shut up in here. the '60s are over dad. durham: here's michael at the foul line, a shot on ehlo. -good! -yeah! ha-ha! turner: we intend to cover all the nenews all thehe time. we won't be signing off until the world ends. isn't that special? any tool for human expression will bring out the best and the worst in us, and television has been that. they don't pay me enough to deal with animals like this. peoplele are no lolonger embarad toto admit thehey watch tetelev. we have seen the news and it is us. ♪

clark: slowly but surely, the 1970s are disappearing. the 1980s will be upon us. what a decade it is coming up. happy new year! [ cheers and applause ] auletta: as you begin the '80s in the television world, the landscape was, on any given evening, 9 out of 10 people were watching ononly one of f three netwtwork. more thahan 30 millilion peope are addicted to o it. social critics are mystified by its success. what is it? it's television's prime-time,

prairie pot boiler, "dallas." bobby:y: a move lilike thatl deststroy all ofof ewing , and it'l'll ruin our familyly name. i assure y you, a thouought le that nevever crosseded my mind. brotheher or no brbrother, whatever i it takes, i'llll stop you u from destrg ewewing oil. "dalallas" realllly did estatah new ground in termsms of the weweekly, one hour s show thatat literallyly captivated amererica for 1313 years. "dallas" is a television s show whwhich in somome ways is s rd in t the 1970'ss and onone of the c crazy thins that e emerges is s this charar, j.j.r. ewing a as a pop phpheno. tellll me, j.r.,., which slulut are yoyou gonna stay w with ton? whwhat differerence does i it m? whoever it is it's got to be more interesting than the slut i'm looking at right now. levine: he was such a delilicious villl. everyoyone was completely enamad by t this characacter. bianculllli: at thisis point soy peopople were wawatching telelen that you could do somemething so unexpecected that it t would becocome news overnighght. who's ththere?

[ gunshot t ] [ groans ] ] [ [ gunshot ]] [ gasping g ] ththe nationalal obsessionon i0 around w who shot j.j.r. it's hard to imagine how obsessed we e all were with that question, but we were. who shot j.r. is about as ideal a cliffhanger as you possibly could get. brokawaw: who did d shoot j.r? we may n never get t the answr to thahat questionon. i i mean, the e people whoho prd that p program arere gonna kees in suspense for as long as they possibly can. duffy: we shot j.r. and then we broke for the summer. then coincidentally, the actors went on strike and it delayed the resolution. and d it just ststarted to p pee through ththe world. i i remember g going on vavacn to englandnd that summmmer and that's all that people were talking about there. lovejoy: well we know you don't die. i mean, you couldn't die? you don't know that. well, how could you die? you couldn't come back next season. that's what i mean. i couldn't come back, but the show could still go. oh, but you wouldn't?

what is that show without j.r.? well, that's what i figure. [ chuckles ] well, i guess if you don't know by now who shot j.r., you probably do not care. but last night, some 82 million americans did and they watched the much-touted "dallas" episode. it could become the most watched television show ever. troy: who shot j j.r. is a r reflectn of oldld-fashioneded televisi. it's a moment that gathers everybody around the electronic fireplace, which is now the television set. now,w, about onene special americanan televisioion progr, a critic said it transcends in popularity every other american statement about war. and something special happened today to mobile army surgical hospital 4077 that will touch millions of americans. bowen: it was the kind of an event that would draw the world's press. stage nine, 20th century fox studios, the end of the korean war -- the television version, "m.a.s.h." o'houlihan: it's been an honor and a privilege toto have workrked with yoyou. and i'i'm very, very proud to o have knownwn y. hart: ththere were t those landmdmarks

when showsws that had d been wad through h the '70s a and ino the '80s0s, like "m.m.a.s.h.," had its s final episisode. and were all s sad to see e the. i'llll miss you.u. i'i'll miss yoyo. a lolot. naversen: : all over t the coun, ararmies of fafans crowowded aroundnd televisioios toto watch thehe final epipie and d to bid "m.m.a.s.h." fafar. levine: the finale of "m.a.s.h." was unprecedented. 123 million people watched d one televivision prom at t the same titime. you know, , i really s should be allowed toto go home.. there's nothing wrong with me. when we ended the show, we got telegrams of congratulations from h henry kissisinger anand ronald r reagan. the size of the response and the emotional nature of the response that we were getting was difficult for us to understand. connnnelly: who o shot j.r. . d ththe last epipisode of "m"m.a"

are ththe last call l for the pre-cablble world ofof televis. it's likike they arere the laste ththat that huhuge audience wiwill all tururn up for o one . esesterhaus: a all right.. that's's it. let's's roll. hey..... let's be c careful outut ther. dispatch. . we have a a 9-1. armed robbbbery in prorogress. mcqueeeen: when ququality does emergrge on televevisio, the phphrase "too o good for " is o often heardrd. one rerecent netwowork offerig thatat seems to o deserve that p phrase isis "hill strtreet blues.s" "hill ststreet" is o one of the changiging pointss of the entntire induststry in t the historyry of tv. bobochco: we h had all watatd a a documentarary about cocos and it had this real hand-held, in the m moment qualality ththat we werere very enamamor. [ screaming ] [ screaming ] comeme in! cocome in! [ telelephone ringnging ]

grahaham: the miminute you l ld at it, it t looked dififferen. it had a mood to it. you could almost, you could almost smell the stale coffee. bochcoco: we didn'n't want too a ststandard copop show where, y you know, y you got a e and yoyou got yourur two cops and yoyou go out and d you catch h the bad guy and d you sweat t him and hehe confesseses and that't. cops h have persononal lives that impmpact their r behavir in profofound ways.. well, whatat about it?t? is he e here or isis he elsew? lelet's don't t get exciteted counseselor. we're woworking on i it. how'w's this foror logic, furillo o -- if he'e's not herere and ifs not t elsewhere,e, he's l. we dididn't say ththat, cocounselor. yoyou lost my y client. not lost, , per se. never inin my entirere life have i l listened to so muchch incompetetence covevered up byby so much u unmitigatede. find my clclient, furirillo, or i swewear i'll hahave you upup on chargeges. yoyost: there'e'd be thesese og arcs foror these chaharacters that wouldld play outt over fivive, six epipisodes, sometimemes an entirire seaso. and d in a way, , for certaiain storieies, over ththe entire s .

and d no one hadad really dodont in an hohour-long drdramatic s. these e past four r months i've missesed you. i had toto find thatat out. comeme home, pizizza man. bochco: i i think in t the pa, pepeople had w watched telelevn passivelely anand the one e thing i ththinkd set out t to be werere provocat. you wawant an accicident repo? you u fill it ouout. what the h hell's the e mattr with you m man? i'llll tell you u something.g. ththey don't p pay me enouough to deaeal with aninimals like e. the first t thing theyey see is a a white facace anand all theyey want to d do is do o him in! you u listen to o me, renko. it wasas a white f finger ththat pulled d the triggeg, nonot a black k on! it w was a whitete one. grahamam: it set a a trend. the ididea that ththe audience can accecept its chaharactes bebeing deeplyly flawed, y yo, eveven though h they're weweag this unifoform. anand i thoughght that that was i important to finalally get acrcross. don't t do it! nono biting! bobochco: we w wanted to m makew that madade you partrticipate, made youou pay attenention.

and i thinink that wororked prpretty well.l. and the wiwinner is..... "hill street blues." [ cheers and applause ] bochco: we got 21 nominations and we went on to win eight emmys and it put us on the map, literally. and that's when people finally checked us out. tartikikoff: the p programmingnf ofof one of ththe networksks used to say to me about shows like "hill street" and "st. elsewhere," what the american public wants is a cheeseburger and what you're trying to give them is a french delicacy. and he said, your job is to keep shoving it down their throat until after a while they'll say, "that doesn't taste bad." and maybybe they'll l even ordet ththemselves whwhen they gogo to the reresta. nice of f you to joioin us drdr. morrisonon. connelly: : the succesess of " "hill streeeet blues" is a crititical phenomomenon, influenceded everythining that c came after.r. and ththen, of couourse, you w showows like "stst. elsewhere" dodo you know w what peoplpe call t this place?e? not t st. eligiuiu. stst. elsewherer. a place yoyou wouldn't't want to send your motheher-in-law.. yost: when it first came on, itit was actuaually promotod as "hihill street"t" in a hosps.

yoyou give youour patientss the wrwrong antibibiotics. you dodon't know w what medidications ththey're on.. you u write the e worst progress n notes. yoyou're patheheti. pathetic!! nurse: phihil!what?! dr. . moray neededs you right awayay. i'm sorry.y. "s"st. elsewhehere" broke e evee there wawas and then b built some e new r. bobby, thehe blood banank calleded a little e while ago.o. they ran a routine panel on that pint of blood. t-cell count was off. yost: they would have tragic things happen to these characters. there was real heartache in these people's lives. and you u really felelt for th. i've got a aids? television at its best is a mirror of society in the moment. harmon: "st. elsewhere" challenged people. it challenged you as an actor much less the audience, to thinknk. the stufuff they gavave you was extrememe and whatat they d whether they were dealing with aids or having one of their main doctor characters raped in a prison. they tackled lots of difficult subjects.

"s"st. elsewhehere" was rurn by p people who o were trying to stretch the medium, and in thehe '80s, televisionon producersrs were e encouragedd to stretchch the mediuium. okay. . clear.

[ indistinct conversations ] man: a lot of people used to say, "i was there." now people say they watch it on television. connelly: there's just a lot of excitement connected to sports in the '80s. you used to have to depend on the five minutes at the end of your lolocal newscacast. there just hadn't been enough, you know? give us a whole network of sports. anannouncer: t there's jusust one e place you u need to gogo for all the names and games making sports news --

"espn sports center." what happens in the 1980s is sports becomes a tv show and what a are tv showows buililt around?? they're built around characters. you can't be serious, man. you cannot be serious! you guys are the absolute pits of the world, you know that? connelly: mcenroe, the perfect villain. the new yorker that people loved to hate. borgrg the cool l swede, never giviving any emomotion a. what tennis really wants is to get its two best players playing over and over again in the final. whether ththere's johnhn mcene and bjororn borg or chris evert and martina navratilova. that's what we want to tune into over and over and over again. announcer: oh, could this be? net court at three match points to martina navratilova. know that this man has a smile that lights up a television screen from here to bangor, maine. futterman: and then there is magic johnson, thisis urban kid from mimichin and lalarry bird, this guyuy who worked cararrying trasas.

one plays for the los angeles lakers, the other plays for the boston celtics. it's a grereat story.. announcer #1: off the back. lakers had several chances and here's larry bird dunking down the court. announcer #2: magic johnson leads the attack. look at that pass. oh, oh! what a show! what a great play! oh! what a show! when those championship games are in prime time and people are paying attention to that, television feeds into those rivalries and makes s them biggeger thanan they've e ever been b b. [ cheers and applause ] connelly: : every mikeke tyson t was anan event because every fight was like an ax murder. when he fought michael spinks, the electricity, you could just feel it watching it on tv. announcer: here comes mike, spinks in! he leads with a right hand! down he goes! tyson was made for tv because there was drama. announuncer: it's s all over! mike t tyson has w won it! firestone: not a lot of junior high school kids can dunk,

especially at five feet. but everybody tries now. everybody tries. [ laughs ] i bet now. i think that he is starting to transcend just his sport. he's becoming something of a public figure. futterman: michael jordan becomes the model that every other athlete wants to shoot for. they want to be a brand. and that's what television does for these athletes. it turnsns them into worldwide, icononic brands.s. announcer: the inbound pass comes in to jordan. here's michael at the foul line. a shot on ehlo. -good! -yeah! the bulls win! athletes in the '80s became part of an ongoing group of people that we e cared abouout. we just t had an enonormous, pent-up dedemand for s sports and the '80s began to provide. thank goodness. cable telelevision is continunuing to grorow. it's estimated that it will go into one million more u.s. households this year. with cable television suddenly offering an array of diffeferent channnnel choic, the auaudience bififurcated. that's an earthquake. i wantnt my mtv! i want m my mtv! ■■■■■■ i want ! i want my mtv. i want my mtv. ♪

goodman: a new concept is born -- the best of tv combined with the best of radio.. ththis is it. welcome to mtv, music television -- the world's first 24-hour, stereo, video music channel. julie brown: music television, what a concept. mtv was, pow!, in your face. yoyou were notot gonna tururn u. hanks: mtv did nothing but playay current m music vids all l day long.. so let me get this straight -- you u turn on ththe tv and d it's like e the radio? i'm marthaha quinn. the music will continue non-stop on mtv music television, the newest component of your stereo system. when mtv launched, a generation was launched. 18 to 24-y-year-olds w were say, "i wanant my mtv."." i want my mtv videos. i want my mtv fashion. yo! connelly: mtv was the first network really focused on the youth market and becomes hugely influential

because they understand each other, ththe audiencece and the n net. mtv v had a gianant impact visuallyly and musicically on every part of the tv culture that came next. -frereeze! -frereeze! mimiami vice.. pauley: frfriday nighthts on c are difffferent thisis season, thanks to "miamimi vice." it's a s show with a an old th, but a lolot of new t twists. descriribed by onene critic as c containing g flashes of brilllliance, nononetheles. shot entirely on location in south miami, the story centers around two undercover vice cops. i i don't knowow how this ss gonna a work tubbsbs. i memean, you'rere not exactctly alley stylyle- and perersona- w. heaven k knows i'i'm no box o of candy. michael l mann: telelevision vevery much wawas the smalall s. what wasas interestiting about totony yerkovivich's pipilot screenenplay for "miamimi vice" is s that itit was exactctly not thahat. vevery much ththe approachch , okay they y call thiss a telelevision sereries, but wewe're gonna a make one-hr momovies everyry single wewe. okay, herere we go. standby.y.

action! police! police! pauley: you were just describing the show as sort of a new-wave cop show. johnson: yeah, it's a cop show for the '80s. i mean, we use a lot of mtv images and rock music to help describe the mood and fefeeling of o our show. grahamam: in a lotot of ways, yoyou don't geget "miami v v" wiwithout mtvv because inin a lot of f ways, "miami vice" was a long video. the mumusic was susuch a big pt ofof that showow. [ phil c collins' "in the e air tonighght" play] michaeael mann: ththere was an allurure to usingng great mc that eveverybody wasas listeng toto as opposesed to the r roe kind o of tv scoriring of t that periodod. ♪ a and i can f feel it comog inin the air t tonight ♪ not t only was i it not afrard to l let long scenes p play o, it wouldld drag -- a a car gogoing from p point a to o pob could bebe a four-miminute phphil collinsns song, yoyou know, anand it was.. ♪ oh, lorord ♪ michchael mann: : being ablelo takeke a televisision series like "miami i vice" and d lets really kinind of rock k 'n' rl

with thihis until sosomebody , "stop, arere you guys s craz? you can't t do that."" and nonobody ever r did. [ peoplele screamingng ] go! freeeeze! police!

loving this pay bump in our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck? maybe they heard that xfinity customers can save hundreds when they buy one unlimted line and get one free. now i can buy that electric scooter! i'm starting a private-equity fund that specializes in midcap. you do you. visit xfinitymobile.com today. ♪ [ bleatingng ] thomasas magnum? mamarion hammomo?

the privivate investstigator? oh [ c chuckles ] you're prorobably wondndering about the e goat. um, justst let me drdrop off mymy friend, a and then wewe'll. levine:: when w we entered d the '80s, a a lot of onene-hour dramamas thatat were lighght hearted,d, likeke "magnum, , p.i.," were verery popular.r. [ [ gunfire ]] [ titires squealal ] biancuculli: afterer "m.a.s.h" wentnt off the a air, the next s season there wasnsnt a sisingle sitcocom in the t t. first t time that t had ever happeneded in tv hisistory. the prevailing feeling was that the sitcom was dead. greenfieldld: brandon n tartik, nbc prprogramming g chief, says reports of the sitcom's death were greatly exaggerated. time and time again, if you study television history, just when someone is counting a form out, that is exactly the form of programming that leads to the next big hit. ♪ graham: so 1984, "the c cosby show"w" comes o. now, bill l cosby's nonot new t. he's h had other t tv shows.

bubut "the cososby show" is very y different.t. it stands apart from everything else he's done. mom, i wanted my eggs scrambled. coming right up. mandabach: they talked about parenting. previous to that, on television the kids were cool and the parents were idiots. and ththen cosby s says ththe parents s are in chahae and thatat was sometething ne. instead of acting disappointed because i'm not like you, maybe you can just accept who i am and love me anyway because i'm your son. that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life! shales: you know, it helps, the casting of anything helps a lot in television. and the e kids were e just gre. if you w were the lalast personn on this s earth, i still wouldn't tell you. you don't have to tell me what you did. just tell me what they're gonna do to you. graham: unlike every other show on tv, it's showing an upper-middle-class black family. this wasn't "all in the family." they weren't tackling, you know, deep issues.

but that was okay. the mere fact that they existed was a deep issue. mandabacach: the dececade was waiting g for someththing rea. in other words, unless it's real it doesn't seem like it moves anybody. if someone's feeling something, you get to the heart, you get to the mind. and ifif you can h hit the e hearts andnd minds, you got yourself a hit. how w was schoolol? school, dear? i brought home two children that may or may not be ours. long: cosby's show brought this tremendous audience to nbc. and that was a bridge to us. i mean, our ratings went way up. ♪ s sometimes y you want toto♪ ♪ w where everyrybody knowss your n name ♪ evenen the thememe song to " "c" put you inin a good momood. evevening evereryb. norm! ! ■■■■■ normrm! norm! ! ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ ! normanan. what's's shaking n norm? alall four cheheeks anand a couplele of chins,s,. levivine: by thehe end ofof the "cheeeers" pilot,,

not t only did y you know who evererybody was,s, but you u wanted to come back and sesee what wasas gonna hap. bibianculli: i it's like a alu have to dodo is watch h it on, you'rere gonna lovove these pep. these arare universasal charas and ththe humor woworked onon so many l levels. last n night i wasas up tillll 2:00 in t the morning finishining off kiererkegaard. i hopepe he thankeked you fofor it. you haveve to createte a commy that peoplple are idenentifyig with. and "c"cheers" givives you that commumunity. boy i tellll you, i'veve always wanted to o sky dive.. i'veve just nevever had the guts.. what didid it feel l like? wewell, imaginine it's a lot likeke sex, sammmmy. not ththat i have e to imagie what s sex is likeke. but t i've had p plenty of s , and d plenty of f this, too. whwhat don't y you just get off f my back, o okay? long: in t the first e episod, there was s a rather p passione annoyayance. i was sasaying, uh,, someththing's going on here. a rereally intelelligent womoman would d see your l line of b.s.. a mimile away.

i'i've never m met an intetet woman ththat i'd wanant to d. on b behalf of t the intelliligt womemen around t the world,, may i justst say, phewew! burrows: w when we sawaw what ted and shshelley had d togeth, we s said, "oh n no, we gototta do thisis relationsn" ted and i understood what they were e writing riright aw. if you'l'll admit that you a are carryining a a little tororch for me,e, i'll admdmit that i'i'm carryiying a littltle one for r. well, i i a-am carryrying a lilittle torchch for you.. wellll, i'm not t carrying o one for yoyou. diane e knew how t to tease s. sam m knew how t to tease did. and i guesess we kneww how toto tease thehe audienc. buburrows: this increredible chememistry betweeeen the two o of them ignited d the show.. and d that's whahat drove ththw for the fifirst five y years. oh, , i'm devaststated. i need somomething expxpedis and brbrutal to nb my s sensibilitits

and d blast me io swsweet oblivi. how w about a boboilermaker?r? mamake it a mimimo. buburrows: we e had the lulk to b be able to o rotate cast and d every timeme we put somey inin, there wewere explosision. bwahah! levine: there was something very special about that setting, those chararacters, ththat i nr got tirered of writiting that s. sosophisticateted surveys,s, telephphonic samplplings, test audiences, all of those things help to separate winners from losers and make mid-course corrections. but you can't cut all comedies from the same cookie cutters. all you can hope is that every night turns out like thursday. yo, angela! larry, larry. next.... how rude. [ cat yowling ] he's quick, i'll give him that. bianculli: all of television said, "oh, well, maybe the sitcoms are alive again." anand that's a all that itit . it took onone success.s.

greenfield: a few years from now, something new may tempt the people who pick what we see. but it's a very safe guess that whatever gets hot for a season or two, the men and women who create good television comedy will be laughing all the way to the bank.

this is my last broadcast as the anchorman of the "cbs evening news."

for me it's a moment for which i long have planned, but which nevertheless comes with some sadness. for almost two decades after all, we've been meeting like this in the evenings and i'll miss that. and that's the way it is, friday, march 6, 1981. i'll be away on assignment and dan rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. good night. uncle walter had dominated certainly cbs, bubut in a wayay the countnt. peopople used toto say that he was the most trusted man in the country. bianculli: once walter cronkite retires, all three network news anchors wiwithin a pereriod of a c coe ofof years switch ovever to a newew genera. the '80s may have been the last gasp where people watching the media liked and trusted the media. nuclear arms and how to prevent global destruction are expected to be the major topic of president reagan's news conference tonight. that conference will be nationally televised within the hour. lesley stahl is at the white house. stahl: the white house is hoping that tomorrow's... in the '80s, women came into the newsroom.

when i first joined, it was '72 and there were very few. byby the '80s,s, there e were more e and more. woodruff: the decade of the '80s was still a time of sink or swim. you had to be resilient in your own way to sururvive in a a period when you w were going g up agat a lot of people who still didn't think women had what it took. these are some of the most famous faces in broadcasting, all of whom happen to be women. the best producers, i'm gonna get fired -- the best producers at cbs news are women. and they are at the level of taking hold and making decisions about individual pieces. they're not yet executive producers of all the news shows, but they will be. clayton: for the past 24 hours, her cause craft has taken to many of the nation's news and talk programs. i didn't set out to be joan of arc. but i think that what happened to me deserves some attention. woodruff: christine craft had a very successful career, but there she was in her late 30s and the tv station said to her,

we're taking you off the air because you've gotten older and you'rere not as atattracte as you o once were,, which was s outrageousus. and shshe decided d to make an issue o of it. she filed a lawsuit and it became a huge national topic of discussion. woman: a jury said she got a raw deal because she is a woman. woodruff: and so women in television news everywhere were asked, what do you think about christine craft? i think k unfortunatately in r recent yearars, the emphasis has been increasingly on physical appearance and to the extent this decision helped swing the emphasis back to substance and to good journalism, i think we've got something to be happy about. it was important to make the point that what mattered was what kind of reporter are you? but it took the christine craft incident, i think, to bring that conversatition out intnto the o. this comining sunday,, a new television network opens for business -- cnn. cable news network. you're throwing all the dice on this one? why not? nothing ventured, nothing gained. faint heart never won fair lady. well on that original point, mr. turner,

thank you very much indeed. turner: i wanted to see what was going on in the world. and there was no way that you could do it watching the regular television stations. the news only comes on at 6:00 and 10:00. but if t there was n news on 2424 hours, people could watch it any time. we sign onon on june 1 1 and babarring satetellite probs in the future, we won't be signing off until the world ends. greenfield: there was a widespread belief this was a fool's errand. how can this possibly find an audience? wellll, he did.. reready camerara three. one centnter up. good evening. i'm david walker. and i'm lois harp. now here's the news. president carter has arrived... television news before this was stuff that had already happened. for the e first timeme, cnn brought the world to people in real time. annonouncer: cnnnn -- the wowos momost importatant networkr. turner: i didn't do cable news network because somebody told me it couldn't be done. i figured it was a very viable concept

and i went ahead and did it. it was after we announced that we were going to do it that the detractors showed up. gumbel: is cable news network just gonna be a new means of delivering the same kind of fare? no. it already does provide different fare and cable news network is a perfect and maybe the best example of that. people love news and we had lots of it. and the other guys had not very much. so choice and quantity won out. new york city, hello. mintier: a major catastrophe in america's space program... i'm lou dobbs along with financial editor myron kandel. jessica mcclure trapped for almost three days now in a dry artesian well. miller: the iron curtain between east germany and west berlin has come tumbling down. good evening i'm pat buchanan the conservative in "crossfire." buchanan: the american people appreciated the new television. they certainly came to -- came to cnn in droves. mr. gorbacachev and i i both ae on thehe desirabilility of fr

and more extensive personal contact between the peoples of the soviet union and the united states. we began to realize that the best way to get a message to a foreign leader was to have the president go in the rose garden and make a statement. because everybody was watching cnn. cnn was a a breakthrouough. itit changed t the whole w wo. stahl:l: it changeged quickly, the nenetwork news business.s. that business that we weren't the only ones. and it was hard, you know. it's hard to be on the top little perch anand have to o come down n of. a special l segment totonigh, the networork news. the first in a two-part series on the profound changes taking place in television news. changes being brought about by business, competition, and technology. heilemann: there are a variety of reasons why people who worked at the broadcast networks were freaked out in the 1980s. one of them was cnn and the rise of cable. another wawas being tataken or by foreign entities in corporate america.

hart: : new ownersrs spent bilis buying thehe networks s recen, and all of them want their money's worth. people began to find out that news could be a profit center. and that focused a lot of attention on us. a lot from people in wall street, for instance. if you think about the news divisions of cbs, nbc and abc, ththey were papart of a really p proud tradidition, a journalilistic tradidition thatat really mamatters. we serve the public. this is not about profit and loss. and the people who worked at those news divisions were totally freaked out by whahat it meantnt that they were now owned by these larger corporate entities. if the television news isn't profitable at some point, there won't be any more television news on the networks. shales: i worry about people who are interested only in money and power getting ahold of television. it has higher purposes than that. we have seen the news and it is us.

♪ collins: sometimes ambition in a woman is considered to be e a dirty wd unfortrtunately. bloodworth-thomason: i donon't hearar a lot of f female voios reverberating in the h halls ofof power in n this businine. well i'm surprised there aren't more shows about women that are talking about who they are. didirecting seems toto be an aa

that is almost impossible to break through. i think the '80s were the era when women were being looked at wiwith a littltle skepticici, but definitely with more acceptability. you could see the door opening, but it wasn't wide open. ststahl: "c"cagney & lalacey" was h h. that thehere would b be two won and d they had a a serious jb and they s solved crimimes and y were o out on the e streets. theyey were tougugh. that wasas emblematitic or m maybe out i in front a a e of what was s actually h happeg in the c country. so, we'r're a terrifific team. this i is true. what do yoyou say we g go out d celebrbrate how teterrific we ? biananculli: there had d been by ththat pot hundredsds of buddy y cop sho, but ththese buddieies were wom. that had n never been n done befofore. i didn't g go after ththis jb becaususe i couldndn't find anything e else. alall right? i i did not c coe because e i needed someme kind of w work to hely the orthododontist. this meaeans somethihing t.

what the h hell are wewe talkining about hehere? corday: : we didn't t even reae thatat this was s gonna be susuch a big d deal, and s stra, alall these guguys would s say , "well yeah, i i mean, it's a gooood script,, but t who's gonnnna save them in t the end?" all right,t, come on.. we're tataking you o out of her. [ [ sobbing ]] come o on. you'rere taking mymy wife?! you don'n't take onene step. yoyou understatand me? sergeant n nelson, youou have ununtil 8:00 t tomorrow momornig to tururn yourselflf into iad.d. phyllis!s! if you donon't, i willll. hahart: it wasas a time whwhereu really sawaw an emergegence of n on televisision who o were not n necessarily justst 20 and blblond anand had a smsmall role.. but women n who had substantntial roles.s. ♪ thank youou for beingng a fri♪ ♪ traveled down the road and back again ♪ it was unpredictable that an audience, a yoyoung audienence, a nonot so youngng audiencee and lotsts in betweeeen could re to t those olderer ladies.

ma, if you couldn't see, why didn't you call me to come get you? i tried to but every time i put in a dime and dialed, a condom popped out. [ laughter ] i got five in my pocket. here dorothy. [ laughter ] a lifetime supply. mitchell: she was recently named along with norman lear and jim brooks as one of television's most gifted creator/writers. and when you look back at the past women role models on television, well it's easy to see susan harris' impact. mandabach: susan harris was the greatest writer, in my opinion, of her generation, of that time. sisingularly, , so, you knkn, all l credit to her for coming p with so many iterations of something so amazing. mitchell: do you think there is a woman's voice as a writer? woman's voice -- well generally they speak higher, softer. [ laughter ] i should have known not to ask that of a writer. yes, of course, there's a woman's voice. women have a different perspective.

women laugh at different things. so yes, they're very definitely is a woman's voice. oh, do you know how many problems we have solved over a cheesecake at this kitchen table? no, dorothy, exactly how many? 147, rose! oh. hi bryant. it's cutthroat prime time time this fall as some 23 new shows compete in one of the hottest ratings races in years. here's's one just t about everey prpredicts wilill be a bigi. "desesigning womomen" on cbs. fourur femmes foforming anan interior r decoratingng bus and givingng each otheher the e business.. susuzanne, if sex werere fast fooood, ththere'd be a an arch over your r bed. cordayay: lindnda bloodwororth-thomasosn creaeated one ofof the funnin, mostst unusual s shows inin "designining women."" theyey were a didifferent grgp of w women than youou really sasaw on t television.n. they were feisty, they were sexy, and lilinda's voicice cameme through s shining.

a a man can gegety wiwith anythini. i mean, lolook at reagagan's . it sagags down to o here. everybodody raves ababout hohow great hehe looks. can n you imaginine if nancy had thatat neck? they'd b be putting g her in a nursing g home for t turkey. [ [ cheers andnd applause e] they'd given me this 23 minutes to address whatever topic i want. and it's such a privilege. it's more than the president of the united states gets and it's kind of thrilling to have that every week. i would lying if i said i didn't put my opinions in the show. excuse me, but you lovely ladies look like you're in need of a littltle male companionsnship here.. trust t me when i i tell you that you h have compleletely mis-s-assessed t the situatition at thihis table. all riright. moviving onto scscene b. english: i am a woman and i am a writer, but i don't really enjoy being called a woman's writer. i think labels are harmful to us. mitchehell: with " "murphy br" just abobout everyththing ababout that p program felelt.

the cicivil rightsts movement and the e women's momovement hahad just begegun to sortrt e reflected d in the prorogrammg that y you saw on n televisin in thehe '80s. mumurphy, you know thehe duns club i is for men n only? and they h have great t dinners with greatat guests and i don'n't get to g go for onone reason a and one reaeason. and d it has to o do with sosomg you've gotot and i donon't. a a tiny, paththetic, lilittle y chrhromosome. stahl: "murphy y brown" wasas sea chae becaususe she was s so populr and suchch a strong,g, independ, totough woman.n. no matter r what you t think ofof a guest or their r view, you are obobligated toto ask the questions s in a digninified ma. jim, s she was unpnprofessi, am i i right? well, , i, uh... do youou believe t this jim? he thinknks it's neaeat that hihis office c chair swivevels and he's c calling mee unprofofessional..

you are in a good mood tonight. and i tell you, we have put a great show together. it'll be on a week from thursday. [ laughter ] connelly: johnny carson in the '80s is making the transition from being the king of late night to beieing a natioional treasu. he was a throwback to that old show biz stuff. i haven't been on with you for some time. you, you've been... it's been a long time. yeah, well, you've been busy with other things. that's -- [ chuckles ] [ laughter ]

connelly: the tide is starting to turn in terms of where late-night television is gonna go. but johnny is kind of holding out. he was not necessarily of his time in the '80s. but he did sustain a certain timelessness. he's's the king.g. on your chchair. [ laughter ] whoa! hyah! he's all right. he's just playing. playing my [bleep] [ laughter ] my next guest not only has a college degree, but he also has a high-school degree. that's right, i do. as well, un-huh. yes. he's hosted "the tonight show" practically as often as johnny carson and now he has his very own show, weekday mornings at 10:00 on nbc. ladies and gentleman what you're witnessing here is a good idea gone awry. yes, and a fun-filled surprise turning into an incredible screw up right here. david letterman originally had a one-hour daytime show.

and nbc, a after like e 13 wee, decideded to cancecel it. today is our last show on the air. monday, las vegas. [ crowd booing ] have these people been frisked before they... it was a dismal failure in terms of the ratings. but not in terms of introducing us to letterman. dadavid, thanknk you for b being withth us tonighght. thank you very much for having me, i appreciate it. and in spite of all this nonsense that goes around in the background, stay with it. don't give up. and stay with us here in new york. we like having you. i like being here. thank you very much. dave is back in new york. you're going to host a late-night television program that premieres monday night. what are, what are critics likely to say tuesday morning? i don't much care because i found a way to deal with that -- pills and whiskey. [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ snorts ] [ chuckles ] you're on. oh, i'm on. i'm sorry, i was enjoying listening to you snort. [ laughs ] levine: they gave him the "late night" show after "the tonight show,"

and at the time, people thought, who's gonna watch television at 12:30 at night? who's up? i'll tell you who's up. young pepeople. collllege peop. is it t going wellll? i knowow this is t the first s w and i think this guy needs a little support. dave letterman. mandabach: he was antiestablishment at his core. he was thumbing his nose to any existing social structures. lettermemen: who arere those wn out t there, by y the way? woman:n: neighbo. i'll get rid of them. hey, excuse me. just keep it moving, come on. he kind of spoofed the whole notion of talk shows. it's's the "latete night" gugue. please say hello to tom hanks. here he is. [ cheers and applause ] hanks: no one can go on the "david letterman show" and try to steer it towards a point of view or push something in particular. he just wouldn't stand for it. you're on to do one thing and one thing only -- bebe as funny y as the reset of t the show. you knowow, we couldld get in a two shotot here, davave. we could actually send the crew home, couldn't we?

[ laughter ] steinberg: you know, as a comedian, you want the biggest audience that you could get. for dave, he knew a lot of things that he would do were gonna alienate people. and he didn't care. he wanted his thumbprint out there and that's t the most imimportt thing. it's t time for "s"small town n" papaul? excuse me. paul? do you have any -- do you have any accompanying music here for "small town news"? paul shaffer, ladies and gentlemen. shales: the show making fun of itself and turning itself inside out that way was something kind of new. i memean, don'n't we look k like guyss that you'd see hanging around together? absolwould you like to hang around with me? nope. i've said it before and i'll say it again. this is the stupidest show i've... i thought that i would never want to do this show with you. now why? because you thought i was a... an [bleep] [ laughter ] there's one rule i keep trying to abide by and unfortunately i only get to it about 12% of the time. and that is, it's only television.

we're not doing cancer research. if the 40 year-odd history of commercial broadcasting has taught us one thing, there's nothing sacred about television. all right. steven is upstairs. [ laughter ] hey dave, i was just curious, is there any way i can get mtv on this... actually, steve, that's a -- that's just a monitor and all you can get on that is our show. oh. that's okay. hanks: there was a degree of cynicism that was needed in the art form at that time. and it's a cynicism that just became common n sense after a whwhile. becacause it nevever got old. i've w watched johnny cararson, and you are no johnny carson. [ cheers and applause ] [ whooping ] good day, welcome to the great white north canadian corner. i'm bob mckenzie, this is my brother doug. and today we got a real big show 'cause we got a... bianculli: there was a second city chicago company, there was a second city toronto company. the toronto one is the one that fueled the sctv series,

whicich originalally was synyndd and got toto the statetes that . hail caesar! ■■■■■■■■ hail caes! hail, hail. thank you very much for that marvelous reception. i particularly want to thank my supporters over there in the caesarian section. [ laughter ] steinberg: it's healthy to be an outsider, you know, as a comedian. and canadian are always outsiders but they're looking at the other culture, whicich is rightht next door to them.m. i love you sammy maudlin! i want to bear your children! [ laughs ] hanks: it was the type of comedy that had only been accessible if you could have gotten into the improv clubs in chicacago or tororonto. i had never seen anything like second city tv. alex trembel: james bridgeman, parkdale. [ laughter ] sorry, no, never mind. i'm sorry. yost: it was far more conceptual in its humor because it didn't have to be performed in front of an audience. and there was also just the idea that it was this sort of f low-rent t thing.

it was t this sort o of by t the seat ofof their pans kind of operation that gave it an authenticity. now that our programming day has been extended, i'm gonna be spending a lot... where do you want me to put the kielbasa mrs. prickley? put it in the fridge, butch. yost: you were rooting for the show and the characters that they had created. there was just something that you got behind. whereas, you know, "snl" right from the -- from the gate and through the '80s was this b big enterprprise. franken:n: after fifive golden n years, lorne decided to leave and so did those close to him, including me, al franken. so nbc had to pick a new producer. now most knowledgeable people, as you might imagine, hoped it would be me, al franken. shales: there was a real question of whether "saturday night live" would continue at all or whethther it woululd just d. the press s hasn't beeeen overerly kind. yeah, i read that stuff. "saturday night live" is saturday night dead.

man: oh, man, come on. geez. from yucks to yech. [ all groan ] my favorite, though, is "vile from new york." please, bill, come on. it's funny, it's funny. shales: they were having a hard time and then came the man that saved the show, eddie murphy. ♪ wookin' pa nub ♪ shales: there was buzz about him so you tuned in and there was this kind of explosion of talent in f front of yoyour eyes. [ as james brown ] hey! too hot in the hot tub! burn myself! it really kind of rejuvenated the show. i amam gumby, dadamn it! you don't t talk to meme that . shales: after a while, the show regained its status and its clout and became even more of an institution than it had been. hey bob. [ chuckleses ] hey, penis looks great today. listen, harry, if you're unhappy with my work, tell me now! you're through, do you hear me? through! you'll never work in this town again. don't leave me hanging by a thread! let me know where i stand! we were a little worried at first because we had a new cast, but everyone loves us.

you guys have been so nice to us during our stay. isn't that special? i am hans. and i am franz. and we just want to pump you up! levine: a lot of things that they could do on "saturday night live" they couldn't do on a sitcom. the humor was more daring and more satirical. and d it was pololitical. you stilill have, uhuh, 50 secs leftft mr. vice e president.t. well let me just sum up, on track, stay the course, a thousand points of light. stay the course. governor dukakis, rebuttal? i can't believe i'm losing to this guy. [ laughter ] [ telephone ringing ] i'll get it. oh, geez. it's garry shandling's show. connelly: people were taking all the old principles of comedy and trying to turn them into something new. we spent years and years watching sitcoms and dramas and talk shows by then. we knew w them by heheart thatat if somebobody plplayed on that and parodied i, we got it instantly.

yeah, i appreciate you coming in under these conditions lewis. i really do. you want to hold the credits. okay. now, see, we were gonna show the credits and you screwed that up, okay? 'cause you're late. "the garry shandling show" was aware of the fact that it wawas a situatation com. [ gasps ] it highlighted the cliches in funny ways. are you looking into the camera? no. no, i didn't. don't -- don't look into the camera. i didn't. don't. i didn't. you don't come in here and look in the camera. i didn't. i'll bop you. i will, if i see a tape of this show... [ laughter ] ...and you're looking into the c-- [ cheers and applause ] well, it's about that time. shales: "pee-wee's playhouse" on cbs, a so-called saturday morning kids show thatat adults cocould watchh and wiwink at eachch other as they were watching it. it was very clever. ha-ha! morning conky. what's today's secret word? today's secret word is good! levine: it was a show certainly for kids

and it was for stoned baby boomers who were totally wasted on saturday morning and watctched "p"pee-wee's p playhouse"" and sasaw god. i i sure had a a lot of fufun. see you all real soon. until then, everybody be good! ha-ha! [ bell dinging ] [ all screaming ]

arnold: 1968, the summer before junior high school.

and i don't mind saying i was a pretty fair little athlete. bianculli: "the wonder years" was a guy in modern times looking back on his childhood. that in itself is not new, but "the wonder years" did it with a wit and with the music. it was a b brilliantlyly writn show andnd a great p performae by that entire young cast. hey, steve. it looks like my baby brother and his girlfriend have found each other. [ chuckles ] she's not my girlfriend. kevin arnold has to cope with all the timeless problems of growing up during one of the most turbulent times that we have known. kevin arnold is just like a regular kid except in the 1960s. and he's not really aware of many of the events. like in one of the episodes, the whole family's watching the apollo 8 take off. but i'm just sitting there trying to call a girl. bianculli: the first episode of "the wonder years," anybody who saw it remembers the ending

where, you know -- the first kiss with winnie and kevin arnold. the song that they play is "when a man loves a woman." that m moment seememed so p pure and soso real. ♪ when a man loves a woman ♪ ♪ can't keep his mind on nothing else ♪ troy: the tone of the baby boomers of the 1960s is about rebellion, about being students. by the 1980s, it's time to grow up. and soso they shavave their beb, give up their dashikis, and they put on power suits -- a whole nenew notion.. ah, the e yuppies. last year the politicians were all talking about winning their votes. now those young, urban professionals and the rest of their baby boom generation are being wooed by advertisers and their agencies. greenfield: by the '80s, it was pretty clear that the generation after the generation of the '60s may be embodied by alex keaton on "family ties." soon to be a lot more interested in the corner office ththan the newew jerusaleme. yoyou're a yououng man. you shouldn't be worried about success.

you should be thinking about hopping on a tramp steamer and going around the world. the '60s are over, dad. thanks for the tip. bianculli: you weren't laughing at michael j. fox's character for being too conservative. you were actually laughing at t the parentnts fofor being totoo hopelesssy liberaral. what i is this? i found d it in the e shower. that's generic brand shampoo. ah! this is him. this is the guy i've been telling you about. this is everything you'd want in a president. troy: the genius of "family ties" is it allows a kind of youthful reaganite to emerge that's's focused more on the future, that's focused more on the a critique of the '60s. levine: michael j. fox as alex keaton really became the center of the show. anand writers s were smartrt eh to see that they had something special and they wrote to that. it's not fair, alex. yeah. there's nothing you can do about it, jen.

my advice to you is that you just enjoy being a child for as long as you can. i know i did. it's the best two weeks of my life. [ laughter ] fox: alex is a little bill buckley. he -- the wall street journal is his bible. [ laughs ] he has a tie to go with his pajamas. he's very conservative and a very intense 17-year-old. now the first thing your teacher's gonna ask is what you did over the summer. now, a lot of kids are gonna say, i went to the zoo. or i went to the beach. or i went to a baseball game. what are you gonna say? i watched the iran contra hearings. [ laughter ] peterson: if mom and dad thought this generation was going to the dogs, think again. this is the generation that has discovered hard work and success. troy: american culture is changing in the '80s. and in terms of television, there's a whole notion of demographic segmentation. bobochco: netwtworks were e begg to not b be afraid to appppeal to a very spepecific demomograph. hi, hahandsome. look at t that shirt.

is that a power shirt or what? nice s suit ellen,n, good s shoulder papads. you lolooking to g get draftd by thehe eagles? [ chucklkles ] "thirtysomomething" sasaid, wewe're not gogonna have c c, lawywyers, or dodoctors. we're justst gonna bee about t people. whatat are we dodoing here?? why did d we start t this busin? to do ouour thing. bubut right nonow we got t two , three kidsds, four carars, two momortgages, a a payroll. and that's's life, palal. you be t the breadwiwinner. is thahat what i a am? holmes: "thirtysomething" is a very important show as you're going ininto this era of t televisionn beining more intntrospective and morere emotionalal. and some p people weren't bubuying it. but for otother peoplele, when y werere talking a about things likeke having kikids and who was gonna a go back toto work and some o of these isissues ththat hadn't t been talkeked t a a whole lot,t, it wasas importantnt to peopl. [ fussining, crying g ] i was s so lookingng forward - [ louderer ] i was s so lookig forwarard to doingng this, to be a a grownup for justst an hour.. in the b beginning,, there wawas talk of f this being

the yuppie show and you mentioned it tonight. you-you said that if there were a category for the most annoying show, this might win as well. no, what some people perceive as annoying has nothing to do with yuppie. i think yuppie is a word made up by demographers and advertisers to sell soap. i don't think it has anything to do with what the show is. "thirtysomething" was not a giant hit. but it w was a nichehe hit. it attraracted an enenormousy upscale e group of a advertise. shales: ththe network k cared who was wawatching, not hohow many werere watchin. and d that was m more and moe catctching on inin the '80s.. ♪ sifuentes: the prosecution will ask you that you look to the law anand this youou must do.. but i i ask of youou that youu look t to your heaearts as we. thank you. holmlmes: "l.a. . law" was p py a classic c lawyer shohow. but itit was interertwined with theirir personal l lives and different lalawyers who were s sleeping totogethr and tryiying to get t ahead. yost:: the rereality levevel on that w wawas like a f foot or twoo off ththe ground..

and yoyou were wililling to o with t that because e it was a w whole new n onon a law shohow. unh-ununh, tell ththe truth. if youou had to dodo it alall over agagain and d she walkeded into yourur e and she e said, take m my case, would you?u? wewell... ofof course yoyou would, b becat is juicycy, newsy, e exciting s. bochco: : it was reaeally fun to takake the "hilill street bl" format and use it to frame anan entirely y differentt socialal and cultutural straa with vastly difffferent resus. i i wonder if f i might enene wiwith my clieient privatete. cecertainly. [ sighghs ] what a are you dodoing for didinner tonigight? i was plananningn having y you. inin that casese, skip lununch. bianculllli: the forormula hahad gotten e establisheded of how youou can do a dramaticic show and yeyet still hahave an a awful lot o of fun. we d didn't useded to be abe to a accept thatat very easisy in a a tv hour.. and even b before the '80s a are out,

it's like, "oh, okay, i get it. you knknow, so it't's like,l right,t, what are e the rules s" what arere you doingng? i'm m doing whai should havave done allll a. ...shohould have d done all al. whatat i wanted d to do origigi. ...do ororiginally.. what i s should haveve done .....last nighght.last nigight. stop that t dav! stop that t david! i'i'm calling g the policece, ! ...the p police, davavid! hellllo, police?e? ■■■■ hellllo? shriver:r: the netwoworks reald therere was an a audience looking g for something less p predictablele than t traditionalal prime-tie farere. -[ groans s ] -[ g gasps ] bianculllli: "moonlilightin" was anotother of thohose shows that said,d, "okay, i see ththe formulasas that w we've had u up to here. let's s do differerent things. hello.o. hello.o. wewe're lookining a littlee "pale" [ [pail] todaday, aren't? and who o have we he? i don't knknow. moonlilighting wasas a really experirimental shohow. theyey had a shahakespeare e ep. they had a black and white episode. they d did a musicical episod. they t tried a lot of d different s stuff. i don't gigive a flying fig about ththe lines inin my fac, the crcrow's feet t by my e, or t the altitudude of my caca. well, i'i'm at a lososs.

i don'n't know whahat a flflying fig i is. ththat's okay,y, they do.. [ chcheers and a applause ]] there's no trouble on the set. there is no trouble on the set. well, we have a very volatile relationship. there is a hate/e/love elemt to i it. easysy come, easasy go! ha! buburrows: the flirtatations werere grea, and bruce anand cybill were gre. glenenn caron kekept them apat for r a long timime. and bravo o to him. bibianculli: what thehey did was s they tok the sasam and dianane dynamic from "chcheers" and d escalated. "cheerers" was, "will ththey or won'n't they" "moonlighting" was, "do they e even want t to?" stay awaway from me.e. herere i come. but i i don't wantnt you. i i never wantnted you. yeyeah, right.t. does entntertaining g mean at s some point t stopping t the of dave and maddie? i mean, do they get together at some point? i hope so. well, that, that's gonna be resolved this year. we like to think of it as two and a half years of foreplay. bibianculli: peoplele who had b been watchg "moonlnlighting" f for years were waiaiting for t this mome. and yourur emotions are alalready therere,

buililt onto thehe emotions st yoyou're seeining on the s sc. so when "be e my baby" by the rononettes stararts play, it's l like a perfrfect storm of romomance. [ "b"be my baby"y" plays ] ♪ t the night w we met i knkne♪ ♪ n needed you u so ♪

in recent years, it seems that television has become a kind of an electronic confessional where guests are willing to expose painful and sometimes embarrassing aspects of their lives quite readily to millions of viewers. bianculli: at the beginning of the decade, we get the dominance of phil donahue. and that's sort of a maturation of women's issues. and he seemed to talk to them, in the audience, he seemed d to talk toto them through ththe tv screeeen. i'm glad y you called.d. kiss t the kids. [ laughter ] we'll be back in just a moment. if you look at the body of work we've had, you know, you're gonna see the '80s there. i'm m not here t to say you're wrorong, but let's understand this. when you bring a moral judgment without knowing them, against them for the way that they look they feel that confirms the reason for their rebellion, if that's what you want to call it. mitchell: he really believed that daytime television needed to talk about the ideas we were thinking about,

the e issues we e were coconcerned ababout. [ chuckleses ] i don't't wanto characteterize his q question, but why don't you get this fixed instead of doing this screwy stuff? there's not a single recorded case in history of any transsexual, that ever, through psychological treatment, changed. it has never happened yet. we were putting very important people on the program. all kinds of people. gay people. people going to jail. people running for office, you know? sometitimes the sasame people. it was a magic carpet ride. you really do paint a very, very grim, picture of the sitting president of the united states. let me just say this -- i think he's probably the laziest president that i've ever seen. the audience for phil donahue built and built and built and built and led the way to "oprah." ♪ [ [ cheers andnd applause e] whoo!

hello, everybody. hello! mitchell: oprah has a particularly magical combination of her own background, her own experience, her own n incisive m mind, anand empathetetic spirit.t. thank k you. i'm o oprah winfy and welcome to the very first national "oprah winfrey show"! [ cheers and applause ] donahue: i was surprised at the rocket pace that "oprah" took off because it took us a lot longer. the donanahue show r rearrangd the fufurniture, but oprah remodeled the whole house. winfrey: there a are a lot o f otheher people w who are watatg who really don't understand what you mean when you say, well, you know, we're in love. because i remember questioning my gay friends saying, you mean, like, you feel about him the way i feel about... it's kind of a strange concept, you know, for a lot of people to accept. oprah was connecting with people in a way that no one had on tv before. and it was really special to see. well, did you know that for the longest time,

i wanted to be a fourth grade teacher because of you? my, i was not aware of inspiring anyone. i think you did exactly what teachers are supposed to do. they create a spark for learning. that's the reason i have a talk show today. oprah winfrey now dominates the talk show circuit both in the ratings and popularity. i want to use my life as a source of lifting people up. that's what i want to do. that's what i do every day on my show. you know, we get accused of being tabloid television and sensational and so forth, but what i really think we do more than anything else is we serve as a voice to a lot of people who felt up until perhaps my show or some of the others, that they were alone. this is what 67 pounds of fat looks like. [ audience murmurs, gasps ] i can't, i can't lift it. it is amazing to me that i can't lift it, but i used to carry it around every day. there's nothing more endearing to an audience thanan to have t that kind of honestst and humilility and coce on the part of a host. and that, i think, has a lot to do with her power.

it feelsls like i cacan do s some good h here. and i really do think that the show does a lot of good. ♪ american television is drowning in talk shows. but it's never seen anything like morton downy, jr. i want to tell you this story -- sit down and shut up! troy: other competitors come and take the television talk show into two different directions. so you start seeing the phenomenon of daytime television n shows becomingng less tameme and momore wild. hart: the '80s brought a lot of belligerence to television. whether it was morton downey, jr. being g the offensnsive, caricaturere-ish persoson thatat he was, or geraldo. he did his own outlandish things. stay w with us ladadies anand gentlememen. we're gonna get into the mind of another all american boy who came under the influence of satanism and took part in a crime without passion or motive. troy: geraldo rivera takes the power of the talk show to a whole other level,

trying to put people on stage who hate each other, whwho are gonnnna fight. in the case of the temple of set and the church of satan, we have not had any problems with criminal behavior. yet when you hear story after story after story of people committing these wretched crimes, these violent crimes in the devil's name? troy: the more tension there is, the more conflict there is, the more violence there is, the more the ratings go up. and the american people love to complain about it, but ththey also lolove to wat. brbrokaw: geraraldo riverara ik in a controversy tonight. rivera drew sharp criticism with his recent television special on devil worship. but today he found himself in a real free for all. i get sick and tired of seeing uncle tom here, sucking up, trying to be a white man. go ahead, troy, go ahead. now, let me tell you -- [ audience shouting ] sit down, man. hey! come on. no. you got it coming. you got it coming. dude... get up and get it. nah. hey, hold it! hold it! sit down! [ indistinct shouting ] brokaw: rivera suffered a broken nose but he says the show will be broadcast

later this month in its entirety. well, that's not something, you know, i would have done. bubut there wawas a lot of hypococrisy. one of the major magazines put the picture of geraldo getting hit with a chair on the cover. and the article said, "isn't this awful? look what's happened to television." and yet they couldn't wait to use it to sell their r own magazizin. let's s go to the e audience, all right. i want to speak to you guys. you guys are... shales: over the years, broadcasting has deteriorated. and now in this era of deregulation, it's deteriorating further. give people light, and they will find their own way. relax. america will survive the talk shows.

♪ troy: a big thing that changes in the '80s is the number of hours spent watching television. [ whistles ] goes up. the numbmber of hoururs spent talking about television goes up. one of the symbols of this phenomenon is "entertainment tonight." hi, i'm tom hallick and welcome to our opening night, the premiere edition of "entertainment tonight." hart: all of the critics were kind of unanimous in that they said, "it'll never last because there simply isn't enough entertainment news toto fill a hahalf-hour evevery. "enterertainment t tonight" has surveyeyed tv crititics in the united states and canada

to find out which television shows had the most impact on viewers over the years. now, up until this time, nobody had done television like this. nobody. burt r reynolds, the hottesest actor inin hollyw. i'm surprised to see you here. well, i'm glad to see you. well, thank you. we can meet here every night if you'd like. thank you. i'd love it. [ women "ohh" ] leach: a lot of what makes successful television programming is being in the right place at the right time. and it was the right time. mitchellll: entertaiainment journalismsm evolved as the audience got more curious and had more access. untitil that poioint, the entertainment business had been something that we didn't know all that much about. hart: we could go behind the scenenes in our r effort to really give an insiderer's look. the crafty old j.r. of "dallas" fame was with his mother, actress mary martin as he was presented with a star on the hollywood walk of fame. it was very honorific of the industry. they wouldld do seriouous covee of it.t. it wasasn't salacicious and you would see actors

speaking as actors instead of on a johnny carson show. man: what are you like off camera? i'm like this. oh, this is on camera. this is on camera. hanks: it was the beginning of a lot of money being made talking about entertainment and celebrities. rorobert redfoford plays the goodod guy in ththe movie, but don't tell that to his neighbors in utah. they are still bitter and redford is the target of their ire. hart: the audience grew and grew. and that was showing us that the appetite for celebrity news was big. it was big. get t ready for r "lifestyles of thehe rich and d famous," television's most dazzling hour of excitement! hi, i'm robin leach in monaco, the glittering gem of the riviera. and you've got a vip ticket to prince rainier's private party. your sunday newspaper is still delivered with the comics around the news. and that was what i always thought "lifestyles" was. we were e the comicc around t the news. exceptpt we did itit as seriouy asas they did d news.

finally in the driving seat of his own career, he burned rubber in a new direction. david hasselhoff -- rock idol. hart: it was a time where pushing the limits with wealth and ostentatiousness in a lot of cases was very comfortable. one of the earliest stories that we presented to you on "lifestyles" was about the amazing real-estate wizard donald trump. if he didn't shock and surprise you back then, he's had plenty of time since. with all of this costing billions, not millions, do the figures ever frighten you? the answer is no. it's my business. it's my life. it's my lifestyle. i love it. the good, the bad. does this bring with it political aspirations? no political aspiration. bob brown: your show has gotten a lot of ridicule. there are people who say it's nothing more than trash. that doesn't upset me because i think it's the best trash there is on television. i am not in the business of brain surgery. i am in n the busineness of f fluff.

connelly: it's the fantasy element at a time when the access is possible. it's escapism and it's aspirational. you want to stand in a hot tub with a glass of champagne? rock on! leach: we'd never seen thahat kindnd of wealth ever before. we didn't mock it, we didn't say it was right, and we didn't say it was wrong. we were just through the keyhole. sometimes,s, you know,w, it absololutely amazazes me. i walk away from a shoot and i think, "well, we did it again." there was s more of eveverythg in tv byby the '80s.s. your opporortunities f for watcg stuff f is increasasingly v. announcer: nbc presents "real people." my name's michael b. wilson. the thought dawned on me that the application of a small motor on a pair of roller skates might really be a great thing. barbour: somebody once said that each one of us will be a star for 15 minutes. and i think that that's probably going to happen. troy: american culture used to be a culture that celebrated privacy and in the 1980s as we're watching celebrities sort of play out onstage, "hey, i want to join, too."

all the world becomes a stage and you start seeing shows like "real people" or "the people's court." announcer: the people's court -- where reality television is taken one step further. to see more tv, producers had to come up with new and different ways to give them television. don't. be. stupid. carl, get over here! [ screams ] i told you not to be stupid! bianculli: what "cops" did was it took away the script and just brought the camera people and the crews on location to try and catch actual things happening. cocaine... possession of a stolen firearm no less. what else are you gonna do?

♪ officiant: with this ring... with this ring... i thee wed. i thee wed. with my body... with my body... i thee bond. i thee bond. connelly: the biggest television event of the 1980s is the marriage of charles and diana. it's like the world stopped when that happened. i mean, that was, like, just massive. reportrter: this w was the finit ofof a spectacacle that may never again be seen in this century, if ever. rather: the archbishop of canterbury called the wedding of prince charles and lady diana spencer today the stuff of fairy tales. chancellor: good evening. the royal couple at this hour is off on the honeymoon,

while a lot of people here in london tonight are still talking about the events of the day. troy: when you have great moments like the royal wedding, they're a part of history and it's done beautifully and everybody has a chance to watch it all on television. everybody just wants to drink a toast to chuck and di. jennnnings: a prprincess whohot now be awaware as it w was on this day that every single move she makes in public will be recorded and observed. a very difficult life indeed. we'll be back in just a moment with some closing observations and one final look at what has justifiably been called the wedding of the century. officiant: by the authority of the state of new york, i pronounce that they are husband and wife. you may kiss the bride. [ cheers and applause ] your wedding was seen by an astonishing number of people -- 16 and 19 million viewers. how do you account for that kind of popularity? oh, i can't. i can't. the way it's grown, it's just -- it's amazing to me.

connelly: it did appear in the '80s that it was a good time for daytime soap operas, especially for a show like "general hospital," which had that huge success with luke and laura's s weddin. duduffy: i remember when luke and laura got married because it was nighttime newsworthy. the soap opera discovers the blockbususter mentalalit, the swsweeps monthth mentalit. like, whwhat can we e do to gt even m more peoplele watchin. you have a wedding. you have a kidnapping. you have an evil twin. and prime time stole from daytime. reporter: : after "dalallas" prd thatat ewing oilil was better than real oil for cbs, the networks rushed to give the public more. troy: the great prime-time soap operas of the 1980s. "dallas," "dynasty." they're all about excess. this is s about beining overer the top,, stababbing each h other in t th, going fofor the guststo, and having fun. i know w what's wronong with. the e empty armemed madonn. moururning the b baby ththat she cououldn't havee and ththe baby thahat she almost gotot to adopt.t.

that is s it, isn't t it? ohoh, you miseserable bitctch! yostst: there wawas a bigness to thehe stories.. and thatat they coululd affod to do onon a networkrk, if y you're doining one episie a weweek. nonow you can'n't do thatt if youou're doing g five episos a weweek for a d daytime shoh. so j just the prproduction v e gagave it thatat pizzazz.. repoporter: if y you can't h ha, wawatch other r people witi. or so say y the three e netwos who are e programmining neararly 40% ofof their pririme-time fafe with s series abouout the veryr. and ththe public i is devourint atat such a rarate that make bebelieve moneney has s become ratatings gold.d. [ scscreams ] hartrt: the characacters wewere larger r than life.. ththey were momore evil anande cunning anand manipulalative. and morere gorgeous.s. i meanan, really.. look at the way they were e dressed. look a at the way y they li. everytything, it w was fascinan. -alelexis? -y-yes. i didndn't thank y you for r your presesent.

[ gagasps ] [ sighs s ] it's he e you shod slap, , dear, not. julilie brown: w we all wantd to l live like, , you know,, we were e on "dynaststy," lilike the cararringtons.. anand it all j just ended dp beining a wondererful picture ofof fun and d debauchery.y. yost: grgreed was enencouragd in the ' '80s. there e was a sensnse of conspss coconsumption n as being o okay. and d those showows kind o of exploiteted that. catherine e mann: primime-tie families l like the cacarringts who liveve here in l luxury on the "dydynasty" souound ste are nonot the onlyly rich fok on tv.v. in the last five years, more than half of all new shows have featured the wealthy. 10 years ago, that figure was zero. there was an accident. your fatheher's dead. connelly:: falcon c crest was a a wine fam. therere's lorenznzo lamas and ththere's ronanald reagans firsrst wife, jane w wyman is onon that sho. ememma is pregegnant.

i know a d doctor who o can tatake care ofof it right t a. that will l never happppen. all of t those showsws were, "oh, my gogod, what's s next? what's g gonna happepen with ? he c can't get a away with t " and d then you t tune in. it was a appointmentnt televis. announcecer: what wiwill becocome of the e missing twts onon knots lananding? whatat? connelelly: theyey all had s spin-offs. "dallalas" had thehe spin-off "knots l landing." "the c colbys" wasas the spin-f fofor "dynastyty." theyey were seeieing how mucuch theyey could maxax this stufuf. 'causese it was rereally succec. where's s your son m miles? isn't t he going t to be a pat of thihis venture,e, or is he j just playining poo as usual?? [ laughter ] the cocolbys can a always findnm for anotheher trophy. [ laughterer ] cocorday: you u had these e pe fighting o over oil anand mansionsns and it wawas f, but inin a kind ofof so ovever the top p way thatat it was fufun. there's noththing devious about t using yourur femini. biananculli: these showows took themselves so unserioiously ththat they wewere camp.

but that w was okay with thehe central a audience that was l loving themem. duffy: i it was entetertainme. we werenen't trying g to do high dramama. we were there to entertain. we were e glossy. there e was no getetting arounu. we knenew what we e were therer and d we did it t as best wewe .

(singing )i'll be home for christmas you can plan on me.

please have snow and mistletoe. and presents on the tree. kids at shriner's hospitals for children are able to go home and be with their families for the holidays. and that's only possible because of the monthly donations from people like you. thanks to a generous donor every dollar you give can help twice as many kids like me and have double the impact. with your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day. we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as a thank you. gumbel: australia's most important export we'll send you this adorable love may be neither its animals nor its beer nor its films.

could in fact be one rupert murdoch. 55-year-old mr. murdoch is in the midst of building what forbes magazine says is the most extensive media empire in history. heilemann: a huge development in television. the gemini of the three broadcast networks was presumed to be complete and rupert murdoch having disrurupted the n newspr businessss in austraralia, the television business in britain. he arrives in america and basically says, i don't really seeee why ththere shouldld only be threree broadcasast networks. i'm gonnnna make anonother on. this w was a big, , bold bet. jensen: meantime, he will have to become an american citizen if he is to own tv stations here. something murdoch says he is willing to do. gumbel: there are some people who are saying that it'll take you 20 years to get your fox network on a par with the big three. are you prepared to wait that long? sure, i certainly intend to live that long. but i don't believe in the 20 years. auletta: the reaction to murdoch's idea for a fourth network was similar to the reaction at ted turner starting cnn. it's ridiculous, you know. what doeoes he knoww about t televisionon? we don't think of ourselves as abc, cbs or nbc.

we don't have to reach everyone. there's no question we have an inferior lineup of stations to our counterparts. that means we'll all have to work harder to get our-our message across and get shows sampled. auletta: they had an idea that, "in order to succeed we have to differentiate ourselves from the networks. wewe have to d do things they wouould not do.o." fox started throwing anything against the wall, nonot knowing g what was g go. first t shows werere things le "21 1 jump streeeet"... what exactctly are wee lookining for herere? biananculli: .....joan rivers in t terms of lalate night... we have been banned in boston, which i think is wonderful. wxne, so pick a finger wxne. bianculli: ...and "the tracey ullman show." oh, polly! levine: it was a sketch show and they needed something to go between the sketches. and again, they were looking for something different. i i gotta haveve those canandy . you better not be thinking of stealing those candy bars. that's it! "the simpsons" would never have come along

had it not been for "the tracey ullman show." ulultimately, , crime hurtrs the crcriminal. but that's not true mom. i gotta free ride home didn't i? bart! levine: fox was thrilled that it was different. they said, sure, be experimental. do whatetever you wawant. we're e just happypy to have a show on n the air. [ lalaughter ] i'm home! bianculli: "married with children" was their first big, big hit in that way that said if all the rest of television is going this way,y, we're e going thatat way. bubud, kelly, , you want t to ce dodown and helelp me in ththe k? [ doors slam ] [ chuckles ] there, that should buy us about 10 minutes. 7 more than we'll need. [ chuckles ] mandabach: the title of "married with children" on the script was "not the cosby show." how great. i mean, you know, you have to love that. they just t were takining the s out ofof american n families.. fun, great fun. hurry y up bud. never wanted to get married, i'm married.

never wanted to have kids, i got two of them. how the hell did this happen? the bundys were almost like a purposeful reaction to thehe perfectioion of t the huxtablbles. and it was funny because, you know, you had this wonderful, perfect black family and these horrible, miserable white people. and each show worked on its own terms because you could find things to relate to in both. howdwdy neighbor. yeah, yeah, yeah. [ whispers ] i hate these people. why don't we sit down? there was a lot of fun to be had in, you know, al and peg bundy. bianculli: after fox introduces "married with children," it does very, very well, then back on abc, they came up with another major hit, "roseanne." you u think thisis is a a magic kingngdom where you just sit up here on your throne. oh yeah? yeah! and you think everything gets done by some wonderful wizard. oh, poof, the laundry's folded. poof, dinner's on the table. you want me to fix dinner? i'll fix dinner. i'm fixing dinner! oh, but, honey, you just fixed dinner three years ago. bianculli: typical american families weren't on television for the longest time.

the donna reed days, you know, the early days, the "father knows best," hardly anybody really liveded like tha. that was the way advertisers wanted you to live. i know what just might make me feel better. me too, but i bet it's a different list than what you got. the ideal situation is if you can subvert whatatever commomon stuff is said d about famimilies and about parenting. what's in this, lead? oh, i got you kids new leg irons. [ cackles ] her loudness and her unfilteredness wewere key to o why we likiked. she was saying stuff about working class people, she was saying stuff about men and women. so it was about marriage and about raising kids and about how hard it is. ohoh, great, i i'm just goa lolook like a a freak, thahat. what else is new? shut up! this is why some animals eat their young. tv in the '80s was a big decade for the evolution of comedy, for ththe evolutioion of dram. it just pushed everything forward. shriver: do you u think perhrhas thisis generatioion are e paying more attention to the dialogue,

to the relationships that they see on television than in years previous? well, clearly the people that are watching our shows are. and "thirtysomething" and "c"cheers" and "st. e elsewhere."." ththese are shshows ththat are smamartly writttt. it's their words that define them. and i think that's what people like. furillllo: whatat we're supupposed to b be is the o one thing people c can trust.. if you go ouout there like a b bunch of ninight ride, whatat the hell l are you bubut another vicious street gang? ththat decade e spawned an extraorordinary numumber of showsws that realally carvedt a a unique niciche for thehems. we began to turn television into an art form. and for the first time, people were proud to say, "i write for television." yost: : up until t that point, televivision was s second cla. in the '80s, it was something else entirely and it was new and it was kind of interesting. connelelly: itit's like eveveryone in n ths

starts to want to tell their stories. that's what really changes things. shalales: the unexpected was more welcome in the '80s. predictability lost its cache. television has an impact on every era, every decade. television still shapes the thinking of america like nono other elelement inin our country. sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. duffy: it gave rise to people pursuing artistic content in a way t that i thinink has rd the babar in televevision prodon exponenentially. i love y you guys! bianculllli: there's's a shit in the ' '80s from j just wantg toto placate t the audiencne to w wanting to o please and chalallenge the e audienc. and ththat's the d decade when it hahappened. wewe had one h hell of a r r. dididn't we papartner? yeahah. we sure e did, sonnyny. i'm gonna miss you man. i'm gonna miss you, too, sonny. can i give you a ride to the airport? why not?

♪ welcome to "the whole story." i'm anderson cooper. while the u.s. is the most expensive country in the world when it comes to giving birth, it's far from the safest. the maternity mortality rate in this country has risen for the past 15 years according to the cdc. and the statistics are even more dire when it comes to black women. they are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related

causes than white women. the question is why? why do black women face more risk when they go to the hospital to give birth? that's the question that cnn anchor, new mom abby phillip has been asking since the birth of their daughter two years ago. abby was well aware of the statistics and made some unconventional choices. since then many other women have made the same choices she did. over the next hour she takes us to hospitals and birthing centers around the country to show us why more and more black women are turning away from traditional medical care and finding other options when it comes to giving birth. >> hi! hi, baby! >> this is the sound of new life being brought into the world.