>> an [ bleep ]. >> there's one rule i keep trying to abide by, and unfortunately i only get to it about 12% of the time, and that is it's only television. we are not doing cancer research. if the 40-yeardd history of commercial broadcasting has taught us one thing, there's nothing sacred about television. >> steven is upstairs -- >> i was just curious, is there any way i can get mtv. >> that's just a monitor, and all you can get on that is our show. >> that's okay. >> there was a degree san francisco cynicism, and it's a cynicism that became common sense after a while, because it never got old. >> i have watched johnny carson, and you are no johnny carson. >> welcome to great white north

corner, and today we have a big show because we -- >> there was a second city chicago company and a second city toronto company, and the toronto one is the one that fueled the sct tv series that was syndicated and got to the states that way. >> hail, hail, thank you very much for the marvelous reception. i want to thank my supporters over there in the cesarian section. >> it's healthy to be an outsider. as a comedian, and canadians are always outsiders, but they are looking at the other culture, which is right next door to them. >> i love you, and i want to bear your children. >> it was the type of comedy that had only been accessible if you had gotten into the improv clubs in chicago. i had never seen anything like

second city tv. >> it was far more conceptional in its humor, because it did not have to be performed in front of an audience and there was the idea that it was this sort of low-rent thing, and it was a sort of by the seat of their pants kind of operation that gave it an authenticity. >> now that our programming day has been extending, i am going to spend -- >> where do you want -- >> put it in the fridge. >> you are rooting for the show and the characters they created and it was something you got behind, whereas "snl" right from the gate, and through the '80s was this big enterprise. >> after five golden years, lauren decided to leave, and so did those close to him, including me, al frank. nbc had to pick somebody, and

everybody hoped it would be, al franken. >> there was a question whether "saturday night live" would just die. >> "saturday night live" is "saturday night dead." >> oh, come on. >> my favorite is vile from new york. >> it's funny. it's funny. >> they were having a hard time, and then came the man that saved the show, eddie murphy. there was buzz about him, so you tuned in, and there was this kind of explosion of talent in front of your eyes. ♪ ♪ >> it really kind of rejuvenated the show. >> you don't talk to me that way. >> after a while the show regained its status and clout and became more of an institution than it had been. >> peters looks great today.

>> tell me now -- >> you are through. you will never work in the town again. >> let me know where i stand. >> you guys have been so nice to us during our stay. >> isn't that special. >> we just want to pump you up. >> a lot 6 things that they could do on "saturday night live" they couldn't do on a sitcom. the humor was more daring and more satirical and it was political. >> you still have 50 seconds left, mr. president. >> let me just sum up on track, stay the course, 1,000 points of light, stay the course. >> governor ducacus, rebuttal? >> i can't believe i am losing to this guy. >> i'll get it. >> it's the gary shandling show.

>> we spent time watching dramas and talk shows and if somebody played on it and -- >> you want to hold the credits? they are going to show the credits and you screwed that up because you were late. >> it was a show that it was aware of the fact it was a situation comedy. it highlighted the cliches in many ways. >> don't look in the camera. >> i didn't. >> i didn't. i'll b you. i will. if i see a tape of this show with you looking into the camera -- >> it's about that time. >> ""pee wee's playhouse,"" adults could watch and wink at

each other, it was very clever. >> today's secret word is good. >> it was a show certainly for kids, and it was for stoned baby boomers, who were totally wasted on saturday morning and watched "pee wee's playhouse" and saw god. >> i sure had a lot of fun. see you real soon, children. you better be good. it is a big deal. hygienist, go pro with crest pro health gum protection. it helps prevent gum bleeding by targeting harmful bacteria on your gums. left untreated, these symptoms could lead to more serious problems including tooth loss. gum crisis averted. but my back pain was making it hard to sleep and open up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid plus the 12 hour pain relieving strength of aleve. now i'm back. aleve pm for a better am.

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1968, the summer before junior high school. i don't mind saying, i was a pretty fair lite athlete. >> "the wonder years" was a guy in modern times looking back on his childhood, and that in itself was not new but "the wonder years" did it with witness and music and it was a great performance by the entire young cast. >> hey, steve. >> it looks like my baby brother and his girlfriend has found each other. >> she's not my girlfriend.

>> kevin arnold has to cope with all the timeless problems of growing up during one of the most turbulent times we have known. >> kevin arnold is a kid in the 1960s and he's not aware in many of the events, and one of the episodes the whole family is watching apollo 8 take off, but i am sitting there and trying to call a girl. >> and everybody remembers the ending, the first kiss, and the song they play is "when a man loves a woman," and that moment seems so pure and real. ♪ ♪ when a man loves a woman ♪ can't keep his mind on nothing else ♪ ♪ >> the tone is about rebellion and about being students and by the '80s, it's time to grow up, and they shave their beards and put on power suits, a whole new

notion. >> t >> yuppees, and they are being wooed by advertisers and agenciagenc agenci agencies. >> and soon to be a lot more interested in the corner office than the new jerusalem. >> you are a young man. you should not thinking about hopping on a hop steamer and going around the world. >> the '60s were over, dad. >> thanks for the tip. >> you were not laughing at michael j. fox's character, you were laughing at the parents at being too hopeless ly liberal. >> this is him, this is the guy i have been telling you about. this is everything you want in a president. >> the genius of "family ties"

it allows a youthful reaganite. >> michael j. fox really became the center of the show and the writers were smart enough to see that they had something special and they wrote to that. >> it's not fair, alex. >> yeah. there's nothing you can do about it, jen. my advice to you is that you just enjoy being a child for as long as you can. i know i did. it's the best two weeks of my life. >> alex is a little bill buckley. "the wall street journal" is his bible. he has a tie to go with his pajamas. very conservative and intense 17-year-old. >> the first thing your teacher will ask is what you did over the summer. a lot of kids will say i went to the zoo and i went to the beach and i went to a baseball game,

and what are you going to say? >> i watched the iran-contra hearings. >> if mom and dad thought this generation was going to the dogs, think again, this is the generation is discovered hard work and success. >> there's a whole notion of demographic segmentation. >> networks were beginning to not be afraid to appeal to a very specific demographic. >> hey, handsome. look at that shirt. >> good shoulder pads. you looking to get drafted by the eagles? >> "30-somethings" said we are going to be about people. >> why did we start this business? >> to do our thing. >> right now we have two wives, three kids, four cars, two mortgages, a payroll and that's life, pal. >> you be the breadwinner now. >> is that what i am? >> "30 something" is a very important show as you are going into this era of television

being more enter speintra speck more emotional, and they are talking about who is having kids and who is going back to work and some of the issues that have not been talked about a whole lot, it was important to people. >> i was so looking forward -- i was so looking forward to doing this. being gone for just an hour. >> in the beginning there was talk of this being the yuppy show, and you mentioned, if there were a category for the most annoying show this might do it. >> it has nothing to do with the yuppy. >> "30 something" was not a giant hit, but it was a hit that attracted an enormously upscale group of advertisers. >> they worried about who was watching and not how many were watching, and that was catching

on more and more in the '80s. >> a prosecution will ask that you look to the law and this you must do, but i ask of you that you look to your hearts as well. thank you. >> "l.a. law" was a classic lawyer show but it was ent intertwined with their personal lives. >> the reality level on the show was a foot or two off the ground, and you were willing torg with that, because it was a whole new spin. >> if you had to do it all over again and she walked into your office and she said take my case, would you? of course you would because it's juicy, newsy, exciting stuff. >> it was really fun to take the "hill street blues" format and use it to frame an entirely different social and cultural

stratta with fastly different results. >> i wonder if i might engage in my client personally? >> certainly. >> what are you doing for dinner tonight? >> i was planning on having you. >> in that case, skip lunch. >> the format had gotten establishes on how to do a show and have a lot of fun, and we did not accept that in a tv hour, and even before the '80s are out, it was like, i get it, all right, what are the rules now? >> i am doing what i should have done all along? >> what i should have done last night. >> stop that, david. >> i'm calling the police. >> hello, police. >> the network's realized there was an audience looking for something less predictable than traditional primetime. >> "moonlighting" was not another show that sees the formulas we have had up to here,

and let's do different things. >> hello. >> we are looking a little pale today, aren't we? >> who do we have here? >> i don't know. >> they had a lot of different stufz. >> i don't give a flying fake about the lines on my shows or the altitude of micah pwaoy cab. >> there's no trouble on the set. >> well, we have a very volatile relationship. there's a hate-love element to it. >> that flirtation kept them apart for a long time, and bravo to him. >> what they did was they took the sam and diane dynamic from "cheers" and escalated it.

"cheers" was do they or don't they? and "moonlighting" was do they want to? >> does entertaining mean at some point stopping the tease of dave and maddy? >> that's going to be revolved this year. we would like to think of it as 2 1/2 years of foreplay. >> people watching "moonlighting" were waiting for this moment, and your emotions were built in, and it's like a perfect storm of romance. ♪ ♪ the night we met ♪ i knew i needed you so our mission is to produce programs and online content

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that was a really profound observation. you got a mean case of the detox blues. don't start a war you know you're going to lose. finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. on xfinity x1. in recent years it seems television has become an electronic confessional, where sometimes people reveal painful aspects of their lives. >> at the beginning of the decade we get the dominance of "phil donahue", and he seemed to talk to women in the audience, and he seemed to talk to them through the tv screen. >> i'm glad you called. kiss the kids. we'll be back in just a moment. >> if you look at the body of

work we have had, you know, you are going to see the '80s there. >> i am not here to say you are wrong, but let's understand this. when you bring a moral judgment without knowing them against them for the way they look they feel that confirms the reason for their rebellion, if that's what you want to call it. >> he really believed daytime television needed to talk about the ideas we were thinking about, and the issues we were concerned about. >> i don't want to characterize his question but why don't you get this fixed instead of doing this screwy stuff. >> not a single recorded case in history of any transsexual through psychological help changed. has not happened yet. >> we were putting important people on the program, all kinds of people, gay people, people going to jail and people running for office, and sometimes the same people. it was a magic carpet ride. >> you really do paint a very,

very grim pictu of the sitting president of the united states. >> let me just say this. i think he's probably the laziest president that i have ever seen. >> the audience for phil donahue built and built and built and led the way to "oprah." ♪ ♪ >> hello, everybody. hello. >> "oprah" has a particularly magical combination of her own background, her own experience, her own inicive mind, and impathetic spirit. >> thank you. i am oprah winfrey, and welcome to the very first national "oprah winfrey show." >> i was surprised at the rocket pace "oprah" took off, and the donahue show rearranged the

furniture, but "oprah" remodeled the whole house. >> there are a lot of people watching when you don't mean when you say you are in love. and i requested my friends, you mean, you feel about him the way i feel about -- it's a strange concept for a lot of people to accept. >> oprah was connecting with people in a way nobody had on tv before and it was special to see. >> did you know for the longest time i wanted to be a fourth grade teacher because of you. >> i was not aware of inspiring anyone. >> you did exactly what teachers are supposed to do, you create a spark for learning and it's why i do what i do today. >> i want to use my life as a source of lifting people up, and that's what i want to do. that's what i do every day on my show. we get accused of being tabloid television and sensational and

so forth, but we serve as a voice to a lot of people until my show that they were alone. >> this is what 67 pounds of fat looks like. i can't lift it. it's amazing to me i can't lift it, but i used to carry it around every day. >> there's nothing more ende endearing to an audience than to have that kind of honesty and humidity. that has a lot to do with her power. >> i feel like the show does a lot of good. >> american television is drowning in talk shows, but it has never seen anything like "morton downy, jr." >> other competitors and take the talk show into two different directions, and you see the daytime television shows becoming less tame and more

wild. >> the '80s brought a lot of belligerence to television, whether it was morton downy, jr., being the offensive person he was or"heraldo," -- >> another by that took part in a crime. >> he takes it to another level to put people onstage that hate each other and are going to fight. >> we have not had any problems with criminal behavior. >> yet when you hear story after story after story, and people committing these violent crimes in the devil's name. >> the more tension the more conflict and the more violence the ratings go up and people like to complain about it but the ratings go up. >> rivera drew criticism on the

show for devil worship. >> i get sick and tired of see uncle tom here -- >> come on, and -- >> hold it. hold it. >> rivera suffered a broken nose but he says the show will be broadcast in a month in its entirety. >> it's not something i would have done, but there was a lot of hypocrisy, and one of the major magazines put the picture of heraldo getting hit with a chair, and they couldn't wait to use it to sell their own magazine. >> over the years broadcasting

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♪ ♪ >> the big thing that changes in the '80s, the number of hours

spent watching television goes up and the number of hours talking about television goes up, and one of the phenomenons was "entertainment tonight." >> all of the critics were kind of unanimous in that they said it will never last because there simply is not enough entertainment news to fill a half hour every night. >> and "entertainment tonight" surveyed viewers to find out what kind of tv had impact over the years. >> bert reynolds. >> a lot of what makes successful television program something being in the right place at the right time, and it was the right time. >> entertainment journalism evolved as the audience got more

curious and had more access, and until that point the entertainment business had been something that we did not know all that much about. >> we could go behind the scenes in our effort to really give an insider's look. >> the crafty old jr dallas fame was with his mother as he was presented with a star on the hollywood walk of fame. >> it was really honorific. >> what are you like on camera? >> like this. this is on camera. >> it was the beginning of a lot of money being made talking about entertainment and celebrities. >> robert redford plays a good guy in the movies but don't tell that to his neighbors in utah, they are still bitter and he is still the target of their -- >> the appetite for celebrity news was big. it was big.

>> get ready for "lifestyles of the rich and famous." >> you have got a vip ticket to the private party. >> your sunday newspaper is still delivered with the comics around the news, and that was what i always thought "lifestyles" was, we were the comic around the news. >> finally in the driving seat of his own career, he burned rubber in a new direction, david hasslehoff, rock idol. >> we pushing the levels with wealth and aste-- >> we revealed the amazing wizard, donald trump, if he did not shock and surprise you back

then, he will surprise you with all of this. >> do the figures ever frighten you? the answer is no, it's my lifestyle, the good, the bad. >> does it bring with you any political aspiration. >> no political aspiration. >> your show has gotten a lot of ridicule, and people say there's nothing more than trash. >> that doesn't upset me because it's the best trash on television, and i am not in the business of brain surgery, i'm in the business of fluff. >> that's the fantasy element at a time when access is possible. you want to stand in a hot tub with a glass of champagne? rock on. >> we had never seen that kind of wealth before. we did not mock it or say it was right or wrong. we were just looking through the keyhole. sometimes it amazes me, i would walk away from a shoot and think, well, we did it again.

>> there was more of everything in tv by the '80s. >> nbc presents "real people." >> the thought dawned on me, that a small motor on a pair of roller skates might be a great thing. >> they said each one of us would be a star for 15 minutes and i think that's probably going to happen. >> it used to be a culture that celebrated privacy, and in the '80s when we watch celebrities play out onstage, you start seeing shows like "real people" or "the people's court." >> to see more tv producers had to come up with new and different ways to give them television. >> don't be stupid. >> i told you not to be stupid! >> what cops did was it took away the script and just brought

the camera people and the crews on location to try and catch actual things happening. >> cocaine, possession of a stolen firearm, no less. what else are you going to do? ♪ if you've got the time welcome to the high life. ♪ we've got the beer ♪ miller beer when they thought they should westart saving for retirement.le then we asked some older people when they actually did start saving. this gap between when we should start saving and when we actually do is one of the reasons why too many of us aren't prepared for retirement. just start as early as you can. it's going to pay off in the future. if we all start saving a little more today, we'll all be better prepared tomorrow. prudential. bring your challenges.

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with this ring -- >> with this ring -- >> the biggest television event of the 1980s was the wedding of charles and diana, and the world stopped when that happened. it was massive. >> this is the final spectacle. >> they called the wedding of prince charles and lady diana spencer today the stuff that makes fairytales. >> when you have great weddings like the royal wedding, everybody has a chance to watch it and everybody just wants to

drink a toast to chuck and di. >> every single move she makes in public will be recorded and observed. a very difficult life indeed. >> we will come back with one final look of what has justifiably been called the wedding of the century. >> i pronounce they are husband and wife. you may kiss the bride. >> your wedding was seen by an astonishing number of people, and how do you account for that kind of popularity? >> i can't. i can't. the way it has grown is amazing to me. >> it did appear in the '80s it was a good time for daytime soap operas, especially for a show like "general hospital," and they had a huge success with luke and laura's wedding. >> i remember when luke and

laura got married because it was nighttime newsworthy. >> and then theymentality, you wedding and a kidnapping and evil twin, and primetime stole from daytime. >> and then the network's rush to give the public more. >> the great primetime soap operas of the 1980s, "dallas," "dynasty," and this is about being over the top and stabbing each other in the back and going for the gusto, and having fun. >> mourning the baby she couldn't have and the baby she almost got to adopt. that is, isn't it? >> oh, you miserable bitch! >> there was a bigness to the stories, and they could afford to do it on a network if you are

doing one episode a week, and you can't do that if you are doing five episodes a week for a daytime show, so it's the production value that gave it that pizzazz. >> if you can't have it, watch other people with it, or so say the three networks programming nearly 40% of their primetime fair series about the rich, and the public is devouring it in such a way that make believe money has become a gold. >> the characters were larger than life, and cunning and manipulative, and more gorgeous. really, look at the way they were dressed and the way they lived. everything was fascinating. >> alexis? >> yes? >> i didn't thank you for your present. ♪ ♪ >> it's he you should slap, dear, not i. >> we all wanted to live like we were on "dynasty," like we were

the carringtons, and it was a picture of fun. >> greed was encouraged in the '80s, and there was a assumption of it being okay and those shows exploited that. >> primetime families like the caringtons are not the only rich folk on tv, and more than half of the show features the wealthy, and ten years ago that figure was zero. >> it was an accident. your father was dead. >> "falcon crest" was a lion family. >> emma is pregnant. >> i know a doctor that can take care of it right away. >> that will never happen. >> all of those shows were, oh, my god, what is next? what is going to happen with that? he can't get away with that, and you tune in and it was a point in television. >> what will become of the

missing twins on "knots landing." >> what? >> they all had a spinoff, and it was really successful. >> where is your son, miles, isn't he going to be part of tis venture or is he just playing polo as usual? >> you had these people fighting over oil and mansions and it was fantasy, but in a kind of so over the top way that it was fun. >> there's nothing devious about using your femininety. >> these shows took themselves so unseriously, that they were like camp. it was entertainment. we were not trying to do a high drama, and we were there to entertain and there was no getting around it and we knew what we where there for and did

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australia is the most important export might be neither the animals nor the dear or the film, but one rupert murdock. he is building what forbes magazine said is the most

extensive media empire in history. >> a huge development in television, the three television business in britain and he arrives in america and says, i don't see why i can't have three broadcast networks. i'm going to make another one. >> and meantime he'll have to become an american citizen if he is to own tv stations here which he said he will do. >> some people say it will take your fox network on the network with the par of the big three. are you prepared to wait that long. >> i intend to live that long but i don't believe the 20 years. >> the idea of the fourth network was similar to ted turner startincnn. it is ridiculous. what does he know about television. >> we don't think of ourselves as cbs, abc or nbc. we don't have to reach everyone. we have an in fearer line and we have to get our message across and get shows sampled. >> they had an idea, in order to succeed, we have to differentiate ourselves and do things they would not do. >> fox started throwing anything against the wall not knowing what would go.

first things were like 21 jump street. joan rivers in terms of late night. >> we have been banned in -- >> and the tracy allman show. >> it was a sketch show. and they needed something to go between the sketches. again, they were looking for something different. . >> the simpsons would never have come along had it not been for the tracy uhlman show. >> crime hurts the criminal. >> that is not true, mom, i got a free ride home. didn't i?

>> fox was thrilled that it was different. they said, sure, be experimental, do whatever you want. we're just happy to have a show on the air. >> i'm home. >> "married with children" was their first big, big hit in that way that said, if all the rest of television is going this way, we're going that way. >> bud, kelly, you want to come down and help me in the kitchen? [ laughter ] >> that should buy us about ten minutes. seven more than we'll need. >> the title children" on the script was not the cosby show. how great. you have to love that. we're taking the piss out of american families. >> i never wanted to get married, i never wanted children, i got two. how did this happen? >> it was funny, you had this

wonderful perfect huxtables and these horrible miserable white people. each show works on its own terms, you could find things to relate to in both. >> it was a lot of fun to be had with al and peg bundy. >> after fox introduced married with children and it does very well, then back on abc they came up with another major hit. roseanne. >> you think this is a magic kingdom where you just sit up here on your throne. >> oh, yeah? >> oh, poof, the laundry's done. the food is on the table. >> you want me to fix dinner, i'll fix dinner. >> oh, but honey you just fixed dinner three years ago. >> typical american families weren't on television for the longest time. the donna reed days, the early days and the father knows best, hardly anybody really lived like that.

that is the way advertisers wanted to you live. >> i know what will makeou feel better. >> me too, but i bet it's a different list than what you got. >> the ideal situation is if you can subvert whatever common stuff is said about families or parenting -- her loudness and her unfilteredness were key to why we liked her. she was staying stuff about working-class people and saying stuff about men and women. so it was about marriage and raising kids and about how hard it is. >> great, i'm just going to look like a freak. >> what else is new. >> shut up. >> this is why some animals eat their young. >> tv in the '80s was a big decade for the evolution of comedy, and the evolution of drama. it just pushed everything forward. >> do you think perhaps this generation are paying more attention to the dialogue, to the relationships that they see on television than in years previous? >> well clearly the people that are watching our shows are.

and "30 something" and "cheers" and "st. elsewhere." these are shows that are smartly written. it is their words that define them. and i think that is what people like. >> we're supposed to be here, is the one thing people can trust. if you go out there like a bunch of night riders, what are you but just another vicious street gang. >> that decade spawned an extraordinary number of shows that really carved out a unique niche for themselves. we began to turn television into an artform. and for the first time people were proud to say, i write for television. >> up until that point, television was second-class. in the '80s, it was something else entirely and it was new and it was kind of interesting. >> it is like everyone in the '80s starts to want to tell their stories. that is what really changes things. >> the unexpected were more welcome in the '80s. predictability lost its cache.

>> television has an impact on every era, every decade. >> television still shapes the thinking of america like no other element of our country. sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. >> it gave lives for people pursuing artistic content that was raised the bar in television production exponentially. >> there is a shift in the '80s from wanting to placate the audience to wanting to please and challenge the audience and that is the decade when it happened. >> we had one hell of a run, didn't we, partner. >> yeah, we sure did, sonny. >> i'm going to miss you, part any. >> i'm going to miss you, too, sonny. >> can i give you a ride to the airport? >> why not.

in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. >> if ever a policy reflected a president's own character, it's reaganomics. >> we have faith in our program and we're sticking with it. to the paid political campaigners, put up or shut up. >> the president was hit. >> the story from middle east sources is that iran has helped the united states free a hostage from lebanon. >> they called it the reagan revolution. but for me it always seemed more like a rediscovery of our values. once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end.