you start to see the bar get raised and raised and raised. >> it's an abstract. >> not abstract enough. >> you've done an amazing job. >> what we regret most are the chances we never took.

this is the week when the major broadcast networks unveil their fall lineup of shows. and every executive in hollywood knows how well "the sopranos" is doing on cable, which is a network problem. >> we are dependent on sponsors. there's so much we can do in terms of language, in terms of violence, in terms of sex. >> executives were sanding off the edges of what was interesting.

>> i think hbo is looking at the world and going, okay, how can we matter? >> for quite a long time, movies and boxing were the bread and butter of hbo. >> people watch a show because you're partly a [ bleep ]. >> what we learned through shows like "the larry sanders show" or "oz" is that we could do serious television. >> there's something in the air. and it ain't love. >> "oz" was cutting edge in what it was willing to share with the audience. >> hit me in the face, brother. >> complicated characters, complicated issues. and the way it was presented was so, uh, unique. >> sentence, nine years.

up for parole in six. >> what they were doing at hbo was exactly what the network wasn't doing. they were breaking barriers. you get to "the sopranos" and all of a sudden, the villain is the hero. >> have some eggplant. >> i told you. i'm not hungry. >> you won't even accept food from your own mother. >> "the sopranos" was david chase's invention about this mob family, something that people hadn't seen before. the idea that a mobster is seeing a therapist. >> whatever happened to gary cooper? the strong, silent type. that was an american. he wasn't in touch with his feelings. he just did what he had to do. once they got gary cooper in touch with his feelings, they didn't know they wouldn't be able to shut him up. dysfunction this, dysfunction that. >> you have strong feelings about this. >> you get carroll o'connor as archie bunker. someone you can't imagine anyone else afterwards.

james gandolfini is that in "the sopranos." >> did you know that an italian invented the telephone? >> see what i'm talking about? antonio finucci invented the telephone and he got robbed. everybody knows that. >> who invented the mafia? >> what? ♪ i'm a fool to do your dirty work ♪ >> it was somehow more mundane than we guessed it would be yet every bit as vriveting as the gd father. >> you're like a brother to me. service the debate raged at hbo whether you could have a guy like this as your lead. and david chase was adamant that you have to, this is who he is, and he was right. >> can you assure me that tony soprano isn't going to become a sensitive, nurturing, mellowing man?

>> yes. >> oh, good. >> oh, my god. >> it's all right. i'll be home in a couple of hours. don't worry. >> i'm graduating tomorrow. >> carmela was a wife and a mother. i think first and foremost. i think as long as she kept going to church, she thought i'm taking care of my soul. >> where is the rest of the money? >> it's everywhere. >> she goes home to her husband who has blood on him. there's no way to reconcile the two things. >> towards the end, when their marriage is falling apart -- >> i used to [ bleep ] your husband. >> you have made a fool of me for years with these whores. >> her performance is stunningly good. >> let go of me! >> it mattered to people what this couple was going through. and i remember feeling a real sense of responsibility about

that and giving the weight to the scene that it deserves. >> what? >> you know what i don't understand, tony? what does she have that i don't have? >> suddenly here is this tv show that everyone is talking about, but you have to pay to watch it. that's how good the sopranos was. people were paying just to see that show. >> "the sopranos" came along and completely reestablished what the bar was. i honestly couldn't quite believe it, that television was communicating something that you might only see in the darkest moments and accurate moments in cinema. >> you look at the year that "american beauty" won the oscar, which is also the year that the sopranos debuted.

almost immediately after that, the two mediums diverged. >> i know what i must do. i'm afraid to do it. >> movies became much more focused on big tentpole things that could bring in as much of an audience as you possibly can. meanwhile, tv, which had always been a big tent medium, started going smaller and more interior and saying, all right, we want to tell stories for grownups that maybe don't get the biggest audience but get a passionate one. ♪ i'll be home for christmas >> i had an idea of doing a show about death. >> are you smoking? >> no. >> yes, you are. i heard you. >> i'm not. no, i'm not. >> look, forget you'll give yourself cancer and die and slow and horrible death. you should not be stinking up that new hearse. >> she said, i want to do a show about a family in a funeral home. something went click. what a good idea. >> i'm quitting right now. i'll see you tonight.

♪ i'll be home for christmas >> alan ball comes up with a show with a perfect structure. each episode starts with the death of a character and then that character's death is dealt with in a local family funeral home mortuary. >> excuse me. >> this was one of my first -- maybe it was my first binge show, which was long enough ago that it was all on somebody had recorded it on vcr. >> have you been watching mrs. romano? >> yes, i'm watching her all night. are you thinking what i'm thinking? >> casket climber. >> i want to go with you!

>> there's a whole level of something going on on television. it was grittier than most shows you had seen before, and yet something magical about it. >> i think what our strategy at hbo was in terms of audiences, not everybody has to watch a show. but if we have different shows for different people, there is something that makes you want to come back and sign up month after month. maybe you don't watch "sex and the city" but you watch ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪

♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ your new brother-in-law. you like him. he's one of those guys who always smells good. his 5 o'clock shadow is always at 5 o'clock. you like him. your mom says he's done really well for himself. he has stocks and bonds your dad wants to go fishing with him. your dad doesn't even like fishing. you like your brother-in-law. but you'd like him better if you made more money than he does. don't get mad at your brother-in-law. get e*trade a hotel can make or break a trip. and at expedia, we don't think you should be

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nchlts who who could have possibly guessed? a show about a bunch of backstabbing people with body odor on an island off borneo would become the hit of the summer. >> "survivor" was the first truly competitive format. i started to really understand what the show was going to be about. the first 20 minutes into day one. >> we'll see what we've got. >> there might be a blowtorch in there. >> we need a bathroom. >> are you guys all done talking? >> richard hatch was sitting in a tree, lecturing about what they should do as their group.

>> nobody is working toward a particular goal. not the silly little stuff about who is going to sleep where. >> underneath him was a woman who was a truck driver. >> the corporate world ain't going to work in the bush. >> that was the show. >> it probably bugged some of the guys. >> whatever it takes to win here is the point. it's a game. call it machiavellian, sure. >> we had no idea that richard hatch would be the best thing to ever happen to "survivor." >> all around the country, people were on the edge of their seats, waiting for the final vote to be announced. >> the winner of the first survivor competition is -- >> "survivor" sort of legitimized the genre. simon fuller came into my

office. his vision was one long audition. ♪ like a virgin touched for the very first time ♪ >> i've never heard anything like that in my life. ♪ she bangs, she bangs >> the network was saying, we don't think we can put simon on the promos, we'll scare little girls and that's our audience. >> the worst auditions i ever heard in my life. >> we were like, that's the whole show, without him it's not going to work. of course we got him on and of course that's what made the show. >> well, here they are. the judges have made their choices. now, america, it's all up to you. >> "american idol" reunited the family audience in front of the tv. 9-year-olds to 90-year-olds

could root for something in "american idol." it's not like it hadn't been done before. but the way the producers could manipulate drama and find stories, that was the core of making those shows successful. >> this is the weakest romance i've ever seen. this romance is pathetic. was there a romance? >> well, i think we just decided we were meant to be very close friends. >> very close friends. >> i've had some very close friends too. >> me too. >> it cost me a lot of money, i'll tell you that. >> "the apprentice" has its lasting effect even today. donald trump becomes a star. >> you're fired. >> all of it kind of reality show fake. people who worked on it have come forward and said, you know, we kind of made the whole thing up. and it sells. then there is this explosion. >> are you interested in tattoos?

weight loss? plastic surgery? >> breast augmentation, tummy tuck, facial surgery. >> substance abuse? flipping your house? that's a big one. there's literally a reality show for everyone now. >> we would be out of business without reality tv. if you have to fill 40 hours of television with scripted shows, it would cost you an arm and a leg. you would be out of business because those scripted shows would do no better and most likely worse than the reality shows did. >> aimed at gay viewers and women. so you have "queer eye for the straight guy" and "project runway." >> this is a search for the next big fashion designer. >> "project runway" was not an instantaneous hit. we sort of had this crisis, is anyone going to want to sit around watching people sew?

>> i am feeling the race against time now, yes. >> bravo played three or four episodes over the christmas holidays. and all of a sudden it just caught on like wildfire. >> make it work. >> people have come into runway and top chef and they know that this can change their lives. >> one of you is about to win the title of top chef. >> rock and roll! >> the osbornes, it was fun. the whole idea of the guy who bit the heads off of bats being domestic and his wife and teenage kids. that sparks this moment of, we can put celebrities on tv and just let them do what they do. >> i've always heard that people hang out at walmart. >> why? what is walmart? >> of course that reaches its

peak, or nadir, according to your opinion, with the kardashians. >> i hate that family. >> there's a lot of baggage that comes with us. it's like louis vuitton baggage. you always want it. >> or more of a disaster. >> prostitution whore, you stupid bitch! [ bleep ] you [ bleep ] [ bleep ]! >> there's something about watching that and going, yeah, god, at least i'm not that. >> i look over and i see like hair being pulled, and all the [ bleep ], i'm like, oh, my god, how do i get in? >> why are people watching that reality show? because they're entertained. you're never going to meet someone that's going to say to you, you know, i was watching the bachelor last night, i loved it, but i wish i was watching a great drama. >> karen. >> i thought you would never ask.

>> you don't need to call it a guilty pleasure. call it a pleasure. it's something you love watching. it could be a reality show, could be a drama, sitcom, documentary. whatever it is, great tv comes in many forms.

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i don't want to mess this up again. we are done being stupid. >> okay. this is it. >> this is it. unless we're on a break. don't make jokes now. >> by the time "frazier" and "friends" went off the air, there was a feeling among the networks that the multicamera format filmed in front of a live studio audience -- >> so i guess this is it. >> -- was getting kind of tired and getting kind of stale. >> you guys play the most important part. the live studio audience. >> now, there is no form of television that makes as much money for the networks as multicamera tv shows.

we write a four-camera show. we write it, direct it, perform it, rehearse it like a play in front of a studio audience. when someone gets a laugh on that stage, they actually hold, as you do not in real life, as you do not in single camera, you are holding for that laugh. >> it's an abstract. >> not abstract enough. >> you've done an amazing job. >> it looks like something, though. what does it look like? >> if you get close, you can even touch it. >> i'm fine. >> we started studying what phil rosenthal was doing with "raymond." he was embracing the very best of what the genre could do.

which was interesting characters. he provided me with a very, very loud reminder that i didn't need to fix anything. i didn't need to knock any boundaries or walls over. i just need you to embrace what was there. >> i had been in so many shows that had failed spectacularly that i became known as the show killer. ♪ men, men, manly men >> that's not a great thing to be known as in show business. >> on the sly, i had him come in and read for me, and he was brilliant. >> how much is a hooker? >> what? what are you going to do with a hooker? >> well, i would like to pay her to have sex with me. >> how much are you looking to spend? >> as you know, i am a bit of a bargain hunter. >> unfortunately they don't stock hookers at the 99 cent store.

give me a number. >> okay. well, what could i get in the $200 range? >> crabs. and carjacked. >> i have an enormous sense of pride to have done a multicamera sitcom that people really took to their hearts for 12 years. >> okay. let's start in first position. jake, do you know first position? >> is that like missionary position? >> i mean, that was the longest that a sitcom had been on broadcast television in the history of broadcast television at the time. i think "big bang" is going to beat it. but still, that's amazing. >> two people talking is the essence of a four-camera sitcom. lighting is not really an issue. there is no music that's going to help the material.

>> checkmate. >> there is no specific effects. >> again? >> hopefully good words with good actors. >> it must be humbling to suck on so many different levels. >> "big bang" had this weird hurdle, it seemed, not only are you fighting the natural fight that every show does about getting an audience, trying to stay on the air and keep your job, yadda yadda. >> make way for the fastest man alive! >> see, this is why i wanted to have a costume meeting. >> but then there was also this weird wave of energy coming in like, you're in a genre that's passe, we're done with this, we don't want to see this anymore. >> and the emmy goes to -- >> jim parsons, "the big bang theory." >> with multicam, you hear the other people laughing. it ignites something that's innate in all of us, that's primal in us, the desire to gather in a group and hear a story.

>> lauren, look. live from new york, it's saturday night! >> so every generation has their favorite "saturday night live," right, and it's usually the one that was on when they were in high school. so the people that were in high school during the 2000s won the jackpot. because over the course of that decade, you see some of the most extraordinary people come through that show. >> we should mention that although the waters above appear calm, below the surface there is a frenzy of activity. >> one of the hallmarks of "snl" is you need somebody to play the president. and will's dubya was stellar. >> will ferrell's george w. >> can i get those antlers? >> there you go, son.

>> cow bell was fantastic. not only because it's a great concept but because will really gets to be will. >> the last time i checked, we don't have a whole lot of songs that feature the cow bell. i got to have my cow bell, baby. i'll be doing myself a disservice and every member of this band if i didn't perform the hell out of this. >> "snl" in the 2000s is a great time for women. >> it's my birthday! >> because there's a strong group of women that play off each other really well. >> are you part indian, are you cherokee? look those cheekbones, what are you, souix? are you chippewa? >> i believe diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign

policy. >> and i can see russia from my house. ♪ i like waterfalls ♪ i like butterflies ♪ i like chasing cars >> you are seeing creativity and wacky left field things that you wouldn't have seen before. ♪ put a hole in the box ♪ that's the way you do it (burke) at farmers, we've seen almost everything so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "cactus calamity". (man 1) i read that the saguaro can live to be two hundred years old. (woman) how old do you think that one is? (man 1) my guess would be, about... (man 2) i'd say about two hundred. (man 1) yeah... (burke) gives houseplant a whole new meaning. and we covered it.

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welcome to [ bleep ] deadwood. >> david milch said i have a great idea about ancient rome. >> cops in ancient rome in the time of nero. >> because we're already doing this show about rome. >> thieves will be strangled. deserters will be crucified. >> david basically took the underlying theme of his rome show and put it in "deadwood." >> no law at all in deadwood. is that true?

>> at the time of nero, there was a lot of order and no law. and "deadwood" was a similar environment. >> maybe you don't value keeping your [ bleep ] cuts inside your belly enough. >> those are the days behind us. >> no, those are the days to my [ bleep ] left. >> ian mcshane's character steals the show, lock, stock, and barrel, away from anyone else. you want to go into that saloon and engage him in conversation. then you say to yourself, if i say something wrong, will i get my guts cut out with a bowie knife? he's a fascinating character in that he scares you and attracts you at the same time. that's kind of a rare thing. >> can we see your fangs? >> i always said daddy hated vampires. but we don't. >> i think that "true blood" was an enjoyable beach read with blood all over it.

>> you could say, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously, it wasn't taking itself seriously, except it was such a big allegory for what was going on with the gay community, with aids, with political backlash. it's like, there's monsters all over. but the scariest, most deadly characters in the whole show are the human beings. >> showtime looked at tony soprano and they said, you want an antihero? how about a mass murderer who is the hero of our show? >> "dexter" is about a blood spatter expert who is secretly a serial killer.

>> soon he'll be packed into a few neatly wrapped hefties and my own small corner of the world will be a neater, happier place. >> he was raised by a policeman to channel his sociopathic impulses to only kill other killers. so he is a bad guy but also a good guy. >> i kill reprehensible people. i mean, the idea of the show is that you're invited to identify with and maybe even root for a serial killer. >> that's right. >> he kills horrible people. if i were just killing people willy-nilly, i think all bets would be off. >> where's the fun in that? >> in the 2000s, the antihero really rose to prominence. >> my nephew has the same gun. don't point that there. >> nice work. >> and i think they were popular because they were surprising. >> you're a free woman.

it was a time in our world where there was so much confusion and mixed signals that i think people responded to characters who dealt with similar issues. >> is this cab free? >> are you [ bleep ] nuts? >> i have heard nurse jackie" referred to as an antihero. she was at the mercy of her addiction that always got her attention. but beyond that, she really cared that there wasn't money in

the budget for extra blankets for someone off the street and she would go and steal it from another department. she really wanted to be a good nurse. and she wanted to be married and she wanted these kids and she wanted to be a good wife and mother. >> why do you always have to work? >> yeah. >> and there was no way she could do all of them. >> mommy! >> edie falco for me can do no wrong. here she is as the female antihero who has her own show. she's the one whose morals are questionable. >> my back, my back! >> she's having an affair. >> can't talk. love you. >> she's stealing drugs and is she an unfit mother and all those things. yet you feel for her. i love that women now get to be -- get to be the antihero and not just either the villain or the good girl. ♪

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who helped put him in office? if paul revere and other patriots had waited to act until it was safe or politically correct, we would never have the country we have today. it's time for congress, republicans and democrats, to put their political interests aside and act on behalf of our country.

the very interesting statistic, people, their favorite shows, be it "csi," be it "er." the most faithful fan watches that show two out of four weeks. >> there was general fear and anxiety, and they had the data to back it up, that shows that

became increasingly serialized would lose viewership over time. >> lex, don't! >> because of the audience misses an episode, they would be inclined to stop watching it because they would feel like, i missed one and now i don't know what's happening. >> there had been amazing shows that had been serialized. they never had syndication value because you couldn't revisit them. but there's almost no better hook. it's like a book you can't turn down, you go, i'm going to watch a little bit more. >> "24" was set to debut in november of 2001. the pilot climaxes with an assassin blowing up a passenger jet in midair. fox orders this. fox schedules it. 9/11 happens. suddenly the show which seemed like this goofy thing about keifer sutherland chasing after middle eastern terrorists

becomes the most timely show on television because that is all that anyone in america can talk about after september 11th. >> the name for the series comes from the idea that it's 24 episodes in a season. each episode is one hour in a day. and jack bauer just has the worst days. >> we are running out of time. pull the trigger. >> please don't make me do this. >> i know how hard this is for you but if you care about me at all, you'll pull the trigger. >> i'm sorry, i can't. >> pull the trigger, damn you! >> the commercial breaks in that show were almost welcome so that you could catch your breath. >> "24" was really the first binge show, if you think about it. there were a lot of people in the later years of "24" that would only buy the dvds. >> you think he'll come after you? >> yes. >> and a lot of the subtleties and complexities, it's a, my god, this is blowing my mind, i can see it because i just watched three in a row.

>> i think "lost" is the first huge cinematic tv show i saw. i remember gathering at a friend's house to watch. and it was long enough ago and the internet was still young enough and social media was i mean -- it was what, friendster? >> j.j. abrams' ambition for the "lost" pilot was grandiose. he always talked about it as making a movie every week. i think when we say the word "cinematic," what we really mean is opening it up a little more but also the ambition of an action set piece. j.j. was very aggressive. he was like, if you want me to do this pilot you're going to need to give me the resource in order to do it and i want to shoot it as a movie, and then we have to keep that bar up.

>> you start off, you think, this is just a survival drama. here's these people, the plane is crashed, how are they going to get by, how are they going to find food, et cetera? >> we hunt. >> and on top of that, there's this whole mystery, where are we, why can't we get a rescue signal, why is there a polar bear, what is going on here? >> the show averages more than 15.5 million viewers each week and spawned countless web locations where millions of avid fans can obsess. >> the fan base is saying, when are you going to answer these mysteries? personally i started feeling hamstrung story-wise almost instantly, because we had to do 25 hours of "lost" in the first season. so we started communicating to abc, we're going to run out of flashback stories. >> call it, jack. >> you call it. >> and abc was adamant in saying, no, like the show is a hit show, people love the

flashbacks, don't worry, you guys are great at it, just keep it up. >> you okay, freckles? >> at the beginning of the third season of the show, we had our characters locked in cages. and i think looking back on it now, damon and i are like, that's metaphorically how we felt, we felt we were locked in cages. >> around halfway through the third season, abc says, okay, we will let you end the show. we're like, yes, thank god. they said, after ten seasons. >> "desperate housewives" and "lost" launched the same year. it was a huge boost for the network. they had a huge show that everybody was talking about. >> in truth, i spent the day as i spent every other day, quietly polishing the routine of my life until it gleamed with perfection. >> i had a lot to say about women who go into the iconic roles of wife and mother and are unfulfilled. >> i think the good news it brought is women who are not perfect, who are not young, are

viable. and the fan base was amazing. there were t-shirts, i remember going into a store and there was >> are you saying i'm a bad mother? >> i'm gabbi. i am susan. i am bre. >> are you at a bar? >> we stood on the shoulders of those who came before. strong women characters in television, but in the wake of "desperate housewives." a lot more shows with older women came on the air. >> what you doing? >> locked myself out. naked. >> oh. >> and then i fell. so how are you? geico... (harmonica interrupts)

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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. >> there's an old showbiz you got to get off the stage before somebody says you should get off the stage.

>> endings are hard in general. and i think the sopranos was able to accomplish this thing that everybody in television is trying to accomplish. do something that no one has ever seen before. tony is meeting the family at a restaurant and we're listening to a journey song and watching as one by one the family members come in and there's these sinister people lurking around. >> you were wondering is is tony going to survive this. what was going to happen? >> you're cutting to the meadow, parking a car. all these things that are completely normal, but they are with this dread.

>> nothing is happening. they are enjoying a family meal listening to journey. and it's building and it's building. >> the long black which everybody said i lose my hbo signal. i actually thought was kind of like the chord at the end of sergeant pepper in which nine pianos just hit this long major bong and it goes on and on and on and on and on and on. that black was like what the series needed in order to communicate the fact that it is now officially over. >> as for the creator, he got whacked in the headlines. he got whacked by "the new york post" cartoonist who showed fans getting whacked and chase got whacked online. >> three or four days later we

were in new york talking to a couple television critics about how amazing it was and they were like, oh, there's a lot of controversy about the finale. some people just absolutely hate it. the whole cut to black. it's pretentious. they are discussing whether he's alive or dead and those are all the things that make it brilliant. right then we realized that we're completely and totally [ bleep ]. >> if you've been fortunate enough to be successful, they have a long ride with you. and the viewer has a through line for every character and the show, but you could never possibly have. >> you know i love you, right? more than anything. >> of course, honey. >> it is a fool's errand to try to please anyone but yourself when you're writing a series finale.

>> finales have become increasingly more important. if you don't do a really good finale to a really good series, the series can sort of lose its luster. the show is actually even enhanced a little bit. >> the end of "six feet under" has the daughter just driving away in the car and music starts to play. and she looks up in the rear view mirror so she's look iing backwards. but then the show looks ahead. ♪

>> everybody died. and i thought it was brilliant. >> the work on tv is as good as any work that's on a big screen. and so that hierarchy of film and television i think has been changed dramatically. partially because of the great work that people did at hbo and also because of the work they did at a lot of other places. >> you can't sit there. >> that's where sheldon sits. >> et he can't sit somewhere else? >> no, in the winter that seat is close enough to the radiator so he's warm yet not so close that he sweats. in the summer it's in the path of a cross breeze created by windows there and there. he can still talk to everybody with us not so wide that the.

picture looks distorted. >> perhaps there's hope for you after all. we are at a historic of the likes of which i never thought i'd see in my lifetime. >> we don't know the outcome of yesterday's vote. >> sometimes it seems we share a continent, but not a country. >> today thousands of lives were suddenly end ed by evil, despicable acts of terror. >> the world before 9/11 looks different than the world after nen >> every nation has a choice to make. in this conflict there's no neutral ground. . >> the facts show that saddam hussein and his regime are concealing weapons of mass destruction. >> in