FOX Image Campaigns, 1987-1990

Relive the early years of FOX with three full image campaigns for the fledgling network from the late 1980s and early 1990s, featuring shows like Married with Children, Women in Prison, The Outsiders, The Simpsons, and Duet.

FOX burst onto the network television scene Sunday, April 5th, 1987 with a three-hour block featuring the premiere episodes of Married… with Children and The Tracey Ullman Show, each aired three times. Its very first program, a late night talk show called The Late Show with Joan Rivers, premiered in October 1986 outside of prime time. For several months, the new network only broadcast on Sunday evenings. Then, on July 11th, the network began programming Saturdays as well. It would be more than two years (September 18th, 1989 to be specific) before FOX added a third night of programming on Mondays. Here are three of the networks early image campaigns.

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Don’t Let FOX Weekend Pass You By (Fall 1987) – This campaign was used to promote FOX’s first fall launch, which included returning shows like Married… with Children, Duet and 21 Jump Street as well as short-lived new programs like Women in Prison and Second Chance (which was relaunched as Boys Will Be Boys in January of 1988). The orchestra playing the FOX fanfare was reused during later campaigns.

This Is The Year (This is FOX) (Fall 1988/1989?) – This campaign includes a number of shots of cast members from 21 Jump Street front of a large “Fox Monday Night” sign (at 01:34, for example). The series was moved from Sundays to Mondays in September of 1989 when FOX expanded to Monday nights. Otherwise, the campaign makes much more sense as being from the 1988-1989 season. One of the actors featured is Richard Grieco, who starred in Booker during the 1989-1990 season. However, Grieco had a recurring role on 21 Jump Street during the 1988-1989 season. There is no mention in the video of Alien Nation, one of the other new shows FOX premiered during the 1989-1990 season (it followed 21 Jump Street on Mondays). Further confusing things is the inclusion of Duet, which ended its three-season run in August 1989, prior to the introduction of FOX’s Monday night line-up. If this campaign was from the 1988-1989 season, including Duet would make sense. But the “Fox Monday Night” sign still points to it being from the 1989-1990 season, unless FOX had originally hoped to expand to Mondays during the 1988-1989 season but changed its mind.

It’s On Fox (Spring 1990) – This campaign heavily features the characters of Homer and Bart Simpson from The Simpsons, which began as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show before transitioning to its own series, which debuted in January 1990 (a special episode was broadcast in December 1989). A wall of television screens (seen at roughly 00:40) includes Booker, Open House and Alien Nation, all of which were new at the start of the 1989-199 season. Also included is The Outsiders, which premiered in March 1990.


Published February 18th, 2009
Last Updated May 8th, 2018


5 Replies to “FOX Image Campaigns, 1987-1990”

  1. Here Are some of the Fox Image Campaigns you’re missing:
    Fall 1990 version of “It’s on Fox”
    1991 version of “It’s on Fox!”
    1992-93: “Everybody Knows It’s on Fox” (also used by Fox Kids Network)
    1993-94: “Fox: You’re Watching It”/”It Could Only Happen on Fox”
    1994-95: “Fox is Kickin’ It” (It’s A Whole New Ball Game) (Short or Long versions)
    1995-96: “Cool Like Us” (Short or Long version)
    1996: “Fox Super Season” (used for the first 2 months of 96-97)
    1996-97: “Non-Stop Fox”
    1997-99: “Just One Fox”

  2. Some further post 2000 image campaigns:
    2006 – “FOX Fall”
    2007- “Get into FOX” / “Get Your FOX On” / “This Fall on FOX”
    2008 – “So FOX”
    2010 – “FOX Rocks” (May Sweep only)

  3. I’ll deal with the post-2000 Fox campaigns later, but I have to deal with what I said earlier first:
    “It’s on Fox!” (Fall 1990 version)
    “It’s on Fox!” (Fall 1991 version)
    “Everybody Knows It’s On Fox” (Fall 1992)
    “Fox: You’re Watching It” (Fall 1993)
    “It Could Only Happen on Fox” (Fall 1993 or Early 1994)
    “Fox is Kickin’ It” (Fall 1994)
    “Cool Like Us” (Fall 1995)
    “Fox Super Season (Fall 1996, used for the first two months before switching to “Non-Stop Fox”)
    “Ready or Not, Non-Stop Fox” (Fall 1996)
    “Just One Fox” (Fall 1997 and Fall 1998)
    all of these should be put up, and if you find them please contact me…

  4. The “This is the Year — This is FOX” promo was introduced in March/April of 1989. Prior to that time FOX continued using the “Don’t Let FOX Weekend Pass You By” campaign. The 1987 and 1988 versions of that campaign are slightly different, which you can see by watching the two versions of the campaign on my youtube channel. They dropped the “FOX Weekend” campaign in the spring of 1989 as they geared up to add Monday night programming to the network’s weekly schedule.

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