran through the first year of the campaign at least, but were omitted from any fall promotions. This was because both were in "limbo" Situations: Class had just lost its star, Howard Hesseman, who had left the show after four seasons, and was in the process of transitioning new lead Billy Connolly into the program. Although the "class" of students in the cast could have been featured alone, this step was not taken. Unfortunately, 1990-91 ended up being the final season for the show. Anything But Love, on the other hand, was put on fall hiatus, not scheduled to return to the lineup until February 1991; although the Richard Lewis-Jamie Lee Curtis series wasn't a consistent ratings performer, it did get renewed for the 1991-92 season and after skipping a year, was featured in the 1991 America's Watching promotions.

Although the iconic ABC jingle melody of 1989-1991 was only used in advertising for those two seasons, it continued to live on throughout the 1990s and even into the early 2000s, thanks to weekly Saturday morning broadcasts of the classic Schoolhouse Rock. Beginning with the first America's Watching season in the fall of 1990, the original ending credits of the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons were plastered over with new ones, that were much faster in length with more computerized text (because Schoolhouse Rock aired in between programs, demanding ad revenue time needed to be freed, which let to the credits being sped up). Instead of the original closing music, an instrumental version of the 1990-91 America's Watching jingle was used. From that point onward, the ending music remained the same, even to the point when ABC ceased regular weekly broadcasts of Schoolhouse Rock in 1999. When selected episodes re-appeared in the form of special broadcasts on the Saturday morning lineup after 2000, the network jingle credits were still used. On home video and DVD releases of Schoolhouse Rock, the original 1970s credits are restored.

Localized versions:

  • WVEC-TV Norfolk/Hampton Roads, VA: "Hampton Roads is Watching WVEC"
  • WVII-TV Bangor, Maine: "Maine is Watching WVII-TV"
  • WNEP-TV Wilkes-Barre, PA: "Pennsylvania's Watching ABC"
  • WPVI-TV Philadelphia: "Philadelphia's Watching WPVI"
  • WVNY-TV Burlington, Vermont: "Everyone is Watching TV 22"
  • WTAJ-TV Johnston-Altoona, Pennsylvania: "Laurel Highlands is Watching TV 10"
  • WTAE-TV Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: "The Pittsburgh Region is Watching Channel 4"
  • WTOV-TV Wheeling, WV: "Ohio Valley's Watching WTOV"
  • WTEN-TV Albany, NY: "Albany is Watching WTEN"
  • WJET-TV Erie, PA: "Everyone in Erie's Watching JET TV"
  • WJLA-TV Washington, D.C.: "Washington D.C is Watching Channel 7"

1991-92: Hip New '90s Image

For year two of America's Watching ABC, the brass went in a slightly different direction, while retaining a graphics package similar to that of the last two seasons. The start of the 1991-92 season marked the end of Jill Colucci singing for the network's image campaigns, although she could still be heard every Sunday night singing the theme to America's Funniest Home Videos (until 1996). The familiar jingle was also revamped, although, as aforementioned, that too could still be heard over the closing for Schoolhouse Rock every Saturday morning for years to come. The new jingle had vocals set to a synthesized, jazzy tune with saxophone solos, which culminated with a new melody for the slogan at the end. The promo style associated with the second year had arty, geometric, multicolored graphics used for displaying show titles and primetime schedules.

The main lyrical chorus of this season's jingle went as follows:

America's Watching A..B..C!
Everyone's gettin it started..
(hey, i'm not movin!)
''America's Watching A..B..C!
Come on now, everyone's a part of it
'Cause America's Watching ABC!

In The Spring of 1992, near the tail end of the America's Watching campaign, a special promotion for spring and May sweeps programming aired, under the headline "Shows That Make You Go..." (a takeoff of C+C Music Factory's recent 1991 hit "It's the Things That Make You Go Hmmm"). The graphics used for this promotion served as a bridge between America's Watching and the impending successor campaign It Must Be ABC.

Localized versions:

  • WVEC-TV Norfolk/Hampton Roads, VA: "Hampton Roads is Watching WVEC"
  • WTAE-TV Pittsburgh, PA: "Pittsburgh's Watching WTAE"
  • WPVI-TV Philadelphia: same as 1990 title
  • WVNY-TV Burlington, Vermont: same as '90 title