In February of 1999 something rather special happened on ABC. For the first time ever, Stephen King had written the screenplays for a mini-series called Storm Of The Century, and ABC was going to air it over three nights. King himself described the show as ‘a novel for television’, and regards it as the favourite of all his TV produced works.
ABC pushed this show hard.
So hard in fact that pretty much every sitcom that was on the same week on the network had a storm related episode. And that’s what we’re looking at here.
While Home Imporvement there doesn’t appear to be storm based with its episode Young At Heart, The Hughleys went all in with the theme, and their episode Storm O’ The Century.
Spin City, which followed that Tuesday at 9pm aired the episode Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Make-Out Party ’99, whose only tempest seems to be a break up and it’s fall out.
The next evening Dharma & Greg went less literal too, in an episode called Run, Dharma, Run, which is described as the titular character’s relationship hitting stormy waters.
Afterwards, on Two Guys and a Girl, one of the guys literally follows a girl into the eye of a storm, in the episode called Two Guys, a Girl and the Storm of the Century (Part 1). The story wasn’t concluded until mid March.
On The Drew Carey Show, an unexpected blizzard thwarts the party plans of the cast.
By the Friday of the week, and on the night of the final episode of Storm Of The Century, ABC was already pushing a different theme – Flashback Friday, as well as the weirdly soapy promos for the final eight episodes of Home Improvement.
