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tv   The Eighties  CNN  September 2, 2018 12:00am-1:00am PDT

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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. >> hello.
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>> people used to say i was there. and now people say i watch it on television. ♪ turmoil. ♪ ♪
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slowly but surely, the 1970s are disappearing. the 1980s will be upon us. and what a decade it is coming up. happy new year! >> as we begin the '80s in the television world, the landscape was, on any given evening, nine out of ten people watching only one of three networks. >> more than 30 million people are addicted to it. social critics are mystified by its success. what is it? it's television's primetime prairie pot boilers "dallas." >> a move like that will destroy all of ewing oil and ruin our family name. >> i assure you, a thought like that never crossed my mind. >> brother or no brother, whatever it takes, i'll stop you from destroying ewing oil. >> "dallas" established new ground in terms of a weekly one-hour show that literally captivated america for 13 years. >> "dallas" is a television show which is rooted in the 1970s and one of the crazy things that emerges is this character, j.r.
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ewing, as a pop phenomenon. >> tell me, j.r., which slut are you going to stay with tonight. >> what difference does it make? it's got to be more interesting than the slut i'm looking at right now. >> he was such a delicious villain. everyone was completely enamored by this character. >> at this point, so many people were watching television that you could do something so unexpected that it would become news overnight. >> who's there? [ gunshots ] >> the national obsession in 1980 around who shot j.r. it's hard to imagine how obsessed we all were with that question. but we were. >> who shot j.r. is about as ideal a cliffhanger as you possibly could get. >> who did shoot j.r.? we may never get the answer to that question. the people who produce that's program are going to keep us in suspense for as long as they possibly can. >> we shot j.r., and then we broke for the summer. then coincidentally the actors
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went on strike, and it delayed the resolution, and it just started to percolate through the world. >> i remember going on vacation to england that summer and that's all that people were talking about there. >> well, we know you don't die. i mean you couldn't die. >> we don't know that. >> how could you die? you couldn't come back next season. >> that's what i meant. i couldn't come back, but the show could still go. >> but you wouldn't. what is that show without j.r.? >> that's what i figure. >> i guess if you don't know by now who shot j.r., you probably do not care. but last night some 82 million americans did, and they watched the much touted "dallas" episode. it could become the most watched television show ever. >> who shot j.r. is a reflection of old-fashioned television. it gathers everybody around the electric fireplace which is now the television set. >> one special american television program. critics said it transcends in popularity ever other american
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statement about war. and something special happened today to mobile army surgical hospital 4077 that will touch millions of americans. it was the kind of event that would grab the world's breath. the end of the korean war. the television version "mah." >> it's been an honor and a privilege to have worked with you. and i'm very, very proud to have known you. >> there were those landmark times when shows that had been watched through the '70s and into the '80s, like "mah" had -- into to the 80s, like "mash" had its final episode. and we were all sad to see them go. >> i'll miss you. >> i'll miss you. a lot. >> all over the country, armies of fans crowded around television sets to watch the final episode and to bid "mash" farewell.
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>> the finale of "mash" was unprecedented. 123 million people watched one television program at the same time. >> you know, i really should be allowed to go home. there's nothing wrong with me. >> when we ended the show, we got telegrams of congratulations from henry kissinger and ronald reagan. the size of the response and the emotional nature of the response that we were getting was difficult for us to understand. >> who shot j.r. and the last episode of "mash" are the last call for the pre-cable world of television. it's like they are the last time that that huge audience will all turn up for one event. >> all right. tv is growing up with cable and different genres, the fundamental thing that cable did, and the vcr or remote control did, it gave consumers
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more choice. and everything was about to change.
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thomas magnum? the private investigator? you are probably wondering about the goat. let me drop off my friend and then we will talk. >> when we entered the 8 yeahs,
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a lot of one-of hour dramas were popular. after "mash" went off the air, there was not a single sitcom in the top ten. first time it had happened in tv history had. the prevailing feeling was that the sitcom was dead. the nbc programming chief said that reports of the sitcom's death is greatly exaggerated. >> time and time again, when you look at history, when someone is counting a form out, that's the form of programming that leads to the next big hit. ♪ >> so 1984, the "cosby" show comes. the "cosby" show stands apart from everything that he has done. >> mom, i wanted my eggs scrambled. >> coming right up.
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>> they talked about parenting. previous to that, kids were cool and the parents were idiots and this says, the parents were this charge and that was something new. >> instead of acting disappointed, because i'm not like you, maybe you can just accept who i am and love me anyway because i'm your son. >> that's the dumbest thing i have heard in my life. >> you know, it helps the casting in television and the kids were great. >> if you were the last person on the earth, i still wouldn't tell you. >> you don't have to tell me what you did. tell me what they are going to do to you. >> unlike every other show on tv, it's showing an upper middle class black family. it was not "all in the family kwtsz, they were not tackling deep issues. that's okay, the fact that they existed was a deep issue. >> the decade was waiting for something real. unless it's real, it doesn't
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seem to move anybody. if someone is feeling something, you get to the heart and the mind, if you can hit the hearts and minds, you have yourself a hit of. >> how was school? >> school, dear, i brought home two children that may or may not be ours. >> cosby's show, brought a tremendous audience to nbc. and that was a bridge to us. i mean, our ratings went way up. ♪ ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ where everybody knows your name ♪ >> even the theme song to "cheers," put you in a good mood. hey, everybody. >> normal! >> norman. >> what is shaking, norm? >> all four cheeks and a couple of -- >> not only did you know who everyone was by the end of the pilot, you wanted to come back and see what was going to happen. it's like, all you have to do is watch ask once and you will love these people, these are universal characters and the
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humor worked on so many levels. >> i was up until 2:00 in the morning finishing off -- >> i hope he thanked you for it of. >> you have to create a community that people are identifying with. and "cheers" gives you that community. >> boy, i tell you, i have always wanted to sky dive, i never had the guts. >> what did it feel like? >> i imagine it's a lot like sex, hey, i don't have to imagine what sex is like, i have plenty of sex, and plenty of this too. why don't you get off my back, okay. >> in the first episode, there was a rather passionate annoy answer. it was what? something is going on here. >> a really intelligent woman would see your line of bs a mile away. >> i have never met an intelligent woman that i would want to date. >> on behalf of the intelligent women around the world, may i just say, whoosh. >> we saw what ted and shelley
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had together, we said, oh, no, we have to do this relationship. >> ted and i understood what they were writing right away. >> if you will admit that you are carrying a little torch for me, i will admit that i'm carrying a little one for you. >> well, i am carrying a little torch for you. >> well, i'm not carrying one for you. >> diane knew how to tease sam, sam knew how to tease diane and i guess we know how to tease the audience. >> this incredible chemistry between the two of them ignite today show. and that drove the show for if first five years. >> i'm devastated, i need something to blast me in to sweet oblivion. >> how about a boilermaker? >> how about a mimosa. >> we had the luck to rotate a cast, every time we put somebody
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in, they were explosions. >> there was something very special about that setting, those characters, that i never got tired of writing that show. >> sophisticated surveys, and test audiences, all of those things separate winners from losers and made miss-course corrections, can you not cut all comedies from the same cookie cutter, all you can hope is that every night turns out like thursday. >> yo, angela! >> next! >> how rude! >> it's quick, i will give him that. >> all of television said, oh, well, maybe the sitcoms are alive again. and that is all that it took. it took one success. >> a few years from now, something new may tempt the people. whatever gets hot for a season
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all right, that is it, let's roll. let's be careful out there. ♪ let's be careful out there when quality emerges, the phrase, "too good for tv" is heard. "hill street blues," seems to deserve that phrase. >> "hill street blues," was a
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change in the entire you history of tv. >> we had all scene a documentary about cops, and had a handheld in the moment quality that we were enamored of. >> the minute you looked at it, it looked different. it had a mood to it. you could almost smell the stale coffee. >> we didn't want to do a standard cop show, where you know, you had a crime, you got your two cops, you go out and you catch the bad guy and you sweat them and he confesses and that is it. cops had personal lives that impact their behavior in pro found ways. >> well, what about it? is he here or elsewhere? >> don't get excited, counselor, we are working on it. >> how is it for logic, if he is not here or elsewhere, he is lost. you lost my client. >> i never said that. >> never in my life have i
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listened to so much incompetent. find my client, or i swear, i will have you up on charges. >> there would be on going arcs for characters that played out over seasons, and for some, over the series. no one had done it in an hour long dramatic show. >> these past four months, i have missed you. i had to find that out. come home, pizza man. >> i think, in the past people had watched television passively, and the one thing that i think we did set out to be were provocateaurs. >> you fill it out. >> what is the matter with you, man? >> they don't pay me enough to deal with animals like this. the first thing they see is a white face and they want to doom you. >> let me tell you, it was a white finger that pulled the trigger, not a black one.
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>> it set a trend that the audience can accept the charact characters being deeply flaws even in a uniform. that was important to get across. >> we wanted to make a show that made you participate. made you pay attention. and i think that worked pretty well. >> and the winner is "had hill street blues." >> we had 21 nominations, and we went on to win eight emmys. and it put us on the map, literally, that's when people finally checked us out. >> programming chief of one of the networks used to say to me about shows like "hill street," what the american public wants and a cheeseburger and what you are trying to give them is a french delicasy, and your job is to keep shoving it down their throat until they say after a while, maybe that does not taste bad and maybe believe and order it themselves when they go to the restaurant. >> the success of "hill street
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blues," influenced everything after it and you saw shows like "st. elsewhere". >> do you know what people call this had place? a place you want not want to send your mother-in-law. >> it was pro motorcycled as hill street in the hospital. >> you give your patients the wrong antibiotics, you write the worst progress notes. you are pathetic. >> the doctor needs you right away. >> i'm sorry. >> st. elsewhere broke all the rules and built new rules. >> the blood bank called and they ran a routine panel on the pint of blood, the t-cell count was off. >> they had tragic things happen to the characters there's real heart ache in the lives, and you felt for them. >> i have aids? >> television at it's best is a mirror of society at the moment. >> it challenged you as a actor,
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and the audience to think, that the stuff they gave you was extreme and what they did, whether they were dealing with aids or having one of their main doctor characters raped in a prison. they tackled a lot of difficult subjects. >> st. elsewhere was stretching the medium. >> as the '80s got serious, there was more drama, they were getting a little bit more ed adventerous with the types of shows. >> what are you doing in. >> what i should have done last night. >> stop that, david. >> i'm calling the police, david. hell hello, police? >> the networks realized there was an audience looking for something less predictable. >> "moonlighting" said i see the
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formulas that we have had. let's do different things. >> hello. >> hello. >> we are looking pale today, who have we here? >> i don't know. >> "moonlighting," was a experimental show. they had a musical episode, they tried a lot of different stuff. >> i don't give the flying fig on the lines on my face, or the altitude of my kaboose. >> well i'm at a lot, i don't know what a flying fig is. >> that's okay, they do. >> there's no trouble on the set. there's no trouble on the set. >> we have a volatile relationship. there's a hate/love element to it. >> easy come, easy go, ha. >> glenn container kept them apart for a long time and bravo to him. >> what they did, they took the
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sam and diane dynamic from "cheers," and escalated it. moonlighting was do they want to? and cheers was will are they or won't they? >> i never wanted you. >> yeah, right. >> does entertaining mean at some point stopping the tease of dave and matty? do they get together at some point? >> i hope so, they get together this year. >> people watching "moonlighting" for years were waiting for that moment. your emotions were there, when be my baby starts playing, it was a perfect storm of romance. ♪ ♪ ♪ the night we met ♪ i knew i needed you so
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a lot of people used to say, i was there. and now, people say they watch it on television. >> it just a lot of excitement connect to sports in the '80s, you used to have to depend on the last five minute hads in the local news cast. there was not enough. give us a network of sports. >> there's one place to go for
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all the names and games making sports news. espn "sportscenter." >> what happens in the 1980s, sports becomes a tv show and what are they built around? characters. >> you can't be serious, man. you cannot be serious. you guys are the pits of the world, you know that? >> mcenroe the perfect villain, or the cool swede -- cool swede never giving emotion away. what tennis wants is getting their best playing over and over again in the final. that's what we wanted to tune in to over and over and over again. >> oh, goodness me. mid court and three match points to martina -- >> this man, has a smile that lights up a television screen from here to maine. and there is magic johnson, this kid from michigan and larry
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bird, a guy that worked carrying trash, one plays for the los angeles lakers and the other for the boston celtics . it's a great story. >> off the mark. and several chances and here is larry bird, going down the court. >> magic johnson, leading the attack. >> look at the pass. oh, what a show. >> oh! >> when had the championship games are in prime time, and people are paying attention to that, television feeds in to those rivalries, and makes them bigger than they have been before. i dare to challenge somebody with primitive skills, they are just as good as dead. >> every fight was like a ax murder, when he fought, the electricity, you could feel it watching it on tv. mike sp nimpt -- mike spinks, i all over. mike tyson has won it. >> not a lot of juniorer high school kids can dunk.
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especially -- >> everyone tries now of. everybody tries. gli think that he is starting -- >> i think he is starting to transcend the sport and become a public figure. >> he is the athlete that all of them want to do, be a brand. tv turns them in to worldwide brands. >> the bulls win! >> athletes in the 80s, became part of an ongoing group of people that we cared about. we had an enormous pent up demand for sports. >> cable television is growing, it's estimated that it will go in to 1 million more u.s. households this year. >> with cable television suddenly offering a bunch of different choices, the audience bifurcated. >> i want my hmtv.
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>> i want my mtv. >> a new concept is born, the best of tv combined with the best of radio. this is it. welcome to m temperatu-- mtv, m television, the first stair yoerks video music channel. >> music television, what a concept is. mtv was pow, in your face. you were not going to turn us off. >> mtv did nothing but play current music videos all day long. so, let me get it straightst. you turn on the tv and it's like the radio? >> i'm martha quinn and the music will continue nonstop on mtv music television, the newest component of your stereo system. >> when mtv launched, a generation was launched. 18-24 year olds were saying, i want my mtv, my mtv videos and mtv fashion. >> mtv was the first network focused on the youth market and
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a huge influence because they understand each other the audience and the network. >> mtv had a giant impact, visually and musically on every part of the tv culture that came next. >> freeze, miami vice. >> friday nights on nbc are different this season, thanks to "miami vice," it's a show want old theme and a lot of new twists. described by a critic as containing flashes of brilliance, shot entirely in location on south miami, the story is centered around two undercover vice cops. >> i don't know how it's going to work, tubbs, you are not up my alley, style and persona wise. heaven knows i'm no box of candy. >> what is interesting about the screen play for miami vice, it was not that. very much the approach was okay, they call this a television series, but we are going to make one hour movies every week.
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>> okay, stand by. >> action. >> you were just describing the show as sort of a new wave cop show. >> yeah, it's a cop show for the 80s. we use a lot of mtv images and rock music to help describe the mood and feeling of our show. in a lot of ways, you don't get "miami vice" without mtv, "miami vice" was a long music video. music was a big part of the show. >> it was a great lure of using the music that everyone was listening to, instead of the scoring of the per. sfo ♪ i can feel it coming in the air tonight ♪ >> it was not afraid to let a scene drag out. a car ride could be a four minute phil collins song. and it was. >> taking a series like "miami vice" and rock and roll with it,
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in recent years, it seems that television has become a kind of electronic confessional. where guests are willing to expose painful and sometimes embarrassing aspects of their lives quite readily to millions of viewers. >> at the beginning of the decade, we get the dominance of phil donahue, and that's sort of a maturation of women's issues, he seemed to talk to them in the audience, he seemed to talk to them through the tv screen. >> i'm glad you called. kiss the kids.
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we'll be back in just a moment. >> if you look at the body of work we've had, you're going to see the '80s there. >> i'm not here to say you're wrong, but let's understand this. when you bring a moral judgment without knowing them, against them for the way that they look, they feel that confirms the reason for their rebellion, if that's what you want to call it. >> he really believed that daytime television needed to talk about the ideas we were thinking about, the issues we were concerned about. >> i don't want to characterize his question, but why don't you get this fixed instead of doing this screwy stuff? >> there's not a single recorded case in history of any transsexual that ever, through psychological treatment, changed. it has never happened yet. >> and we were putting very important people on the program. all kinds of people. gay people. people going to jail. people running for office. sometimes the same people.
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it was a magic carpet ride. >> you really do paint a very, very grim picture of the sitting president of the united states. >> let me just say this, i think he's probably the laziest president i've ever seen. >> the audience for phil donahue built and built and built and led the way to oprah. ♪ >> hello, everybody. >> oprah has a particularly magical combination of her own background, her own experience, her own incisive mind, and empathetic spirit. >> thank you. i'm oprah winfrey, and welcome to the very first national "oprah winfrey show." >> i was surprised at the rocket pace that oprah took off. because it took us a lot longer. the donahue show rearranged the
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furniture, but oprah remodeled the whole house. >> there are a lot of people out there watch hog really don't understand what you mean when you say, we're in love. i remember questioning my gay friend, you mean you feel about him the way i feel about -- it is kind of a strange concept for a lot of people to accept. >> oprah was connecting with people in a way that no one had on tv before. and it was really special to see. >> did you know that for the longest time i wanted to be a fourth grade teacher because of you. >> my, i was not aware of inspiring anyone. >> i think you did exactly what teachers are supposed to do, they create a spark for learning. it's the reason i have a talk show today. >> oprah winfrey now dominates the talk show circuit, both in the ratings and popularity. >> i want to use my life as a source of lifting people up. that's what i want to do. that's what i do every day on my show. we get accused of being tabloid television and sensational and so forth, but what i really
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think we do more than anything else is we serve as a voice to a lot of people who felt, up until perhaps my show or some of the others, that they were alone. >> that is what 67 pounds of fat looks like. i can't lift it. it is amazing that i can't lift it but i used to carry it around every day. >> there's nothing more endearing to an audience than to have that kind of honesty and humility and courage on the part of a host. and that, i think, has a lot to do with her power. >> it feels like i could do some good here, and i really do think that show does a lot of good. >> american television is drowning in talk shows. but it's never seen anything like morton downey jr. >> i want to tell you -- >> sit down and shut up! >> other competitors come and take the television talk show in two different directions. so you see the phenomenon of daytime television shows becoming less tame and more
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wild. >> the '80s brought a lot of belligerence to television. whether it was morton downey jr. being the offensive caricaturish person that he was, or geraldo. he did his own outlandish things. >> stay with us, ladies and gentlemen. we're going to get into the mind of another all-american boy who came under the influence of satanism and took part in a crime without passion or motive -- >> geraldo rivera takes the power of the talk show to a whole different level to put people on stage who hate each other and who will fight -- >> in the case of the temple and the church of satan, we have not had problems with criminal behavior. >> but when you hear story after story of people committing these wretched and violent crimes in the devil's name. >> the more tension there is, the more conflict and violence there is, the more the ratings go up. and the american people love to complain about it, but they also love to watch. >> geraldo rivera is back in a controversy tonight. rivera drew sharp criticism with his recent television special on
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devil worship. but today he's in a real free-for-all. >> i get sick and tired of seeing an uncle tom here trying to be a -- >> go ahead. >> sit down. >> hey, hold it. hold it. >> rivera suffered a broken nose but said the show will be broadcast later this month in its entirety. >> well, that's not something i would have done. but there was a lot of hypocrisy. one of the major magazines put the picture of geraldo getting hit with a chair on the cover, and the article said, isn't this awful, look what's happened to television. yet they couldn't wait to use it to sell their own magazine. >> let's go to the audience, all right? i want to speak to you guys. >> over the years, broadcasting has deteriorated. and now in this era of deregulation, it's deteriorating further.
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>> give people light, and they will find their own way. relax, america will survive the talk shows. ♪
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1968, the summer before junior high school and i don't mind saying i was a pretty fair little athlete. >> "the wonder years" was a guy in modern times looking back on his childhood. that in itself is not new, but "the wonder years" did it with the wit and with the music. it was brilliantly written and a great performance by that entire young cast. >> hey, steve -- looks like his baby brother and
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girlfriend have found each other. >> she's not my girlfriend. >> kevin arnold has to cope with all the timeless problems of growing up during one of the most turbulent times that we've known. >> kevin arnold is just like a regular kid except in the 1960s, and he's not really aware of many of the events. like in one of the episodes, the whole family is watching the apollo 8 take off, but i'm just sitting there trying to call a girl. >> the first episode of "the wonder years," anybody who saw it remembers the ending where the first kiss with winnie and kevin arnold. the song they play is "when a man loves a woman." that moment seemed so pure and so real. ♪ when a man loves a woman can't keep his mind on nothing else ♪ >> the 1960s is about rebellion, about being students. by the 1980s, it's time to grow up. and so they shave their beards
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give up their dashikis and put on power suits, a whole new notion. >> oh, the yuppies. last year the politicians were talking about winning their votes. now the young urban professionals and the rest of their baby boom generation are being wooed by advertisers and their agencies. >> by the '80s, it was pretty clear that the generation after the generation of the '60s may be embodied by alex keaton on "family ties," seemingly more interested in the corner office than the new jerusalem. >> you are a young man you shouldn't be worried about success. you should be thinking about hopping on a steamer and going around the world. >> the '60s are over, dad. >> thanks for the tip. >> you weren't laughing at michael j. fox's character for being too conservative. you were laughing at the parents for being too hopelessly liberal. >> what is this? i found it in the shower. >> that's generic brand shampoo. >> no! >> this is him.
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this is the guy i've been telling you about. this is everything you want in a president. >> the genius of "family ties," it allows a youthful reaganite that is focused on the future, focused on a critique of the '60s. >> michael j. fox as alex keaton really became the center of the show. and writers were smart enough to see that they had something special, and they wrote to that. >> it's not fair, alex. >> yeah, there is nothing you can do about it, jen. my advice to you is that you just enjoy being a child for as long as you can. i know i did. it was the best two weeks of my life. >> alex is a little bill buckley. the "wall street journal" is his bible. he has a tie to go with his pajamas. he is very conservative and very intense 17-year-old. >> the first thing the teacher will ask is what you did over the summer. a lot of kids will say i went to
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the zoo or i went to the beach or i went to a baseball game. what are you going to say? >> i watched the iran contra hearings. >> if mom and dad thought this generation was going to the dogs, think again. this is the generation that has discovered hard work and success. >> american culture is changing in the '80s. and in terms of television, there's a whole notion of demographic segmentation. >> networks were beginning to not be afraid to appeal to a very specific demographic. >> hey, handsome. look at that shirt. is that a power shirt or what? >> nice suit, alan. good shoulder pads. looking to get drafted by the eagles? >> 30-somethings said we're not going to have cops, lawyers or doctors. we're just going to be about people. >> what are we doing here, why did we start this business? >> to do our thing. but right now we have two wives, three kids, four cars, two mortgages a payroll. and that's life, pal. you be the breadwinner now. >> is that what i am?
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>> "30 something" is a very important show as you are going into this era of television being more introspective and more emotional. and some people weren't buying it. but for other people when they were talking about things like having kids and who is going to go back to work and some of these issues that hadn't been talked about a whole lot, it was important to people. >> i was so looking forward -- i was so looking forward to doing this. to be a grown-up for just an hour. >> in the beginning, there was talk of this being the yuppie show. and you mentioned it tonight. you said if there were a category for the most annoying show, this might win as well. >> what some people perceive as annoying has nothing to do with yuppie. i think yuppie is a word made up by demographers and advertisers to sell season. it doesn't have anything to do with what the show is. >> "30 something" was not a giant hit, but it was a niche hit. it attracted an enormously upscale group of advertisers. >> the network cared who was
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watching, not how many were watching. and that was more and more catching on in the '80s. >> the prosecution will ask you to look to the law, and this you must do. but i ask of you to look to your hearts as well. thank you. >> "l.a. law" was partly a classic lawyer show. but it was intertwined with their personal lives and different lawyers who were sleeping together and trying to get ahead. >> the reality level on that show was like a foot or two off the ground. and you're willing to go with that because it was a whole new spin on a law show. >> tell the truth. if you had to do it all over again and she walked into your office and she said, take my case, would you? >> well -- >> of course you would, because it is juicy, newsy, exciting stuff. >> it was really fun to take the "hill street blues" format and use it to frame an entirely different social and cultural
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strata with vastly different results. >> i wonder if i might engage with my client privately. >> certainly. >> what are you having for dinner tonight? >> i was planning on having you. >> okay, skip lunch. >> the formula had gotten established of how you can do a dramatic show, and yet still have an awful lot of fun. >> we didn't used to be able to accept that very easily in a tv hour. and even before the '80s were out, it is like, okay, i get it. so it is like, all right, what are the rules now? >> what are you doing? -- i think it is because they put more control in the hands of the producers, who have strong viewpoints and letting them do
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what they want to do. >> i think what "hill street blues", and "moonlighting" and the best television is, it sets itself apart by itsz voice. if you go out by a bunch of night riders, what are you but a vicious screen gang. >> this was a core group of brilliant people. >> the audience demands were changing. >> it's obvious that the tv has changed a lot. >> it's as though the audience was yearning for more stories about themselves. >> as the 80s and came to an end, everything changed. >> i think one of, when we look back at the 1980s, 10 and 20 years from now, we are going to be disgusted at the tv that you have just mentioned, the t-- on of the great things that is happening now and will happen
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increasingly is the -- is the replacement of rotten programming by news and entertainment programming. >> will it be rotten news? >> so far, most of the news, information on the networks has been surprisingly good. at least to me. surprisingly good. the america of john mccain has no need to be made great again because america was always great. >> powerful eulogies for the great john mccain had the his daughter along with former presidents, i their not so subtle statements about the current commander and chief. plus, the trump administration ending aid for palestinian refugees. israel operations the united states, the eu urging it to reconsider. and in a rare move, the saudi coalition admits that mistakes were made in last month's deadly air strike rare strike killing dozens of children in yemen.

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