radner had a great time. >> i want to make sure anybody passing by my grave gets a good laugh. >> a good deep mortal laugh, even if i don't hear it. ♪ it's a time of enormous any tool for human explosion will bring out the best and worst of us and television has been there. >> they don't pay me enough to deal with animals like this. >> people are no longer embarrassed to admit they watch television. >> people used to say i was there, now people say they watch it on television.

♪ slowly but surely, the 1970s are disappearing, the 1980s will be upon us, what a decade it is coming up. happy new year.

>> as you begin in 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 prime time prairie pot boiler, dallas. >> a move like that will destroy all of oil and ruin our family name. >> a thought like that never crossed my mind. >> brother or no brother, i will stop you from destroying ewing oil. >> dallas literally captivated america for 13 years. >> dallas is a television show which in some ways is rooted in the 1970s and one of the crazy things that emerges is this character, j.r. as a pop phenomenon. >> which slut are you going to stay with tonight? >> it has to be more interesting

than the slut i'm looking at now. >> he was such a delicious villain, everyone was enamored by this character. at this point so many people were watching television you could do something so unexpected that it would become news overnight. >> the national obsession in 1980 over 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 cliff hanger as you could possibly get. >> who shot j.r., we may never get the answer to that question. the people that produced that program are going to keep us in suspense as long as they can. >> we shot j.r. and broke for the summer and coincidentally the actors 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. >> we know you don't die. you couldn't die. we couldn't come back next season. >> i couldn't come back but the show could still go. >> oh, but you wouldn't. what is that show without j.r.? >> that's what i figure. >> well, 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 watched the touted dallas show, it could become the most watched television show ever. >> who shot j.r. is a reflection of old fashioned television, it's a moment that gathers everybody around the electronic fireplace which is now the television set. >> one special american television program, critics says it transcends in popularity every statesman. and something happened to

surgical hospital 4077. >> it was the kind of event that would draw the world's breath, stage 9, 20th century studios, the end of the korean war, the television mash. >> it's been an honor and a privilege to work with you and i'm very very proud to have known you. >> there were landmark times when shows that had been watched through the 70s and into the 80s like mash had its final episode and we were all sad to see them go. >> all over the country, armies of fans were around television sets to bid them farewell. >> 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 precable world of televisi television. it's like they are the last time that that huge audience will all turn up for one event. the fundamental thing that cable did or the vcr did is gave consumers more choice, and it's about to change.

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thomas magnum? >> marion hammond? the private investigator. >> you're probably wondering about the goatment just let me drop off my friend and we'll talk. >> when we entered the 80s, a lot of one-hour dramas that were light hearted like magnum p.i. were very popular. after mash went off the air, there wasn't a single season in the top ten, the first time that ever happened in tv history. >> the prevailing feeling was that the sitcom was dead. >> brandon nbc programming chief said reports of the sitcom's death were greatly exaggerated. >> time and time again, if you study television history, just when someone is counting a form out, that is exactly the form of programming that leads to the next big hit.

1984, the cosby show comes on. bill cosby is not new to tv, he's had other tv shows, but the cosby show is very different. it stands apart from everything he has done. they talked about parenting. previous to that on television, the kids were cool and the parents were idiots and then cosby says the parents are in 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've ever heard in my life. >> you know, it helps the casting of anything helps a lot in television, and the kids were just great. >> if you were the last person on this earth, i still wouldn't tell you. >> you don't have to tell me what you did, just tell me what they're going to do to you. >> unlike every other show on tv, it's showing an upper middle

class black family. and this wasn't all in the family. they weren't tackling, you know, deep issues, but that was okay. the mere fact that they existed was a deep issue. >> the decade was waiting for something real. in other words, unless it's real, it doesn't seem like it moves anybody. if someone's feeling something, you get to the heart, you get to the mind and if you can hit the hearts and minds, you got yourself a hit. >> how was school? >> school, dear, i brought home two children that may or may not be ours. >> cosby show brought this 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 snows your name ♪ >> even the theme song to cheers puts you in a good mood. >> evening, everybody. >> norm. >> what's shaking norm? >> all four cheeks and a couple

of chins, coach. >> by the end of the "cheers" pilot, not only did you know who everybody was, but you wanted to come back and see what was going to happen. >> it's like all you have to do is watch it once, you're going to love these people. these are universal characters and the humor worked on so many levels. >> i was up until two in the morning. >> i hope he thanked you for it. >> reporte you have to create a community that people are identifying with, and cheers gives you that community. >> i have always wanted to sky dive. i've just never had the gut sgls wh -- guts. >> what did it feel like? >> i have plenty of sex and plenty of this, too. why don't you just get off my back, okay. >> in the first episode, there was a rather passionate annoyance. something's going on here.

>> a really intelligent woman would see your line of bs a mile away. >> i've never met an intelligent woman i would want to date. >> on behalf of the intelligent women around the world. >> we saw what ted and shelley had together, we said, oh, no, you got to do this relationship. >> ted and i understood what they were writing right away. >> if you'll admit that you are carrying a little torch for me, i'll admit that i'm carrying a little one for you. >> oh, 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 ignited the show and that's what drove the show for the first five

years. >> what's the matter? oh, i'm devastated, i need something brutal to numb my sensibilities and blast me into sweet oblivion. >> we had the luck to be able to rotate casts and every time we put somethibody 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, telephonic samplings, all of those things separate winners from losers and ma. all you can hope is every night turns out like thursday. >> joe, angela. >> next. >> how rude. >> that was quick. i'll give him that. >> all of television said, oh,

well, maybe the sitcoms are alive again, and that's all that it took. it took one success. >> a few years from now, something new may tempt the people who pick what we see, but it's a very safe guess that whatever gets hot for a season or two, the men and women who create good television comedy will be laughing all the way to the bank. (woman) what is happening? (robot) you can get the samsung galaxy s9 for just $9 per month at sprint. (woman) no way! (robot) on to the next. punch it paul. (vo) get the samsung galaxy s9 for people with hearing loss, for just $9 per month at sprint. visit sprintrelay.com

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all right. that's it. let's roll. hey, let's be careful. >> dispatch. >> when quality does emerge on television, the phrase too good for tv is often heard. one recent network offering that seems to deserve that phrase is "hill street blues". >> hill street is one of the changing points of the entire industry in the history of tv. >> we had all watched a documentary about cops and had this real hand held, in the moment quality that we were very e n 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 got a crime and you got your two cops, and you go out and you catch the bad guy and you sweat him and he confesses and that's it. cops have personal lives that impact their behavior in profound ways. >> don't get excited. we're working on it. >> how is this for logic? if he's not here, and if he's not elsewhere, he's lost. >> we didn't say that, counselor. >> ever in my entire life have i listened to so much incompetent covered up by unmitigated crap. find my client or i swear i'll have you up on charges. >> there would be these on going arcs for characters that would play over five, six episodes sometimes in an entire series, and no one had done that 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 i think we did set out to be were p provacateurs. >> what is the matter with you. >>? they don't pay me to deal with animals like this. >> you listen to me, it was a white man that pulled the trigger, not a black man. it was a white one. >> it set a trend, they can accept them being deeply flawed. i thought that was important to finally 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. >> "hill street blues". >> it got 21 nominations and we

went on to win eight emmys and it put us on the map literally and that's when people finally checked us out. >> programming chief of one of the networks used to say about shows like hill street and st. elsewhere, what the american public wants is a cheese burger and what you're trying to give them is a french delicacy. your job is to keep shoving it down their throat until after a while they'll say that doesn't taste bad and maybe even order it themselves when they go to the restaurant. >> the success of "hill street blues" is a critical phenomenon, influenced everything that came after and of course you saw shows like st. elsewhere. >> do you know what people call this place, st. elsewhere, a place you wouldn't want to send your mother-in-law. >> when it first came on, it was actually promoted as hill street in the hospital. >> you give the patients the wrong antibiotics, you don't know what medications they're on. you write the worst progress notes, you're pathetic. >> phil?

>> what? >> dr. morgan needs you right away. >> st. elsewhere broke every rule there was and built some new rules. >> the blood bank called a little while ago, they ran a routine panel in that pine of blood, t cell count was off. >> they would have tragic things happen to these characters. there was real heart ache in these people's lives and you really felt for them. >> i've got aids. >> television at its best is a mirror of society in the moment. >> st. elsewhere had challenged people and challenged you as an actor, much less the audience to think, the stuff they gave you was extreme and what they did is they were dealing with aids or having one of their main doctor characters raped in a prison. >> they tackled lots of difficult subjects. >> st. elsewhere was run by people who were trying to stretch the medium. and in the 80s, television producers were encouraged to stretch the medium. >> clear. >> as the 80s got serious, there

was more drama. they were getting a little bit more adventurous with the types of shows that were getting a shot. >> what are you doing? >> i'm doing what i should have done all along, what i wanted to do originally, what i should have done last night. stop that david, i'm calling the police, david. hello, police. >> the network's realized there was an audience looking for something less predictable than traditional prime time fare. >> moonlighting was another show that said, okay, i see the formulas that we have had up to here, let's do different things. >> hello. >> hello. >> we're looking a little pale today, aren't we? >> moonlighting had a shakespeare episode, a black and white episode, they did a musical episode, they tried a lot of different stop. >> i don't give a flying fig

about the lines in my face, the crows feet by my eyes or the altitude of my caboose. >> well, i'm at a loss. i don't know what a flying fig is. >> that's okay. they do. >> there's no trouble on the set. there is no trouble on the set. >> well, we have a very volatile relationship. there is a hate, love element to it. >> easy come, easy go. >> that flirtation, glenn karen them them apart for a long time, and bravo to him. >> what they did was they took the sam and diane dynamic from cheers and escalated it. cheers was will they or won't they, moonlighting is do they even want to. >> stay away from me. >> here i come. >> but i don't want you. i never wanted you. >> yeah, right. >> does entertaining mean at some point stopping the tease of dave and matty, i mean do they get together at some point? >> that's going to get resolved this year. we like to think of it as 2 1/2

years of foreplay. >> people watching moonlighting for years were waiting for this moment. your emotions are there built on to the emotions you're seeing on the screen so when be my baby starts playing, it's like a perfect storm of romance. ♪ the night we met, i knew i needed you so ♪ >> when i became mike's worry monster. ♪

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. a lot of people used to say i was there. now they watch it on television. >> you used to have to depend on the five minutes of the end of your local newscast. there hadn't been enough, you know, give us a whole network of sports. >> tlths ju-- there's one place you need to go for all the names and games making sports news. >> what happens in the 1980s is sports becomes a tv show, and what are tv shows built around, they're built around characters. >> you can't be serious, man. you cannot be serious. >> mcenroe, the perfect villain, the new yorker that people love to hate. or the cool swede, never giving an emotion away. >> what tennis really wants is

to get its two best players playing over and over again in the final, whether they're john mcenroe, that's what we want to tune into over over again. >> three match points. >> know that this man has a smile that lights up a television screen from here to b bangor, maine, and there's magic johnson and larry byrd, the guy who worked carrying trash, one plays for the lakers, bone play for the boston celtics. it's a great story. >> magic johnson leads the attack. >> look at that pass. >> oh, what a show. >> when those championship games are in prime time and people are paying attention to that, television feeds into those

rivalries, and makes them bigger than they have ever been before. >> somewhat primitive skills, just as good as dead. >> every mike tyson fight was like an ax murder. when he fought michael sphinx, you could feel the electricity on tv. tyson was made for tv because there was drama. >> it's all other. mike tyson has won it. >> not a lot of junior high school kids can dunk. >> but everybody tries now. >> i think that he is starting to transcend his sport, that he's becoming something of a public figure. >> michael jordan becomes the model that every other athlete wants to shoot for. they want to be a brand and that's what television does for these athletes, turns them into worldwide iconic brands. >> the inbound pass comes into jordan, michael on the foul line. 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 and the 80s began to provide, thank goodness. >> cable television is continuing to grow. it's estimated that it will go into 1 million more u.s. households this year. >> with cable television suddenly offering an array of different channel choices, the audience by f audience bifurcated, that's an earthquake. >> i want my mtv. >> i want my mtv. >> a new concept is born. the best of tv combined with the best of radio. this is it. welcome to mtv, music television, the world's first 24 hour stereo, video music channel. >> music television, what a concept. 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. let me get this straight, you turn on the tv and it's like the radio. >> i'm martha quinn, the music will continue nonstop on mtv music television, the newest component of your stereo system. >> when mtv launched a generation was launched. 18 to 24-year-olds were saying i want my mtv, my video, my fashion. >> mtv was the first network focussed on the youth market and it becomes hugely flinfluential because they understand each other. >> mtv had a giant impact visually and musically on every part of the tv culture that came next. friday nights on nbc are different thanks to miami vice, a show with an old theme but a lot of new scripts, described as containing flashes of brilliance

nonetheless, shot entirely on location in south miami, the story centers on two undercover vice cops. >> i don't know how this is going to work, tubs. i mean, you're not exactly up my alley, styling persona wise. >> heaven knows i'm no box of candy. >> television very much was the small screen. what was interesting about tony pilot screen play for miami vice, he said it was exactly not that. very much the approach was, okay, they call this a television series but we're going to make one-hour movies every single week. >> 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 because in a lot of ways, miami voice was a long video. the music was such a big part of that show. >> there was an allure to using

great music that everybody was listening to as opposed to the routine kind of tv scoring of that period. ♪ i can feel it calm in the air tonight ♪ >> not only was it not afraid to let long scenes play out, it would drag a car going from point a to point b, could be a four minute phil collins song, you know, and it was. ♪ hold on ♪ >> being able to take a television series like miami voice, that's really kind of rock 'n' roll with this until somebody says stop, are you guys crazy, you can't do that, and nobody ever did. everybody all set? oh, any recommendations? the salmon roll's ok. just ok? is it fresh? sort of. the chef had it this morning. unfortunately he went home sick, but he left instructions with kyle! this fish is raw. do we need a minute?

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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 users. >> at the beginning of the decade, we get the dominance of phil donahue and that's sort of a maturation of women's issues and 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. we'll be back in just a moment. >> if you look at the body of work we've had, you know, 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 every through psychological treatment changed. it has never happened yet. >> and we were putting very important people on the program. all kinds of people. guy people, people going to jail, people running for office, sometimes the same people. 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 lazest president i have ever seen. >> the audience built and built and built, and led the way to oprah.

>> hello, everybody. hello. >> 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 furniture, but oprah remodeled the whole house. >> there are a lot of other people out there who are watching who don't understand what you mean when you say you're no love. i remember questioning my guy friends like up you feel about him the way i feel about, it's kind of a strange concept, you know, 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 4th 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. that's the reason i have a talk show today. >> oprah winfrey now dominates the talk show circuit both in the rate skpings 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 the show. we get accused of being tabloid television but what i really think we do more than anything else is we serve as a voice for a lot of people who felt up until perhaps my show or some of the others that they were alone. >> this is what 67 pounds of fat looks like. i can't lift it. it is amazing to me 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 the host and that i think has a lot to do with her power. >> feels like i can do some good here, and i really do think the show does a lot of good. american television is drowning in talk shows, but it's never seen anything like morton downy, jr. >> other competitors come and take the television talk show into two different directions. you start seeing the phenomenon of daytime television shows becoming less tame and more wild. >> the 80s brought a lot of belligerence to television, whether it was morton downy jr. being the offensive caricaturish person that he was or geraldo, he did own outlandish things. >> we're going to get into the mind of an all american boy who took part in a crime without

passion of motive. >> he takes the power of the talk show to a whole other level trying to put people on stage who hate each other, who are going to fight. >> in the case of the church of satan, we have not had any problems with criminal behavior. >> yet when you hear story after story after story of people committing these retched crimes, these violent crimes in the devil's name. >> the more tension there is, the more conflict there is, the more violence there is, the more the rating goes up. the american people love to complain about it but they also love to watch. >> rivera drew sharp criticism with his recent television special on devil worship. today he found himself in a real free for all. >> i get sick and tired of seeing uncle tom here. >> sit down. >> hey, hold it. hold it. >> sit down.

>> rivera suffered a broken nose but he said the show will be broadcast later this month in its entirety. >> well, that's not something, you know, i would have done. but there was a lot of hypocrisy. one of the major magazines put the picture of geraldo getting hit with chair on the cover, isn't this awful, but they couldn't wait to use it to sell their own magazine. >> over the years, broadcasting has deteriorated and in this era of deregulation, it's deteriorating further. >> give people light and they will find their own way. relax, america will survive the talk shows. >> wow, did that just happen? cpa people in their software.hl why didn't i come up with that? why are we still clapping, by the way? i don't know.

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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 a wit and with the music. it was a brilliantly written show and a great performance by that entire young cast. >> hey, steve -- looks like his baby brother and his 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 have 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 you know, 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 ♪ >> tone of the 1960s is about rebellion, been being students. by the 1980s, it's time to grow up.

and so they shave their beards take off their das hichhikis and put on power suits, a whole new notion. >> oh, the yuppies. last year the politicians were talking about winning their votes, and now the rest of the baby boom generation are being wooed by advertisers and their agencies. >> by the '80s, it was pretty clear that after the generation of the '60s may be embody by alex keaton on "family ties" seemed tore 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 tramp 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 actually laughing at the parents for being too hopelessly liberal. >> what is this? i found it in the shower. >> that's generic brand shampoo. >> ah! >> this is him. this is the guy i've been telling you about.

this is everything you'd want in a president. >> the genius of "family ties," is it allows a more youthful reaganite to emerge that's focused on the future and the 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's 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 a 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 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 the 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. you looking to get drafted by the eagles? "thirty-something" said we're not going to have cops, lawyers or doctors. we're just going to be about people. >> 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? >> "thirtysomething" is a very

important show as you're going into they area of television being more introspective and emotional. and some people weren't buying it. but for other people when they were talking about having kids and going back to work and some of the issues that hadn't been important to people. lot, it was >> 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. it is a word that is made up by demographers and advertisers to sell soap. it doesn't have anything to do with what the show is. >> "thirlty-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 watching and not how many were watching, and that was more and

more catching on in the '80s. >> the prosecution will ask you that you look to the law, and this you must do. but i ask of you that you 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 were willing to go with that because it was a whole new spin on a law show. >> uh-uh. 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 is really fun to take the "hill street blues" format and use it to frame an entirely different social and cultural strata with vastly different

results. >> i wonder if i might engage with my client privately. >> certainly. >> will you join me 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's like okay, i get it. so it's like, all right, what are the rules now? >> you say you're part of a change that's going on. where is it coming from and where is it going? >> i think it has to do with networks being more willing to put creative control in the hands of producers who have strong viewpoints and letting them do what they want to do. >> i think what "hill street blues" was and what "moonlighting" was and what the

best television is is it distinguishes itself by its voice. >> what we're supposed to be here is the one thing people can trust. if you go out there like a bunch of night riders what the hell are you but just another vicious street gang? >> there was great writing in the '80s. that was a core group of brilliant people. >> the audiences' demands were changing. . >> it's obvious television has changed a lot since the first emmy was awarded 35 years ago. >> it's as if the contemporary audience was yearning for more stories about themselves. >> everybody up there on tv, good-bye. >> as the '80s came to an end, everything changed. >> i think when we look back at the 1980s, 10 and 20 years from now, we're going to be disgusted at some of the tv that you've just mentioned. the super violent programs, the terrible comedy shows. but one of the great things that's happening now and will continue to happen increasingly throughout this decade is the replacement of rotten entertainment programming by news and talk and information programming on all three networks. very slowly.

>> will it be rotten news? >> so far most of the news-oriented programs, magazines, information, talk shows on the networks, have been surprisingly, at least to me, surprisingly good. ♪ rolling on take two. ♪ >> she was the very first performer chosen for the cast of "saturday night live." >> radner became a star by creating such memorable characters as roseanne roseannadanna. and emily littela. >> what's all this fussy keep hearing? >> soon to be the star of her own one-woman show on broadway. >>