brees and faces the television in an angle so he can talk to everybody but yet so wide the picture still looks distorted. >> perhaps there is hope for you after all. 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. >> 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. >> 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. >> nbc believed in the show so they said we're committing to four episodes. >> yes, yeah, right. four episodes. >> normally it's 13 or 8 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 ♪ >> 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

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 phenomenon is 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. >> okay. more clothes in the dryer? >> i was dropping my daughter off for sunday school at our temple, and literally my rabbi stopped me and said, what's going to happen with ross and rachel? >> you look pretty tonight. >> oh, thanks. >> the one with the prom video is one of my favorites.

>> you guys, we don't have to watch this. >> yeah, we do. >> come on. come on. >> 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 can wear my tux. >> dad, she won't want to 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! >> 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 kind of get chills from it. when she crossed the room and gave him that kiss -- [ cheers and applause ] >> -- the audience went insane.

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♪ lean on me, when you're not strong ♪ ♪ and i'll be your friend ♪ ♪ i'll help you carry on ♪ ♪ lean on me. as a kid i always knew i would do a talk show. >> he has turned the talk show into a contender for the crown of late night television. >> yes, yes. >> how come, how come i didn't hear all that woofing going on

when i would watch. >> 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. ♪ you can do what you want to do ♪ ♪ 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 minority viewers and really 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. 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 >> black creators felt used and abused. you made your money. you built your audience on us and now, you know, you're done.

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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 it was one of the first dramas to really 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 its "youth-quake" cover, that was a sign that suddenly television was focused on these young people. ♪

"my so-called life" was 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. >> you like this. >> like what? >> like how you are. >> hey jordan, 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 the last sentence you said like echoes in your brain? and it keeps just 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 still watching "90210". but it was the people who maybe didn't recognize themselves in "90210" who felt like, ah-ha, 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 want to hang with girls. >> ricky was out on the show eventually, and that was a storyline treated with great sensitivity. >> and i belong nowhere. with no one. and 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. 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 that you have to slay. >> you know, buffy was a teenager, and she was still finding out who she was. one of the storylines 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 part of you inside that still remembers who >> this is the true story. >> true story. >> of seven strangers -- >> it was kind of 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. and that's it. black white, green, purple, blue, whatever. >> "the real world" becomes this big bang moment for reality tv. the idea is that, oh my god, all we have to do is 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. >> 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. >> when 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 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. for radiant coats, sparkling eyes, and vibrant energy. purina one. 28 days. one visibly healthy pet.

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>> 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? >> great idea! >> ellen degeneres, the comedian, was about to come out. as a lesbian. and she does it on "time" magazine. yep, i'm gay. but they decide that the character 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, 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 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 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 ♪ >> take it, jack! >> and pas de bouree, pas de bouree, 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. >> suffering 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. gay people don't do that. that's why they're gay. >> why wasn't i your girlfriend, queer bait? >> "will and grace" was the first time you saw characters on television that made gay normal. you wanted to be friends with them. >> guess what we are. >> uh -- a catholic girl gone bad -- and karen, what are you supposed to be? >> 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. >> are relationships the religion of the '90s? >> these are women who are making a good living, they were independent, they were single, and they were sort of feeling their power. >> i said all of them. bad waiter, bad waiter. >> what do you tip for that? >> i wanted these women to be objectifying men in the way men had always objectified women. >> all right. my turn. >> sorry, i have to go back to work. >> you didn't used to be able to discuss sex as sex. 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. >> it goes up there, there's going to 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 -- 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. >> 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 for people to think, i wonder what they'll be doing next. join t-mobile. and get netflix included. so your family can watch what they love in more places. get an unlimited family plan with netflix on us. and right now, buy one samsung galaxy s9 and get one free.

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and now ladies and gentlemen, here's johnny! ♪ >> 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. ♪ >> 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. 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. >> a tremendous part of history. and that's lovely to have made your mark on an era like that. >> johnny had told no one what he had 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, only six months ago people were talking about donald trump as a presidential candidate. right? that's true. since then he's had an affair, left his wife, run up debt of several million dollars so i guess he's going to 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 going to ask you to turn

the cameras off, please. >> okay, we just wanted to drop off this basket of fruit -- >> part of dave's thing was he attacking authority, he liked that. >> 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 it. >> look, what about me? i could be on there, couldn't i? >> 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 leno was going to 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? [ laughter and applause ] >> by all rights, david letterman should have taken over for johnny carson, but his agent took a very, very aggressive stand. we're going to really 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 come into your homes all these years and entertain you. and i hope when i find something i want to do and i think you will like and come back, that you will be as gracious inviting me into your home as you have been. i bid you a very heartfelt good night. >> "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. head cbs, tails cbs. 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 linchpin. 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 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 sad to see you go because america is going to have a big chunk missing out of its existence. >> 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's 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. >> it's true confessions time for actor hugh grant who is 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? [ rim shot ] [ cheers and applause ] >> it all came together in that moment and everyone saw it and that's it. we were never number two again. for us it was a fun experience. we had our own theater. we got an unlimited budget. we've got access to every star in the business who wants to be on the show. >> somebody bring me the jaws of life! >> so i think going to cbs was heaven scent.

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come from your business number. them, not so much. we let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. the others? nope! get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go on line today. as the decade starts, fantasy, sci-fi, those were not big things on television. you went to the movies for that. >> it's kind of hard to pin down what exactly "the x-files" is. on the surface it's a show about investigating pair anormal activities. >> unidentified flying objects.

i think that fits the description pretty well. tell me i'm crazy. >> mulder, you're crazy. >> 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. >> 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, 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 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. and i'd go 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. >> i definitely think that the x files influenced nerd culture and nerds taking over culture. people realized this isn't just niche programming. and so it did lead to shows like "buffy the vampire slay er." "buffy the vampire slayer" is a major work of american art as far as i'm concerned.

"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. 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. >> three in one night. >> and it was a brilliant metaphor for adolescence and all the demons you have to slay. >> you know, buffy was a teenager and she was still finding out who she was. one of the storylines that was very popular and much talked about was where she had 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. 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. >> the show was really working on multiple levels. on "buffy" in particular we saw a character that was a reluctant protagonist, forced to make tough decisions. >> because '90s television was trying to do something different, that included who was held up as a hero. >> 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? >> 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. >> by the end of the '90s it feels like a 300 network world. and that means an explosion of opportunity for all sorts of different stories to be told. >> 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 yasmeen bleeth. >> how could anyone not be in love with yasmeen 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, yasmeen, run like the wind! television on! >> while it's tempting to play it safe, the more we're willing to risk, the more alive we are. in the end, what we regret most are the chances we never took. >> advertising is based on one thing. happiness. >> is there any taboo that you wouldn't break? >> not if there was a funny idea. >> what is wrong with you? >> clear eyes, full heart. >> the drama of every episode comes first. >> i don't think dramatic series television has ever been stronger. >> i see a new nation ready to