luther vandross. dean martin. nat king cole. the best performer i ever saw in las vegas was my friend elvis presley. ♪ i'm just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ ♪ just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ elvis, my goodness, he kicked butt! ♪ just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ oh, my god, what a show! ♪ just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ he was a hunka hunka man! ♪ just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ ♪ i'm just a hunka hunka burnin' love ♪ i was never that big an elvis fan. i was more of a pat boone fan. [ laughs ] [ cheers and applause ]

jerry: where'd you get those? kramer: the machine. you want one? jerry: no. henry winkler: you come home, turn on that television. kramer: take one. jerry: i don't want one! kramer: no there good... jerry: i don't want it. henry winkler: what do you want? you want comedy. kramer: take one! jerry: no! kramer stop it! jason alexander: and boom, there you go, a situation comedy. sheldon: bazinga! tim allen: this twenty -three minutes of magic. lucy: it's so tasty, too! tracy morgan: you fell in love with these characters. arnold: what chu' talkin' about willis? geri jewell: we need to laugh at ourselves. joey: you hide my clothes, i'm wearing everything you own. constance wu: laughter opens you up. haley: okay ready? surprise! [screaming and chaos] mara brock akil: the things that we might be afraid to talk about. bow: some people that were supposed to protect us didn't do the right thing. tim reid: like racism. son: so the cops are the bad guys?

dre: yes. bow: no. kim fields: class wars ralph: money! i'm a millionaire. dan levy: and gender diversity... sarah: dad? maura: hi girls. ted danson: you can reach in and really touch people's hearts. dianne: i hate you sam: are you as turned on as i am? dianne: more! rainn wilson: whether it's a family living under the same roof... jj: dyno-mite! james: now that's the kind of talk i like to hear. rainn wilson: ...or gathered together in a workplace. jack: jenna, that's a glue stick. jenna: mmm? rainn wilson: all the great sitcoms are about family. debra: so wonderful! kelsey grammar: it's one of the great, great accomplishments of the modern age. [opening] michael: what have we always said was the most important thing? george: breakfast...? michael: family. george: family, right... dan levy: family is key to the sitcom.

dre: mama!! randall park: it's something that we all can relate to. dre and mom: shake shake shake! tracy morgan: you're in these people's homes for years. you're a part of the family. eddie: one good thing about moving here is i have no friends, and no distractions. that's why i got a... grandma, what does fonzi say? grandma: ayyy! jesse tyler ferguson: the family sitcom brings people together in a really unexpected way jane leeves: there's so many different dynamics at work in families. frasier: i want you here, it will give us a chance to get re -acquainted! martin: that implies we were acquainted at one point. jane leeves: there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of laughter; you sort of recognize your dynamic in there. and you go, well, their family is just as crazy as mine. claire: i don't really care who kissed who and who's got a pimple on their head, and who's wearing an outrageously inappropriate dress... we are going to get together and act like a normal family for one tenth of a freaking second, and we're going to do it right now! come on lets go! dan levy: it's amazing to sort of track the history of

the family sitcom because you can see so much about culture throughout the years, now looking back. ♪ jason alexander: and you know, it was really i love lucy that kind of kicked it all off. lucy: first operating this evening... stop that now and go back and sit down!! linda lavin: it was a show about a ditzy woman who wanted to be in show business... man: have you ever considered acting? everyone: has she ever considered acting? linda lavin: ...and her husband, who is latin and a musician... desi: honey, you know how i feel about this. i don't want my wife in show business. lucy: why not? marisa guthrie: lucille ball was always trying to emancipate herself from the wife and the homemaker role. bob saget: and every time she gets the opportunity, something goes awry.

jaleel white: lucille ball was fearless in her physical comedy. you know, women were supposed to be demure and dainty and in their place. tim allen: lucille ball was one of my favorites for timing her bits. desi: what do you think you're doing? well? jennifer armstrong: i love lucy became a phenomenon instantly. lorraine ali: when you think about the era that lucille ball came up in, and what she was able to achieve it's astounding. desi: hey! i'm a father, i'm a father! tom gilbert: when lucy and ricky had a baby, it was like huge. it was the highest-rated show of the series. it changed the dynamic because all of a sudden it became centered around the family unit.

i think i love lucy was the big bang of the family sitcom. marisa guthrie: then the family moved to the suburbs... lucy: gee isn't this exciting. we are in our very own home. marisa guthrie: and that mirrored what was happening in america at the time. patrick gomez: advertisers wanted to cater towards that new suburban family that needed to buy that kitchen appliance or needed to buy that vacuum. jacqueline coley: and after i love lucy, there was a formula for what the american family should look like. cybill shepherd: ozzie and harriet... announcer: the adventures of ozzie and harriet. cybill shepherd: i just loved everybody in it, actually. david: hurry up, bring it in... i'm starved! candice bergen: it was a happy, gentle american family of the 1950s. ozzie: how much do you need? david: never mind pop, that's okay. ozzie: no don't worry about it, you can pay me back. david: honest pop, i don't want it. ricky: what's the matter with you david, you got rocks in your head? linda lavin: the kids were very polite.

everybody was very nice to each other. those were not real people, but they entertained and delighted us. jim: alright kids, dinner is on, we're sitting down. jennifer armstrong: when you get to father knows best, it's very patriarchal, dealing with tiny little problems. jim: ah... a quiet evening at home. i could use it. [slam] billy gray: and i played bud. bud usually had a problem with the truth telling, on some level. jim: what was all that racket upstairs? bud: i didn't hear anything. billy gray: father knows best represented the good life; the american dream. jim: i'll read you one story, then off to bed you go. bob: and then leave it to beaver enters the sitcom realm in 1957. wally: what's that? beaver: a haircut i think. tony dow: the real key to leave it to beaver is that it's written from a child's point of view. wally: why didn't you let stanley cut your hair? beaver: i losted my money. jerry mathers: you have the character of beaver

and you have wally his older brother who usually does things right, beaver's always the one that gets in trouble. june: [gasps] marisa guthrie: and there were the parents to teach them, to show them the right path. ward: we want you to feel that you can come to me or to your mother with any problem and we'll understand. patrick gomez: in the 1950s, sitcoms were really giving us an idealistic version of america. jacqueline coley: but as we get into the 60s, we'll see different types of family sitcoms. steven: i'm sure i'll be able to handle a little washing and to cook an occasional meal.

♪ sam: i'm a bad mommy. max: no, you're a disaster mom. sam: you're a big f------ c--- your sister's an a------, and your other sister's great. (off camera): aww, thanks mom! pamela adlon: better things is about a single mom who is raising her three daughters on her own. max: you're my mom, i want you to know if i have sex or i want to get high. pamela adlon: it's dirty, it's funny. sam: no! hide things from me please! emily vanderwerff: better things is a fascinating example of the ways that the family sitcom has adapted to the 21st century. frankie: mom, where's the broom? sam: what are you being, a witch?

frankie: no, i'm going to be a useless housewife from the 50s. sam: i love that! dan levy: throughout the years, the boundaries have been pushed back and the walls have come down. if you look back to the 50s, there was a lot of confines on what family looked like and what was acceptable and what wasn't. steven: hi chipper. robbie: hi squirt. chip: hi cats. barry livingston: my three sons was the first show that deviated from the perfect pleasantville nuclear family. ernie: you gonna blow up the stove again mr. douglas? steve: no ernie, i don't think i'll make that same mistake again. [laughs] [small expolsion] barry livingston: it was a show about a single dad. he was a widower with three boys, trying to raise them in an all-male household. chip: you dry. barry livingston: everyone had to do something. everyone had to pitch in. we did dishes, you know, we were darning socks. these are things that you never saw in the ozzie and harriet show or donna reid or leave it to beaver. [phone rings]

mike: hey that's mine, i've got it! bob saget: when you watch a show that's based on losing someone... steven: come on, look out... you're going to tear it. bob saget: that adds a deep-rooted truth to the hardness of life. and then it gives comedy even more of a reason to go as crazy as you want to go. uncle charlie: i think that shirt's done. robbie: oh my gosh my shirt! steven: well, robbie you'll just have to wear your pants higher. patrick gomez: in the 60s, you see the sitcom move away from telling stories that are solely focussed on the nuclear, suburban family. jim colucci: divorce had become more prevalent in the 60s, it had become more part of normal american life, but it took a while for it to be reflected in sitcoms. ♪ the brady brunch. the brady brunch. ♪ ♪ that's the way we all became ... ♪ christopher knight: the brady bunch is the story of two separate families being glued together. lloyd schwartz: a man with three boys, a woman with three girls. the man was going to be a widower. the woman, divorced, but divorce was a taboo topic on television.

so they said, let's just leave it so you don't know. [yelling] mike: what's all the yelling about, huh? bobby: she stole our ball. marcia: i'm just trying to find out what they did with my school awards. lloyd schwartz: the brady bunch was an evolution from like leave it to beaver, it was shown from the kid's point of view. cindy: will you lend me your skate key? bobby: i'm not lending you anything to a snitcher. eve plumb: it was all about what children are having problems with. their appearance, or their schoolwork or their friends. peter brady: pete brady intercepts and goes for the shot... eve plumb: oh you broke the vase, it was those kinds of everyday problems. cindy: marcia. i'm proud to be your sister no matter how terrible you look. marcia: thanks a lot! andy greene: this is airing in the nixon era, when vietnam is raging and people are losing faith in government. lloyd schwartz: all these things were happening and the brady bunch was kind of a refuge. malcom jamal warner: watching the brady bunch and having all

these brothers and sisters, it was a great getaway for me. michael schneider: the brady bunch was a huge success for abc that led to the partridge family which really attracted a young, hungry audience. shirley: hey kids, hollywood boulevard! danny bonaduce: we were a musical family that would travel around doing shows... keith: (singing) oh girl, you make my day. helen hunt: i was for sure going to marry david cassidy. that was definitely going to happen. patrick gomez: the partridge family is trying to embrace this like hippie cool culture. danny: what did you hit mom? shirley: i think it was a studebaker. man: you crazy hippies, it's not enough you don't trust anyone over 30. now you're trying to wipe us out! laura morowitz: but it takes this phenomenon of the counterculture and makes it very safe. danny: now relax mum.... but just remember our whole future depends

on these next few minutes. shirley: ahhh. barry livingston: it was an escape from the real world for a lot of people. news anchor: in new york, a student protest is met by construction workers and at kent state in ohio, 4 students are killed. ethan alter: but some people didn't want to hide from what was happening. drew carey: people were like, no, we want to hear about all this stuff and how it's affecting our families. that's when shows like all in the family came on. ethan alter: norman lear was at the beginning of his career and was looking to find a show that he could really make his own and he was turned on to a british series called 'til death do us part'. norman lear: it was about a bigoted father and i was said holy moly. that was the way i grew up, and i knew i had a show. crew: air pilot. take one. ethan alter: they shot the pilot at abc. it featured carroll o'connor and jean stapleton as archie and edith bunker. actor 1: we just don't see any evidence, of god... alright? actress 1: that's right daddy. archie: i know we had a couple of pinkos in the house but

i didn't know we had a pair of atheists. ethan alter: it was not well received by abc. they watched it and felt the chemistry wasn't there between the parents and the kids. norman lear: and then asked me to make it again with two different young people. actor 2: we just don't see any evidence, of god, that's all. actress 2: that's right daddy. archie: i know we had a couple of pinkos in this house but i didn't know we had a pair of atheists. emily vanderwerff: the network freaks out about whether people will be able to watch this show that has like real issues. norman lear: everybody is nervous and there are people saying they're gonna kill you. they're going to shoot you dead in the streets.

♪ herbie j pilato: in 1970, cbs is trying to change their landscape. they had all these rural family sitcoms; they were looking for more sophisticated sitcoms. patrick gomez: after abc declined to move forward with the all in the family pilot, norman lear made the decision to move the show over to cbs. sally struthers: they said yes but you need a new set of kids. so rob reiner and i were the third set of children for archie and edith bunker. norman lear: so, i made the pilot for the third time. same script. i wouldn't change a word. archie: so let's hear it again, huh? what did you mean by what god?

michael: we just don't see any evidence of god, that's all. gloria: that's right daddy. archie: that's right daddy? well i knew we had a couple of pinkos in this house... but i didn't know we had atheists! john lithgow: i do remember seeing the opening episode and realizing, my god, the ground is shaking under me. michael: now, i'm going to tell you something. gloria: michael... michael: no no, wait a second... sally struthers: and we reach over each other at the table and we have arguments.... michael: because guys like you are unwilling to give the black man, the mexican american and all the other minorities their just and rightful hard earned share of the american dream. sally struthers: that didn't happen before. we got real. bambi haggins: political strife. interpersonal issues. generation gaps. and they're dealing with it all in the family. michael: now i suppose you're going to tell me that the black man has had the same opportunity in this country as you? archie: more. he's had more. i didn't have no million people out there marching and protesting to get me my job. edith: no, his uncle got it for him.

john lithgow: archie bunker was saying things that you just don't say on television. michael: just because a guy is sensitive and he's an intellectual and he wears glasses, you make him out a queer. archie: i never said a guy who wears glasses is a queer... a guy who wears glasses is a four eyes, a guy who's a fag is a queer. tim allen: you'll watch that show and even end up looking around like you're gonna be arrested. john lithgow: it was jaw dropping. it was funny, but it was very challenging, and you realized norman lear is taking us into a whole new realm of comedy. norman lear: the blowback from the public was buried by the excitement and the applause. bob leszczak: the show was number one for a long time. ethan alter: it changed cbs and their brand as a network. as a result of all in the family, they turned to norman lear to create more shows in that image. archie: there's a person at the door.

maude! adrienne barbeau: bea arthur played maude as edith's cousin on all in the family. maude: maudie is here. jim colucci: and she could take on archie head to head. maude: now you can either come to the table and eat, or you can lie there and feed off your own fat. jim colucci: the story goes that by the time that episode had aired, fred silverman, who was in charge of cbs at the time, had called norman lear and said, get that woman her own show. ♪ and then there's maude... ♪ ♪ and then there's maude! ♪ ♪ that uncompromisin', enterprisin', ♪ ♪ anything but tranquilizin', ♪ ♪ right on maude! ♪ adrienne barbeau: it was not your all-american family. carol: you're getting senile in your old age. maude: thank you darling. i only hope i live long enough to become a burden to you. adrienne barbeau: maude is an independent strong woman who speaks her mind. she was married to her fourth husband, walter, played by bill macy. maude: i don't have time to fix you your breakfast!

here, have some cold knackwurst. eric mccormick: i loved their combative relationship. i still to this day if somebody pisses me off i'll say, "god'll get you for that walter." maude: god'll get you for that walter. patrick gomez: maude was really the first time that we saw such a fiercely independent woman who wasn't afraid to speak her mind at the center of a family sitcom. norman lear: maude had a maid florida who was a great character. henry: i'm henry evans ... norman lear: her husband made an appearance. henry: i am proud of you florida ...its just i don't want you to be a maid no more. florida: your mother was a maid. that's how your brothers got through school and you got to be a fireman. norman lear: when john amos and esther rolle finished their scene, we thought, let's fill out that family. ♪ good times! ♪ ♪ good times! jay moriarty: that's the first time you ever saw a black family on television.

jj: look who finally got back from her honeymoon in the bathroom mirror. thelma: knock it off jj. your mouth is always ahead of your think piece. lorida: let's face it james, this family ain't ozzie and harriet. jimmie walker: we were very different than other sitcom families from the point that we were urban. trying to survive on the south side of chicago with a dad that has spotty job situations. james: it's a cold world out there, and we can't change it. florida: well maybe we can't change it, james... but we sure can't let it change us. jimmie walker: good times was not only to show the problems, it was to show the love of a minority family. jj: we're standing in a used car lot of love. james: and in 20 years we only turned out one clunker. jacqueline coley: the idea of white families seeing things on

an episode of good times that they could relate to their own experience. that is a power that cannot be duplicated with hours of conversation. patrick gomez: it showed how sitcoms weren't afraid to discuss social issues that had formerly been taboo. ♪ this is it. this is it! ♪ ♪ this is life, the one you get.... ♪ caryn james: when you get to something like 'one day at a time', the single mother in that show is divorced. that was unusual for television. julie: i haven't had a happy minute since we moved to indianapolis. sure was different before the divorce, when daddy was around. ann: yeah yeah, i know. you used to wrap him around your little finger... caryn james: all of the single parents before had been widowed. and so television begins to catch up with who we are. barbara: whatchu doing, mom? ann: i am circling the jobs for which it would appear i am qualified. barbara: i don't see any circles. ann: exactly. valerie bertinelli: i mean it was the 70's. women were feeling empowered to have lives of their own and to still have a family.

ann: darling. would like to tell me what's going on between you and chuck? barbara: you're going to die! you had no business telling her. valerie bertinelli: showing what a family goes through, showing what it's like to raise two daughters in a divorce. ann: we'll make it... i promise. i love you. norman lear: we grow up in families and we all share these experiences in one way or another. ernest lee thomas: one day at a time, all in the family, maude, good times... all these family sitcoms they just owned the top 10.

♪ ethan alter: the 1980s were a radical transformation from what america had been like in the 1960s and 1970s... the economy was booming... judge: congratulations sir. ethan alter: ...as the reagan era took hold, there was a rise in conservative values. patrick gomez: we saw american audiences losing interest in socially relevant sitcoms, and really the sitcom started to die away. gerrad hall: dramas had really taken over, those soaps were so big: dynasty, dallas, magnum p.i. patrick gomez: and so you saw the family sitcom really strived to find a new identity. alex: i can't believe you guys can watch this, you look ridiculous. sarah rodman: family ties has one of the great

premises in sitcom history. steven: half a million people trying to stop a senseless war... you find that ridiculous? alex: i'm talking about the outfits. sarah rodman: these two flower children from the 60 's, grow up and then in the 80's suddenly find themselves with this young republican son. alex: well, how do i look? steven: middle aged. michael gross: it was about the clashes between two generations. steven: you're a young man, you shouldn't be worried about success. you should be thinking about hopping on a tramp steamer and going around the world. alex: the 60's are over, dad. steven: thanks for the tip. gerrad hall: family ties is a reversal in many ways of all in the family, except now you have the liberal parents and the conservative child. elyse: this morning i found a copy of the wall street journal under his bed. steven: you think maybe he was switched at birth and the rockefellers have our kid? meredith baxter: michael was just wonderful. he was young and energetic and he had such good timing.

alex: who did this? michael gross: we started rather slowly, nbc was moving us around a little bit, trying to find the right place for us. jim colucci: family ties pumped a little bit of life into the family sitcom, but the sitcom in general had been pronounced dead. there were very few on the air. and then all of a sudden comes the cosby show in '84. theo: dad, can i have an advance on my allowance? cliff: son, you're already backed up to your 50th birthday. tim allen: the cosby show was a game changer to me. this is just a family i adored. present history has tainted that a little bit. it didn't stop the fact that that was a ground-breaking experience. jacqueline coley: they had this really sort of idyllic family. claire was a lawyer. he was a doctor. jaleel white: there was a very natural chemistry between cliff huxtable and clair and their children

that wasn't cliché black poverty. cliff: son, your mother asked me to come up here and kill you. how do you expect to get into college with grades like this? theo: no problem... bambi haggins: there's a much more conservative paradigm that is driving the cosby show. theo: instead of acting disappointed because i'm not like you, maybe you can just accept who i am and love me anyway. malcolm-jamal warner: you know, in any other sitcom, that would be the moment where the music would start and the father would embrace the son and say something, you know, really encouraging. cliff: theo... that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life! tom werner: and you could hear the audience gasp because like, this is a strong father who is going to say to his son, as he said, you know, i - cliff: i brought you in this world, and i'll take you out.

tom werner: all of a sudden the audience cheered because it was like the parents are saying, yes, we're taking back the house. cliff: i just want you to do the best you can. that's all. malcolm-jamal warner: there was such a love and camaraderie in the huxtable family that i think you had a universal audience. tom werner: we got super bowl ratings every single week and they're tuning in because everybody wants to be a huxtable. jacqueline coley: the cosby show revitalized the sitcom. warren littlefield: alright, then let's put cosby at 8. let's put family ties at 8:30. michael gross: and then family ties went poom in a huge way. michael gross: that great thursday night lineup cosby, family ties, cheers, night court. jacqueline coley: nbc really created this idea of must see tv. you're talking about 20 and 30 and 40 million people tuning in. michael gross: people say you were one of america's most successful fathers. i said no, it was bill cosby. cosby was number one.

jaleel white: with respect to what's happened of late. it's like, hugely disappointing to all of us, but he set the standard for what a family sitcom was. jim colucci: the cosby show had proven that the family sitcom was a viable genre again. [audience laughter] lynn: i'm mr. belevedere! gerrad hall: by the late 80s family sitcoms were very popular among the big three networks. gerrad hall: there was this incredible resurgence. jesse: this is great, we should be mothers. joey: ah yeah! ethan alter: families tuned into these tv shows to see an aspirational version of what family life could be. urkel: did i do that? jennifer keishin armstrong: shows like silver spoons and growing pains and all that. it's constant hugging and learning, right? [audience clapping] ethan alter: with the family sitcom at the height of its popularity, fox started moving into the television arena. cedric: fox was new, building their network. they were one of the last majors to build a network.

patrick gomez: they decided they were going to use the family sitcom to do that and compete against the big three. peggy: al, look at our little girl. we don't really have to go to a recital, do we? ethan alter: and they wound up going in a completely opposite direction. sort of the anti- in a way, the anti-family sitcom. al: now bud, apologize to your sister. bud: no. al: okay. anita sarkeesian: married with children is full of trash people that do horrible things and say horrible things. al: quiet you morons! paul reiser: you were always aware they were just wise guys, you know, zinging each other. al: peg, how could you sell the family playboys? jacqueline coley: looking back on it now, i don't know how that show stayed on air. kelly: is this okay, mom? i haven't worn it since grandma's funeral. jim colucci: married with children helped put fox on the map. ethan alter: this idea of a darker family presentation spoke to people who were bored with what the main family sitcoms were offering at the time. al: family before you go, would you bring old

daddy's shot gun and stand close together?

♪ roseanne: you just sit there and drink your beer hubby, i'll fix the sink myself.

dan: the hell you will! patrick gomez: in the 1990s, we saw the big networks really start to experiment with the family sitcom. gerrad hall: some sitcoms were very edgy, like roseanne and married with children... roseanne: talk is cheap, mr. fix it. patrick gomez: on the other hand, you had shows that were kind of going back to a more wholesome storytelling, you see that on abc's home improvement. ♪ tim allen: in a broad stroke, what home improvement did is, first off, it made a stable family and a loving family. jill: no running in the house! tim: brad! cover the ball with both hands so you don't fumble. go on! jill: tim! tim allen: but also i really wanted to find out what made men tick. tim: boy there's nothing like the feeling of raw and cold steel hanging onto your hips. latoya ferguson: tim the tool-man taylor. he's a local celebrity. he has his own home improvement show called tool time... tim: you know what men, we want a job done right, and we want it done quick. what do we need? audience: more power! tim allen: more power was my moniker my whole life

[laughing] plus the grunting [grunt] and blowing stuff up. latoya ferguson: he's like this supposed man's man... patricia richardson: and then he comes home to a woman who's a feminist... jill: and under no circumstances do you ever treat the female sex as though they are housekeepers put here to wait on you hand and foot. tim: honey, you wanna pop that in the washer for me? patricia richardson: what was great about our family, was that even though we disagreed, randy: i think i'll just pop on out of here.. patricia richardson: we loved each other and always made up. patrick gomez: home improvement was proof that a traditional family sitcom could still be a hit, but through the 90's we continued to see the family change. we saw people having children much later in life and the family sitcom reflected that. paul reiser: in mad about you, the marriage itself was the premise of the show.

mara brock akil: a strong woman character against a strong male character, and so the fireworks... it just kept happening. helen hunt: watching how two people try to love each other over time. jamie: it doesn't bother you that we haven't had sex in five days? paul: hello. paul reiser: you know the feeling when you go to a party and you and your wife and you're having fun, and you say goodnight, you get into the car. the minute that car door closes, that's the show. jamie: what's going on with us? paul: what's going on is that we're married five months and the sexual part is over. see i thought you understood that, i'm sorry. that's what happens, i play checkers in the park and you start arguing with busses, come on. jamie: it's not funny! helen hunt: they are these two people who can voice their own opinions without fear and be awful and apologize and hit a dry spell in the marriage and then find the heat between them again. people were feeling probably that combination of, i relate to it and i aspire to it... jamie: more.

paul: come here. helen hunt: ...that made it very much its own. paul reiser: early, like season one i think, the network said you guys should have a kid. and we went no, no, no, no, no. we don't, that's too soon. season two is time for a kid. it went, it was like the network was, like annoying in-laws. oh, and are you guys gonna try? like, we'll let you know. you know, on raymond, you never saw the kids. ray: hi mom. doris: hi. i saw your car pull up before. you didn't call! ray: no. patricia heaton: we really wanted to focus on the marriage and their relationship with the parents. ray: hi, i'm ray and i live here in long island with my wife debra. patricia heaton: and in the very first season, ray says in the opening credits... ray: it's not really about the kids. patricia heaton: ...it's not about the kids. doris: i say that every year you're over 40, you should add an inch to the hem line of your dress. frank: well then you should be dragging around a persian rug! jim mckairnes: we've all had parents who,

despite our best efforts, reject all of our kindness... and it backfires. doris: i don't understand why you would use bleach on these towels. patricia: they just seemed a little yellow-y. doris: yes, they're yellow towels! patricia heaton: we all come into a family. we need a family. love them or hate them that's who we were given. mara brock akil: the success of cosby resurrected the sitcom and because of that ushered in a lot of great storytelling. jacqueline coley: when the cosby show went off the air, we did have other black family sit-coms to fill that void, and one of them was the fresh prince, which was another version of aspirational black family wealth. will: i didn't know there were so many brothers living in this neighbourhood. we doing alright, huh? jacqueline coley: but fox was one of the first networks that really took risk with black sitcoms that had minority people that were very much part of the writing and the creation of it. aramide tinubu: i think it's vital that people of

color write their own stories, because that's where the authenticity comes from. [baby crying] gina: he's probably tired. martin: well he should be, kept us up all night gina. we should be the ones crying! jacqueline coley: we saw black family sitcoms like martin, like the bernie mac show, those sitcoms showed, parenting to be difficult... bernie: uncle bernie, he's too old to play with dolls. can we play something else? [drumming] jacqueline coley: which was not something you saw on a show like the cosby show. rochelle: chris! get in the bathroom and wipe the pee off the toilet seat. disgusting... cedric: fox network had come on and did really well with black sitcoms, and so then the wb and upn uh, at the time were coming on and they start to diversify and grow that audience. aramide tinubu: they are able to snatch up this audience that the other networks were really ignoring up into that point.

jacqueline coley: and so these shows kind of set the stage for the diversity in the family sitcom that can be seen on television today. man: welcome huangs, i'm rick. nee hau. the length and depth of my bow expresses my deep appreciation. louis: um, i think that's more of a japanese thing. but um..thank you rick.

♪ claire: if haley never wakes up on a beach in florida half naked, i've done my job. phil: our job. claire: right. i've done our job. patrick gomez: in the late 90s, early 2000 's, you see the popularity of reality television. and that had a huge impact on the family sitcom. steven levitan: everything was reality shows back then. the sitcom was pronounced dead, again. so chris lloyd and i said, what's a new way to do a family show? and then we said what if we shoot it documentary style... steven levitan: ...and instead of focusing on one family, what if we focused on multiple families? alex: dad, claire: what happened? alex: luke just shot me! steve levitan: what we want to do is portray these characters as real. luke: i didn't mean to. claire: are you ok? alex: no! the little bitch shot me... claire: language! steve levitan: but the network said you can't have a kid swear like that, and i said that line came from my daughter!

my attitude about it is, telling stories from our own lives, and not being afraid of those stories, that's what people can relate to. gloria: hi i'm gloria pritchett, manny's mother. man: oh this must be your dad. jay: actually no i'm her husband. don't be fooled by the, uh, give me a second here... eve plumb: none of these people look like they would be a family, but they are. mitch: what the hell is that? cam: i had andre do it while we were gone. mitch: is that us with wings? jesse tyler ferguson: i was just really taken by the portrayal of a gay couple as part of an equal part of the cast. jay: he was a bit of a drama queen. mitch: no, no no, stop. you come into my house and you insult me and my boyfriend who, by the way, is not that dramatic. [music from 'the lion king'] jesse tyler ferguson: so when he actually reveals lily, it's to the theme song from lion king. ♪ it's the circle of life mitch: we adopted a baby. daniel fienberg: this loving gay couple who were just adopting a

child, this was the most progressive thing on broadcast television at that particular moment. jay: in this family do we kick and punch each other, or do we love each other? manny and luke: love each other. jay: that's right. i'll be in the den. lorraine ali: modern family took this genre that seemed kind of played out, updated it and breathed life back into the family sitcom. after that, we start to see more perspectives, new perspectives, fresh perspectives. louis: you're going to love orlando. i've grown to love it like the daughter we wished evan had been. ♪ constance wu: in fresh off the boat, an asian american story centers the narrative as opposed to being like the butt of the joke. teacher: i'd like you all to give a warm welcome to... hung, gee... (struggles with name.) eddie: yeah, call me eddie! teacher: oh thank god. constance wu: it's about an asian-american family that

moves from a multi-cultural city to a very white suburban town. deirdre: oh hi! welcome to the neighbourhood. i'm deirdre, this is amanda, this is samantha, this is lisa... constance wu: it was a really good window into how mainstream culture could feel strange to somebody else. randall park: "fresh off the boat" made a major impact in proving to the industry that a show like this can be successful. constance wu: still to this day, i get people on the street who come up to me in tears saying how meaningful it was seeing themselves represented, and feeling like you are a part of america. randall park: it's a part of a progression of representation in tv. dre: okay, so i'm just your standard, regular old, incredibly handsome, unbelievably charismatic black dude. this drooling, pigment challenged mixed race woman is my wife. emily vanderwerff: black-ish is a family sitcom that is interested in talking about topics of racial identity in ways that television sometimes is

uncomfortable about discussing. bow: you're not serious about naming our kid davonte are you? dre: i want a strong black name. rainbow: oh boy. dre: okay, because we've given our kids white names and they've all ended up black- ish. aramide tinubu: the father feels like his family is losing touch with their roots. he wants them to sort of know their heritage dre: i just want one of my kids to end up being black so i can love it. malcolm venable: whereas the cosby show was a much more sort of safe kind of here's us living every day, the black-ish family is very unapologetic about their blackness in ways that really hadn't been seen on prime- time television before. dre: so next saturday, when you turn 13 you're becoming a man too, a black man. because i'm throwing you an african rites of passage ceremony. andre: that does not sound as fun. zoey: no it does not. emily vanderwerff: black -ish was a show that was really good about talking about individual social issues in a way that we hadn't really seen since norman lear.

patrick gomez: and that leads us right up to the reboot of norman lear's 1970s classic, one day at a time. elena: i get it, we're cuban. lydia: azucar! isabella gomez: it follows three generations of latinas. lydia: come on!! isabella gomez: everything that we would get into as a normal family but then it also tackles a lot of things that are going on in the world that normally are seen as taboo. like queer issues. penelope: where are we with the idea telling him? elena: who thinks it's a good idea to greet my latino veteran dad with "hey! i like girls." penelope: you'll finally have something in common. isabella gomez: you know, there's ptsd with the mom, there's anxiety and depression. penelope: when he called you a name, what did he call you? stupid, dummy, goober? alex: he saw me and yelled build a wall. elena: oh my god. isabella gomez: i think it allows audiences to have those conversations in their own living rooms. elena: even these days, in this openly racist world. i managed to never have an incident. penelope: you and your brother are of different shades.

lydia: yes. pamela adlon: if you put something in your show that's shocking and radical. the hope is in five years' time, it's going to become more normal. elena: who even decides what latinx looks like? i look latinx. penelope: of course you do, you're beautiful. i always thought you looked like anne hathaway. elena: oh no, no, no! emily vanderwerff: the future of the family sitcom to me is most present in shows like one day at a time; telling stories about an america you don't always see on television, elena: yeah! in ways that are funny, and fresh, and invigorating... and if you look at the best family sitcoms on tv right now, that's what they're doing. elena: anybody else wants to know what's up? this latin american family is headed to their american home. patron: that is so cool. anne hathaway just totally stood up for those mexicans.