- there's something in the air... and it ain't love. - "oz" was cutting-edge in what it was willing to share with the audience. - hit me. hit me! [grunts] hit me in the face, brother. - complicated characters, complicated issues, and the way it was presented was so, uh...unique. - sentence: nine years. up for parole in six. - what they were doing at hbo was exactly what the network wasn't doing. they were breaking barriers. - innocent. - you get to "the sopranos," and all of a sudden, the villain is the hero. - have some eggplant. - i told you, i'm not hungry. - now you won't even accept food from your own mother. - "the sopranos" was david chase's invention about this mob family-- something that people hadn't seen before, the idea that a mobster is seeing a therapist.

- what ever happened to gary cooper? the strong, silent type? that was an american. he wasn't in touch with his feelings. he just did what he had to do. see--see, what they didn't know was, once they got gary cooper in touch with his feelings, that they wouldn't be able to shut him up! and then it's dysfunction this and dysfunction that and dysfunction va fangoul! - you have strong feelings about this. - every decade, you get somebody like peter falk as columbo or carroll o'connor as archie bunker-- somebody you just can't imagine anybody else afterwards. and james gandolfini is that in tony soprano. - i think it's supposed to be a mafia story, but, i mean, it's-- like i said, it's-- - it's also about everyday life. - did you know that an italian invented the telephone? - alexander graham bell was italian? - you see? you see what i'm talking--antonio meucci invented the telephone, and he got robbed! everybody knows that. - who invented the mafia? - what? - "the sopranos" kind of took the mystery out of being a mobster.

[steely dan's "dirty work" playing] - ♪ i'm a fool ♪ ♪ to do your dirty work ♪ ♪ oh, yeah ♪ - and it was somehow more mundane than we'd guessed it would be, and yet every bit as riveting as "the godfather." - you were like a brother to me. to all of us. - the debate raged at hbo about whether you could have a guy like this as your lead. and david chase was adamant that you have to-- this is who he is. and he was right. - can you assure me that tony soprano isn't going to become a sensitive, nurturing, mellowing man? - yes. - oh, good. [laughs] - [chuckles] - [giggling] [gasping] - oh, my god. - med, it's all right. i'll be home in a couple hours. don't worry. - i'm graduating tomorrow! - carmela was a wife and a mother, i think first and foremost. i think as long as she kept going to church, she felt like,

"all right, i'm taking care of my soul." - where's the rest of the money? - it's everywhere. she goes home to her husband who's got blood on him. you know, there was no way to reconcile the two things. - towards the end where their marriage is falling apart... - i used to [bleep] your husband. - you have made a fool of me for years with these whores. - her performance in that fight is stunningly good. - 'cause she's jealous! [bleep] [wails] - [grunts] - let go of me! [panting, sobbing] it mattered to people what this couple was going through, and i remember feeling a real sense of responsibility about that, and giving the weight to the scene that it deserves. - what? - [breath hitches] you know what i don't understand, tony? what does she have that i don't have? - suddenly, here's this tv show that everyone's talking about, but you have to pay to watch it. you know, that's how good "the sopranos" was: people were paying just to see that show.

- "the sopranos" came along and completely reestablished what the bar was. i honestly couldn't quite believe it, that television was communicating something that you might only see in the darkest moments-- and accurate moments-- in cinema. [distant radio chatter] [mystical drum music] ♪ ♪ - you look at the year that "american beauty" won the oscar-- which is also the year that "the sopranos" debuted-- and almost immediately after that, the two mediums diverged. - i know what i must do, but i'm afraid to do it. [epic music] - movies became much more focused on big tent-pole things that can bring in as much of an audience as you possibly can. meanwhile, tv, which had always been a big-tent medium, started going smaller and more interior and saying, "all right, we want to tell stories for grown-ups "that maybe don't get the biggest audience, but get a really passionate one."

- ♪ i'll be home ♪ ♪ for christmas ♪ - i had an idea of doing a show about death. - are you smoking? - nope. - yes, you are. i heard you. - i'm no--no, i'm not. - look, forget you'll give yourself cancer and die a slow and horrible death. you should not be stinking up that new hearse. - i met with carolyn, and she said, "i'd like to do a show about a family that runs a funeral home," and something in my head just went, "click." i thought, "what a brilliant idea." - i'm quitting right now. [spits] i promise. [clears throat] okay? i'll see you tonight. - ♪ i'll ♪ ♪ be home ♪ ♪ for christmas ♪ - alan ball comes up with a show with a perfect structure. each episode starts with the death of a character,

and then that character's death is dealt with in a local family funeral home mortuary. [distant sobbing and screaming] [screaming] - excuse me. - this was one of my first-- and maybe it was my first--binge show, which was long enough ago that it was all on--somebody had recorded it on vcr. - have you been watching mrs. romano? - yeah. i've been watching her all night. are you thinking what i'm thinking? both: casket climber. - [gasps] - i want to go with you! - mrs. romano, mrs. romano! - i want to go with you! - whoa, whoa, whoa, mrs. romano. - there's a whole new level of something going on on television. it was grittier than most shows you'd ever seen before, and yet something magical about it. - i think what our strategy at hbo was,

in terms of audiences: not everybody has to watch a show... - [yelps] [percussive music] - but if we have different shows for different people... - taxi! - there is something that makes you want to come back and sign up month after month. maybe you don't watch "sex and the city," but you watch "entourage." [crowd screaming] - "entourage" was originally based on mark wahlberg's life, and the appeal of the show is not so much about show business. it was these four guys who are, like, lifelong friends who could f**k with each other and say horrible things to each other but be tight and be good friends. - they want to throw $4 million at you. - you're kidding. - are you smiling? - yeah, yeah, i'm smiling. - can you hear me smiling? listen. [clicks teeth] you've got my balls tingling, man. they drive that way in tiananmen square, bitch? - ari gold suddenly became the breakout character, willing to be ruthless, yet also a family man with a line in the sand. and you don't really know where that line in the sand is, which makes him a morally much more interesting character. - i just read an article in the "times"--new york, man, not the s**t they got out here. - you read the "times," huh?

- yeah. - you read "the new republic"? - i've heard of it. - well, i was reading that, and it's interesting, 'cause what it says is that you don't know what the f**k you're talking about. [laughs]

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don't wait- call today. - you want to know what the best thing about childhood is? at some point, it stops. - in the year 2000, we get "malcolm in the middle," and this is a pivotal show for a lot of reasons. - dude... - not least of which because it gives us bryan cranston, but because this is a single-camera comedy. - around here, being smart is exactly like being radioactive. - single-camera comedies were funny, and the fact that you could shoot them like movies, and they could be terrific every week... - yep, class president felt really good. but later that night, i had a dream. - you know, critics loved that because it was something new. it was something that they weren't expecting. [tense music] - [screams] - [shrieks] - oh, you should see the traffic. the only thing moving is the carpool lane. - hey, daddy. you want a date with mama?

- get in the car. - "curb" came because larry wanted to do a special. it was his, you know, just, [as larry davis] "uh, follow my life," you know? but he would only make it with the stipulation that if he didn't like it, he could buy it back. lucky for us, he liked it. - you trying to act like you ain't with me? - no, i'm not trying to act like i'm not with you. what are you saying? - i will pull a [bleep] out in this thing. i will [bleep]... - don't you dare do that. - you know, the actors wouldn't get an outline for the show. they wouldn't even read what the scene was about. - judy! see it? - yeah. - judy! - judy! judy! oh, my god. - by the way, that shelf coming down was not planned. that shelf really did come down, and larry and jeff just acted their way through it. - what do i do? - stick it in your jacket. - jeffrey! - it's too big. where do i put it? - do something. she's coming up. - i think "curb" in many ways is the ultimate descendant of "seinfeld." it's in a much more real,

truthful place where morality is a gray area... - where's the [bleep] head? - and everybody's redefining it all the time. - the kid is home hysterical because her doll, judy, has been decapitated, 'cause you two sickos took the head for god knows what reason--some voodoo [bleep] you're doing. - larry and i would play a game of "worst case scenario." - i was talking to a friend of mine, and he's a survivor, and he would love to meet you. would it be possible? i mean, for me to bring them to dinner, and... - of course. - you would take the basic premise from something that actually happened and then just exploit it... - where's this survivor? - well, he's the survivor. from the-- from the television show. - the guy from the "survivor" tv show and the holocaust survivor get into an argument about who had it worse.

- we spent 42 days trying to survive. we had very little rations, no snacks. - snacks? what are you talking, snacks? we didn't eat, sometimes for a week, for a month. - don't. - we ate nothing. i went from-- - i mean, i couldn't even work out when i was over there. they certainly didn't have a gym. - a what? - i mean, i wore my sneakers out, and then the next thing you know, i've got a pair of flip-flops. - flip-flops! - we'd slip on the ground. - that was, to me, larry david at his best, because he managed to take a subject that no one would really find funny and make it hilarious and palatable. - i'm a survivor! - i'm a survivor. - i'm a survivor! - i'm a survivor! - i'm a sur-- - is there any taboo that you wouldn't break? - no, not if there was a funny idea. - it's all about funny? - yeah. - so, this is the magic trick, huh? - illusion, michael. - mm. - a trick is something a whore does for money. - "arrested development" was absolutely firing on all cylinders from the first episode to the last. - don't you judge me. you're the selfish one. you're the one who charged his own brother

for a bluth frozen banana. i mean it's one banana, michael. what could it cost? $10? - you've never actually set foot in a supermarket, have you? - if you got it, it was the funniest thing you ever saw, 'cause it assumed its audience was as smart as its writers. - what have you got there? "don't be afraid to make a..." - well, i'm not gonna beat myself up over that. - it was so clever, and more meta than just about any show that's ever been on television. - your average american male is in a perpetual state of adolescence--you know, arrested development... - hey, that's the name of the show. - it was really smart in the eye that you can kind of break all these rules, and also have a lot of characters on a comedy who were extremely unlikable. [mariachi music] ♪ ♪ - [screams] - there are a lot more important things than jokes in a comedy. jokes aren't the most important thing in a comedy. - what's the most important thing? - character. [rolls tongue] it's all down to it. just, like, control of the body. and it's all that now, isn't it?

- busy? - yeah, just keeping up the morale. - can we have a chat? - yeah. ooh! - i'd watched the british show "the office." it's one of the greatest cringe shows of all time. - no, i don't have a great many ethnic employees. that's true. but it's not company policy. i haven't got a sign on the door that says "white people only." you know, i don't care if you're black, brown, yellow, you know--orientals make very good workers. - wassap? - don't do that. - when the decision was made to make an american version... - wassap? - wassap? - wassap? - there was a lot of head-shaking of, like, "oh, god, american tv. they're gonna ruin it." - are they breathing? - no, rose, they are not breathing, and they have no arms or legs. - no, that's not part of it. - where are they?

- it used the same mockumentary format that the british show had... - [grunts] - and it went on to be this hugely influential hit. - [screams] - what are you doing? - we search for the organs. where's the heart? the precious heart. - that show works. everybody you go to in that cast is hilarious. - [slurping creepily] - oh, my god! - why would you-- - oh, my god. - dwight! - [as hannibal lecter] clarice... - it was a mockumentary format that was different, and all of a sudden, it became something that you just realized the audience was very comfortable and very conversant. - hey, park lady. - yeah? - you suck. - hear that? he called me "park lady." - "the office," "parks and rec," "modern family"-- the conceit is they're making a documentary. - [grunts] i'm okay. i'm good. i'm good. - the idea of these shows is, you know, they sit down on the couch or they catch them in a separate part of the office, and everybody does a confessional like reality television. - i've gained a few extra pounds

while we were expecting the baby, which has been very difficult, but apparently your body does a nesting, very maternal, primal thing where it retains nutrients-- some sort of molecular physiology thing. but that's science. you can't--you can't fight it. - we didn't need to explain that there's a documentary, 'cause, like, yeah, it's a documentary. we don't need to know who he's talking to. i got it, and it's funny. - this year's emmy nominations have been announced. the comedy series "30 rock" was the top nominee. - "30 rock." - "30 rock" is having the last laugh again. last year's best comedy winner pulled in 17 nominations, the most in that category. - why are you wearing a tux? - it's after 6:00. what am i, a farmer? - tina fey, i always felt, was the best joke writer in america. - would you describe yourself as cat-competent? - oh, yes. i love cats. i used to have two cats, but then i moved to this place with hardwood floors, so we had to put them down. - so here comes "30 rock." it's probably the densest show ever, joke-wise.

[musical sting] - [gasps] no. no high-def. - "30 rock" was a critical success from minute one. it had a very passionate, very desirable audience watching it, from even an advertiser's standpoint, but it was not a highly rated show. - television on! pornography! - but critical success was a marker for, "we're doing something right there." - all of my summer replacement shows were big hits-- "america's next top pirate," "are you stronger than a dog?" "milf island." - "milf island"? - 25 super hot moms, 50 eighth-grade boys, no rules. - oh, yeah, didn't one of those women turn out to be a prostitute? - that doesn't mean she's not a wonderful, caring milf.

- two okay! - one okay! [explosion] - i had a particular connection to the "band of brothers" miniseries. - let's go! - my father served in the second world war and was in many of the places where airborne ended up. - incoming! [explosion] - and what he felt was real about it was that the emotions were utterly true. [gunshot] - it was a bunch of ordinary guys who,

by way of training and volunteerism and sacrifice, both saved the world and we're forever changed by what they did. - [crying] - a lot of those veterans were still alive, so we got to meet them. we got to talk to them. - i've seen... my friends, my men being killed. and it doesn't take too many days of that, and you change dramatically. - the show premiered september 9th, 2001. two days later, everything changes. people were concerned. "should we stop airing it because it's a war story and now the country is at war again?" - it turned out to be something that was necessary, because now almost every american, i think, felt as though they had enlisted in something that they had not enlisted in before. after 9/11, we were all part of something. - we deserve long and happy lives in peace.

- do i know that face? - historical dramas of the founding of the nation have been overly rosy. - when i go to the cupboard, and i find no coffee, no sugar, no pins, no meat, am i not living politics? - one of the things that was amazing to me about "john adams" was it was done as realism. - people are hurt when they fight for what is rightfully theirs! - you approve a brutal and illegal act to enforce a political principle, sam! - just the grittiness of founding a nation. - and liberty will reign in america! - and trying to figure out what a president is. - god bless george washington, president of the united states. [cheers and applause] - it's a gift to be given 12 hours on hbo. god help you if you don't have something to say. - let's understand each other.

i'm not western district. i'm not a narco. i don't dirty people, 'cause i don't give a s**t about a possession charge. i'm a murder police. i'm here about the bodies. - david simon was a newspaper reporter in baltimore. he spent a year embedded with the baltimore homicide unit to write a book. he and ed burns, who was a police officer, got together and said, "well, what if we tell "the whole story of the death of the american city, "the futility of the war on drugs, through the eyes of cops"... - bang! - [laughing] - "of drug dealers"... - y'all got the best territory and no kind of product. i got the best product, but could stand a little more territory. - "of teachers, of politicians-- just make the entire city into the character itself?" - you follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. but you start to follow the money, and you don't know where the [bleep] it's gonna take you. - "the wire" broke down systemic racism

and the cycle of poverty like no other television show had. - come on. get up. it's a school day. y'all are gonna be late. - it wasn't just about, hey, look at these black kids chilling drugs on the street. you were in the apartment with them where they had no parents, where they were taking care of their siblings, where they were trying to scrounge for food. - where's your book bag? - teacher didn't give no homework. - so you start to get a much more realistic three-dimensional picture of what poverty looks like in a city. [sirens blaring] - one of the things about "the wire" that was so interesting is it didn't rely on this traditional representation of gangsters. it didn't rely on this traditional representation of cops. it was like reading a great novel or a great series of novels. - something ain't right, yo. - watch out, man. here come that fool. - [whistling] - he's packing. - i think "the wire" showed the architecture of a full city in the way it layered its characters,

particularly omar. omar was, by all other facets of his life, pretty awful. - yeah. the cheese stands alone. - but he had this code that he lived by that made him very touchable and very human. - hey, yo, mike. hook a sister up, yo. [baby crying] - he was openly gay, but people were also very afraid of him, and his sexuality was not necessarily weaponized against him. and for me, i didn't see black gangsters portrayed that way a lot. - no matter what we call heroin, it's gonna get sold. the [bleep] is strong, we're gonna sell it. the [bleep] is weak, we gonna sell twice as much. you know why? 'cause a fiend, he gonna chase that [bleep] no matter what. - it's the greatest tv show of all time. i know people always argue about that. it's the greatest tv show to have black people on it ever. - david, what's the highest compliment someone could pay you about this show?

- "you didn't lie." that would be it. "you didn't cheat." - good night, stars. - good night, stars. [sirens blaring] - good night, popos. - good night, popos. - [chuckles] - at the time, hbo was in about 33 million homes. well, fx was going to 110 million homes, so that's a lot of people who i think would like programming like this who do not have hbo. [exciting music] and then i just said, "well, there's got to be a different version of tony soprano," and that ultimately, we found in the script, that was vic mackey, who is a cop. - the good cop and the bad cop left for the day. i'm a different kind of the cop. - the pilot of "the shield" is fascinating, because you think that the show is being set up as a cat-and-mouse game. vic mackey--he's secretly in bed with all the gangs and all the drug dealers and making lots of money, and then you're introduced to terry crowley, this undercover cop who has been sent to bring him down, and you think, "oh, that's the show.

i've seen this show before. i seen that movie before." - we're talking about making a case that puts mack behind bars for a long time. - then you get to the end of the pilot, and vic shoots terry in the face. [rock music] ♪ ♪ - there was some thought that hbo shows did well because they had no commercials. so when a basic cable show like "the shield" that did have commercials found an audience, all of a sudden, it just opened the door, and other original programming sprung up, like "nip/tuck." - when you stop striving for perfection, you might as well be dead. - and "rescue me." [alarm ringing] - you son of a bitch! - and it was a whole new playing field. - tommy! [people shouting] [alarm ringing]

- the current crop of 18- to 25-year-olds is the most politically apathetic generation in american history. - we had a lot of difficulty getting "the west wing" on the air, and part of that was because a not unreasonable belief on the part of nbc that people didn't want to deal with politics.

- running for president of the united states without putting social security front and center is like running for present of the walt disney corporation by saying you're gonna fix the rides at epcot. - i think what made it so different than any other show i'd worked on was the richness of character and words and thoughts and images that aaron sorkin wrote. - i would love for people to think that i'm as quick and clever as the characters that i write, but you'd be disappointed if you met me. - josh. - yeah - six pages on english as the national language. - meetings don't just take place sitting down and talking to people. - and the-- - i didn't ask for a damn social studies paper. i wanted... - don't snap at me, josh. - donna... - look at the memo. i gave you what you asked for. don't snap at me. - so we knew that was the essence of the show--this movement. - what's wrong with everyone today? - the challenge of doing that is, number one, lighting... - what was the question? - if you look at that set on "the west wing," there is a lot of glass. glass is reflective,

so there were a lot of technical challenges that existed, but the biggest challenge by far was the performance challenge. - 802, five votes jumped the fence. - because they could go beginning, middle, and end of the scene sometimes in one take, and it was liberating, and also intimidating. - what the hell happened? - we don't know. - give me names. - we're finding out. - i love "the west wing" because it's a complete fantasy of a political world that is so healthily bipartisan and it shows people intensely and emotionally grappling with the hard questions. - 40% of americans have a gun in their home. - only 16% believe gun ownership is an absolute right. only 9% believe it's an absolute wrong. there's a middle. we can win them. - it presented both sides as real human beings that cared. - it's not easy being my vice president, is it? - [sighs] no, sir. - this was a valentine's towards public service that i think people were hungry for, and so this was a group of people

just trying to make the world better. - alexander hamilton didn't think we should have political parties. neither did john adams. they thought political parties led to divisiveness. - day number 52 of the socialism that you've been waiting for... - the manchurian candidate couldn't destroy us faster than barack obama. - critics now claim the administration is actually pressuring certain disabled veterans to, quote, "hurry up and die." - what you saw in the media universe in the 2000s was the splintering of the audience, and in news, it splintered largely along political lines. - you're watching fox news, real journalism, fair and balanced. - roger ailes had the brilliant idea of creating a network for conservatives, thus fox news. - controversy over john kerry and his vietnam war medals has just gotten worse. - msnbc kind of stumbled into the idea of a liberal counterpart. - people who watch fox news thinking that there is news in it are tinfoil hatters, conspiracy theorists, paranoids, racists, loons, and pinheads.

- there was no longer a shared factual basis for our political views. we didn't all go home and watch walter cronkite. - "crossfire." on the left, james carville and paul begala. on the right, robert novak and tucker carlson. in the crossfire... - i remember when jon stewart went on "crossfire." it was 2004. john kerry was the democratic presidential nominee facing george w. bush, and i thought, you know, watching it, i said, "well, this could be a funny show." - can i say something very quickly? why do we have to fight? - [laughs] - the two of you. can't we just-- say something nice about john kerry right now. - i like john--i care about john kerry. - and something about president bush. - he'll be unemployed soon. - [laughs] - i think anyone who enjoyed paying attention to the news and watched "the daily show" will forever remember jon stewart going on "crossfire" and reading those guys the riot act.

- you're doing theater when you should be doing debate, which would be great. - you do debate-- - it's not honest. what you do is not honest. what you do is partisan hackery, and i'll tell you why i know it... - you have john kerry on your show, and you sniff his throne, and you're accusing us of partisan hackery? - absolutely, you're-- - you have got to be kidding! - you're on cnn. the show the leads in to me is puppets making crank phone calls. - [laughs] - what is wrong with you? - comedians and satire, when done right, will take on hypocrisy no matter where it comes from. - i think the vice president and his wife love their daughter. i think they love her very much, and you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter. - yes, we admire your love for your gay daughter! - if they've stepped in it, a trusted comic will bring that to the forefront,

and i think that that's what people like about "the daily show." - there's an upcoming election, evidently. i didn't know that. [laughter] - you're our chief political correspondent, stephen. i mean, every two years, we elect a brand new house of representatives, a third of the senate. it's called the midterm elections. - i only vote when the big kahunas are up, you know? el presidente. i can't be running around every two years voting. i got a life. - i could not have lived without "the daily show," and colbert then becomes the companion show... - c for colbert. - that is also so compelling to watch--this hilarious, pseudo-conservative dumb guy... - and who are the heroes? the people who watch this show--average, hardworking americans. you're not the elites. you're not the country club crowd. i know for a fact that my country club would never let you in. - one of the things about being on "the colbert report,"

and stephen would say it himself, was he was playing a character. - the book is "the nine: inside the secret, spooky world of the supreme court." - stephen had to respond in real time to the guests as his character, not as himself, which was an incredible feat of acting as well as a kind of quasi-journalism. that's a big part of the book, is, you know, how much do the justices' political views play a role in how they decide cases? - how much--i mean, why would political views go into it? these guys are supposed to be--except the activist judges, the four liberal activist judges. i can understand why their liberal bent would affect them, because they're activist judges. - right. - but the conservative judges are not activists. they're inactivists. - they... [stammers] yeah, i guess you're exactly right. yeah. - right? - the moment i remember is the moment

that barack obama was named president of the united states. - cnn projects that barack obama is the next president of the united states of america. it is now official. he has passed the 270 electoral votes. [cheers and applause] - when you watch the tape, you can see that colbert begins to cry. and that character can't cry, because that's not what the character does, and jon stewart, he loves colbert so much as a human being, he covers for colbert. - it is now 297 for barack obama, 139 for john mccain.

she got that dress with the extra money she saved using our brand new grocery outlet app. it's been really fun seeing what everyone's doing with the extra money they save. a butler? super nice guy. with our new grocery outlet app, you can see the store's inventory. so you guys really have mangoes and stuff? yup.

- the very interesting statistic: people, their favorite shows, be it "csi," be it "er," the most faithful fan still only watches that show two out of four weeks. - at the time, there was just a general fear and anxiety, and they had the data to back it up, that shows that became increasingly serialized would lose viewership over time. - lex, don't! - because if the audience misses an episode, then they would be inclined to stop watching it because they would feel like, "i missed one and now i don't know what's happening." - there had been amazing shows that had been sterilized. they never had syndication value, because you couldn't revisit them, but there's almost no better hook.

it's like a book you can't turn down, like, "okay, i'm just gonna watch a little bit more." - "24" was set to debut in november of 2001. the pilot climaxes with an assassin blowing up a passenger jet in midair. fox orders this, fox schedules it, 9/11 happens. [explosion] suddenly this show, which seemed like this goofy thing about kiefer sutherland chasing after middle eastern extremist terrorists becomes the most timely show on television because that is all that anyone in america can talk about after september 11th. - [grunts] ♪ ♪ - the name for the series comes from the idea that it's 24 episodes in a season. each episode is one hour in a day, and jack bauer just has the worst days. - we are running out of time. pull the trigger. - please don't make me do this. - chloe, i know how hard this is for you, but if you care about me at all, you will pull the trigger. do it. - i'm sorry, i can't. - chloe, pull the trigger!

- no, jack! - pull the trigger! - i'm not gonna do it. - damn you! - [screams] - the commercial breaks in that show were almost welcome so that you could catch your breath. - "24" was really the first binge show if you think about it. there were a lot of people in the later years of "24" that would only buy the dvds. - you think he'll come after you? - yes. - and a lot of the subtleties and complexities that the storytellers had been doing, it's a, "my god, this is blowing my mind. i can see it now 'cause i just watched three in a row." - "battlestar galactica" was a show made in late 1970s--not a very good show, but a show with a really good idea, which is civilization has been destroyed, humanity's on the run, what happens next? years later, sci-fi channel looked at it and said, "well, what if we take it seriously?" - madame president, we have to eliminate the "olympic" carrier immediately. - there are 1,300 people on that ship.

- "star wars" feels like fantasy and fable in the best possible sense. this felt like war. - do it. - the photography was shot very much like world war ii combat cameraman work. - okay, fire on my mark. - no fracking way, lee. lee! come on! - it was as if someone was floating in space with an old world war ii film [inaudible], and then, "oh, here comes a cylon. i want to get this shot." really was riveted by it. - it's classic sci-fi in that it's about using the robots and the spaceships and the clones to comment on the world we live in right now. - i can't die. when this body's destroyed, my memory, my consciousness, will be transmitted to a new one. - the cylons look and act and feel just like humans, and by time you get to the middle of "battlestar galactica,"

you don't really know who you're rooting for anymore. - what other secrets are rattling around inside that mechanical brain? - it was like sort of "the west wing" in space. - madame president, without you, we wouldn't have made it. - it was just a very rich world. it felt lived in, it felt real, and the stakes could not have been higher. - i think "lost" is the first huge cinematic tv show i saw. i remember gathering at a friend's house to watch, and it was long enough ago, and the internet was still young enough, and social media was-- i mean, not-- it was, what, friendster? - jj abrams' ambition for the "lost" pilot was grandiose. he always talked about it as making a movie every week. i think when we say the word "cinematic,"

what we really mean is opening it up a little bit more, but also, the ambition of an action set piece. - move! move! - jj was very aggressive. he was like, "if you want me to do this pilot, you're gonna need to give me "the resource in order to do it, "and i want to shoot it as a movie, and then we've got to keep that bar up." - you start off, you think, "yeah, all right, well, "this is just a survival drama. "here's these people, their plane has crashed. "how are they gonna get by? how they gonna find food, et cetera?" - we hunt. - and on top of that, there's this whole mystery: "where are we, why can't we get a rescue signal, why is there a polar bear, what is going on here?" - the show averages more than 15 1/2 million viewers each week and spawned countless web locations where millions of avid fans can obsess. - the fan base is saying, "when are you going to answer these mysteries?"

personally, i started feeling hamstrung, story-wise, almost instantly, because we had to do 25 hours of "lost" in the first season. - hey! - so we started communicating to abc, "we're gonna run out of flashback stories." [electricity zaps] [machine beeping] - call it, jack. - you call it. - and abc was adamant in saying, "no," like, "the show is a hit show. "people love the flashbacks. don't worry. you guys are great at it. just keep it up." - you okay, freckles? - at the beginning of the third season of the show, we had our characters locked in cages, and i think looking back on it now, damon and i are like, "well, i think that's metaphorically how we felt. we felt we were locked in cages." - around halfway through the third season, abc says, "okay, we will let you end the show," and we're like, "yes, thank god," and they said, "after ten seasons." [idyllic music] - "desperate housewives" and "lost" launched the same year. it really was a huge boost for the network.

they had two shows that everybody was talking about. - in truth, i spent the day as i spent every other day: quietly polishing the routine of my life until it gleamed with perfection. - i had a lot to say about women who go into the iconic roles of wife and mother and are unfulfilled. [tense music] - i think the good news it brought is women who are not perfect, who are not young, are viable. and the fan base was amazing. and, you know, there were t-shirts-- i remember going into a store, and there was, "i am lynette." - are you saying i'm a bad mother? - ma'am, you need to get back in your car, please. - "i am gabby." [lively latin music] "i am susan." - [gasps] oh! - "i am bree." - are you at a bar? - we stood on the shoulders of those who came before--you know, strong women characters

in television--but in the wake of "desperate housewives," a lot more shows with older women came on the air. - what you doing? - locked myself out, naked. - oh. - and then i fell. so how are you?

- it is game day, people, and i have never felt

this kind of electricity, not in years. this town of dillon, texas, is on fire. - i loved "friday night lights." i grew up in colorado. it's set in texas, but i knew every single person who was on that show, and they weren't on the air anyplace else. - amen. all: amen. - clear eyes, full hearts. all: can't lose. - let's get them. [all cheering] - the pilot of "friday night lights" is one of the best pilots of any television show ever. you're introduced almost instantly to the fact that jason street is the greatest quarterback that dillon high school as ever had. - mr. street, i've been scouting quarterbacks for notre dame for 27 years, and your son may be the best i have ever seen. - about 35 or 40 minutes into the episode, while trying to make a tackle... - fumble on the play! a fumble! - jason street is hit and he's paralyzed. - no! jason! [siren wails] - it is devastating because you get just far enough

into the episode to think that maybe the bad thing will not happen to this person... [solemn music] ♪ ♪ [applause] but then the show wouldn't be the show. - i am gonna stay in dillon, i'm gonna be a father to this baby and to this family. i'm gonna coach high school football, and you and i are gonna stay together. and that's the way it is. yes? - no. - what do you mean no? - you've got to go to austin. this is your dream. - that's what i'm telling you. that's what i'm-- - what we wanted it to feel like was that the audience was just being invited in to a very small-town, very intimate setting. i don't want to be responsible, nor do i want to have this baby be responsible for you not living out your dream. - and that's what i'm saying. - i have walked with you-- - you are my dream. - i have walked with you all these years to get to this place--you and i together.

this is about just a couple trying to actually be in a marriage and make it work instead of just, like, what we always see on television, and then i felt a very strong, deep desire to not just have her be the sidelined supporting wife. it looks to me like on your little sojourn, tim, you missed yourself, oh, two biology exams. - oh. - and what looks like a pretty important term paper in your english lit class, so let's start there. - i don't know what a sojourn is, mom. - a sojourn is what's gonna keep you back a year if you don't get it together. - that's right. - change your attitude. that's what a sojourn is. the rest of it you can look up. [microphone feedback] ["single ladies" by beyoncé playing] - ♪ all the single ladies - ♪ all the single ladies ♪ - "glee" was a really interesting show, because it was about high school, and they take pop songs that are already out there and make them part of the story. - ♪ i'm dancing with myself ♪

- and it was about these misfits at a high school... - ♪ well, there's nothing to lose ♪ ♪ and there's nothing to prove ♪ - and they're in the glee club. there's a lot of themes about, a, not fitting in, but b, homophobia. - ♪ i'm through with playing ♪ ♪ by the rules of someone else's game ♪ - it was so specific to my childhood, and, like, who ever thought that, you know, a bunch of misfit show choir losers would become a global thing? i never did. all: ♪ don't stop ♪ [quiet clapping] - i think "glee" and ryan murphy really got the general public understanding that, "oh, there is a person behind this, "and there is a person's sensibility that is driving this show." - love you like a sister. - this is the point at which the show-runners are almost as famous or more famous than some of the people on their shows, because we care so much about the creative process.

- is it the drama and the story that usually comes first? - yes. - and then the medicine later? - the theme of every episode and the drama of every episode comes first, and then we try to find medicine that relates to or reflects that theme. - mr. and mrs. glass, i understand how difficult this is. - no disrespect, but like hell you do. - you're going to have to make a decision as to how you want to proceed. - you mean my baby's life or my own? - yes. - people like shonda rhimes, these are the people who are just the lifeblood of broadcast networks. - i love you, in a... really, really big, "pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat "the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window," unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you. so pick me. choose me. love me. - and in shonda's case, it's fantastic,

because finally a woman, finally a person of color is doing this. - anything that opens doors for more women and more african-americans and more diverse casting and more diverse crew is a good thing. - shonda stood up and went, "yes, i am gonna be a show-runner, and i'm gonna be a juggernaut." - ten bucks says he messes up the mcbird. - 15 says he cries. - i'll put 20 on a total meltdown. - 50 says he pulls the whole thing off. that's one of us down there-- the first one of us. where's your loyalty? - above and beyond the cultural aspect, which is important and great, we need to remember that she created a bunch of shows that are terrific fun to watch. - you can do this, meredith. - okay.

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♪♪ shell. powering progress. - i don't want to mess this up again. shell. - no. me neither, okay? we are done being stupid. - okay. it's you and me, all right? this is it. - this is it. unless we're on a break. [audience laughter] don't make jokes now. - by the time "frasier" and "friends" went off the air, there was a feeling among the networks

that the multi-camera format filmed in front of a live studio audience... - so i guess this is it. - was getting kind of tired and getting kind of stale. - you guys play the most important part: the live studio audience! - now, there is no form of television that makes as much money for the networks as multi-camera tv shows. - oh, raymond! - mom, mom, mom, mom-- - oh, my sweet raymond! - [wailing] mom! - we write a four-camera show, we write it, direct it, and perform it and rehearse it like a play in front of a studio audience. when someone gets a laugh on that stage, they actually hold, as you do not in real life, as you do not in single-camera. you are holding for that laugh. - oh... [audience laughter] - it's an abstract. - not abstract enough. - [chuckles] you've done an amazing job. - it looks like something, though.

what does it look like? - you can get close. you can even touch it. - i'm fine. - this is bugging me. where have i seen this before? - we started studying what phil rosenthal was doing with "raymond," and he was embracing the very best of what the genre could do, which was interesting characters. he provided me with a very, very loud reminder that i didn't need to fix anything. i didn't need to knock any boundaries or walls over. i just needed to embrace what was there. - ♪ men, men, men, men, manly men, men, men ♪ - i had been in so many shows that had failed spectacularly that i became known as the show killer. - ♪ men, men, men, men, manly men ♪ - and that's not a great thing to be known as in show business.

- [vocalizing sweetly] both: ♪ men, men, men, men ♪ - on the sly, i had him come in and read for me... - [vocalizing] both: ♪ men ♪ - and he was brilliant. - how much is a hooker? - what? alan, what are you gonna do with a hooker? - well, i'd like to pay her to have sex with me. - how much you looking to spend? - well, as you know, i am a bit of a bargain hunter. - yeah, but unfortunately, they don't stock hookers at the 99¢ store. give me a number. - okay, well, what could i get in the $200 range? - crabs... and carjacked. - i have an enormous sense of pride to have done a multi-camera sitcom that people really took to their hearts for 12 years. - okay, let's start in first position. jake, do you know first position? - is that like missionary position? - i mean, that is the longest that a sitcom had been on broadcast television in the history of broadcast television at the time.

i think "big bang" is gonna beat it, but still, that's amazing. - two people talking is the essence of a four-camera sitcom. lighting is not really an issue. there's no music that's gonna help the material. - checkmate. - [groans] - there's no special effects. - again? - it's hopefully good words with good actors. - it must be humbling to suck on so many different levels. - "big bang" had this weird hurdle, it seemed, of not only are you fighting the natural fight that every show does about getting an audience, trying to stay on the air, and keep your job, yada-yada-yada... - make way for the fastest man alive! oh, no! - see, this is why i wanted to have a costume meeting. but then there was also this weird wave

of energy coming like, "you're in a genre that's passé," that, "we're done with this. we don't want to see this anymore." - and the emmy goes to... - jim parsons, "the big bang theory." - obviously we didn't go away, and i believe very strongly that the multi-cam, the way they're shot in front of the studio audience, you hear the other people laughing... i think it ignites something that's innate in all of us, that's very primal, almost, which is that desire to gather as a group and hear a story. - uh, hey, lorne, look. live from new york, it's saturday night! - so every generation has their favorite "saturday night live," right? and it's usually the one that was on when they were in high school. so the people that were in high school during the 2000s won the jackpot. - it's true, you're so beautiful. [smooching and talking rapidly] - you're beautiful. why don't you look in the mirror sometime? you should look in the mirror. you're beautiful too. [smooching] - because over the course of that decade, you see some of the most extraordinary people

come through that show. - we should mention that, although the waters above appear calm, below the surface, there is a frenzy of activity. - one of the hallmarks of "snl" is you need somebody to play the president, and will's w. was stellar. - he went this way. - will ferrell's george bush was sort of a lovable dummy. - how about a lifesaver here? - okay, yeah, that'd be nice. - that a good idea? - yeah. - there you go. - while you're at it, can i get those antlers too? - yeah, all right. there you go, son. - yeah, i like these. - and of course, "more cowbell" was also a will ferrell high point. - ♪ all our times have come ♪ - "cowbell" was fantastic, not only because it's a great concept, but because will really gets to be will. - the last time i checked, we don't have a whole lot of songs that feature the cowbell. - i got to have more cowbell, baby. - and i'd be doing myself a disservice,

and every member of this band, if i didn't perform the hell out of this! - "snl" in the 2000s is also a great time for women. - it's my birthday! - because there is a really strong group of women that play off each other really well. - what are you, part indian? - you cherokee? - look at those cheekbones. what are you, sioux? you sioux? got sioux in you? - you chippewa? - yeah, you got a little sioux? - sioux? - i believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy. - and i can see russia from my house. - ♪ i like waterfalls ♪ - ♪ i like butterflies - ♪ i like rainbows ♪ - ♪ i like chasing cars ♪ - you are seeing creativity... and wacky left-field things that you wouldn't have seen before. - [rapping] ♪ lazy sunday, wake up in the late afternoon ♪

- andy samberg and the lonely island guys, akiva and jorma, really helped make the transition for "snl" into the digital era, and that's when things started to go viral for "snl." - ♪ i'm on a boat - ♪ i'm on a boat ♪ - ♪ i'm on a boat - ♪ i'm on a boat ♪ - ♪ everybody look at me, 'cause i'm sailing on a boat ♪ - you know, "on a boat," or who could forget, "[bleep] in a box"? i mean, come on. - one. - ♪ cut in a hole in a box ♪ - two. - ♪ put your junk in that box ♪ - three. - ♪ make her open the box ♪ both: ♪ and that's the way you do it ♪ ♪ it's my [bleep] in a box ♪

she got that dress with the extra money she saved using our brand new grocery outlet app. it's been really fun seeing what everyone's doing with the extra money they save. a butler? super nice guy. with our new grocery outlet app, you can see the store's inventory. so you guys really have mangoes and stuff? yup.

- welcome to [bleep] deadwood. [unsettling music] - david milch said, "i have a great idea about ancient rome." - cops in ancient rome at the time of nero. - and we're like, "okay, just t.o., t.o., t.o.," because we're already doing this show about rome. - thieves will be strangled. [whip cracking] deserters will be crucified. - david basically took the underlying theme of his rome show and put it in deadwood. - no law at all in deadwood. is that true? - at the time of nero, there was a lot of order and no law, and deadwood was a similar environment. - maybe you don't value keeping your [bleep] guts

inside your belly enough. - those are the days behind us. - no. those are the days to my [bleep] left. - ian mcshane's character, al swearengen, just steals the show, just lock, stock, and barrel, away from everybody else. [slow ragtime music] you kind of want to go in that saloon of his and have a drink and try to engage him in conversation, but then you think to yourself, "that'd be a good idea. if i say something wrong, am i gonna get my guts cut out with a bowie knife?" he's a fascinating character in that he scares you and he attracts you at the same time. that's kind of a rare thing. - can we see your fangs? - our old step-daddy hated vampires... but we don't. - i think that "true blood" was an enjoyable beach read. - suck it. - with blood all over it. - [gasps, pants] - you'd say, "well, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, it wasn't taking itself seriously,"

except it was such a big allegory for what was going on with the gay community-- with aids, with political backlash. - you use your tax-exempt religious institution as an anti-vampire terrorist enclave. - so it's like, there's monsters all over, - [hissing] - but the scariest, most deadly characters in the whole show... - where are we gonna hide a dead vampire in our trailer? - are the human beings. [mysterious music] ♪ ♪ - showtime looked at tony soprano, and they said, "you want an antihero? how about a mass murderer who's the hero of our show?" - "dexter" is based on a series of novels about a blood spatter expert who worked for the miami pd who is secretly a serial killer. - soon... you'll be packed into a few... - [whimpers] - neatly wrapped heftys. and my own small corner of the world...

will be a neater, happier place. - he was raised by a policeman to channel his sociopathic impulses to only kill other killers. so he is a bad guy, but also a good guy. - i kill reprehensible people. i mean, the idea of the show is that you're invited to identify with and maybe even root for a serial killer. - that's right. - he kills horrible people. if i were just killing people willy-nilly, i think all bets would be off. - yeah, that's--where is the fun in that? - yeah. - in the 2000s, the antihero really rose to prominence. - [laughing] that's a [bleep] bb gun. my nephew got the same one. hey, don't point that there. - this [bleep] does nice work. i'd hate to see it full of holes. - and i think they were popular because they were surprising. - you're a free woman.

- you struck a deal? - the da dropped the charges. - thank you. - a show, for me, that was incredibly memorable was "damages." - now where's the tape? - it really was about following the twisted relationship of patty and ellen. - what are you looking at her for? - fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice. - now, mr. knight tells us you might have reasons of your own for wanting to take down miss hughes. - yes. i do. - i was just so taken with the fact that there was this incredibly dark, unapologetically morally compromised lead character who was a woman. - i told pete... to have you killed. - it was sort of the beginning of a real emergence

of rich women on television. - [chokes] - all right, you're all right. sure, take my last one. this'll help. - is this cab free? - are you [bleep] nuts? - oh! - i have heard nurse jackie referred to as an antihero. she was at the mercy of her addiction that always got her fullest attention. what are you looking at? but beyond that, i think she really cared that there wasn't money in the budget for extra blankets for someone who came in off the street, and she would go and steal it from another department or whatever. she... you know, she really wanted to be a good nurse, and she wanted to be married, and she wanted these kids, and she wanted to be a good wife and mother. - why do you always have to work? - yeah. - and there was no way

she could do all of them. - mommy! - edie falco, for me, can do no wrong. here she is as the female antihero that has her own show, and she's the one whose morals are questionable... - my back, my back, my back. - oh, jesus. - because, you know, she's having an affair. [cell phone rings] - can't talk. love you. - she's stealing drugs and... "is she an unfit mother?" and all those things, and yet you feel for her, so i love that women now get to be the antihero and not just either the villain or the good girl. - ♪ i want to know ♪ ♪ have you ever seen the rain ♪ - and i think that is something that the decade gave us, which is a move towards television really reflecting what america looks like.

[jazzy big band music] ♪ ♪ - amc. you know, people forget amc stood for "american movie classics," and then suddenly they kind of figure out, you know, "let's stop paying for these other movies. let's make our own content." [brooding string music] - i was called, in 2005, to come in and meet with the head of amc, because they were looking to do scripted programming for the first time. [groovy woodwind music] a manager said, "oh, i have this great script "set in the advertising world in new york. "it's been around for eight years, and nobody's bought it. everybody's passed." - advertising is based on one thing: happiness. - don draper is a master of the universe ad executive in early 1960s manhattan, but he's actually secretly a man named dick whitman. he has stolen the identity of the real don draper due to an incident during the korean war, so he's living another man's life, but he's battling his own demons at the same time,

and we're seeing him rise and fall over the course of the 1960s. in a lot of ways, the most interesting arc of the show is peggy olson's career. she goes from this little church-mouse secretary to a really tough and bold and confident career woman... - i like the way she's handing out the pops. - who knows what she can do and is gonna try to get it, even during a really sexist period for the industry when it was so hard for a woman to get anything. - peggy, can you get me some coffee? - no. - the female characters in "mad men" are great, because they each kind of represent different aspects of what women were going through at that time. - daddy! - i had this incredible experience of reading "the feminine mystique" and "sex and the single girl" in the same week. - the way you glide around that office like some magnificent ship. - [giggles] - and i said, "oh, well, this is my show." - you're never gonna get that corner office until you start treating don as an equal. - it is the choice of what kind of person

to be for a woman. - i'm here all day, alone with him, outnumbered. - what about carla? doesn't she count? - it's not her job to raise our children. - it was incorporating the music of the times, the images of the times, the history of the times, and the attitudes of the times. [laughter] - you can tell me or i can find out: what color panties are you wearing? - what? [laughs] - [laughing] - [laughing] - [grunts] ooh. blue! who had blue? [all laughing] can i walk you home? - "mad men" had absolutely no nostalgia for the period. it showed that people were jerks and adulterers and connivers even back in the glory days of the 1960s. - what are you doing? - christ. somebody shot the president. - what? - how they communicated the kennedy assassination was actually exactly as it came to pass.

- they drew their pistols, but the damage was done. the president was shot... [all murmuring] - everything stopped, nothing seemed important ever again, and it just so happened to be the weekend that roger's daughter was getting married. [laughing] and the was a big wedding. [tv playing indistinctly] - [sobbing] it's ruined. - i would put "mad men" and "sopranos" in a position of the most important shows in the history of television. [dark music] ♪ ♪ - i was about to turn 40 years old, and this is about 2004, two years after the end of "the x-files," and i was kind of at sea. i wasn't sure what to do next. i was having trouble getting--frankly, i was having trouble getting employed. my buddy tom schnauz had been on "the x-files" too,

and he said, "i think we should put a meth lab "in the back of an rv "and, you know, see america, make some dough on the side." he's got a warped sense of humor. [laughing] but anyway... when i heard that idea... - [retching] - i thought to myself, "you know, what if i really did that? what would it take?" [machinery whirring] and then i thought, "well, i'd need money really bad. why would i need money?" - lung cancer. inoperable. - we pitched "breaking bad" to not even a handful of places. some people liked it, some people not so much. it'd kind of been dead for about six months or a year or something like that, and suddenly i hear, "hey, would you like to go meet the folks at amc? they're interested in doing 'breaking bad.'" all: surprise! [cheers and applause] - happy birthday, dad. - when we were making the decision to do "breaking bad," we absolutely were looking for an antihero show, and we wanted a guy that was going against the grain.

- dad, come check this out. - yeah, i see it. - come on, take it. - yeah, check it out, wally. - they always tell you you need to have a good one-sentence pitch... - nice. - and i came up with, "we're gonna take mr. chips, and we're gonna turn him into scarface." [gun fires, blood squelches] - [gasps] [panting] what we were really going for was change. walter white says it in the first hour of the show. - electrons, they... change their energy levels. molecules. molecules change their bonds, huh? - "breaking bad" was a study in change. - ♪ i'm from that dirty, dirty ♪ ♪ we 'bout that money, money ♪ ♪ better watch yo' game, playa ♪ - the change that happens to one character as he devolves from good to bad. - you know the business... and i know the chemistry. - there was definitely a shift after "mad men" and "breaking bad," that the phone started ringing and a ton of feature people

wanted to start making tv shows. - pass the butter, please. - badass, dad. - and it now really has taken over what the indie feature was. now it's being made in the tv sphere. - walter, you've been busy.

it may not sound like it, but this... is actually progress at 225 miles per hour.

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- while it's tempting to play it safe, the more we're willing to risk, the more alive we are. in the end... what we regret most are the chances we never took. - there's an old showbiz axiom: you've got to get off the stage before somebody says, "hey, you should get off the stage." - ♪ all, all that you dream ♪ ♪ comes to shine ♪ ♪ in silver lining and clouds ♪ - endings are hard in general, and i think "the sopranos" was able to accomplish this thing that everybody in television is always trying to accomplish, which is do something that no one has ever seen before. [bell dings] [journey's "don't stop believin'"] [uplifting classic rock] - tony is meeting the family at a restaurant, and we're listening to a journey song and watching as, one by one, the family members come in,

and there's these sinister people lurking around. - ♪ strangers, waiting ♪ - you were wondering, "is tony gonna survive this? "was tony gonna be shot? what was gonna happen?" [engine splutters] - [bleep] - you're cutting to meadow parking her car, you know, all these things that are completely normal, but they're imbued with this dread. - ♪ don't stop believing ♪ ♪ hold on to that feeling ♪ ♪ streetlights ♪ ♪ people, oh-oh-oh ♪ [bell dings] ♪ don't stop ♪ [silence] - the long black, which everybody said, "did i just lose my hbo signal? what's going on there?" i actually thought was kind of like the chord at the end of "sergeant pepper" in which nine pianos just hit this long, long major, "bong,"

and it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. that black was sort of like what the series needed in order to communicate the fact that it is now officially over. - as for "sopranos" creator david chase, he got whacked in the headlines, he got whacked by the "new york post" cartoonist who showed fans getting whacked, and chase literally got whacked online. - three or four days later, carlton and i were in new york talking to a couple of television critics about how amazing it was, and they were like, "oh, you know, there's a lot of controversy about the 'sopranos' finale," and we were like, "what?" they were like, "oh, yeah, some people just absolutely hate it. "like, the whole cut to black, it's pretentious, "nobody knows what it means, they're all discussing whether tony is alive or dead," and we were like, "what? those are all the things that make it brilliant!" and right then, we realized that we're completely and totally [bleep]ed. [slow string music] ♪ ♪

- [chuckles wryly] if you've been fortunate enough to be successful, they've gone along for a long ride with you, and the viewer has a through line for every character and the show that you could never possibly have. [tranquil music] - you know i love you, right? more than anything. - of course, honey. - so it is a fool's errand to try and please anyone but yourself when you're writing a series finale. - finales have become increasingly more important. you know, if you don't do a really good finale to a really good series, the series can sort of lose its luster. but "six feet under" comes up with a perfect ending, and the show is actually even enhanced a little bit. - the end of "six feet under" has the daughter just driving away in the car, and music starts to play. its sia's "breathe me."

[emotional piano music] and she looks up in the rearview mirror, so she's looking backwards, but then the show looks ahead. ♪ ♪ - [sobbing] - ♪ ouch, i have lost myself ♪ ♪ again ♪ ♪ lost ♪ ♪ myself and i am ♪ ♪ nowhere to be found ♪ - that season ended, and everybody died, and i thought it was brilliant. - ♪ enfold me ♪ - the work on tv is as good as any work that's on a big screen, and so that hierarchy of film and television, i think, has been changed dramatically... - ♪ and breathe ♪ - partially because of the great work that people did at hbo,

but also because of the work they did at a lot of other places. [eerie whirring] - i've waited a long time for this. - coming up as an actor, film was the thing. tv was, like, less-than. - i said bulls**t. - so to suddenly be in an area where we could tell these rich stories... - entrance has been gained. - and really create the suspense of them and that trajectory of them... - get over whatever it is and do your job. - in ways that maybe we couldn't necessarily in film, and i do think that led to where we are now, where everybody wants to do tv. [chuckles] - sit down, you guys. all: no! - what? - oh, yeah, you can't sit there. - why not? - that's where sheldon sits. - he can't sit somewhere else?

- no. no, you see, in the winter, that seat is close enough to the radiator so that he's warm, yet not so close that he sweats. in the summer, it's directly in the path of a cross breeze created by opening windows there and there. it faces the television at an angle that isn't direct, so he can still talk to everybody, yet not so wide that the picture looks distorted. - perhaps there's hope for you after all. narrator: up next, she had everything to live for. she was really looking forward to having a baby and being a mom. narrator: so her death raises more questions than answers. it was pretty obvious that something wasn't right here. narrator: years pass, then someone reveals a clue about the victim. i'm thinking to myself, why are you telling me this?

narrator: can a dead woman buried for almost a generation solve the mystery of how she really died? ♪ ♪ in the spring of 1985, margaret purk and her husband, scott, were planning a bright future. margaret and scott met in high school, and they had been married just a little over three years. narrator: the young couple and many of their relatives lived in and around akron, ohio, about an hour south of cleveland. scott worked as a security guard. 24-year-old margaret, an aspiring writer, was pregnant with their first child and was thrilled about becoming a mother. margaret had written to her grandparents letting them know

that everything was really well with her, everything was fine, she was happy, looking forward to the birth of their first child. margaret: "i feel great and full of energy. just think, any day now, i'll be a mother. a mother! it's even hard for me to believe but i'm looking forward to it and so it scott. metcalf: for the baby coming, she was ecstatic. me being the little brother and still not very mature, it got on my nerves a little bit, just hearing about it all the time. narrator: margaret's family and friends were relieved by her newfound optimism. she hadn't always been so full of hope. mifflin: there was one incident in margaret's past where, you know, she was upset about something, and she had threatened to harm herself by using a cord from a mini-blind in one of the rooms of the house. it's more or less a feeble attempt because, you know, it's really not gonna happen, and you don't really want to do it. narrator: the family was convinced that any possibility of self-harm

was part of the distant past. but that changed on march 18th, shortly before margaret and scott's baby was due. walsh: scott purk was taking a bath, and he saw his wife walk past the door a couple of times. he said he got out of the bathtub about five minutes later and he observed that his wife had somehow tied a rope from the banister on the second floor and had hung herself. narrator: margaret died a short time later. and to compound an already unimaginable tragedy, the baby did not survive. metcalf: but the first thought was, "why would she do this, this close?" you know, she was within like two weeks of having the baby. so, you know, it just -- it really didn't make a whole lot of sense. narrator: everyone was shocked. what happened seemed so impulsive, especially with a baby on the way. even first responders and akron police were suspicious.