Performance

The Must-Watch Story of NBC's ‘Must See TV’

1 upcoming performance in New York

At The Paley Center for Media in New York, this program traces how NBC’s Thursday-night “Must See TV” became a cultural routine, shaping what Americans talked about at work the next morning. It looks at the network’s strategy, the writers’ rooms, and the shifting economics of broadcast comedy during an era when a single schedule could still unify a city. For NYC, where many of these shows were set, the lineup helped cement a television version of New York as national shorthand. Its clearest insight is how quickly that shared-viewing model disappeared.