"Must See TV" NBC in the early 90's created a formula for success. They took four sitcoms and one drama and put them back to back keeping people hooked on their station through the night. This formula had several sitcoms Friends, Will & Grace, Frasier, and Seinfeld that kept viewers glued to their seats and prepared for the drama of ER. The sitcoms have come and gone, but that drama ER has been there for viewers for 15 years. Tonight it goes off the air. "Must See TV" did affect my real estate practice for a number of years. I would ask people to meet with me on a Thursday night, and person after person was busy. I realized it was that block of TV shows that they were watching. I learned not to fight it but to see it now and then. The characters of these sitcoms became part of our American culture. We talked like them, had haircuts like theirs, and even started decorating our houses like where they lived. The invention of machines that could tape the show and allow us to watch TV at our convince changed the "must see Thursday." Still, I see the remains of the influence of that night. People still want to have a group of close friends that hang out at a coffee shop. We have the doors taken off cupboards and we show our dishes and we create the loft look in our properties. We talk about these characters as if they were part of our circle of friends. We watch returns or buy the series and really don't let go of these moments of having these people enter our lives. Tonight we will see the last of the man cast of characters that have been the medical team that have introduced us to diseases that many doctors don't even know about. We will see the last of doctors falling in and out of love with one another. We will see the end of the "unreal" ER room. Wait, I still have "Gray's Anatomy" I can get my fix on.
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