can still talk to everybody and yet not so wide at the picture looks distorted. >> perhaps there's 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'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 as the series that will change tv. it's directed by david lynch. >> david lynch was a filmmaker known for his taste in the eccentric and memorable. the idea that he would do television in the '90s was crazy. >> do you watch much of it? >> i like the idea of television, but i'm too busy to 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. >> mulder, 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'd 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. >> 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 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.

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>> 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. ♪ 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. ♪ slap on some cologne ♪ i'm 85 and i wanna go home ♪ ♪ just got a job ♪ as a lifeguard in savannah ♪ ♪ i'm 85 and i wanna go home ♪ ♪ dropping sick beats, they call me dj nana ♪ ♪ 85 and i wanna go don't get mad. get e*trade, kiddo.

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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 asshole. >> 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 other people making television. "homicide" is one of them. ♪ shell me with questions all night ♪ ♪ i'm living in a danger zone >> "homicide: life on the street" was really innovative in terms of its style. it used music in ways that advanced the narrative and 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 mic 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 & 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 & 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 & 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 & 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 michael's reflection of experiences as a medical student. >> you need a large in case they're bleeding. do you know how to start an i.v.? >> 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. >> that would be the fastest way. what do you think? >> you're the attending. >> there was so much information

coming at you that i think it made the experience feel as if you had to watch it in the same way that you'd watch a film. you had to stay involved in it 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 flat line, it's defib. another line of 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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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 circulates here in hollywood. >> we enter into the television news soap opera. >> a story of basic instincts, anger and fear. >> i was scared and i just wanted him to leave me alone. >> and so, broadcast journalism loses its purity and becomes much more shoddy and sensationalistic. and then it all comes together with o.j. >> i'm larry carrol in los angeles. 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 a 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 that had vision during the hours that had traditionally been the time for soap operas. and oj was very much a soap opera. >> he was impeached by his own witness. >> stop her. >> excuse me t stand up and speak when it's your turn. >> no question best television was oj simpson.

>> the simpson trial finally winding to a close. >> we the jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant simpson not guilty of the crime of murder and violation of penal code section 187 a. >> the verdict of the oj simpson trial viewed by 150 million people. it's more people than watch presidential election returns. >> that's crazy. >> because there was trial footage every day, cnn saw its audience increase like five times. the success of cnn was not lost on other people. and so there were competing forces coming into play. >> in light of this, we've reached this moment when they can firmly announce starting of a fox news channel. >> unfortunately with cable news and the ability or the need to be on the air 24/7, when you try

to get as many eyeballs at possible at one time to gravitate toward those stories that are sensational, you know, it brought us the ability to go too far. >> is the jean bonnet media service. >> here's where the fear comes into it, larry, it's the fear that says gosh if we don't cover it big time, our competition is, and first thing is to last. if we are going to survive we have to do it. >> what you also see is a whole army of commentators, people who make their business talking about the news. >> what i say is what we should do is we should bomb his capability of producing oil. take out his refineries. his stations. his wealth. >> they don't have any capability. >> they are certainly selling oil. >> that makes good journalism.

but they became much more preoccupied by profits. much cheaper someone in your studio pontificating than reporters nout field reporting. >> i don't know if any of this is crew, but what i heard is the father went down, opened the base room room, which the fbi had bypassed. >> every single sentence on cnn perhaps on cnbc, on fox, begins with the words i think. but after a while, people get confused by what is speculation, by what is inu endo and what is fact, and as far as the viewer is concerned, be very careful of ub substantiated information created with big hype. >> let's continue onto bed. >> can we see a real movie? promise? >> promise. >> mom, are we still going?

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wherever you are. head to xfinity.com/stream to start watching. simple to rent, easy to buy, awesome to go. now with 150 channels that might be available in the near future. >> there are more choices than ever before. and it's a tough job. you have to try and get a sense of what is the audience going to really make attachment to. >> in the '90s cable was coming on strong, so we had to examine who are we going to be. well, we wanted to be smart, sophisticated comedy. >> six months ago, i was living in boston. my wife had left me, which was

very painful. then she came back to me, which was excruciating. >> well, you know i thought fraiser was dead with cheers. but what we thought we built an audience and great potential for building out the character to another place. >> fraiser was kind of like one act plays. >> mother and i moved here when i was a small boy after the -- tragic death of my father. i kept the pain of that loss buried deep within me like a serpent coiled within a damp cave. okay. that's it. >> we always assumed the audience was smarter than most other people d and we played to that. >> she is just unschooled like lisa due little. she will be ready for a ball in no time. >> leave it to you to put the

pig back in pig thank you. >> kelsey grammar played pomp posty like no one you ever seen and got huge acts. >> what's taking so long. >> but i am analyzing my options unlike your ring and a broach i like to plan a strategy like a general leading his troops into battle. >> check mate, shares cuff. >> and the emmy goes to fraiser. >> fraiser. >> fraiser. >> we were lightning hot. and it was critical for us to be leading the way, not just following. ♪ ♪ >> friends is about that time in your life when your friends are

your family. >> wow. >> when david crane and i will i have had in new york, we were part of a group of six people. we were all attached at the hip and went everybody together and celebrated everything together. and there is that period where you are looking to be out there on your own, and the people you rely on are the ones who live down the hall. >> here we go. tip it. tip it. tip it. tip it. pivot. shut up. shut up. shut up. >> friends permeated the culture in a way that was really special. everybody was object cess wd the show and it became like which one of these characters are you. if you were a girl were you phoebo or monica or rachel. >> i'll tell you this puts me in a better mood. >> the kids that were watching the young audience saw a

lifestyle that was aspirational. 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 a aniston's hair. one of the things that made friends phenomenal is beyond the laughs they bond wd the characters. they were emotionally invested in ross and rachel's relationship. >> i can't live without you. >> okay. um, more clothes in the dryer. >> i was dropping my daughter off for sunday school at our temple, and literally my rabi 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.

>> guys, we don't have to watch this. >> yeah, we do. it's fun. >> where is chip? why isn't he here yet? >> he'll be okhere. take a chill pill. >> this seemed like a surprising way to get rachel to know how ross shows. >> i can't go to my own prom without my date. >> take her. she will wear my tucks. >> she won't want to go with me. >> he is thinking please don't let her see this. >> rachel, ready or not here comes your shining -- oh, no. >> bye. >> oh, dear. >> rossis 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, the

audience went insane. [ cheers and applause ] >> at the height of must see tv, thursday nights on nbc, 75 million americans watched thursday night. that was at the time one-third of the country. >> what is this stuff? >> this sweater is angora. >> well, it's wonderful. >> the machine that was nbc in the '90s for comedy was untouchable. >> you are not from around here, are you? >> it generated so much viewer ship and money and awards. >> we do not need this. >> this is the top of our wedding cake. >> it's not a scrapbook. it's a freezer. >> i think part of this chapter in television where we realized we were at the right place at the right time.

>> let's see how you like this naughty boy. >> oh my god. >> we certainly associate nbc of the '90s with having extremely successful sitcoms. but they weren't the only network that found their way to having some success. tgif was on abc on friday and it was their block of family oriented comedies. >> i can't take it. i need the cake. >> oh, michelle. >> it was not sophisticated television. but these were shows that people adored. >> [ laughter ] >> cbs. >> cbs was in a really bad spot. they are just fallen apart over the early part of the '90s and gone through a couple of different network executives. >> but then suddenly they had this hit with unknown comic. this was the year of seinfeld.

no hugging, no learning. and this was a show being made as it was produced in the era of the dick van dyke show. there was hugging. there was learning. >> i love you. >> if you work for me, your job was to go home, get in ha fight with your wife, and come back in and tell me about it. >> don't sleep on the couch. i just cleaned down there. >> in fact, the pilot i put in this true thing that happened to me wherein i sent my parents a gift for the holidays of the fruit of the month club. >> did you know you sent me ha box of percent from the place called fruit of the month? >> that's right. how are they? >> and my mother reacted as if i had sent her a box of heads from a murderer. >> why did you do this to me? >> oh, my god. >> i can't talk to you with this fruit in the happen. >> what is happening. >> what do you think we are,

invalids? we can't go out and get our own fruit? >> i tried to tell him. >> all right. i'm canceling the fruit club. >> the real story is where the real connection with your audience is. thank god all your families are crazy too. >> looks like we got the whole family together. >> yeah, it's dysfunction palooza. the cnn original series the '90s is brought to you by --

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host of the "the tonight show." johnny carson was the man that america said good night to for 30 years. and and my watch johnny decided 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 are still on top of your game plan. >> johnny carson retiring in the early '90s was a huge chunk where the ice shelf breaks off. something that's been there for centuries thousands of years sudsly is suddenly is no longer there. >> that's a major mark on an era like that. >> johnny told no one what he planned to do and we wrntd prepared. and that set off a game of musical chairs who would get the throne and there was only one

late night throne. >> jay leno had been carson's 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. that's true. since then he's had an affair, left his wife, run up a debt of several million dollars, so i guess he's going to be running as a democrat, huh. >> he wanted to stop the show and letter man was immediately following carson. and they had different styles. >> what is your name? >> i'm going to ask you to turn the cameras off. >> we wanted to drop off this basket of fruit. >> part of dave's thing was attacking authority. he liked that. >> stop the cameras. >> he needed a corporate bad guy to go up against. i was oftentimes that target zbli can hear this warren little field guy whining about not

putting his name on ts card. >> i could be on there. >> it was always letter man's dream to be the host of the "the tonight show." he idolized johnny carson, right fully so. >> the fate of nbc late night stars david letter man and jay leno. >> most people thought david letter man deserved it. but leno gave it. >> still has a bruised ego about the way the network waive erred in their support for him. >> when we found out that leno was going to get the "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? >> by all rights, david lett letterman should have taken over. but his agent took aggressive stand, we'll control all of late night, it's going to cost you a fortune and put our backs to the wall. >> i can only tell you that it's been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. and i hope i find something that i want to do and i think you will like and come back you'll be as gracious as inviting me into your home as you have been. i bid you a very heart felt good night. >> the "the tonight show" without johnny carson as regular

host made its debut. jay leno filled the shoes. >> gave us an attractive offer. >> letterman did place a call asking for his advice. johnny said if it was me, i would leave. and i think that advice was really the lynch pin. letterman always took johnny's advice. >> the late night wars are about to begin in ernest on television. david letterman is headed to cbs. >> cbs lured him over salary four times of jay leno giving him the thing he wanted was 11:30 shot. once they go head to head, one thing is clear, late night tv will never be quite the same. >> all of a sudden there is a talk show war. >> start up your remote controls. the late night race is about to begin. on monday david letterman's new

show on cbs, followed by a week later on chevy chase on fox, and a week later con nano brian on nbc. they do arsenio and night line. >> it become a crowded space and competition that much more difficult. >> third corner arsenio hall. some of it writers think arsenio cob the big loser in this free for all. >> when letterman came in, essentially dill lieutenanted arsenio strand 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 this. >> 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 gang busters and he was beating jay leno in the ratings. >> there are some people say that you blew it by picking leno to replace carson over letterman that was a big mistake. >> it was a shaky start. a really shaky first season start. >> well, it's true confessions time for actor hue grant who is trying hard to put recent encounter with hollywood prostitute behind him. >> when hue grant was an arrested it was big live action news. hue jackson was supposed to do the "the tonight show" that night. >> what the hell were you thinking? >> it all came together in that moment. and everyone saw it. and that's it. we were never number two again. >> hey, hey. >> for us, it was the fun experience.

hey, we got our own theater. unlimited budget. we have access to every star in the business who wants to do the show. >> somebody bring me the jaws of life. >> so i think going to cbs was heaven sent. it really was. >> good night everybody. your f. so you get what you want, without paying for things you don't. number 6. i know. where do i put it? in my belly. (vo) one family. different unlimited plans. starting at $40 per line on the network you deserve.

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in the mid 1990s if you look at the most watched cable, the top would be nick loadian. 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 have a kid watching cartoons, you have the dad watching sports, you had the mom watching lifetime, they were in their own separate universes watching television. >> by the time of the nifrnts mtv wasn't a music channel, they were having great success incorporated music and shows and programs that stood on their

own. >> yes. >> that was cool. >> certainly bevist and butthead established what mtv could be because it was about making fun of music videos, just like people in the audience were doing. >> check out his neck. >> yeah, like all these bones and stitches moving around. >> yeah. >> my manager would call me like, hey, you got this big bump on beavis and butthead last night. >> i sit there just like a doughnut watching these guys. >> that's what's it for. >>en a 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 h hideous. >> that's right. >> mtv has a detrimental damaging developmental effect on the sexuality, on the morality,

spirituality, maybe even 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 missi ms. ellen? >> yes. >> stay away from my man or i'll whip you. >> their success story is truth if you just stay true to yourself, you don't have to do anything else. >> people think, oh, you came and did the show, now you are big sell outs. the truth is we were sell outs to begin with. >> perhaps there is no stopping the corporate machine. >> i mean, we were sleeping at friend's houses, had no money, and then one fox executive had

seen a cartoon we had made in college and said make me another christmas video we can send out as a christmas card and he gave us 700 bucks and we made this short thing. >> i come seeking retribution. >> he's come to kill you because you are jewish, kyle. >> it went around the tv community like wildfire. >> score. >> it was the funniest thing you'd ever seen in your life. >> go get him. >> somebody showed me the short and i thought it was hysterical and i called and said get them in here right away. >> oh my god. they killed kenny. >> south park was able to be topical. >> your old pals. >> south park detests hipocrites. >> christians and republicans and nazis oh my. >> i'll legalize trimester

abortions for you. >> could you imagine back then that these people would ever get on network television or any kind of television? >> ha. >> it's a miracle. south park is a miracle. >> the early '90s hbo shows start to come into their own. >> have i always had these breasts? >> a lot of people want freedom. they don't want to go to the networks who are saying you can come to us where we'll make more money but you'll have content restricted. you can go to cable and not as many restrictions. not make as much money but freedom of expression. which most people work in these mediums want. >> some of the content truly was you can't get this anywhere else. >> here at fantasy makers only

limit on the kinds 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 ] the white house. like the grass won't be cut. this is powered up cows continues running through the white house basketball in the back. >> in the late '90s hbo was gaining ground for the series. >> by the '90s hbo had started to begin its explosion. >> when we started doing dream on, one of the things that hbo said to us was it's 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 a claim. >> you've watched letterman. you've watched leno. but what about larry, larry sanders that is, he's the tv alter ego of gary shand link. >> he wanted to do a show that deconstructed the kind of show that the "the tonight show" was. >> just pretend that you are talking to me until we are off the air so i don't seem weird. >> okay. blah blah. >> it was really cathartic. because in the world of the larry show there was a network. >> you want me to [ bleep ] so it became this fun house mirror thing where you can use thing from your misery or career as fodder. >> don't take this as a threat but i killed a man like you in korea, hand to hand. my boy doesn't want to do anymore commercials. >> larry sanders to me was,

aside from being a brilliant television show. >> can you say hey now. >> hey now. >> it was my every day life. i'm here for three good reasons. last show, big ratings, and movie coming out. >> ibm, bam, boom. >> the larry sanders show was very unique in that it was very dead pan. and really ground breaking in its day. i think it made people really go, that's the level of work you may be able to do on a cable network. >> please do not flip around. come right back. hey now. >> well, you sound good. promise. promise. dad? yea, we're going. use the card that gets you miles closer to your promise. and start something priceless.

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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 it was one of the first dramas to really get into the teenager's point of view. >> do you have protection? >> of course. that's always been my problem, lots of protection but nothing to protect. >> i wanted to do a tv series that was going to be relevant to teenagers. >> money outside. >> 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 them down, have a kid do parent talk? >> no, you can't talk to parents on that mature level. >> if the '60s had beaten mania, the '90s had 90210. and when they had youth quake, that was assign it was focused on these young people. my so-called life was like the punk rock version of 90210. it was ernest but not at all saccharin. it didn't have easy answers. it showed teen heart break in hawaii that was staggeringly real for the time. >> how do you like this? >> like what? >> how you are. >> 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 of who you are supposed to be. >> you know how sometimes the last sentence 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 io you $30. >> my so-called life was not necessarily the show that the cheer leerd or the captain of the football team were watching. they were still watching 90210. but it was the people who maybe didn't recognize themselves in 90210 who felt now i recognize myself. >> sex change? >> exactly. i don't want to be a girl. i just want to hang with girls. >> rickey was out on the show eventually. and that was a story line that was treated with great sensitivity. >> i belong no where, with no

one. that i don't fit. >> i mean, it was so deeply felt. it was saying to the viewer things that you have gone through, they matter. >> abovey the vampire slayer depicted high school in a similar way to my so-called life except rather than feeling like hell, it actually was hell. high school was literally built on top of hell. and so all of these creatures would come up that she would have to fight. >> frthree in one night. >> and it was great metaphor for adolescence and all the demeons you have to say. >> one of the story lines it was very popular and much talked about was where she had sex with

her i would frie boy her boyfriend for the first time and he becomes evil. >> in order to save the world, literally, she knows she has to send him to hell. >> buffy knows in an instant angel has become good enough. so she has this moment of reckoning that she has to decide to do this or not and she makes the sacrifice to push him back into hell. >> the show was really working out on multiple levels. and 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 the characteristics on television. >> look, if are you a successful sales women in this city, you have two choices, you can bang your head on the wall and have a relationship or say screw it and have sex like a man. >> sex in the city was a huge success right from the start. very funny and very clever and very candid. >> our relationships the religion of the 90s? >> these are women who were making a good living, independent, single, and feeling their power. >> i said all of it. bad waiter. >> what do you tip for that? >> i wanted these women to be object feisting the men in a way that men objectified women. >> right here. my turn. >> oh, story. i have to go back to work. >> you didn't used to be able to discuss sex as sex on network

shows there never were people talking about organisms or organs or sex. >> okay, words are essential. tell me exactly how he worded it. we've been seeing each other fr a couple of weeks. i really like. tomorrow night after dinner i want us to have annal sex. >> these are women who share everything with each other and they are discussing what annal sex means. goes up there there is a going to be a shift in power. either he'll have the upper hand or you will. >> should she do this or not. >> this is a physical expression that the body was designed to experience. and by the way it's fabulous. >> i went to smith. >> took a turn on the relationship between the women and telling the story of them as really soul mates together as well. >> you did the right thing by 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. >> okay. night night. >> the show had a message of freedom and liberation especially for women that really resonated. i think sex in the city helped make hbo a place where people would think i wonder what they are doing next.

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closed captioning brought to you by -- 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 a big chew and breakfast club. >> but ultimately decided the idea of a show with writers and actors would just be too expensive for them. >> the real world i guess this is what this is supposed to be. >> so we essentially applied all the drama rules to documentary to get what we call a document. >> kind after social experiment to watch what happens when

people stop being polite and getting real. >> do you sell drugs? why do you have a beeper? >> haven't seen anything like that on television. honest discussion about race. >> i can try as much as i can to deal with you. but ignorance is ignorance. and stupidy is that. black, blue, white, whatever. >> this becomes big reality tv. all we have to do is take cameras and put them on people and we'll get great stuff. you had the next season in l.a. a lady who gets abortion and goes up to the doctors door. by the third season in san francisco, you had a young man dealing with aides. >> hiv positive. >> when he told me he was hiv positive, i was like no i like this guy and i don't want him to suffer. >> it was such a triumph that pedro had the courage at his age

for someone to come out with aides. on 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. and 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 and frustration, that there is something bigger than that. >> aides has claimed a young man who made an enormous impact of generation of young americans, zamora died in miami at age 22. >> i'm glad i got to know him. i'm grateful his work is remembered today. an i hope you enjoy and learn from pedro's life of compassion and fear less ness. >> you have to credit the real world of helping the acceptance of the lbgt community. because there weren't many portrayals of gay people period at this point.

>> her name is marla. i'm seeing a woman. >> in the '90s, gay characters were always secondary or third. there was never a gay character that was the lead of a show. >> so you want to go look at apartments tomorrow? >> good idea. >> ellen degeneres the comedian was about to come out as a lesbian. >> murphy, on the cover of. >> and she does it on magazine, yep, i'm gay. but they decide the character will also come out. >> it's reprehensible that abc now owned by disney is going to feature as ellen coming out of the closet. it won't belong before god knows what, bees tealty and who knows. >> we were getting bomb threats. disney was 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, 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 brave es 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. broadcast was accompanied by coming out parties all across 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. >> brothers and sisters, i love this. tell me lazy. tell me slow. tell me i'm crazy. maybe i know. can't help that man of mine. >> take it. >> ♪ i'm gay >> will and grace was a great show in helping a mainstream straight community connect to the gay community. >> i think i can fix this thing with your landlord, but it will end ugly. >> play hardball, baby. throw them low and inside. he's crowding the plate. >> sports, you are losing me. >> i figured 25% of the country

wouldn't watch the show. just based on the fact that we had two gay menon it. >> give it to me. >> but if we could make below that will and grace would get together. >> will, i told you, you live with a hetero long enough, you are going to catch it. >> maybe we could get people to watch thinking that would happen, knowing it would never happen. >> suffering. 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 are 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. >> catholic girl gone bad? and karen what are you supposed to be? >> the best feeling i get is it when people come up and say thank you for all you do for the gay community and thank you for playing 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. what, really? craig and shelia broke up!? no, craig!? what happened? i don't know. is she okay? ♪ craig and sheila broke up! craig and sheila!? ♪ as long as office gossip travels fast, you can count on geico saving folks money. craig and sheila broke up! what!? fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. than psoriatic arthritis. as you and your rheumatologist consider treatments,

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what was happening at the end of the '90s was audiences started to look towards television for what they had only found before in feature film. >> victory is mine. victory is mine. great day 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 showed up to watch "west wing," they watched "the mcneil 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've got to tell you something, toby. you're hot when you're like this. >> '90s television was the first wave of what we now have, remarkably specific niche programming. ♪ >> "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 a-brewing. >> 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 '90s, the jig is starting to be up for the networks. basically, quality migrates to cable. >> "oz" comes on in '97. and it's set in this fictional penitentiary. wow. what a strange show that was. >> in "oz," sometimes the things you can't touch are more real than the things you can. for instance, here, hatred, fear, loneliness are more real to me than a shank and a soul. >> it was jaw-droppingly 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" just is one of those shows that was a benchmark change. 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 -- >> what the [ bleep ] you doing? what the [ 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. >> oh, come on. he's like a father to me. >> just make sure nothing happens to him. >> that character in that show was a great inspiration to a great many shows that came after it including one that i worked on. >> you know what i want, tony? i want those kids to have a father. >> they got one, this one, me. tony soprano. and all that comes with it. >> oh, you prick. >> the '90s is a mixed decade of tv. 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 call the neurosurgery 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. evolved. >> what are you talking about? >> had you thinking a little more outside the box in terms of what people might want to watch. >> you're out of order, he's out of order. this whole trial is sexy. >> after ten years of the '90s, we had a whole new television world that could take us anyplace we wanted and even places we had never imagined. >> 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? >> hey, hey, they're running. see? this is the brilliance of the show. i say always keep them running. all the time running, run. run. run, yasmine, run like the wind. ♪ it's a time of enormous it's juicy, exciting stuff. >> why did we start the business? >> any tool will bring out of the best and worst in us. and television has been in there. >> they don't pay me enough to deal with animals like this. people are no longer embarrassed to admit they watch television. >>