Launch and debut The network launched at 8:00 p.m.
Eastern on April 29, 1996, as '''Nick at Nite's TV Land'
. Following a seven-minute short film introducing the network, the first program aired was the episode of Love, American Style which served as the pilot for Happy Days. Later at 10pm ET, a syndicated edit of The Best of
The Ed Sullivan Show'' featuring
the Beatles' American debut along with routines by
Joan Rivers,
Richard Pryor and
Señor Wences. The show led off a launch-day lineup that rebroadcast numerous
series premieres,
pilot episodes and television firsts. The network's original lineup consisted of
Hill Street Blues;
St. Elsewhere;
The Ed Sullivan Show;
Gunsmoke;
That Girl;
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour;
Honey West;
The Addams Family;
Love, American Style;
Petticoat Junction;
Green Acres;
The Phil Silvers Show; and ''
Hogan's Heroes''. The channel launched during a time when
retransmission consent was becoming more common with subscription networks and
terrestrial television stations nationwide as a result of a provision in the
1992 Cable Act. However, MTV Networks offered TV Land to subscription providers for free for its five years of operation if providers would agree to add the channel to their expanded basic tiers during the 1996 calendar year.
USSB, then one of two services that used the
DirecTV satellite, offered TV Land as a free channel to USSB and DirecTV satellite users, without requiring a subscription, for its first years on air. Because MCA's original agreement with Paramount Pictures to operate
USA Network prohibited either partner from operating other pay-television networks outside the
joint venture, Viacom had been in
breach of contract ever since the company bought Paramount in 1994, because it had operated MTV Networks (including Nickelodeon,
MTV and
VH1) since its founding in 1983, and
Showtime Networks (owners of
Showtime,
The Movie Channel and
Flix) since it was founded in 1985. MCA claimed that the intention of TV Land was to compete directly with USA, a claim that turned out to be true. Viacom claimed that the matter had already been settled when
Sumner Redstone released
Frank Biondi from his contract to let him work at MCA. The suit was eventually settled when Viacom agreed to sell its 50% stake in USA Networks to MCA (MCA later became
Universal Pictures, formerly just a subsidiary, which eventually
merged with NBC and, later,
Comcast). In February 1999, according to
Nielsen ratings data, TV Land averaged a 1.0 share during primetime, tying
ESPN for tenth place among all pay-television networks. Its siblings, MTV and VH1, tied for 17th and 26th place respectively. Columnist John Dempsey reported in
Variety: "That February rating put TV Land into the top 10 for the first time since it began operating, and opened the eyes of the TV industry to the rich vein of golden-oldie TV shows that distributors are mining for an audience of nostalgia buffs and kids who are stumbling across the series for the first time."
Original programming efforts and shift to Generation X The network first forayed into original scripted programming in 2010 with the debut of the sitcom
Hot in Cleveland (starring established sitcom stars
Valerie Bertinelli,
Jane Leeves,
Wendie Malick and
Betty White), which premiered in June 2010 to 4.75 million viewers, a record audience for the channel. (The success of that series led to a
spinoff called
The Soul Man, which debuted in June 2012.) This was followed by the January 19, 2011, debut of
Retired at 35. In November 2014, amid growing allegations of sexual assault against
Bill Cosby, the network removed reruns of
The Cosby Show from its lineup and deleted all references of the series from its website. A marathon of
The Cosby Show episodes that had been scheduled for
Thanksgiving was also canceled. Episodes from the
Steve Harvey run of
Family Feud were aired instead. The network began a programming transition in March 2015, when the new
Sutton Foster series
Younger was launched without either traditional network branding or advertising. After the series finale of
Hot in Cleveland, a new logo was unveiled as part of a larger rebranding that saw TV Land shift its focus to
Generation X viewers who grew into the network's demographic. New original series
Impastor and
The Jim Gaffigan Show were unveiled as the network officially announced the rebranding on June 23, 2015. Completing the shift to edgier, single-camera programming, TV Land announced on July 28 that the upcoming fifth season of the multi-camera sitcom
The Soul Man would be its last. Less than two weeks later, on August 10, TV Land's last remaining multi-camera sitcom
The Exes was canceled as its fourth season was still airing, and the final episode aired on September 16. In July 2015, TV Land dropped reruns of
The Dukes of Hazzard after the removal of the
Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the
South Carolina State House because the flag is displayed atop the show's car, the
General Lee. 2016 saw the debut of the single-camera sitcom
Teachers. Since 2017, Viacom has been reorganizing its media businesses around six flagship brands, including
Paramount Pictures,
BET,
Comedy Central,
Nickelodeon,
Nick Jr. and
MTV. Network president Keith Cox was reassigned to the newly rebranded
Paramount Network (the former Spike), and two series originally slated for TV Land—
American Woman and
Heathers—were reassigned to the channel. The former was canceled after its first season, while the latter eventually aired in a heavily edited and redacted form.
Younger was also supposed to move to Paramount Network for its sixth season, but the move was reversed before the newest season launched. The series would eventually move to
Paramount+ and
Hulu for its final season, with later airings on TV Land. On August 20, 2019, two TV Land-branded channels, TV Land Drama and TV Land Sitcoms, were launched on
Pluto TV, a free streaming service acquired by Viacom in March 2019. The latter channel was a rebrand of the former Pluto TV Sitcoms channel. == Programming ==