he never misses a day of shooting and working on his body. so he's as hard a worker as anybody. but there's this joy and ease about him that is contagious and it sets a great tone. >> well, you set a great tone as well. pleasure to be with you. >> great to be with you. thanks a lot. don't touch that dial. we're to be 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. >> 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. >> shame on you! >> this is more celebration of culture and opening the doors and allowing america to come on inside. >> there is always something on television and some of it may be better than we deserve. >> that was cool.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> listen to it. oh, they know when it hits the bottom, it will be 1990, good-bye to the 80s.

>> ten, nine, eight -- eight, eight, eight ! >> oh, will this horrible year never end? >> when the '90s began, we started to see a lot of experimentation. and "the simpsons" i think in some senses was inspired by not necessarily 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. >> you're stupid. >> doh! >> i think the sitcoms of the '80s were such a warm, safe, humor. >> i love you guys. >> 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. ♪ >> 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 -- >> 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. >> we go to a completely bizarre period of time in 1992 when a sitting president is raging against a sitcom. >> 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. >> right on, say it, sister. >> it's not funny, bart.

millions of girls will grow up thinking 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 immigrants. they want all the benefits to living in springfield, but they ain't even bothered to learn themselves the language. >> yeah, those are exactly my sentimonies. >> i think one of the governing things that's happening with "the simpsons" is a distrust of anyone who tells us we should trust them and doesn't earn that trust. >> i'll take that statue of justice too. >> sold. >> when they make fun of how fox works -- >> you are watching fox. >> we are watching fox. >> they are telling you don't trust us either. >> eat my shorts. >> all right. i'll eat -- eat your shorts? >> "the simpsons" is like

shakespeare in the sense that we quote the simpsons all the time, very often without knowing it. >> excellent! >> i wish i could create something that culturally indelible. it's unlike anything else tv has ever run. >> "twin peaks" showed up out of nowhere at the beginning of the decade. the pilot episode of that was one of the strangest and most exciting things i have ever seen. >> i'm at the twin peaks county morgue. with the body of the victim. what's her name? >> it was incredible. just how slowly in the beginning the news spread around this little town that this young, beautiful girl had died and that haunting music was so dark and so beautiful. ♪

>> i've got good news. the gum you like is going to come back in style. >> what on earth is essentially a art film doing in prime time television? >> american network television has long been considered the home of the blands, the cautious and the predictable. so it was with some trepidation that it the abc network launched a new series that was none of those things. "twin peaks" is already described by one critic 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 television in the '90s was crazy. >> do you watch much of it? >> i like the idea of television, but i'm too busy too

see very much of i see very much of it. >> what do you think of that which you do see? >> some of it i really enjoy. >> are you being diplomatic? >> sort of. [ screaming ] >> the beautiful thing about television is you have the chance to do a continuing story. and that's the main reason for doing it. >> i think that "twin peaks" with the initial attention it got allowed all the other networks to say, let's do something different. >> what was interesting about "northern exposure" it was an odd sort of universe that this guy was dropped into. >> the day's coming. it ain't going to be long when you ain't going to have to leave your living room. no more schools, no more tabernacles. no more cineplexes, all right? you're going to snuggle up to your fiberoptics and bliss out. >> you also had experimentation that set the stage for a lot of what came later. >> it's kind of 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. >> moulder, you're crazy. >> that dynamic, that dramatic tension of believer versus skeptic is one of the engines of the show. you were always seeing it from a specific point of view. >> they're equals? >> yeah, absolutely. they are equals in a way they have kind of switched gender stereotypes because the character i play, mulder is the intuitive one. and scully is the rationalist, the doctor. >> a lot of folks who enjoyed "the x files" who otherwise didn't watch tv might have been drawn to the show by its, for lack of a better way to put it, stick it to the man ethos. don't trust the government or big business or 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 use net news groups. 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. >> to alt.tv/xfiles. and people were so nuts for this show. >> it's just pure science fiction. that's probably what i like most about it. >> it changed the way people watched television. >> you could sense the successful creators trying to

see how they could do things different five or ten years ago. sometimes that led to really challenging network television that was cool and fun to watch. and sometimes it seemed to fall off the edge a little bit. ♪ 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. >> we're the police! we have a warrant for your arrest. >> so his idea was to combine a gritty cop show with a broadway musical. >> i saw one in which a bunch of gang bangers were in jail. they began to sing. life in the hood ain't no pizza pie, everybody die when the bullets fly. ♪ life in the hood ain't no pizza pie, people die when bullets fly ♪ >> and i said wait a minute. i thought this is it. this is great. this is going to be as innovative as anything i have ever done. ♪ he is guilty, he is guilty,

judge, you can see it in his eyes ♪ ♪ he did the crime and now he's got to pay ♪ >> it circled the drain. >> 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. i'm very glad we tried it. i don't think i want to do it again.

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generation x, the 20 something's, boomerangers, whatever the 46 million young souls are called are turning out to be a hard sell. >> in the '90s, what we realized is advertisers would pay premiums for college educated young adults 18 to 49. we started reinventing nbc and trying to speak to that audience. >> where is someone? i'm starving. >> this is him right here. >> 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. >> 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. he was like wildly offended. he was like wildly offended. >> nbc believed in the show so they said we're committing to four episodes. >> yes, yeah, right. four episodes. >> normally it's 13 or eight or something. >> yes, at least. >> we really didn't think they had too much confidence in the show. >> we didn't think it would work, but we thought 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 kind of know about but that's it to massive hit was an episode called "the contest" where they tried to abstain from self-pleasure for as long as possible.

>> 6:30, time for your bath. >> george, i'm hungry. >> hang on, ma. hang on. >> once you do 30 minutes on masturbation, you can pretty much get away with anything. >> i guess you'll be going back to that hospital. >> 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 no hugs, no lessons. let's push it a little further than it's ever been pushed before.

>> i think the big breakthrough of "seinfeld" was that the characters were not nice people. >> shut up, you old cow! >> they were narcissistic. >> help! >> they would screw each other at the drop of a hat. >> he's just a dentist. >> and you're an anti-dentite. >> and yet be best friends the next week. ♪ when you wish upon a star >> you don't have to love them. we just have to laugh at them. >> i'm really sorry. >> i was in the pool. i was in the pool! >> the idea of a character with darker tendencies, that was so taboo in television comedy.

>> are you about done? >> 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 the boundaries. >> no soup for you. >> 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"? ♪ making your way in the world today ♪ today. >> come on, i know. it's cute. just sing it. ♪ 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 want to go where everybody knows your name ♪ >> we decided to end "cheers" in the 11th year. over 93 million people watched

the finale of "cheers." it's a sad experience for everybody. this was our baby for 11 years and we're not going to 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 so much time with the same set of people, it does become your family. >> i feel pretty lucky to have the friends i do. >> i think the legacy of "cheers" is our need to belong. and i think that's what we as americans are longing for. >> thank 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 --

on earth. >> his real first love was the bar. >> sorry, we're closed. okay, let's play show business.

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okay, let's play show business. >> as a young kid in cleveland, i knew i would one day end up doing a talk show. >> 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. >> yes, yes! >> how come i didn't hear all of that woofing going on? when i would watch you? >> too many white people. >> 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 ♪ >> 2livecrew came on and sang "meso horny", it was like the sex pistols. i'd never seen anything like it. it was an explosion in the audience. >> he appealed to a black and white young audience and it was a much broader appeal than the powers that be estimated. >> rap. rap is real big among our teens. that's poetry. >> of course it is. >> having maya angelou on, i mean, where would you have seen her otherwise? >> in 1892 he wrote a poem that called "a negro love song." it says 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. but if you were hip, you wanted to be on arsenio. >> this was something i heard a political analyst talk about recently. he said you kind of were -- i use the word chilling out. he said you were pulling back. you had been instructed not to say as much or be outspoken. no? >> i've heard that, but i never know who says it. it's wishful thinking on the part of some people. >> guess who suggested to bill to do the arsenio hall show if you want to get a younger demo? hill-dawg. ♪ >> 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.

♪ the premise of "the fresh prince" was this kid who 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 going to 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. 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 is when it was showing the ways that being black is always going to be a problem no matter what. >> vehicle registration, please. >> just a second. but the thing, officer, this isn't my car. >> there's the episode i remember where they get pulled over in a car. >> what?

>> he is going to tell us to get out of the car. >> you watch too much tv. >> get out of the car. >> we have an interaction with the 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 going to save you. and neither is your glee club or your fancy bel air address or who your daddy is. because 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 tough 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 the most talked about tv shows. it is, as they say, on another network. fox. ♪ ♪ in living color

>> ladies and gentlemen. keenan ivory wayans. >> "in living color" was the first show created by, written by, directed by, starring an african american, all of those things in one. >> this is celebration of culture and of change. us opening the doors to allowing america to come inside. >> yo, yo, yo, all you bad bargain hunters out there, welcome to the homeboys 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 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. >> african-americans composed

25% of fox's market. >> i always get trapped in the corner with somebody named bob. hey, listen, martin, i just saw "boys in the hood," all right? i didn't know, martin, i didn't know. >> they knew that they needed to capture this audience to grow. >> i guess you think you smart and cool. but if you think you get a job here, you're a damn fool. >> so they basically gave the black creators freedom to do whatever you want. just get the audience. >> the wb and upn took that concept from fox. >> your shoulders are harder than cheap breast implants. >> going after this underserved audience of urban and ran with it.

>> i'm a new millennium woman who will not be defined by traditional roles. >> a lot of the networks built themselves up partly on african american viewers. >> the african-american shows indexed lower in terms of household income. so over the course of the decade, the network started to move away from those shows. >> i don't know about you people, but i'll be damned if it i'm going to let them destroy my neighborhood. >> black creators felt used and abused. you made your money. you built your audience on us and now, you know, you're done. there's gonna be sixteen of us. are you sure? the bus is down, but we've got a spot! head down to the light and take a right. follow coach kevin. let's go, guys. come on.

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the following movie is rated r. >> in 1990, '91, there was not a whole lot of original programing for cable, but they were airing movies. so we needed to compete and i felt that if we didn't, we were going to kind of get swept out. so i came up with a notion of doing a cop show that was r rated. when abc's broadcast standards read our script, they went berserk. >> 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.

grown-ups sitting in a room doodling. >> then we started on the language. >> we heard it with the brains of a flea and the balls of a moth. >> the program premiered with an advertising boycott. >> channel 7, shame on you! >> but it was such an immediate hit, that boycott lasted, oh, four weeks. >> they could use the nudity and the curse words to go deeper into the actual emotional burden of being a cop. >> i'm an -- >> and it had this character, andy sipowicz. he is a raging alcoholic, racist, sexist, violent. he created the tv anti-hero. >> i know the great african american george washington carver discovered the peanut. but can you provide names and addresses of these friends? >> you know, you're 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. >> there's a famous episode where they are 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 very sensitive and very good cop. >> i know this has to be tearing you up inside. but you're going to 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 destroy this guy right now. finally, he gets the confession he gets the signed statement. he walks out of the room, he goes into another interrogation room and he breaks the door in two with his fist. and i'm choking up talking about it right now, because that's how great a moment of tv that it is. >> 20 years from now, the best tv dramas, what do they look like? >> i don't know.

>> will they be bolder than what we see today? >> oh, assuredly, assuredly they will be. >> the '90s gave us several shows that didn't explode in the ratings, but were influential to others. "homicide" is one of them. ♪ shell me with questions all night ♪ ♪ i'm living in a danger zone >> "homicide: life on the street" was innovative in terms of its style. it used music in ways that advanced the narrative and 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. >> those 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. he picks up the radio mike and 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 and characters were starting to develop and change. none of that happened on "law and order." >> this was a show that completely delivered on its formula every time. you get a crime, 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? >> there's no charge. this one's on us. >> then you had a trial. >> he's badgering, your honor. >> sit down and shut up. >> overruled. you will address the court from now on, mr. mccoy. >> 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 and order" the kind of characters people take to heart. >> i'll let you take me to lunch. one-time offer. >> and if you're an actor and you say well, gee, maybe it's not really such a bad medium after all. >> miranda, the supreme court's mimic decision. the whole thing was 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. >> you hear me? >> do you hear me? >> look at me! >> "law and order" was like crack. you'd have to sit and watch me for 50 minutes just like, not moving, barely breathing. there's times i have almost passed out watching "law and order." >> i need your help. >> "e.r." had originally been written as a movie, forced steven spielberg to direct.

we had this two-hour piece which was reflection of michael's experiences as a medical student. >> you need a large in case they bleed. do you know how to start an iv? >> actually, no. >> "e.r." is a hospital show, but it's really an action movie. >> three walking wounded. red urgent, yellow critical and black a gurney. >> got it. >> a gurney comes in, people are shouting instructions, climbing on the body and doing cpr and racing off to the surgical suite. >> get that gurney out of there! >> someone wanders in. they're tossing around medical jargon. they don't stop to explain what it is. prep for a peritoneal lavage. i think i know what that is now, but only because i watched a lot of "e.r." over the years. >> you try. >> we can bypass him. >> 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'd watch a film. you had to stay involved the the whole time. >> come on, ben. hold on, buddy. hold on. >> there was a lot of research that said people didn't want to watch anybody have anything other than a happy outcome. >> it's not flood flight attendant line. another seven makes epi. >> we argued that wasn't really showing what the world was for physicians. i had unbelievable amount of respect for the people who did this because i understood how human they were.

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-swing and a miss! -slam dunk! touchdown! together: sports! a new era of technology is forcing networks to re-examine 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 going to be one dynamite company. >> there's a danger that news will be mixed up with the rest of television and considered just another profit. >> late 1920s, to early 1930s, to the 1980s, the sense was if some of the broadcasting time took public service, 1990s, journalism in the country changed a great deal. you couldn't talk about public service. 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 it this case 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. the story reads like a script that circulate here in hollywood.

>> we enter into the television news soap. opera. >> a story of basic instinct, anger and fear. >> i was scared and i just wanted him to leave me alone. >> it loses its purity and becomes much more shoddy and sensationalistic and then it all comes together with o.j. simpson. >> the los angeles district attorney has just filed murder charges against o.j. simpson. >> i have to interrupt this call. i understand we're going to go to a live picture in los angeles. police believe 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 is televised day after day after day. >> this is going to 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 day because there was so much demand for people talking about it. >> as simpson struggled to slide the gloves on to his hands and turned to a juror saying "they're too small," prosecutors were incensed. >> the trial was on television during the hours stand up and speak when it's your turn. >> like everybody here. >> we the jury in the above entitl entitled.

>> it o.j. simpson trial. foot a footage. success is not lost on other people and so there were competing forces coming into play. >> we've now reached this moment when we can firmly anounce the starting of a fox news channel. to be on the air 24/7 where you try to get as many eye balls at one time to gravitate towards their stories trat sensational. it brought us the ability to go too far. is the jonbenet ramsey murder

investigation turning into a media circus? >> it's a tabloid era. here's where the fear comes into it. it's the fear that says if we don't cover it big time, the competition and the first thing is to -- is a whole army of commentators. people who make their business talking about it news. >> we block the ability of producing oil, his refineries, his wells. >> good journalism. but they became much more preoccupied by profits. it's much easier pawn tificating than to have reporters in the field reporting. >> what i've heard is the father went down, opened this basement

room which the fbi bipassed. >> every single sentence on cnn, perhaps on cnbc, on fox, on nbc 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, the very, very careful and unsubstantiated information presented with great height. really? really? really? really? really? really? see zero in a whole new way. get zero down, zero deposit, zero first month's payment, and zero due at signing on select volkswagen models. now with the people first warranty.

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there are more choices than ever before and it's a tough job because you have to try. . >> she came back to me.

>> and break potential -- it's like one act plays. >> why are you talking to my father? >> i kept the pain of that loss. >> back -- >> move completely cleared. >> what's taken so long.

>> at least in the history of sitcoms. we were lightning hot and it was critical for us to be leading. .

. >> we went together and celebrated. we were looking to be out there on our own. >> shut up. >> friends permeated the culture in a way that was really special. everybody was obsessed with the show and which one of these characters are you? are you monica or rachel? >> this really does put me in a bitter mood? >> the kids who were watching the young audience saw a lifestyle aspirational.

>> matt leblanc i wish i had had jennifer aniston 's hair. they emotionally were invested in ross and rachel's relationship. >> okay. more clothes in the dryer. >> i was dropping my daughter off for sunday schoolality our temple. and literally my rabbi stopped me and said what's going to happen with ross and rachel? >> it one with the prom video is one of my favorites. >> we don't have to watch this. >> why isn't he here yet? >> he'll be here. take a chill pill.

>> this seemed like a really surprising way to get rachel to now see how ross feels. >> i can't go to my own prom without a date. >> take her. you can wear my tux. >> dude, she won't want to go with me. >> she's learning something new and he's thinking please don't let her see this, please don't let her see this. >> ross sees himself. >> he wanted to take her to the prom. she crossed the room. she crossed the room and gave him that kiss. the audience went if sane.

>> at the height of must-see tv thursday nights on nbc 35 million americans watched. that was at the time 1/3 of the country. >> what is this stuff? >> it's angora. >> it's wonderful. the machine was nbc in the '90s for comedy was untouchable. >> you're not from around here. it generated so much viewership and money and awards. >> it's not any. >> let's see how you like this, naughty boy? >> we certainly associate nbc

with having extremely successful sitcoms. but they wurnlt the only ones who found their way to success. tgif was on friday and it was their block of family oriented comedies. it was not sophisticated television. but these were shows that people adored. cbs. >> cbs was in a really bad spot. they had just fallen apart over the early part of the '90s. and just gone through a couple executives. but then suddenly they had this hit with an unknown comic. this was the year of seinfeld, no hug hadding, no learning and this was being made as if it was produced in the dig van dyke show. there was ughadding, there was

learning. if you worked for me. your job was to go home and get in a fight with your wife and tell me about it. don't sleep on a couch. i just cleaned down there. >> it pilot i put in this true thing that happened to me where 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 the fruit of the month club. >> and my mother reacted as if i sent her a box of heads from a murderer. >> there's too much fruit in the house. >> what do you think we are? invulids. we can't go out and get our own fruit? i'm canceling it it fruit club. >> the it real connection with your audience is. thank god.

all your families are crazy too. >> looks like you got the whole family together. >> it's dysfunction pulose.

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and now, ladies and gentlemen, here's johnny. >> johnny carson wasn't just the host of the tonight show rr, johnny carson was the man that

america said goodnight to for 30 years. and so on my watch johnny decided 30 years was a great time to take a bow and say thank you and goodnight. >> 30 years is enough. it's a good time to get out while you're still on top of your game plan. >> johnny carson retiring was a great moment where the ice shelf breaks off. something that has been there for centuries for thousands of years suddenly is no longer there. >> tremendous part of history and that's left a major mark on an era like that. >> johnny 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 thrown and there only was one late night thrown.

>> jay leno had basically been his substitute host. >> people were talking about don don as a presidential candidate. since then he's had an affair, ran up a debt of several million dollars. so i guess he's going to be running as a democrat. >> jay leno wanted to essentially continue doing johnny carson-type show and lett letterman was it show immediately following carson and they have different styles. >> i'm going to ask you to turn the cameras off, please. >> we wanted to ask you to drop off a basket of fruit. >> dave's thing was to always be attacking athort. >> he needed a corporate bad guy to go up against. >> whining all year long bot not getting his name on the card

last year. >> it was always letterman's dream to be it host of the tonight show. he idolized johnny carson. rightfully so. >> that of course is the fate of nbc's late night stars, jay leno and david letterman. >> host of us thought the person who deserved to get it was david letterman. most people didn't get it. jay leno got it. >> earlier hosted still has a bruised ego in how the network wavered support of him. >> when we found out leno was going to get the tonight show, we were 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? >> by all had rights david letterman should have taken over for johnny carson. but his agent took a very aggressive stand. we're going to control all of late night. it's going to cost you a fortune and they put our backs to the wall. >> i can only tell you it's been an honor and a privilege to be in your homes all these years and entertain you. i hope when i come back you'll be as gracious as you have been. i bid you a very heart felt good night. >> "the tonight show" without johnny carson as the regular host made its debut. jay leno stepping into the big

shoes that were filled by 30 year by johnny. >> cbs made us a very atractive offer. >> cbs tales. >> letterman did place a call to johnny carson asking for his advice and he said if that was me, i would leave and i think that was really the lynch pin. letterman always took johnny's advice. >> the late night wars are about to begin in earnest. david letterman is headed to cbs. >> they lured him with a vale four times of leno and giving him what he really wanted the 11:30 time slot. now as they prepare to go head-to-head, one thing is clear, late night tv will never be quite the same. >> all the sudden there's a talk show war. >> the late night race is about to begin. on monday david letterman's new

show debuted followed by chevy chase on fox and a week after that by conan o'brien on nbc. they join the combattants. >> it became a crowded space and the competition became that much more difficult. >> arsenio hall. some tv writers think arsenio could be the big loser in this free for all. >> when letterman came in, it essentially diluted arsenio's brand because there were so many alternatives. >> i'm sorry to see you go because america's going to have a big chunk missing. >> losing arsenio, yes, it was bad. he was it loan voice. gone. >> david letterman the suits at nbc pausing for a moment.

did we make the right choice? because he came out gang busters and he was beating johnny. >> some people say you blew it. that was a big programming mistake. >> it was a shaky start. a really, really shaky first season start. >> it's true confessions time for actor hue grant who's trying to put his recent encounter with a hollywood prostitute behind him. >> when had hugh grant was arested, it was live action news and he was supposed to do "the tonight show" that night. >> what were you thinking? it all came together in that moment and that's it. we were never number two again. >> for us it was our own experience. we got our own theater, an

unlimited budget, access to every star in the business who wanted 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, everyone! in the mid-1990s if you took . like t-mobile and netflix. right now when you get an unlimited family plan, netflix is included. ho ho ho! t-mobile covers your netflix subscription... best christmas gift ever! ...so you can binge watch all year long. now you're thinking christmas! and now when you buy any of this season's hot new samsung galaxy phones, you get a second one free to gift. that's one samsung for you. and one to give. t-mobile. holiday twogether.

in the mid-1990s if you took a look at the most watched cable shows the top would be nickelodeon, "rug rats," "blues clues". >> don't you know cartoons will ruin your mind. >> "ren and stimpy" had high concept humor to it. this is the beginning of the splintering of the television audience and splintering of the family audience, really, because with families having three or four tvs in the house you had a kid watching nickelodeon, the dad watching espn sports, the mom watching lifetime. you know, they were in their own separate universes watching television. 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 were

also shows and programs that stood on their own. >> yes! >> that was cool. >> "beavis and butthead" were about making fun of music videos just like people in the audience were doing. >> they got his neck. there's all these bones and stitches moving around. >> yeah. >> my manager would call me, like, hey, you got this big bump because you were on "beavis and butthead" last night. >> i sit there like a doughnut watching these guys. 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. >> mtv has a detrimental, damaging, developmental effect on the sexuality, on the morality, on the spirituality, even maybe the physical

development of our young people. ♪ >> now we hit the '90s and once you can go for an audience of five 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, miss ellen. >> of course, wendy. >> don't [ bleep ] with me! >> what? >> you heard me. stay away from my man, bitch or i'll whip you back to last year. >> trey parker and matt stone were two of the funniest people i ever met. 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 the show and now you're

big sellouts. the truth is, we were sellouts to begin with. >> perhaps there is no stopping the corporate machine. >> i mean, we were sleeping at friends' houses, had no money and one fox executive had seen a cartoon we had made in college and he said, make me another christmas video i can send out as a christmas card. he gave us like 700 bucks. we went and made this five-minute short. >> i come seeking retribution. >> he's come to kill you because you're jewish, kyle. >> oh [ bleep ]. >> it went around the tv community like wildfire. >> i mean, it -- it was the funniest thing you'd ever seen in your life. >> go get 'em! >> somebody showed me the short. >> go, jesus. >> i thought it was hysterical. i called and said get them in here right away. >> oh, my god!

they killed kenny. you bastards. >> "south park" was able to be topical. >> "south park" really, really detests hypocrites. >> christians and republicans and nazis, oh, my! >> okay, i'll legalize 40th trimester abortions for you. >> could you imagine back then that these people would ever get on network television or any kind of television? >> it's a miracle. "south park" is a miracle. >> the early '90s the hbo show starts to come into their own. >> and then have i always had these breasts? >> a lot of people want freedom. they don't want to go back to the networks, which are saying you can come to us where you'll make more money but you'll 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. >> some of the content truly was

you can't get this anywhere else. >> you're a fantasy maker is the only limit on the kind of fantasies is people's imagination. >> hbo turned to people who 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 going in the back. >> in the late '80s hbo was gaining ground for series.

>> by the '90s hbo had started to begin its explosion. >> when we started doing "dream on" one of the things hbo said to us was, it's got to be something that couldn't be on network tv. >> 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 have watched letterman, you've watched leno, but what

about larry? larry sanders, that is. he's the tv alter ego of comedian garry shandling. >> garry shandling wanted to do a show that deconstructed the kind of show "the tonight show" was. >> pretend like you're talking to me. we're off the air. >> okay. blah, blah, blah, blah. >> the larry sanders show was kind of cathartic because in the world of the show there was a network. >> you want me to [ bleep ] your budget? that what you want me to do? >> it became this fun house mirror thing where you could use stuff from your misery, your career as fodder. >> don't take this as a threat but i killed a man like you in korea, hand-to-hand.

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in the '90s you suddenly had shows that were aiming at a younger audience. one of the things that really made "90210" stand out is it was the first drama to get into the teenager's point of view. >> do you have protection? >> of course. it's always been my problem. lots of protection but nothing to protect. >> i wanted to do a tv series that was going to be relevant to teenagers. 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 him down and have a

kid-to-parent talk. >> no you can't talk to parents on that mature level. tragic but true. >> if the '60s had beatle mania, the '90s had "90210" mania. when tv guide had "youth-quake" cover, that was a sign television was focused on these young people. "my so-called life" was the punk rock version of "90210." it was earnest but not saccharin. it didn't have easy answers. it showed teen heartbreak in a way that was staggeringly real for the time. >> you like this. >> like what? >> like how you are? >> you coming or not? >> how am i? 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 last thing you said echos in your brain and i keep sounding stupider? and you have to say something

else just to make it stop. >> oh, i just remembered. i owe you $30. >> "my so-called life" was not necessarily the show the cheerleader or captain of the football team were watching. they were watching "90210". maybe it was the ones that didn't recognize themselves in "90210" are now watching "my so-called life". >> i don't want to be a girl. i just want to hang with girls. >> ricky was out on the show eventually and that was a story line treated with great sensitivity. >> and i belong nowhere. with no one. that i don't fit. >> it was so deeply felt. it was saying to the viewer, things you have gone through, they matter. >> "buffy the vampire slayer" depicted high school in a

similar way to "my so-called life" but rather than just feeling like hell, it actually was hell. her high school was literally built on top of hell. and so all of these creatures would come up that she would have to fight. >> three in one night. >> it was a brilliant metaphor for adolescence and all the demons you have to slay. >> buffy was a teenager and she was still finding out who she was. one of the story lines that was popular and talked about is when she had sex with her boyfriend for the first time and in the world of buffy, he becomes literally evil. >> there must be part of you inside that remembers who you are. >> dream on, school girl. >> in order to save the world, literally, she knows she has to send him to hell. >> buffy knows in an instant that angel has become good again.

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

a man. >> "sex in the city" was a huge success from the start. it was funny, clever and very candid. >> our relationships, the religion of the '90s? >> these are women who are making a good living, they were independent, single and feeling their power. >> i said all of them. bad waiter, bad waiter. >> what do you tip? >> i wanted these women to be objectifying men in the way men always objectify women. >> my turn. >> sorry, i have to go back to work. >> you couldn't discuss sex as sex. network shows, there were never people talking about orgasms or organs or sex. >> words are essential. tell me exactly how he worded it. >> we've been seeing each other for a couple 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. >> it goes up there, there's going to be a shift in power. either he'll have the upper hand or you will. >> should she do this or not. >> this was a physical expression the body was designed

to experience. p.s., it's fabulous. >> what are you talking about? i went to smith. >> it took an interesting turn by focusing on the relationship between women and focusing on them as 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. so, showing women not competing with each other and as supporting each other was also an important narrative change. >> okay, girls, see you tomorrow. >> 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 hbo a place for people to think, i wonder what they're doing next. 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.

so, showing women not competing with each other and as supporting each other was also an important narrative change. >> okay, girls, see you tomorrow. >> 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 hbo a place for people to think, i wonder what they're doing next. trrs it's iphone season! and everyone's celebrating! but this year celebrate

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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 mix between "the big chill" and "the

breakfast club". >> and ultimately decided a show with writers and actors would be too expensive. >> the real world, 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. >> of seven strangers. >> a social experiment to watch what happens when you put these strangers together in a house. when people stop being polite and start getting real. >> do you sell drugs? why do you have a beeper? >> you hadn't seen anything like that on television, that kind of open, honest discussion of race. >> i can try as much as i can to try to deal with you, but ignorance is ignorance. stupidity is stupidity. that's it. black white, green, purple, blue, whatever. >> "the real world" becomes this big bang moment for reality tv. all we have to do is put cameras on people and we'll get great stuff. the next season in l.a. a young woman who gets an abortion and the camera goes right up to the doctor's door. >> give me a hug. >> by the third season in san francisco you have a young man who is dealing with aids. >> i'm hiv positive. >> he told me he was hiv positive, it was just like, no, not him. 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, shawn, have a ceremony. you know, this is long before same-sex marriage was legal. the tv shows weren't doing this. movies weren't doing this. >> i have to believe that all the pain i'm going through, that all the anger, the frustration, that there's something bigger than that. >> aids has claimed a young man who made an enormous impact on a young generation of americans. pedro zamura died in miami at the age of 22. >> i'm really glad i got to know pedro. >> i'm glad his rich and fulfilling work is still remembered today. i hope you enjoyed and learned from pedro's life of compassion and fearlessness. >> you have to credit "the real world" with helping the acceptance of the lgbt community. >> 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 want to go look at apartments tomorrow. >> sure. >> ellen degeneres, the comedian, was about to come out. she does it on "time" magazine, yep, i'm gay. but she decided the character ellen plays on tv will also come out. >> it's reprehensible that abc,

who is 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, who knows. >> we were getting bomb threats. disney was really getting a lot of flack for even thinking of having a coming out episode with ellen. >> i'm 35 years old. i'm so afraid to tell people. i'm just -- susan, i'm gay. >> ellen coming out was a huge moment for me personally because, you know, i was a closeted gay guy. gay child at that time. and it was the bravest thing i saw. >> that felt great. that felt so great. >> initial reports suggest abc made a bundle on ellen's highly publicized outing on national tv last night. it 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 going to 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. ♪ i love my mister ♪ tell me lazy tell me so ♪ tell me i'm crazy maybe i know ♪

♪ can't help loving that man of mine ♪ >> and beret, beret, 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 might get a little ugly. >> play hardball, baby. throw low and inside. he's crowding the plate and we've got to -- >> 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. >> 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. >> 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, will, that's weird. he's gay. gay people don't do that. that's why they're gay. >> why wasn't i your girlfriend, queer bait? >> it was the first time you saw characters on television that made gay normal.

you wanted to be friends with them. >> guess what we are. >> a catholic girl gone bad, and, karen, what are you and, karen, what are you supposed to be? all of mankind were made up of kind women and kind men. it would be spectacular if the golden rule was golden to every man. and the good things that we ever did was everything that we can. (vo 2) treating others like we'd like to be treated has always been our guiding principle.

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what was happening at the end of the nineties 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 of 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 watched "west wing" they watched the macneil lehrer 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 going to blame you and you're going to find that unpleasant. >> i have to tell you something, toby, you're hot when you're like this. >> it's the first wave of what

we now have, remarkably specific niche programming. >> "freaks and geeks" really sympathized with the losers and had great empathy for its characters. ♪ because you don't see that i got something going right here ♪ >> "freaks and geeks" breaks my heart every time i think about it. >> i'm sorry. did i crush your twinkies? >> it lasted 18 episodes. and they're perfect 18 episodes but nbc hated it so much. >> roll down the windows because i got a big one abrewing. >> they thought it was a show by losers, about losers for losers. they hated it. they wanted no part of it. they killed it.

>> at the end of the nineties, the jig is starting to be up for the networks. basically quality migrates to cable. >> "oz" comes on in '97. it's set in this fictional penitentiary. wow, what a strange show that was. >> in "oz" sometimes the thing you can't up the are more than the thing us can. hatred, loneliness are more real to me than a shank and a soul. >> it was jaw dropingly violent. it was a men's prison. it probably should be. but you know, it kind of announces the idea that hbo is going to get serious about doing scripted dramas. >> it's finished. it's over. >> but hbo really in my mind comes to its own in 1999 with "the sopranos." ♪

♪ woke up this morning ♪ got yourself a gun >> "sopranos" was one of the show that was like a benchmark. it changed a lot of things for everybody. >> throw out the handbook. tony soprano, the lead actor in a drama, he killed a man. we watched him. he took his daughter on a college tour. >> pretty, huh? >> yeah. >> it was just a melding of a guy and a world -- >> [ bleep ] you doing? >> and a behavior that promoted all the feelings that you would have for a guy that you love in a guy that you hate. you know? >> "sopranos" came on tv and it really showed us the future whether we realized that was going to be the future of television or not. >> this husband of yours, carmella, how much we love him.

he's the best. >> 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. >> some of my favorite shows of all time aired in that decade and everybody was watching them. 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. >> because there was 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 c.a.t. scan and schedule the resident. >> objection! >> it showed us women in their depth and began to show us much more of a range of the

african-american community. >> i'm always here for you. >> started focusing on teenagers in a more realistic way. >> things changed us. >> what are you talking about? >> and 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 nineties, we had a whole new television world that could take us anyplace we wanted and even places we had never imagined. >> was that the oven timer? >> that's right, my friend. it's time for "baywatch"! >> can you believe they gave stephanie skin cancer? >> i still can't believe they promoted her to lieutenant. >> you're just saying that because you're in love with yasmine bleeth. >> how could anyone not be in love with yasmine bleeth? >> 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. imagine what it was like back when the rolling stones would shock parents everywhere. my, how times have changed. >> i see hustling, killing. that's what i rap about. >> you can take me out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of me, though. >> and kurt cobain in particular, the angst. >> and country music has taken over the air waves and record charts. >> the honeymoon over. now we're getting down to real commerce. >> aren't these girls just crazy? >> yeah, they are.