duffy: it gave rise to people pursuing artistic content in a way that i think has raised the bar in television production exponentially. i love you guys! bianculli: there's a shift in the '80s from just wanting to placate the audience to wanting to please and challenge the audience. and that's the decade when it happened. we had one hell of a run. didn't we partner? yeah. we sure did, sonny. i'm gonna miss you man. i'm gonna miss you, too, sonny. can i give you a ride to the airport? why not? ♪

- don't touch that dial. we're about to flip it for you. - in five, four, three, two... - tv is changing dramatically now with 150 channels that might be available in the near future. - there's a lot of things that we do that you couldn't have on network television. - people are really trying to do something adventurous. [both gasp] all: channel 7, shame on you. - this is more a celebration of culture and opening the doors and allowing america to come on inside. - there's always something on television, and some of it may be better than we deserve. - [laughs] that was cool. [dramatic music] ♪ ♪

- listen to it. oh! [crowd cheering] they know when it hits the bottom, it'll be 1990. good-bye to the '80s in... all: ten, nine... all: eight... eight! eight! eight! - oh, will this horrible year never end? - when the '90s begin, we're starting to see a lot of experimentation. [gunshots] all: [quickly] seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! [cheering] - and "the simpsons," i think, in some senses

was inspired by not necessarily a hatred of television but a distrust of a lot of the ways in which television was talking to us. - tv respects me. it laughs with me, not at me. - [laughing] you stupid-- - d'oh! - i think the sitcoms of the '80s... - i love you guys. - were such a sort of warm, safe humor. - ohh, ohh. you see, the kids, they listen to the rap music which gives them the brain damage. - and i think there was a real yearning for another type of humor. [danny elfman's "the simpsons theme"] [all screaming] - we were able to spoof fatherhood. - what a bad father. - which, at the time-- and i stress "at the time"-- was bill cosby as the shining example. - ♪ did you ever know that you're my hero? ♪ - the stuff they got away with because it's a cartoon.

the father strangling the child. - why, you little-- [grunting] - [choking] - we are going to keep on trying to strengthen the american family to make american families a lot more like the waltons and a lot less like the simpsons. - huh? - we go to a completely bizarre period of time in 1992, when a sitting president is raging against a sitcom. - [screams] - they have dealt with politics, they have dealt with popular culture, they've dealt with all kinds of issues of racism, of sexism. - don't ask me, i'm just a girl. [giggles] - right on. say it, sister. - it's not funny, bart. millions of girls will grow up thinking that this is the right way to act. - they have found a way to talk about everything that's going on in our lives through the filter of "the simpsons." - them "immigants," they want all the benefits of living in springfield, but they ain't even bothered

to learn themself the language. - yeah, those are exactly my "sentimonies." - yeah, well-- [babbling incoherently] - i think one of the governing things that's happening with "the simpsons" is a distrust of anyone who tells us that we should trust them and doesn't earn that trust. - oh, and, uh, i'll take that statue of justice too. - sold! - and when they make fun of how fox works... male announcer: you are watching fox. all: we are watching fox. - they're telling you, "don't trust us either." - eat my shorts. - all right, i'll eat-- eat your shorts? [children laughing] - "the simpsons" is like shakespeare in the sense that we quote "the simpsons" all the time, very often without even knowing it. - excellent. - i wish i could create something that culturally indelible. it's unlike anything else tv's ever wrought. - "twin peaks" showed up out of nowhere at the beginning of the decade. and the pilot episode of that

was one of the strangest and most exciting things i've ever seen. - diane, i'm at the twin peaks county morgue with the body of the victim-- what's her name? - laura palmer. [girl screaming] - it was incredible. i mean, just how slowly in the beginning the news spread around this little town that this young, beautiful girl had died. - laura! - and that haunting music was so dark and so beautiful. - ♪ then i saw ♪ ♪ your smile ♪ [dialogue audio plays in reverse] - what on earth is essentially a art film doing in prime-time television? - american network television has long been considered

the home of the bland, the cautious, and the predictable. so it was with some trepidation that the abc network recently launched a new series that was none of those things. "twin peaks" has already been described by one critic as, "the series that will change tv." it's directed by david lynch. - david lynch was a filmmaker known for his taste in the eccentric and memorable. the idea that he would do network television in the '90s was crazy. - do you watch much of it? - well, i-i-- i like the idea of television, but i'm too busy to see very much of it. - and i-- what do you think of that which you do see on television? - well, some of it i-- you know, i really enjoy. - are you being diplomatic? - sort of. [both laughing] - [screaming] - the beautiful thing about television is, you have the chance to do a continuing story. and that's the main reason, you know, for doing it.

- i think that "twin peaks," with the initial attention that it got, allowed all the other networks to say, "let's do something different." [eerie music] - what was interesting about "northern exposure," it was an odd sort of universe that this guy was dropped into. - the day's coming, and it ain't gonna be long, when you ain't even gonna have to leave your living room. no more schools, no more bodegas, no more tabernacles, no more cineplexes, all right? you're gonna snuggle up to your fiber optics, baby, and bliss out. - you also had experimentation that set the stage for a lot of what came later. [mark snow's "the x-files"] - it's kinda hard to pin down what exactly "the x-files" is. i mean, on the surface, it's a show about investigating paranormal activities. - unidentified flying objects. i think that fits the description pretty well. tell me i'm crazy. - mulder, you're crazy. - [chuckles]

- that dynamic, that dramatic tension of believer versus skeptic is one of the engines of the show. and you were always seeing it from a specific point of view. - [screaming] help! help! - they're equals. - yeah, absolutely. yeah, they're equals, and in a way, they've kind of switched gender stereotypes. because the character i play--mulder-- is the intuitive one. - the large intestine. - and scully is the rationalist, the doctor. - a lot of folks who enjoyed "the x-files" who otherwise didn't watch tv might've been drawn to the show by its--for lack of a better way to put it-- its stick-it-to-the-man ethos that said, "don't trust the government, "don't trust big business, don't trust anybody but yourself and your friends and family," i guess. it's a message that's somewhat dark and cynical, but was kind of a breath of fresh air in the early '90s. - the '90s was a time of conspiracies, and the internet was starting to spread beyond just, like, hard-core computer users.

so you could have message boards and usenet newsgroups, and everybody wanted to talk about the black oil and the bees and mulder's sister and what the cigarette smoking man was up to. and i would go to alt.tv.the-x-files and people were so nuts for this show. - it's just pure science fiction, and that's probably what i like most about it. - "the x-files" changed the way people watch television. - you could sense these successful creators trying to see how they could do things different than they had done five or ten years ago. sometimes that led to really challenging network television that was cool and fun to watch. and sometimes it just seemed to fall off the edge a little bit. - ♪ and let's be careful out there ♪ - at the time, steven bochco was a very successful producer of hour dramas and wanted to try something brand-new.

- this is the police! we have a warrant for your arrest! - hit it! - you have ten seconds to open this door! - and so his idea was to combine a gritty cop show with a broadway musical. [hip-hop music] - i saw one in which a bunch of gangbangers were in jail. and they began to sing... ♪ life in the hood ain't no pizza pie ♪ ♪ everybody die when the bullets fly ♪ all: ♪ life in the hood ain't no piece of pie ♪ ♪ anybody could die when the bullets fly ♪ - and i said, "wait a minute. hold on, wait a minute." ♪ ♪ - and i thought, well, this is it. this is gonna be great. this is gonna be as innovative as anything i've ever done. - ♪ he's guilty, judge, he's guilty ♪ ♪ you could see it in his eyes ♪ ♪ he did the crime and now he's gotta pay ♪ - merp. [laughs] i mean, it just-- it circled the drain. [groovy rock music] - i will give credit to anybody who goes outside the box

and swings really hard for the fences. - ♪ i worked real hard ♪ ♪ and i got my education ♪ - i'm creatively proud of it, still. you know, i'm very glad we tried it. um... i don't think i'd wanna do it again.

- generation x, the twentysomethings, boomerangers, baby busters-- whatever these 46 million young souls are called-- are turning out to be kind of a hard sell. - in the '90s, what we realized is, advertisers would pay premiums for college-educated young adults, 18-49.

and we started reinventing nbc and trying to speak to that audience. - [sighs] where is someone? i'm starving. - think this is him right here. - oh. uh, is there a table ready? - "the chinese restaurant" was one of the very, very early episodes of "seinfeld." and truly, nothing happened in the episode. they were waiting for a table. - [sighs] i feel like just walking over there and taking some food off of somebody's plate. - we said to larry david, "hey, like, nothing happens." and larry was offended. [laughs] he was, like, wildly offended. - nbc believed in the show so they said, "we're committing to four episodes." - yes, yeah, right. four episodes. - 4--normally it's 13 or 8 or something. - yes, at least. so we didn't really think that they had too much confidence in the show. - we didn't think it would work. but we felt that they had to go through their process and they would learn.

and ultimately, they knew better than we did. - my mother caught me. - caught you? doing what? - you know. i was alone. - the turning point for "seinfeld" from, like, nice show that all of the cool people kinda know about but that's it to massive hit was the episode called "the contest," where they tried to abstain from self-pleasure for as long as possible. all: yeah! - 6:30. time for your bath. - george, i'm hungry! - hang on, ma. hang on. - once you do 30 minutes on masturbation, you could pretty much get away with anything. - well, i guess you'll be going back to that hospital. - well, my mother, jerry.

- but are you still master of your domain? - i am king of the county. - the week after that aired, people were talking about that in the workplace the entire week. - they still are talking about it. 52 seconds and two of the greatest words in sitcom history. - i'm out. - one of the shorthand descriptions of "seinfeld" is, you know, no hugs, no lessons. - [gasps] - let's push it a little further than it's ever been pushed before. - what's the matter with you? - i think the big breakthrough of "seinfeld" was that the characters were not nice people. - someone help! - shut up, you old bag! - they were narcissistic. - no! - vandelay! save it! - they would screw each other over at the drop of a hat... - he's just a dentist. - yeah, and you're an anti-dentite. - and yet be best friends the next week. - ♪ when you wish upon a star ♪ ["shining star" by earth, wind & fire plays]

- we don't have to love 'em. we just have to laugh at them. - [laughing] i'm really sorry. - i was in the pool! i was in the pool! - the idea of a character with darker tendencies... - fire! [all screaming] - get out of the way! - that was so taboo in television comedy. - [sighs] are--are you about done? - oh, i'm just getting warmed up. - we're in the confines of network tv with commercials, with still a lot of things that are very highly structured, and yet we're able to find ways of pushing in those boundaries. - no soup for you! [snaps fingers] - it took us to a new level of comedy, and it kind of defined, like, yeah, nbc, thursday night, this show, expect the unexpected. - can you sing the theme song from "cheers"? - "cheers," yeah. how does it start? ♪ making your way in your world today ♪

oh, i can't do that. - go ahead, go ahead! - no, that's so corny. - go on. i know, i know. but it's cute. come on, just sing it. - okay. ♪ takes everything you got ♪ - ♪ taking a break from all your worries ♪ ♪ sure can help a lot ♪ - ♪ wouldn't you like to get away? ♪ ♪ sometimes you wanna go ♪ - ♪ where everybody knows your name ♪ - we decided to end "cheers" in the 11th year. and over 93 million people watched the finale of "cheers." but it's a sad experience for everybody. - oh, man. - this was our baby for 11 years. and we're not gonna be around these people every day. - you people are as dear to me as my own family. - we had been serving fake suds forever. it was time for everybody to sip. in fact, i was sipping along with them. - time goes by so fast. people move in and out of your life. you must never miss an opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you. we had been through so much together.

you spend that much time with the same set of people, it does become your family. - i feel pretty lucky to have the friends i do. - yeah. - i think the legacy of "cheers" is our need to belong. and i think that's what we as americans are longing for. - good night, you guys. - the final scene of "cheers" was really, what was sam's real first love? - you can never be unfaithful to your one, true love. - i'm the luckiest son of a bitch on earth. - and his real first love was the bar. [knock at door] - sorry. we're closed.

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and existing customers could even get up to triple the speeds... at no additional cost. it's ultimate speed for ultimate business. don't miss out on our fastest speed plans yet! switch to comcast business and get started for $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. call today! - okay. let's play show business. as a young kid in cleveland, i always knew i would one day end up doing a talk show. male announcer: it's arsenio... hall! - in less than two years, arsenio hall has fired his talk show for the mtv generation into a contender for the crown of late-night television. [audience hooting] - yes, yes.

- now, how come-- how come i didn't hear all that woofing going on? when i would watch you-- - too many white people, man. johnny was the big dog. but i knew everybody on the planet wasn't watching him. and it dawned on me that i could go many weeks and not see a motown group on "the tonight show." - arsenio hall has been dubbed "the prince of late night." - there was a whole world of talent that had never, and would never have been, on any late-night show. - ♪ sitting at home watching arsenio hall ♪ - 2 live crew came on and sang "me so horny." - ♪ i'm gonna say, oh, me so horny ♪ - like, i had never-- it was like the sex pistols. i'd never seen anything like it. it was an explosion in the audience. - ♪ ain't no party like a thug life party ♪ - he appealed to a black and white young audience. and it was a much broader appeal than the powers that be had estimated. - rap--rap is real big among our teens.

that's poetry. - of course it is. - the poetry of the ghetto. - having maya angelou on-- i mean, where would you have seen her otherwise? - paul laurence dunbar in 1892 wrote a poem called "a negro love song." it said, "seen my lady home last night. "jump back, honey, jump back. "held her hand and squeezed it tight. jump back, honey, jump back." - he didn't just have black people on his show. [audience cheering] but if you were hip, you wanted to be on "arsenio." - this is something that i heard a political analyst talking about recently. he said you kind of were-- i used the word "chilling out." he said you were pulling back a little bit. you've been instructed not to say as much or be as outspoken. no? - i don't--i've heard that, but i never know who says it. i think it's wishful thinking on the part of some people. - [laughs] hmm. guess who suggested to bill to do "the arsenio hall show" if you wanna get a younger demo.

hill dog. - [playing "heartbreak hotel" on saxophone] ♪ ♪ - he attracted a lot of people who weren't fans before that night. ♪ ♪ - the '90s was a glorious moment for black television, because you saw these representations that you'd never seen before. ["yo home to bel-air" by dj jazzy jeff & the fresh prince] the premise of "the fresh prince" was, this kid comes from philadelphia... - ♪ in west philadelphia, born and raised ♪ ♪ on the playground is where i spent most of my days ♪ - his mom says, "i'm gonna send you to live with your uncle." he shows up at this mansion in bel air, baseball cap on backward, like he doesn't even know how to act in this environment. [hip-hop music] the black producers and directors and writers were always playing with this kind of subverting expectations

of what is blackness. - the incredible work of "the fresh prince" at its most triumphant was when it was showing the ways that being black is always going to be a problem no matter what. - vehicle registration, please. - just a sec. but the thing is, officer, this isn't my car. - there's the episode i remember where they get pulled over in a car. - what? - he's gonna tell us to get out of the car. - you watch too much tv, will. - get out of the car. - they have an interaction with a police officer that is horrible and racist in a lot of ways. and carlton has this epiphany about how money won't save him. - no map is gonna save you. and neither is your glee club or your fancy bel air address or who your daddy is. 'cause when you're driving in a nice car in a strange neighborhood, none of that matters. they only see one thing.

- the writers of "the fresh prince of bel air" had a really hard task to approach these topics with nuance and were doing it at a clip that was way ahead of their time. - now, don't touch that dial. we're about to flip it for you to one of this year's most talked about tv shows. it is, as they say, on another network--fox. - ♪ you can do what you wanna do ♪ ♪ in living color ♪ [cheers and applause] - ladies and gentlemen, keenen ivory wayans. - "in living color" was the first show that was created by, written by, directed by, starring an african-american. all of those things in one. - this is more a celebration of culture and an exchange, you know? us sort of opening the doors and allowing america to come on inside. yo, yo, yo, all you bad bargain hunters out there, welcome to... both: the homeboy shopping network. - a lot of what they did on "in living color" was trying to take the stereotypes or the misperceptions about what black men are and turn them upside down.

- not only will you get, like, all the cable stations out there... - but you'll be able to talk directly to the astronauts. - it brought this smart, very controversial comedy that black folks had never seen before that centered around their life experiences. - who are you? - i am the minister louis farrakhan. [dramatic fanfare] - african-americans composed 25% of fox's market. - always get trapped in a corner with somebody named bob. [mocking tone] "hey, listen, martin, "i just saw 'boyz n the hood,' all right? i didn't know, martin. i didn't know." - and they knew that they needed to capture this audience to grow. - well, i guess you think you smart and cool. but if you think you gettin' a job here, you a damn fool. now get up out my office. - so they basically gave the black creators freedom to, you know, do whatever you want. just get the audience.

- ♪ on the w-w-w... ♪ - wb! - the wb and upn took that concept from fox... - your shoulders are harder than cheap breast implants. - going after this underserved audience of urban minority viewers and really ran with it. - i'm a new-millennium woman who will not be defined by traditional female roles, okay? - a lot of the networks built themselves up partially on african-american viewers. - ♪ shake it to the east, shake it to the west ♪ - the african-american shows indexed lower in terms of household income. - what? - so over the course of the decade, the networks started to move away from those shows. - i don't know about you people, but i'll be damned if i'm gonna let them destroy my neighborhood. - black creators felt used and abused. you made your money, you know, you built your audience on us, and now, you know, you're done.

- the following movie is rated r. - in 1990, '91, there was not a whole lot of original programming for cable. but they were airing movies. so we needed to compete, and i felt that if we didn't, we were gonna, you know, kinda get swept out.

- oh! you son of a bitch! hey! - and so i came up with the notion of doing a cop show that was r-rated. when abc's broadcast standards read our script, they went berserk. [sexy jazzy music] - ♪ whoa, oh, ohh ♪ - i was sitting with a pad and a pencil, drawing pictures of breasts to try to show them what we would show and what we wouldn't show. [laughter] i have grown-ups sitting in a room, you know, doodling. then we started in on the language. - we heard some reporter called a lowlife asshole turd pimp with the brains of a flea and the balls of a moth. - the program premiered with an advertising boycott. all: channel 7, shame on you. - but it was such an immediate hit, that boycott lasted, oh, four weeks. - come on, line 'em up. - they could use the nudity and the curse words to go deeper into the actual emotional burden of being a cop. - i'm an asshole. i'm--i'm a--i'm an asshole, huh?

- and it had this character andy sipowicz. he's a raging alcoholic, racist, sexist, violent. - hey! - he created the tv antihero. - you know, i know that great-- the african-american george washington carver discovered the peanut, but can you provide names and addresses of these friends? - you know, you a racist scumbag. - despite his flaws, despite his prejudices, i think people identified with his pain. - i wish there was a way to say this that wouldn't hurt you, mr. wentz. - there's a famous early episode where they're investigating the rape and murder of a young boy. and they find a homeless child molester who murdered the kid. and sipowicz, to get the confession, has to be, like, very sensitive and very good cop. - i know this has gotta be tearing you up inside. but you're gonna feel a lot better if you just tell the truth. - you can sort of see on dennis franz's face, this is killing him to not, like, destroy this guy right now.

and finally, he gets the confession, he gets a signed statement, he walks out of the room, he goes to another interrogation room, and he breaks the door in two with his fists. - [grunting] - and i'm choking up talking about it right now because, like, that's how great a moment of tv that it is. - 20 years from now, the best tv dramas, what'll they look like? - i don't know. i don't know whether-- - will they be bolder than what we see today? - oh, assuredly. assuredly, they will be. - the '90s gave us several shows that didn't really explode in the ratings but were very influential to other people making television. "homicide" is one of them. - ♪ shell me with questions all night ♪ ♪ i'm living in a danger zone ♪ - "homicide: life on the street" was really innovative in terms of its style. it used music in ways that advanced the narrative. and it also used feature film directors that brought a look and style to the show

that really stood out on television. - tears coming out of your eyes. - ain't no tears coming from my eyes. - his eyes are brimming with tears. - they had so many african-american characters in the cast that on several occasions, they were the only people on camera interacting with one another. and that sounds like, "so?" but as late as the '90s, that wasn't done on television. - when a cop shoots somebody, he stands by it. he picks up the radio mic and he calls it in. he stands by the body. if not, cops are no better than anybody else. - in the '90s, television was getting more complicated, stories were starting to become more episodic, characters were starting to develop and change. none of that happened on "law & order." ["law & order" dramatic sting] - this was a show that completely delivered on its formula every time. [siren wails] you'd get a crime. - all right, let's roll. - you got the investigation into the crime. - you better be packing more than a dirty mouth. - you got an arrest. - what's the charge?

hey, i'm asking you a question. what's the charge? - ah, there's no charge. this one's on us. - and then you had a trial. - he's badgering, your honor. - sit down and shut up, mr. fineman. - overruled. and you will address the court from now on, mr. mccoy. - and so every time you watched, you got what you came for. - tell me, doctor, all those women you ran through your examination rooms, do you remember their faces, or did you not even bother to look up? - you had, in "law & order," the kinds of characters that people take to heart. - i'm gonna let you take me to lunch. one-time offer. - and if you're an actor and you say, "well, gee, you know, maybe it's not really such a bad medium after all." - miranda, bartolameo, the supreme court's minnick decision. the whole thing's illegally obtained. they were both represented by counsel. - you just get hooked in. it's life and death and stuff. - we know what you did. - counsel! - okay? you hear me, ryan? do you hear me? - counsel! i'll have your client detained! - do you hear me? look at me! do you hear me, cutrona? - "law & order" was like crack.

- gun! [all screaming] - you'd have to sit and watch me for 50 minutes, just like... not moving, barely breathing. there are times i've almost passed out watching "law & order." ["law & order" dramatic sting] - hey, carter, get over here! i need your help! - "er" had originally been written as a movie for steven spielberg to direct, and so we had this two-hour piece which was a reflection of michael's experiences as a medical student. - use an angiocath with a 16 needle. you need a large bore in case they're bleeding and you need to transfuse them. do you know how to start an iv? - uh, actually, no. - "er" is a hospital show, but it's really an action movie. [baby crying] - this way, this way. - green, walking wounded. yellow, urgent. red, critical. and black, doa. you got it? - got it. - good. - a gurney comes in, people are shouting instructions, climbing up onto the body and, like, doing cpr. and suddenly, they're racing off to the surgical suite. - get that gurney out of there! - someone wanders in,

they're tossing around medical jargon. - cvc type and hold two units. - they don't stop to explain what it is. you know, "prep for a peritoneal lavage." i think i know what that is now, but only because i watched a lot of "er" over the years. - can you do pleural lavage? - you can try, but i don't think his heart would take it. we can bypass him and warm his blood directly. - that'd be the fastest way. what do you think? - you're the attending. - there was so much information coming at you that i think it made the experience feel as if you had to watch it in the same way that you would watch a film, that you had to stay involved in it the whole time. - come on, ben, you can make-- hold on, buddy. hold on. - there was a lot of research that said that people didn't wanna watch anybody have anything other than a happy outcome. - it's not flatlined, it's finding v-fib. another seven makes epi. - and we argued that that wasn't really showing what the world was for physicians. - [panting] [heart monitor flatlining]

- i had unbelievable amount of respect for the people who did this because i understood how human they were. [heart monitor flatlining]

- a new era of technology and competition is forcing network news operations to reexamine the way they do business. - new owners spent billions buying the networks recently, ge buying nbc; capital cities, abc; and loews/tisch brothers buying cbs. and all of them want their money's worth. - we'll now have the strongest network, we'll have a stronger defense piece. this is gonna be one dynamite company. - there's a danger that news will be mixed up with the rest of television and considered just another profit center. - late 1920s/early 1930s to the early 1980s, the sense was, we'll give some of the broadcasting time to public service. but in the 1990s, journalism in the country changed a great deal. you couldn't talk about public service. it was, "what are the ratings going to be?

"what are the demographics going to be? what is the profit going to be?" well, sensationalism sells. - in a plea bargain, 18-year-old amy fisher got up to 15 years in prison for shooting the wife of her alleged lover. - so intense is the interest in this case that there are three--three-- made-for-tv movies now in the works about it. - you make money off sex. you make money off death. you make money off crime. - the press calls the case the beverly hills mansion murders. and the story reads like one of the unsold scripts that circulate here in hollywood. - we enter into the world of the television news soap opera. - a story of basic instincts, anger, and fear. - i was scared and i just wanted him to leave me alone. - and so broadcast journalism loses its purity and it becomes much more shoddy, sensationalistic. and then it all comes together with o.j. simpson. [dramatic orchestral music] - i'm larry carrol in los angeles.

the los angeles county district attorney has just filed murder charges against orenthal james "o.j." simpson. - okay, i'm gonna have to interrupt this call. i understand we're gonna go to a live picture in los angeles. police believe that... that o.j. simpson is in that car. - the o.j. simpson story starts with the chase and then goes on to his arrest and then culminates with the trial, which goes on and on and on. and it's televised day after day after day. - this is gonna be a long trial. there's a lot of evidence to come in. the o.j. simpson case was such a national phenomenon that those of us who were covering it just lived this case 24 hours a day because there was so much demand for people talking about it. - as simpson struggled to slide the gloves onto his hands and turned toward jurors, saying, "they're too small," prosecutors were incensed. - the trial was on television during the hours that had traditionally been

the time for soap operas. - he appears to have pulled the gloves off, counsel. - and o.j. was very much a soap opera. - he is impeached by his own witness. - i ask that you put a stop to it. either put cordoba on the stand... - excuse me, mr. bailey. - or stop her from testifying. - stand up and speak when it's your turn. - no question that the best tv show of the '90s was the o.j. simpson trial. and everybody on it was riveting. - nbc news in depth tonight: the simpson trial finally winding to a close. - we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, orenthal james simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of penal code section 187(a). - the verdict of the o.j. simpson trial, viewed by 150 million people. it's more people than watch presidential election returns. that's crazy. - because there was trial footage every day, cnn saw its audience increase, like, five times.

the success of cnn was not lost on other people. and so there were competing forces coming into play. - how delighted i am that we've now reached this moment when we can firmly announce the starting of a fox news channel. - unfortunately, with cable news and the ability or the need to be on the air 24/7, where you're trying to get as many eyeballs as possible at one time to gravitate toward those stories that are sensational, you know, it brought us the ability to go too far. - is the jonbenét ramsey murder investigation turning into a media circus? - yes, it's tabloid. but on the other hand, it's a tabloid era. and here's the point. here's where the fear comes into it, i think, larry. it's the fear that says, "gosh, if we don't cover it big-time, "our competition is, and when they cover it big-time, they're gonna get a big jump in the ratings." and the first thing is to last. if we're gonna last, if we're gonna survive, we gotta do it.

- what you also see is a whole army of commentators. people who make their business talking about the news. - what i say is what we should do is we should bomb his capability of producing oil. take out his refineries, his stations, his wells. - they don't have any capability of producing oil. - well, they're certainly selling a lot of oil to-- - the networks were doing good journalism, but they became much more preoccupied by profits. it's much cheaper to have someone in your studio pontificating than to have reporters out in the field reporting. - i don't know if any of this is true. but what i've heard is that the father went down, opened this basement room which the fbi had bypassed... - every single sentence-- on cnn, perhaps, on cnbc, on fox, on msnbc-- begins with the words "i think." but after a while, people get confused by what is speculation, by what is innuendo, by what is fact.

and as far as the viewer is concerned, be very, very careful of unsubstantiated information presented with great hype.

- tv is changing dramatically now, with 150 channels that might be available in the near future. - there are more choices than ever before.

and it's a tough job. you have to try and get a sense of, what is the audience gonna really make an attachment to? in the '90s, cable was coming on strong. so we had to examine, who are we gonna be? well, we wanted to be smart, sophisticated comedy. - six months ago, i was living in boston. my wife had left me, which was very painful. then she came back to me, which was excruciating. well, you know, i thought frasier was dead with "cheers." [playful music] but we thought, we've got a built-in audience and great potential for, you know, building out the character to another place. - ♪ ohh ♪ - ♪ ohh, ohh ♪ - ♪ ohh, ohh ♪ - ♪ ohh, ohh ♪ - "frasier" was kind of like one-act plays. [dramatic organ music plays] - "mother and i moved here when i was a small boy

"after the... tragic death of my father. "i kept the pain of that loss buried deep within me like a serpent coiled within a damp cave." okay, that's it. - we always assumed the audience was smarter than most other people did. and we played to that. she is just unschooled, like eliza doolittle. - oh. - you find her the right henry higgins, she'll be ready for a ball in no time. - leave it to you to put the "pig" back in "pygmalion." - thank you. - kelsey grammer played pomposity like nobody you've ever seen and got huge laughs. - it's not considered a move until my fingers have completely cleared the piece. - well, what's taking so long? - i am analyzing my options. unlike your winged approach, i like to plan a strategy. like a general leading his troops into battle. - checkmate, schwarzkopf. - i think "frasier" probably stands as the single most successful spin-off, at least in the history of sitcoms.

- and the emmy goes to... - "frasier"! - "frasier"! - "frasier"! [cheers and applause] - we were lightning-hot, and it was critical for us to be leading the way, not just following. [the rembrandts' "i'll be there for you"] ♪ ♪ - "friends" is about that time in your life when your friends are your family. - ow! - ow! ow! both: ow! ow! ow! ow! [both shouting] - when david crane and i lived in new york, we were part of a group of six people. we were all attached at the hip and we went everywhere together and celebrated everything together. - okay, let's open them! - and there's that period where you're looking to be out there on your own and the people you rely on are the ones who live down the hall. - here we go. pivot. pivot. pivot! pivot! pivot!

pivot! - shut up! shut up! shut up! - "friends" permeated the culture in a way that was really special. everybody was obsessed with the show. and it became, like, which one of these characters are you? if you were a girl, were you phoebe, monica, or rachel? - you know, i gotta tell you, this really does put me in a better mood. - mm. - the kids who were watching, the young audience... - five, six, seven, eight. - saw a lifestyle that was aspirational. - ohh! - i wish i had an apartment in new york city that no one seems to be worried about the rent for. i wish that i looked like matt leblanc. i wish that i had jennifer aniston's hair. - one of the things that made "friends" a phenomena was that people-- beyond the laughs-- actually bonded with these characters. they emotionally were invested in ross and rachel's relationship. - i could not have done this without you. - it's--it's-- - mwah!

- okay, um, uh... more clothes in the dryer? [laughs] okay. oh! - i was dropping my daughter off for sunday school at our temple, and literally, my rabbi stopped me and said, "what's gonna happen with ross and rachel?" - you look really pretty tonight. - oh, thanks. - "the one with the prom video" is one of my favorites. - you guys, we don't have to watch this. - oh, yeah, it's fun. - yeah, we do. - come on. - fun. where's chip? why isn't he here yet? - he'll be here, okay? take a chill pill. - this seemed like a really surprising way to get rachel to know how ross feels. - i can't go to my own prom without a date. - take her. you could wear my tux. - dad, she won't wanna go with me. - she's learning something new, and he thinks, "oh, god, please don't let her see this. please don't let her see this." - rachel, ready or not, here comes your knight in shining-- oh, no.

- bye! don't wait up! - okay. - chip! - oh, dear. - ross sees himself, and you see that look on his face and how sad he is because he wanted to take her to the prom. - when she crossed the room-- i still kinda get chills from it. when she crossed the room and gave him that kiss... [audience cheering] the audience went insane. [audience cheering] - at the height of must see tv, thursday nights on nbc, 75 million americans watched thursday night. that was, at the time, 1/3 of the country. - ooh. what is this stuff? - the sweater? it's angora. - well, it's wonderful.

- the machine that was nbc in the '90s for comedy was untouchable. - you're not from around here, are you? - it generated so much viewership and money and awards. - we do not need this. - that's the top of our wedding cake. - we're not-- this--it's not a scrapbook. it's a freezer. - no! - we kind of all were part of, i think, this chapter in television where we realized we were in the right place at the right time. let's see how you like this, naughty boy. - whoa! - [shrieking] - we certainly associate nbc of the '90s with having extremely successful sitcoms. but they weren't the only network that found their way to having some success. [jesse frederick's "everywhere you look"] tgif was on abc on friday. and it was their block of family-oriented comedies. - i can't take it. i need the cake. - oh, michelle! miche-- - it was not sophisticated television. but these were shows that people adored.

- [laughs, snorts] [laughing] oh! [dramatic music] male announcer: cbs. - cbs was in a really bad spot. they had just fallen apart over the early part of the '90s. and they'd gone through a couple different network executives. - [whistling descending tone] [mimics explosion] - but then, suddenly, they had this hit with an unknown comic. this was the era of "seinfeld." no hugging, no learning. and this was a show being made as if it was produced in the era of the "dick van dyke show." - i love you! - oh! - there was hugging, there was learning. - i love you, son. - all right, all right. - if you worked for me, your job was to go home, get in a fight with your wife, and come back in and tell me about it. - don't sleep on the couch! i just cleaned down there. - in fact, the pilot, i put in this true thing that happened to me, wherein i sent my parents a gift for the holidays

of the fruit of the month club. - did you know you sent me a box of pears from a place called fruit of the month? - yeah, yeah. that's right, that's right. how are they? - and my mother reacted as if i had sent her a box of heads from a murderer. - why did you do this to me? - oh, my god! - i can't talk! there's too much fruit in the house! - ohh! what is happening? - what do you think we are? invalids? we can't go out and get our own fruit? - i tried to tell him. - all right! i'm canceling the fruit club! - the real story is where the real connection with your audience is. thank god all your families are crazy too. - looks like you got the whole family together. - yeah, yeah. it's dysfunctionpalooza.

- and now, ladies and gentlemen, here's johnny! [cheers and applause] [band plays "johnny's theme"] - johnny carson wasn't just the host of "the tonight show." johnny carson was the man that america said good night to for 30 years. - we'll be right back. [drumroll] ♪ ♪ - and on my watch, johnny decided that 30 years was a great time to take a bow and say thank you and good night. - 30 years is enough. you know?

you know, it's a good time to get out while you're still on top of your game plan. - johnny carson retiring in the early '90s was the great moment where a huge chunk of the ice shelf breaks off. something that has been there for centuries, for thousands of years, suddenly is... no longer there. - he's a tremendous part of history, and that's lovely to major mark on an era like that. - johnny had told no one what he planned to do, and we weren't prepared. and that set off a game of musical chairs for who would get the throne. and there only was one late-night throne. - hi, you guys. - jay leno had been pretty much carson's regular substitute host when he went on vacation. - you know what's amazing? now, this is true. only six months ago, people were talking about donald trump as a presidential candidate. right? that's true. now, since then, he's had an affair, he's left his wife, he's run up a debt of several million dollars. so i guess he's gonna be running as a democrat, huh? - jay leno wanted to essentially just continue doing

a johnny carson-type show. and david letterman was the show immediately following carson. and they had different styles. - what is your name? - i'm gonna ask you to turn the cameras off, please. - okay, we just wanted to drop off this basket of fruit. - part of dave's thing used to always be attacking authority. he liked that. - cut the cameras, please. - he needed a corporate bad guy to go up against. i was oftentimes that target. - i can hear this warren littlefield guy whining all year long about not getting his name on the card last year. - he's on there. - so he's--well, what about-- look, what about me? just put it on there. me. i can be on there, couldn't i? - who is he? - it was always letterman's dream to be the host of "the tonight show." he idolized johnny carson-- rightfully so. - the big decision that's had the entertainment industry buzzing is due this week. that, of course, is the fate of nbc's late-night stars jay leno and david letterman. - most of us thought the person who deserved to get it was david letterman.

he didn't get it. jay leno got it. - leno, who earlier rode his motorcycle into a news conference hosted by nbc entertainment president warren littlefield, still has a bruised ego about the way the network wavered in its support for him. - when we found out that leno was gonna get "the tonight show," we were all obviously... depressed. we felt like we were being punished for making fun of them and not cooperating and not being as collaborative as we could have been. and we also felt like we were being disrespected, because we did 11 years of great shows. - just how pissed off are you? [audience cheers and laughs] - by all rights, david letterman should've taken over for johnny carson. but his agent took a very, very aggressive stand. "we're gonna really control all of late night.

it's gonna cost you a fortune." and they put our backs to the wall. - i can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. and i hope when i find something that i want to do and i think you will like and come back that you'll be as gracious inviting me into your home as you have been. i bid you a very heartfelt good night. [cheers and applause] - "the tonight show" without johnny carson as the regular host made its debut last night. jay leno emerged from behind the curtain, stepping into the big shoes that were filled for 30 years by johnny. - cbs came to us and made a very attractive offer. - here we go, number ten. number nine... - letterman did place a call to johnny carson, asking for his advice, and johnny said, "if it was me, i would leave." and i think that advice was really the lynchpin. letterman always took johnny's advice.

- the late-night wars are about to begin in earnest on american television. david letterman is now headed for cbs. - cbs had lured him over with a salary more than four times that of leno and given him what he really wanted: the 11:30 time slot. now, as dave and jay prepare to go head-to-head, one thing is clear: late-night tv will never be quite the same. - all of a sudden, there's a talk show war. - start up your remote controls. the late-night race is about to begin. on monday, david letterman's new show debuts here on cbs, followed a week later by chevy chase on fox and, a week after that, by conan o'brien on nbc. these combatants join "the tonight show with jay leno," "arsenio," and "nightline." - it became a crowded space, and the competition became that much more difficult. - in the third corner, his ratings fading rapidly, arsenio hall.

some tv writers think that arsenio could be the big loser in this free-for-all. [cheers and applause] - when letterman came in, it essentially diluted arsenio's brand because there were so many alternatives. - i'm sad to see you go because america is gonna have a big chunk missing out of its existence. [cheers and applause] - losing arsenio... yeah, it was bad. he was the lone voice. gone. - david letterman had the suits at nbc pausing for a moment. "did we make the right choice?" because he came out gangbusters and he was beating jay leno in the ratings. - there are some people who say you blew it. that by picking leno to replace carson over letterman, that that was a big programming mistake. - it was a shaky start-- a really, really, shaky first season start.

- well, it's true confessions time for actor hugh grant, who's trying hard to put his recent encounter with a hollywood prostitute behind him. - when hugh grant was arrested, it was big, live action news. and hugh grant was supposed to do "the tonight show" that night. - what the hell were you thinking? [laughter] [rimshot] - it all came together in that moment, and everyone saw it, and that's it. we were never number two again. [cheers and applause] - hey, hey! - for us, it was a fun experience. hey, we got our own theater, we got an unlimited budget, we've got access to every star in the business who wants to do the show. - somebody bring me the jaws of life! - so i think going to cbs was heaven sent. it really was. - good night, everybody!

- in the mid-1990s, if you took a look at the list of the 50 most-watched shows on cable, at the top would be nickelodeon. - [screaming] - "rugrats"... - oh, bye-bye, bye-bye. - "blue's clues." - don't you know cartoons will ruin your mind? - "ren and stimpy" had some very surreal, high-concept humor to it. and this is the beginning of the splintering

of the television audience and the splintering of the family audience, really. i mean, because... - ♪ happy, happy, joy, joy ♪ - with families having three or four tvs in the house, you had a kid watching nickelodeon, you had the dad watching espn sports, you had the mom watching lifetime. you know, they were in their own, separate universes, watching television. [upbeat music] - by the time of the '90s, mtv wasn't merely a music channel. they were having great success in terms of creating shows that incorporated music but that also were shows and programs that stood on their own. - yes! [both laughing] - that was cool. - certainly, "beavis and butt-head" sort of established what mtv could be, because the show was about people making fun of music videos, just like people in the audience were doing. - whoa. [laughs] check out his neck. - yeah. [laughs] - there's, like, all these bones and "vestigeses" moving around.

- yeah. [laughs] - my manager would call me, like, "hey, you got this big bump 'cause you were on 'beavis and butt-head' last night." ♪ unable to express ♪ - i sit there just like a doughnut, watching these guys. - that's what it's for. - now--and i find them endlessly entertaining because i know and you know and the world knows these guys are, always will be, and cannot be anything but idiots. - that's right. - ♪ duh, duh, duh, duh ♪ ♪ duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh ♪ ♪ duh, duh, duh, duh ♪ ♪ duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh ♪ - mtv has a detrimental, damaging, developmental effect on the sexuality, on the morality, on the spirituality, on the-- maybe even the physical development of our young people. - yeah, yeah! - uhh! uhh! [straining grunts] - now we hit the '90s, and once you can go for an audience of 5 million and have a successful show, you can say, "i don't care if the parents don't like this." - can i tell you something, ms. ellen? - of course, wendy. - don't [bleep] with me!

- what? - you heard me! stay away from my man, bitch! or i'll whup your sorry-ho ass back to last year! - trey parker and matt stone were two of the funniest people i ever met. and their success story is proof that if you just stay true to yourself, you don't have to do anything else. - people think, "oh, you came and did this show and now you're big sellouts." the truth is, i mean, we were sellouts to begin with. - "perhaps there is no stopping the corporate machine." - ahh! - i mean, we were sleeping at friends' houses, had no money, and then one fox executive had seen a cartoon we had made in college. and he said, "make me another christmas video that i can send out as a christmas card." and, you know, he gave us, like, 700 bucks, and we went and made this five-minute short. - i come seeking retribution. - [gasps] he's come to kill you 'cause you're jewish, kyle. - oh, [bleep]! - it went around the tv community like wildfire. - yeah! - ohh! - i mean, it was the funniest thing

you'd ever seen in your life. both: go, santa! - somebody showed me the short. both: go, jesus! - and i thought it was hysterical. so i called and said, "get them in here right away!" ♪ ♪ - [muffled speech] [train horn blares] - oh, my god! they killed kenny! - you bastards! - "south park" was able to be topical. - just call me your old pal saddam hussein. - "south park" really, really detests hypocrites. - christians and republicans and nazis, oh, my! [gunshot] - well, okay, mrs. cartman. i'll legalize 40th trimester abortions for you. [laughter] - could you imagine back then that these people would ever get on network television? or any kind of television? - howdy ho! [all gasp] - it's a miracle. "south park" is a miracle. [rock music] [cheers and applause]

- the early '90s, the hbo shows start to kind of come into their own. - now--now, dan, have i always had these breasts? - a lot of people want freedom. they don't wanna go back to the networks, which are saying, "you can come to us "where you'll make more money, but you also have content restricted." you could go to cable and have no restrictions. not make as much money but have freedom of expression, which almost everybody who works in these mediums wants. [dance music playing] - some of the content truly was, "you can't get this anywhere else." - here at fantasy makers, the only limit on the kinds of fantasies is people's imagination. [upbeat music] - hbo turned to people who had said, "i can't do that on television, but you can do it on hbo." - white people don't trust black people. that's why they won't vote for no black president. like, a black brother will [bleep] up the white house. like, the grass won't be cut.

dishes piled up, cousins running through the white house, cookouts, basketball goal in the back. - in the late '80s, hbo was just sort of gaining ground for series. [eerie music] - by the '90s, hbo had started to begin its explosion. - when we started doing "dream on," one of the things that hbo said to us was, "it's gotta be something that couldn't be on network tv." [upbeat music] - because hbo was driven by subscribers and not by commercials and selling advertising time, they had a different way of looking at success or failure. what they were looking for was critical acclaim. - you've watched letterman. you've watched leno. but what about larry? larry sanders, that is. he's the tv alter ego of comedian gary shandling. - gary shandling wanted to do a show that deconstructed the kind of show that "the tonight show" was. - just pretend like you're talking to me

till we're off the air so it won't seem weird. - okay. all right. - so... - blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. - "the larry sanders show" was sort of cathartic, because in the world of "the larry sanders show," there was a network. - do you want me to [bleep] with your budget? is that what you want me to do? - so it became this weird, funhouse mirror thing, where you could use stuff from your misery from your career as fodder. - now, don't take this as a threat, but i killed a man like you in korea, hand-to-hand. my boy doesn't want to do any more commercials. - "larry sanders" to me was, you know, aside from being a brilliant television show... - can you say, "hey, now"? all: hey, now! - it was my everyday life. - i'm here for three good reasons: last show, big ratings, movie coming out. bim, bam, boom. [blows] - "the larry sanders show" was very unique in that it was very deadpan and really groundbreaking in its day.

- i think it made people really go, "that's the level of work you may be able to do on a cable network." - please, do not flip around. come right back. do not flip around. [cheers and applause] do not flip. - hey, now! all: hey, now! - oh, you sound good.

["beverly hills 90201" theme] - in the '90s, you suddenly had shows that were aiming at a young audience. ♪ ♪ one of the things that really made "90210" stand out is that it was one of the first dramas to really get into the teenager's point of view. - do you have protection? - of course. that's always been my problem. lots of protection but no one to protect. - i wanted to do a tv series that was going to be relevant to teenagers. [cheerleaders chanting] and it's not about the parents solving the kids' problems. it's about the kids basically solving their own problems. - what are we supposed to do, sit 'em down, have a kid-to-parent talk? - no, you can't talk to parents on that mature a level. tragic but true. - if the '60s had beatlemania, the '90s had "90210" mania. and when "tv guide" had its "youth-quake" cover,

that was a sign that suddenly, television was focused on these young people. - ♪ it's what i gotta do ♪ - "my so-called life" was like the punk rock version of "90210." it was earnest but not at all saccharine. it didn't have easy answers. it showed teen heartbreak in a way that was staggeringly real for the time. - why are you like this? - like what? [dance music playing in background] - like how you are. - hey, jordan! you coming or not? - how am i? ♪ ♪ how--how am i? - "my so-called life" was your actual life and the idea that everyone in high school is a misfit, that you have this deep insecurity about who you're supposed to be. - you know how sometimes the last sentence you said, like, echoes in your brain, and it just keeps sounding stupider and you have to say something else just to make it stop?

oh, i just remembered, i, um--i owe you $30. - "my so-called life" was not necessarily the show that the cheerleader or the captain of the football team were watching. they were still watching "90210." but it was the people who maybe didn't recognize themselves in "90210" who felt like, "aha! now i recognize myself in 'my so-called life.'" - demarco asked me if you were getting a sex change. - exactly! i don't want to be a girl. i just wanna hang with girls. - rickie was out on the show, eventually, and that was a story line that was treated with great sensitivity. - that i belong nowhere. with no one. that i don't fit. - i mean, it was-- it was so deeply felt. it was saying to the viewer, "things that you have gone through, they matter." - "buffy the vampire slayer" depicted high school in a similar way to "my so-called life."

except rather than just feeling like hell, it actually was hell. her high school was literally built on top of hell. - [screaming] - and so all of these creatures would come up that she would have to fight. - [grunting] - [grunts, roars] - [sighs] three in one night. - and it was a brilliant metaphor for adolescence and all the demons that you have to slay. - you know, buffy was a teenager and she was still finding out who she was. one of the story lines that was very popular and much talked about was where she has sex with her boyfriend for the first time. and then, in sort of the world of "buffy," he becomes literally evil. - there must be some part of you inside that still remembers who you are. - dream on, schoolgirl. - in order to save the world, literally, she knows that she has to send him to hell. - [gasps]

- buffy knows in an instant that angel has become good again. - buffy. - and so she has this moment of reckoning that she has to decide whether to do this or not. and she makes the sacrifice to push him back into hell. - [gasps] ah! - the show was really working on multiple levels. and in buffy, in particular, we saw a character that was a reluctant protagonist, forced to make tough decisions. - buffy. ♪ ♪ - there was a kind of opening of the floodgates in the '90s for women. the idea of being an "ideal," i think, was kind of smashed through a lot of the characters on television. - look, if you're a successful saleswoman in this city, you have two choices. you can bang your head against the wall and try and find a relationship, or you can say screw it and just go out and have sex, like a man. ["sex and the city" theme]

- "sex and the city" was a huge success right from the start. it was very funny and very clever and very candid. - are relationships the religion of the '90s? - these are women who were making a good living, they were independent, they were single, and they were sort of feeling their power. - i said olive. bad waiter, bad waiter. - what do you tip for that? - i wanted these women to be objectifying their men in the way that men had always objectified women. - all righty. my turn. - oh, sorry. i have to go back to work. - you didn't used to be able to discuss sex as sex on network shows. there never were people talking about orgasms or organs or sex. - okay, words are essential. tell me exactly how he worded it. - "we've been seeing each other for a couple of weeks. "i really like you, and tomorrow night after dinner, i want us to have anal sex." - these are women who shared everything with each other. and they're discussing what anal sex means.

- if he goes up there, there's gonna be a shift in power. either he'll have the upper hand, or you will. - and should she do this or not? - this is a physical expression that the body was-- well, it was designed to experience. and p.s., it's fabulous. - what are you talking about? i went to smith. - the show took an interesting turn by really focusing on the relationship between the women and telling the story of them as really soul mates together as well. - you did the right thing, buying that apartment. you love it, right? - yeah. - and you won't be alone forever. - historically, women are often set up in narratives in which only one can succeed. and so showing women not competing with each other and as supporting each other was also an important narrative change. - okay, girls. see you tomorrow. all: okay. - night, night. - the show had a message of freedom and liberation-- especially for women-- that really resonated.

i think "sex and the city" helped make hbo a place where people would think, "i wonder what they're doing next."

- in 1991, we got a call from mtv. and they were toying with the idea of doing some kind of a scripted show about young people... - they said it was like a mixture between "the big chill" and "the breakfast club." - but ultimately decided the idea of a show with writers and actors would just be too expensive for them. - the real world, i guess that's what this was supposed to be. - so we essentially applied all the drama rules to documentary to get our-- what we called at that time a docusoap. - this is the true story. - true story. - of seven strangers. - it was kind of this social experiment to kind of watch what happens when you put these strangers together in a house. you know, "when people stop being polite and start getting real." [beeper beeping] - do you sell drugs? why do you have a beeper? [laughter] - you hadn't seen anything like that on television. that kind of open, honest discussion of race. - i could try as much as i can to try to deal with you, but ignorance is ignorance, stupidity is stupidity, and that's it. black, white, green, purple, blue, whatever. - "the real world" becomes this kind of, you know,

big-bang moment for reality tv, where the idea is that, "oh, my god, "all we have to do is just take cameras and put them on people and we'll get great stuff." you had, in the next season in l.a., a young woman who gets an abortion, and the camera literally goes right up to the doctor's door. - you okay? give me a hug. - okay, yeah, fine. - by the third season in san francisco, you have a young man who is dealing with aids. - i'm hiv positive. - when pedro told me he was hiv positive, it was just like, no, not him. like, i like this guy and i don't want him to have to suffer. - it was such a triumph that pedro had the courage at his age to come out as someone with aids. in my small gay community on campus, we all felt like, "wow," he was our hero. - he falls in love, and he and his partner sean have a ceremony. you know, and this is long before same-sex marriage was legal. tv shows weren't doing this. movies weren't doing this. - i have to believe that all the pain

that i'm going through, that all the anger, all the frustration, that there's something bigger than that. - aids has claimed a young man who made an enormous impact on a generation of young americans. pedro zamora died in miami today at the age of 22. - i'm really glad i got to know pedro zamora. i'm grateful that his rich and fulfilling work is still remembered today. and i hope you enjoy and learn from pedro's life of compassion and fearlessness. - you have to really credit "the real world" with sort of helping the acceptance of the lgbt community because there weren't many portrayals of gay people, period, you know, on television at that point. - her name is marla. i'm seeing a woman. - in the '90s, gay characters were always secondary or third. there was never a gay character that was the lead of a show.

- so you wanna go look at apartments tomorrow? - great idea! - okay. - ellen degeneres the comedian was about to come out as a lesbian. - look, murphy. - [laughs] - i'm on the cover of "time." - and she does it on "time" magazine. "yep, i'm gay." but they decide that the character that ellen plays on tv will also come out. - it is just reprehensible that abc-- now owned by disney, of all companies-- is going to feature ellen as coming out of the closet. it won't be long before god knows what, you know, bestiality, incest, who knows? - we were getting bomb threats. disney was really getting a lot of flack for even thinking about having a coming-out episode with ellen. - i'm 35 years old. i'm so afraid to tell people. i mean, i just-- susan... [over pa speakers] i'm gay. [audience cheering] - ellen coming out was a huge moment for me, personally,

because, you know, i was a closeted gay guy. a gay child at that time. and it was the bravest thing i saw. - how did that feel? - that felt great. that felt so great. - initial report suggests abc made a bundle on ellen's highly publicized outing on national tv last night. the broadcast was accompanied by coming-out parties all around the country, including one in birmingham, alabama, where the local abc station refused to broadcast the show. - she did a great thing. she was brave. - i made the decision that i wasn't gonna live my life as a lie anymore. i was-- i belong with everybody else. and that's what i finally did. - we used to say ellen opened the door and we knocked it down. ♪ hey, listen, sister ♪ ♪ i love my mister man ♪

both: ♪ tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow ♪ ♪ tell me i'm crazy, maybe i know ♪ ♪ can't help loving that man of mine ♪ - take it, jackie! - and pas de bourrée, and pas de bourrée, and soufflé. i'm gay! - "will & grace" was a great show in sort of helping a mainstream straight community connect to the gay community. - i think i can fix this thing with your landlord, but it might get a little ugly. - play hardball, baby. throw him low and inside. he's crowding the plate and we've gotta go for it-- - grace. sports, you're losing me. - i figured 25% of the country wouldn't watch the show, just based on the fact that we had two gay men on it. - ah! - give it to me! - but if we could make believe that will and grace would get together... - will, i told you, you live with a hetero long enough, you're going to catch it. - maybe we could get people to watch

thinking that would happen, knowing it would never happen. - sufferin' sappho! - you know, it's a shame, an image like this is completely wasted on us. - i remember the network calling every other week, saying, "can will just fall in love with grace?" and the creators were like, "well, that's weird. "he's gay. that's the whole-- gay people don't do that. that's why they're gay." um...[laughs] - why wasn't i your girlfriend, queer bait? - "will & grace" was the first time you saw characters on television that made gay "normal." you wanted to be friends with them. - guess who we are. - uh, a catholic girl gone bad... and, karen, what are you supposed to be? - no! - the best feeling i get is when people come up and say, "thank you for all you do for the gay community, and thank you for playing that part in that show."

and you feel so fortunate to have been a part of something so great.

and they're all coming? those who are still with us, yes. grandpa! what's this? your wings. light 'em up!

gentlemen, it's a beautiful... ...day to fly. - what was happening at the end of the '90s was, audiences started to look towards television for what they had only found before in feature film.

- victory is mine! victory is mine! great day in the morning, people. victory is mine. - and actors no longer felt that it was a comedown to come work in television. - what did i ever do to you except deliver the south? - you shouldn't have made me beg. - the segment of the audience that showed up to watch "west wing," they watched the macneil-lehrer, you know, "newshour," they watched "west wing," and documentaries in foreign languages, right? - if the name of this nominee is leaked out before i want it to be leaked out, i'm gonna blame you, and you're gonna find that unpleasant. - i got to tell you something, toby. you're hot when you're like this. - '90s television was the first wave of what we now have: remarkably specific niche programming. [upbeat music] [rock music] - "freaks and geeks" really sympathized with the losers.

it had great empathy for its characters. [funky rock music] - ♪ go on and laugh at me 'cause you don't see ♪ ♪ that i got something going right here ♪ - [sighs] "freaks and geeks" breaks my heart every time i think about it. - [sighs] i'm sorry. did i crush your twinkies? - it lasted 18 episodes! and they're perfect 18 episodes, but nbc hated it so much. - yeah, roll down the windows, 'cause i got a big one a-brewin'. - oh, no, please don't. - they thought it was a show by losers, about losers, for losers. they hated it. they wanted no part of it. they killed it. [punk rock music] - at the end of the '90s, the jig is starting to be up for the networks. [tv static drones] basically, quality migrates to cable. [tense jazzy music] - "oz" comes on in '97. and it's set in this fictional penitentiary. wow. what a strange show that was.

- in oz, sometimes the things you can't touch are more real than the things you can. for instance, fear, hatred, loneliness are more real to me than a shank and a soul. - it was jaw-droppingly violent. and it's a men's prison. it probably should be. but, you know, it kind of announces the idea that hbo's gonna get very serious about doing scripted dramas. - [choking] - it's finished! - [grunts] - it's over! - but hbo really, in my mind, comes into its own in 1999 with "the sopranos." [alabama 3's "woke up this morning"] ♪ ♪ - ♪ you woke up this morning, got yourself a gun ♪ - "sopranos" just is a-- one of those shows that was a benchmark. it changed, like, a lot of things for everybody. [duck quacking] - throw out the handbook. tony soprano, the lead actor in a drama...

- [grunting] - [gasping] - he killed a man. we watched him. - [choking] - [grunting] - when he took his daughter on a college tour. - it's pretty, huh? - yeah. - it was just a melding of a guy and a world... - open the [bleep] door. open the [bleep] door! - and a behavior that promoted all of the feelings that you would have for a guy that you love in a guy that you hate. [laughs] you know? - "sopranos" came on tv, and it really showed us the future, whether we realized that was gonna be the future of television or not. - ah, this husband of yours, carmela, how much we love him. mwah! - he's the best. - ohh. - come on! - he's like a father to me. - just make sure nothing happens to him. - that character in that show was a great inspiration to a great many shows that came after it, including one that i worked on. - you know what i want, tony? i want those kids to have a father.

- they got one. this one. me. tony soprano. and all that comes with it. - oh, you prick. - the '90s was an amazing decade of tv. some of my favorite shows of all time aired in that decade, and everybody was watching them. - [grunting] - there was still that communal sense from the earlier decades of tv, but it was being applied to shows that were reaching higher and farther, and they were great. [upbeat brass music playing] - because there were so many channels and because so much storytelling was going on, you started to get more variety of stories being told. - get the skull film, schedule a cat scan, and call the neurosurgery resident. both: objection! - television showed us women in their depth. it began to show us much more of a range of the african-american community. - i'm always here for you. - we started focusing on teenagers in a more realistic way. - things change, dawson. evolve. - what are you talking about? - and thinking a little more outside the box in terms of what people might want to watch.

- you're out of order, he's out of order, this whole trial is...sexy. - after ten years of the '90s, we had a whole new television world that could take us anyplace we wanted and even places we had never imagined. [bell dings] - was that the oven timer? - that's right, my friend. it's time for... both: "baywatch"! - oh! - can you believe they gave stephanie skin cancer? - i still can't believe they promoted her to lieutenant. - ah, you're just saying that 'cause you're in love with yasmine bleeth. - well, how could anyone not be in love with yasmine bleeth? - hey! hey! they're running! - see, this is the brilliance of the show. i say always keep them running. all the time, running. run. run! run, yasmine! run like the wind!