tv The Eighties CNN September 21, 2019 8:00pm-10:00pm PDT
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show. >> i say always keep them running. all the time running. run. run. run yasmi, run like the wind. it is a time of enormous turmoil. >> '60s. >> here is michael at the foul line. >> we intend to cover all the news all the time. we won't be signing off until the world ends. >> is that special? >> any tool for you will bring out the best of television. >> they don't pay me enough . >> we have seen the news and it is us.
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happy new year! as we begin the '80s in the television world, the landscape was an uneven given. >> more than 30 million people are addicted to it. social critics are mistified by its success. >> it is television. >> a move like that will destroy all of you and ruin all of your family name. >> brother or no brother. >> whatever it takes, i will stop you from destroying. >> "dallas" did establish new ground that captivated america for 13 years. >> "dallas" is a television show rooted in the 1970s. one of the crazy things that emerges is the character, j.r., a pop phenomenon. >> what difference does it make? whoever it is got to be more
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interesting than what i am looking at right now. >> he was a delicious villain. everyone completely namerred by this kyle clarcharacter. at this point so many people were watching television that you can do unexpected that it would become news over night. [ gunshot ] >> the national obsession in the 1980 around who shot j.r. is hard to imagine how obsessed we all were with that question. >> who shot j.r. is about the ideal of cliff hanger. who did shoot j.r.? the people in the program keep it a suspense. >> the actor went on strike and
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it deplayed the resolution and started to percolate through the world. >> i remember going on vacation to england that summer and that's all the people we are talking about there. what we know -- you could not die. >> you don't know that. >> how could you die? you could not come back next season. >> i could not come back but the show can still go. >> what is that show without j.r.? >> that's what i figured. >> well, if you don't know by now who shot j.r., you probably did not care. last night and 82 americans did and they watched the "dallas" show. it could be the most watched show ever. >> it is the moment that got everybody around the electronic fireplace which is now the television set. >> it transcends popularity and every american statement about war and something special
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happening today. it was the kind of event that would draw the world's press. 20th century fox studio, the end of the korean war. the television show, "max." >> it has been an honor to work with you. i am very, very proud. >> there were those landmark times where shows have been watched through the '70s and into the '80s like "mash" had its final episode and we were all sad to see it go. >> i will miss you. >> i will miss you a lot. >> all over the country, all fans crowded around television sets to watch the final episode and bid "mash" farewell. >> the finale of "mash," unprecedented, 123 million people watched one television program at the same time. >> i really should be allowed to
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go home. there is nothing wrong with me. >> when we ended the show, we got telegrams of congratulations from ronald reagan and amy kissinger. the size of the response and emotion of the response was difficult for us to understand. >> who shot j.r. were the last call for the precable world of television. it is like they are the last time that that huge audience will all turn out for one event. >> all right, that's it. let's roll. hey. >> let's be careful out there. >> dispatch. >> when quality emerge on television, the phrase too good for tv is often heard. one network offers that seems to
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deserve that phrase is "hill straight blues." we all watched the documentary about cops and had this real hand held in the moment quality that we were very ennamerred of. >> the minute you looked at it, it looked different. it had a move to it. you can smell the coffee. >> we didn't want to do a standard cop show where you know you got a crime and you got two cops and you go out and catch the bad guys and you sweat them and he confesses. that's it. that impact, that behavior in profound ways. >> well, is he here? >> something excited. we are working on it. >> how is this for a logic thriller? if he's not here or elsewhere,
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he's lost. >> never in my entire life have i listened to so much incompetence covered up by so much of unmitigated crap. find my client or i ware i will have you open charges. >> the ongoing arcs for these characters that would play out over five-six episodes in the entire season. no one had done that in an hour long dramatic show. >> i missed you. i had to find it out. come on. >> i think in the past people have watched television passively and for one thing, i think we did set out to be provocati provocatiori provocatorist. >> they don't pay me enough to
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do this. it was a black face. >> it was a white. >> the audience can accept kyle clarks deeply flawed. i thought that was important to finally get across. >> we want to make the show that made you participate, made you paid attention. >> i think that worked pretty well. >> the winner is. >> "hill street blues." >> 21 nominations. it put us on the map literally. >> that's when people finally checked us out. >> network used to say to me about shows of "hill street blues." what the american public wants is a cheese burger and what you are trying to give them is a french delicacdelicacy.
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>> nice of you to join us dr. morrison. the success is a political phenomenon and influenced everything that came after. and of course you saw shows like "say no prayer." >> wh "say elsewhere." >> the worst progress is you are pathetic. pathetic. >> what? >> "say elsewhere" broke every rule there was and built some new rules. >> they would have tragic things happen to these characters and you really felt for them. >> i got aids? >> television of its best is a
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mirror of society. >> "saying elsewhere" challenged you and much less the audience to think. the stuff they gave you was extreme and giving aids or having one of their main doctors raped in prison. they tackle a lot of different subjects. "saying elsewhere" were run by people stretching the mediums in the '80s. television producers were encouraged to stretch the medium. >> okay, clear. the cnn original series "the eighties" brought to you by mercedes-benz, the good or nothing.
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say i was there and now people say i watched it on television. >> you used to have to depend at 5 minutes in the end of the local newscast, it had not been enough. give us the whole network of sports. >> there is only one place for you to go for all the name and games. espn. >> sports become tv shows. where do tv shows built around? they're built around characters. >> you can't be serious, man. you can't be serious! >> mcrenroe. the new yorker that the people love the hate. never giving any emotions away. >> what tennis really wants is get their two best players playing over and over again. whether it is john mcrenroe, or
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martina, that's what they want to see over and over. >> this man has a smile that lights up the television screen from here and magic johnson. the urban kid from michigan and larry byrd. one place for los angeles lakers and the other place, boston celtics. it is a great story. lakers had several chances and larry byrd! >> magic johnson made the attack. oh! what a show! >> when those championship games are in primetime and people are paying attention to that. television feeds into those rivalries and make it bigger than ever before. >> when he fought michael space,
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the electricity you can feel watching that tv. >> tyson is made for tv because he's strong. >> not a lot of junior high school kids could dunk. >> i think he's starting to transcend. he's becoming something of a public figure. >> michael jordan becomes a model that every athlete wants to shoot for it. they want to be a brand. that's what television does with these athletes, turn them into worldwide iconic brand. here is michael! >> athletes in the '80s become apart of an ongoing people that we care about. we had demands in the sports and the '80s began to provide. >> espn continues to grow. it is estimated to grow into 1
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million more households each year. it offered an array of different channel choices. >> i want my mtv. >> 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 hours stereo music channel. >> music television, what a concept. mtv with power in your face. you are not going to turn us off. >> mtv did nothing but play current music videos all day long. you turn on the tv and it is like the radio? musical will continue non stop. when mtv launched, a generation
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was launched. 18 and 24 years old were saying i want my mtv, i want my mtv videos and fashion. >> mtv was the firstnet work really focused on the youth market and becomes hugely influential because they understand each other. the audience and the network. >> mtv had a giant impact visually and musically on every part of the culture that came next. >> freeze! miami vice! >> friday night on nbc are different this season thanks to "miami vice," a lot of new twists. described by one critic containing flashes of briehl yens. the story centers around two under vice cops. >> i don't know how this is going to work out. >> i mean you are not exactly up my alley, style and persona.
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>> television very much was the small screen. it was interesting of screen play from "miami vice." the approach was okay they called it a television series but we'll make it one-hour series. >> standby. police! >> he was describing the show of a new wave cop show. >> it is a cop show for th the '80s. we use a lot of images and describe the movie feeling of our show. >> in a lot of ways you don't get "miami vice" without mtv. >> the music was such a big part of that show. >> there was an allure using great music that everybody was listening to as oppose to the routine type of scoring. ♪ >> it not only was not afraid to let long scenes play out.
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it would drag a car going from point a to point b could be a four minute phil collins' song and it was. television shoot like "miami vice" and kind of rock n' roll with this until somebody says stop, you guys can't do that and nobody ever did. >> wait, wait! free freeze! but febreze air effects eliminates odors. with a 100% natural propellent. it leaves behind a pleasant scent you'll love. [deep inhale] freshen up. don't cover up. febreze. ♪
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private investigator? >> you are probably wondering of the goat? >> oh, let me drop off my friend and we'll talk. >> when we enter the '80s, a lot of one-hour drama that were light hearted like "magnum pi" were very popular. after "mash" was off the air, the next season there was not any of a top ten. the prevailing feeling was that the sitcom was dead. reports of the sitcom's death were greatly exaggerated. >> time and time again if you
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study television's history just when someone counting a forum out, that's exactly the forum's programming that leads to the next big hit. "the cosby show" comes on. bill cosby is not new to tv. she has other tv shows. >> coming right up. >> they talked about parenting and previous to that on television, kids were cool and parents were idiot and cosby says the parents are in charge and that was something new. >> instead of acting disappoi disappointing because i am not like you maybe you can just accept who i am and love me anyway because i am your son. [ applause ] >> that's the dumbest thing i have ever heard in my life. >> it helps the casting.
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kids were just great. >> if he was the last person on this earth, i would not tip him. >> 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 shows an upper middle class black family. they were not tackling 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 is real, it does not seem like it moves anybody. if somebody is feeling something, you get to the heart and the mind. if you can hit hearts and minds, you got yourself a hit. >> i brought children that may or may not be ours. >> cosby show brought us this tremendous audience to nbc. that was a bridge to us.
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>> way off. ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ ♪ where everybody knows your name ♪ >> even the cheers song puts you in a good mood. >> what's shaking? >> all 14 and a couple of cokes. >> by the end of the "cheers" pilot, not only you know who everybody was but you want to come back and see what was going to happen. it is like all you have to do is watch it once, you will love these people. these are universal characters and the humor worked on so many people. >> i was up until 2:00 in the morning. >> you have to create a community that people are identifying with. and "cheers gi" gives you that community. >> i always wanted to sky dive. >> what does it feel like? >> imagine it feels like sex. >> i had plenty of sex and
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plenty of this, too. >> i want you to 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 never met an intelligent woman that i want to date. >> on behalf of the intelligent women around the world, may i just say whesh. >> we saw what ted and shelly had together, we said oh no, we got to do this relationship. >> ted and i understood what they were writing. >> if you admit you are carrying a little torch for me, i will admit i will carry a little one for you. >> i am carrying a little torch for you. >> well, i am not carrying one for you.
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>> diane knew how to tease sam and diane know how to tease diane and we know how to tease the audience. the incredible chemistry ignited the show. >> oh. >> i need something brutal and bless me of the sweet of living. >> how about make it a mimosa. >> we had the luck to be able to rotate cast. >> everybody time we put somebody in, they were explosions. >> boy! there was something very special about that setting and those characters and that i never got tired of writing that show. >> fist sophisticated ser surveys. >> you can't cut all comedies from the same cookie cutters.
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all you can hope is everyday night turns like thursday. >> next. [ laughter ] >> how rude! >> quick. >> i will give them that. >> oh, well, maybe sitcoms are alive again. and that's all they took. it took one success. >> a few years from now, something new. it is a very safe guess of whatever gets hot. the men and women created good television comedy will be laughing all the way to the bank. ♪ you can tell they are ours ♪ ♪ a new step to take ♪ and a new day will break ♪ yes, these are my people ♪
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okay, guys, the bus is down, but we've got a spot. follow coach kevin. let's go, guys! sorry again that we're fully booked. this is the best we could do on such short notice. this is amazing. thank you so much. (announcer) treating others like we'd like to be treated has always been our guiding principle.
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cbs ooerevening news. for almost two decades, we have been meeting like this in the evening and i will miss that. that's the way it is. friday, march 6th, 1981. i will be away for the assignment. good night. >> uncle walter had dominated cbs but in a way that the country people used to say he was the most trusted man in the country. >> once walter gronkite retires, all three network switched over to a new generation. the '80s may have been the last
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gas watching the media. >> how to prevent global destruction are expected to be the major topic of president reagan's news conference today. lesley stall is at the white house. >> women came into the newsroom. when i first joined, it was '72. by the '80s there were more and more. the decades of the '80s were still a time of sink or swim. you have to be resilient to survive. you were growing up in a period where a lot of people did not think women did not make it. >> the best producer at cbs news are women. they are at the level of making decisions about individual pieces. they're not executive producers of all the new shows but they'll
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be. >> kristine kraft has taken her cause to many of the nation's news and talk programs. >> i didn't set out to be joans of arc. what happens to me deserves in attention. there she was in her late 30s and the tv station said to her, we are taking you off the air because you gotten older and you are not attractive as you once were. it was outrageous. she filed a lawsuit. the jury says she got a raw deal because she's a woman. woman were asking everywhere, what did you think of kristine craft. the emphasis has been on physical appearance and to the exte extent, this decision helps swing it back to substance. i think we got something to be happy about. >> what matters was what kind of
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reporter are you. it took kristine craft's incident to bring that conversation out to the opening. >> this coming sunday, a new television network opens for business. cnn, cable news network. >> you are throwing all the dice on this one. why not? >> well, on that. thank you very much indeed. >> i wanted to see what was going on in the world. there was no way you can do it. >> it always comes on 6:00 or 10:00. if there is news 24 hours, people can watch it any time. >> we won't be signing off until the world had. >> it was a fool's zone. how can we possibly find an audience? >> well, he did. >> good evening, i am david walker.
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. >> here is the news. television before this was stuff that already happened. for the first time cnn brought the world to people in realtime. >> cnn, the world's most important network. >> i didn't do cable news network because somebody told me it could not be done. i felt it was a viable concept and i admitted it was after announcement that we'll do it. >> as cable news network, is it going to be a new need delivering the same kind of affair? >> no, it already does provide different affairs and cable news network is perfect and the best example of that. >> people love news. we had a lots of it. the other guys had not very much. so choice and quantity won out. >> new york city. a major catastrophe in america's phase program. >> jessica mclure trapped for
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three days now. west berlin have come crumbling down. >> the american people appreciated the new television. they certainly came to see cnn. >> we began to realize that the best way to get a message to a foreign leader was of the president go in the rose garden and make a statement because everybody was watching cnn. cnn was a breakthrough that changed the whole world. >> it changed quickly. the business that we were not the only one. it was hard, it was hard to be on the top little perch and have to come down off of it. >> a special segment tonight, the network's news. the first in a two-part series
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on profound changes taken place in television news. changes being brought by business, competition and technology. >> there is a variety of reasons why people worked in the broadcast network were freaked out in the 1980s. another was being taken over by foreign entities in corporate america. new owners spent billions buying the network recently and all of them want their money's worth. >> people began to find out that news could be a profit center. that focused a lot of attention on us. a lot from people in wall street. if you think about the news division of cbs and abc, they were part of a really proud tradition. the tradition that really matters. we serve the public. the people who work in those news divisions were freaked out by what it meant being own by larger entity.
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>> there will not be anymore television news. >> i worried of people getting the whole television. it has higher purposes than that. >> we have seen the news and it is us. because they need the massive capacity of 5g with ultra wideband, so more screaming, streaming, posting fans... can experience 5g all at once. this is happening in 13 stadiums all across the country. now if verizon 5g can do this for the nfl... imagine what it can do for you. with licensed agents availablep when 24-7,d it. it's not just easy. it's having-jerome-bettis- on-your-flag-football-team easy. go get 'em, bus! ohhhh! [laughing] c'mon bus, c'mon! hey, wait, wait, wait!
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sometimes ambition in a woman is considered to be a dirty word. >> they're talking about who they are. >> it is an area impossible to breakthrough. >> i think the '80s were the era when women were being looked at with a little skepticism but definitely with more acceptability. you can see the door opening but it was not wide open. >> cagny and lacey were huge, they were two women and they wou would solve jobs and crimes. >> so we are a terrific team. >> this is true. >> we feel good.
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>> we have been by that point of hundreds of body cop shows but these were women. had never been done before. >> i didn't go after this job because i could not find anything else. i did not come here because i needed some kind of work to help pay the orthodontics. we didn't realize this would be a big deal. all these guys would say to us yeah, it is a good script, who's going to save them in the end. >> come on, we are taking you out of here. >> you take one more step. dr. nelson, you have until 8:00 tomorrow morning to turn ourself in. >> phillieyllis? >> if you don't, i will. >> it was a time you saw any emergent of women on television who were not 20 and blond and had a small role.
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women who had substantial roles. ♪ >> it was unpredictable that an audience, a young audience of not so young audience and lots in between could relate to those older ladies. >> my, you could not see, why didn't you call me to get you? >> i tried to. every time i put in a dial to dial, a condom popped out. >> i got five in my pocket. sneer darling. >> a lifetime supply. >> she was named along with some of the most gifted writers. >> it is easy to see susan
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harris impact. >> credit to her coming up with so many iteration for something so amazing. >> do you think there is a woman's voice? >> they speak higher and softer. >> yes, of course it is a woman's voice. >> women had a different perspective and laugh at different things. yes, definitely is a woman's voice. >> oh, do you know how many problems we have solved over cheesecake? >> no, dorothy. >> 147. >> all right, brian. it is control primetime and some 23 new shows compete in one of the hottest ratings in year. here is one that everybody predicts a big hit. designing women, four friends giving each other the business. >> suzanne, if sex were fast food, there would be an arch over your bed.
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linda thomas created one of the funniest and unusual show in designing women. there were a different group of women that you saw. they were feisty and they were feisty, they were sexy. and linda's voice came through shining. >> a man can get away with anything. i mean, look at reagan's neck. it sags down to here. and everybody raves about how great he looks. can you imagine if nancy had that neck? they'd be putting her in a nursing home for turkeys. >> they had given me this 23 minutes to address whatever topic i want, and it's such a privilege, it's more than the president of the united states gets, and it's kind of thrilling to have that every week. i would be lying if i said i didn't put my opinions in the show. >> excuse me, but you lovely ladies look like you are in need of a little male companionship here. >> trust me when i tell you you
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have completely misassessed the situation at this table. >> moving on to scene "d." >> i am a woman and i am a writer, but i don't really enjoy being called a woman's writer. i think labels are harmful to us. >> with "murphy brown," just about everything about that program felt new. the civil rights movement and the women's movement had just begun to sort of be reflected in the programming that you saw on television in the '80s. >> murphy, you know the dunfree's club is for men only. >> and they have great dinners with great guests, and i don't get to go for one reason and one reason only, and it has to do with something you've got and i don't. a tiny, pathetic, little, "y" chromosome. >> murphy brown was sea change because she was so popular and such a strong, independent, tough woman. >> no matter what you think of a guest or their views, you are obligated to ask the questions in a dignified manner.
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jim, she was unprofessional, am i right? >> well, i, uh -- >> do you believe this, jim? he thinks it's neat that his office chair swivels and he's calling me unprofessional. (woman) it would be great if human beings were great at being human. and if all of mankind were made up of kind women and kind men. it would be spectacular if the golden rule was golden to every man. and the good things that we ever did was everything that we can. (announcer) treating others like we'd like to be treated has always been our guiding principle.
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thursday. [ laughter ] >> johnny carson in the '80s is making the transition from being the king of late night to being a national treasure. he was a throwback to that old showbiz stuff. >> i've been on with you for some time. >> it's been a long time. >> yeah, well, you've been busy with other things. >> the tide is starting to turn in terms of where late-night television is going to go, but johnny is kind of holding out. he was not necessarily of his time in the '80s, but he did sustain a certain timelessness. >> on the chair. [ laughter ] >> he's all right, he's just playing. >> playing? my [ bleep ]! >> my next guest not only has a college degree, but he also has a high school degree. >> that's right, i do. >> as well. he's hosted "the tonight show"
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practically as often as johnny carson and now he has his very own show, weekday mornings at 10:00 on nbc. >> what you're witnessing here is a good idea gone awry. a fun-filled surprise turning into an incredible screw-up. >> david letterman originally had a one-hour daytime show, and nbc, after like 13 weeks, decided to cancel it. >> today is our last show on the air. monday, las vegas -- [ booing ] have these people been frisked? >> it was a dismal failure in terms of the ratings, but not in terms of introducing us to letterman. >> david, thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you very much for having me, i appreciate it. >> and in spite of all this nonsense that goes around in the background, stay with it, don't give up. and stay with us here in new york. we like having you. >> i like being here. thank you very much. >> dave is back in new york. you're going to host a late-night television program
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that premieres monday night. what are critics likely to say tuesday morning? >> i don't much care because i found a way to deal with that, pills and whiskey. [ laughter ] >> david, you're on. >> oh, i'm on? i'm sorry. >> proceed. >> i'm enjoying listening to you snort. >> they gave him "the late night show" after "the tonight show." and at the time, people thought who's going to watch television at 12:30 at night? who's up? i'll tell you who's up. young people. college people. >> is it going well? i know this is the first show and i think this guy needs a little support, dave letterman. >> he was anti-establishment at his core. he was thumbing his nose to any existing social structures. >> who are those women out there by the way? >> neighbors. >> i'll get rid of them. hey, excuse me. [ knocking on window ] keep it moving. come on, get out. >> he kind of spoofed the whole notion of talk shows. >> it's the late-night guest
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cam. please say hello to tom hanks. there he is. >> no one could go on "the david letterman show" and try to steer it towards a point of view or push something in particular. he just wouldn't stand for it. you're on to do one thing and one thing only, be as funny as the rest of the show. >> you know, we could get in a two-shot here, dave. >> we could actually send the crew home, couldn't we? >> you know, as a comedian, you want the biggest audience that you could get. for dave, he knew a lot of things that he would do were going to alienate people, and he didn't care. he wanted his thumbprint out there, and that's the most important thing. >> it's time for small-town news. paul -- excuse me, paul? do you have any accompanying music here for small-town news? paul shaffer, ladies and gentlemen. >> the show making fun of itself and turning itself inside-out that way was something kind of new. >> i mean, don't we look like guys you'd see hanging around together? >> absolutely. >> would you like to hang around
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with me? >> nope. >> and i'll say it again, this is the stupidest show -- >> i thought that i would never want to do this show with you. >> now why? because you thought i was a -- >> an [ bleep ]. >> there is one rule i keep trying to abide by, and unfortunately, i only get to it about 12% of the time. and that is, it's only television. we're not doing cancer research. if the 40-year-odd history of commercial broadcasting has taught us one thing, there's nothing sacred about television. >> all right, steven is upstairs. >> hey, dave, i was just curious. is there any way i get mtv on this? >> actually, steve, that's a -- that's just a monitor and all you can get on that is our show. >> oh. that's okay. >> there was a degree of cynicism that was needed in the art form at that time, and it's a cynicism that just became common sense after a while, because it never got old. >> i've watched johnny carson.
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and you are no johnny carson. [ laughter and applause ] ♪ goo goo goo goo goo goo goo goo ♪ >> good day. welcome to the great white north, canadian corner. i'm bob mckenzie, this is my brother doug. today we got a real big show -- >> there was a second city chicago company, there was a second city toronto company. the toronto one is the one that fueled the sctv series which originally was syndicated and got to the states that way. >> hail, caesar. >> hail, hail! thank you very much for that marvelous reception. i particularly want to thank my supporters over there in the cesarean section. >> it's healthy to be an outsider. you know, as a comedian. and canadians are always outsiders, but they're looking at the other culture which is right next door to them. >> i love you, i want to bear your children! >> it was the type of comedy that had only been accessible if you could have gotten into the
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improv clubs in chicago and toronto. i had never seen anything like second city tv. >> james bridgeman, parkdale. >> sorry, no, never mind, i'm sorry. >> it was far more conceptual in its humor because it didn't have to be performed in front of an audience. and there was also just the idea that it was this sort of low-rent thing. it was this sort of by the seat of their pants kind of operation that gave it an authenticity. >> now that our programming day has been extended i'm going to be spending -- >> where do you want me to put the kielbasa, mrs. brickley? >> put it in the bridge, butch. >> you were rooting for the show and the characters they created. there was something you got behind. whereas "snl," right from the gate and through the '80s, was this big enterprise. >> after five golden years, lorne decided to leave and so did those close to him, including me, al franken.
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so nbc had to pick a new producer. now, most knowledgeable people, as you might imagine, hoped it would be me, al franken. >> well, there was a real question of whether "saturday night live" would continue at all, whether it would just die. >> the press hasn't been very overly kind. >> yeah, i read that stuff. >> "saturday night live is saturday night dead"? >> oh, man, come on. >> "yuks to yuck." >> my favorite is "vile from new york." >> please, come on. >> that's funny, that's funny. >> they were having a hard time. and then came the man that saved the show, eddie murphy. there was buzz about him, so you tuned in. and there was this kind of explosion of talent in front of your eyes. ♪ >> it really kind of rejuvenated the show. >> i am gumby, dammit! you don't talk to me that way!
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>> after a while, the show regained its status and its clout and became even more of an institution than it had been. >> hey, bob. >> hey, peters. looks great today. >> listen, if you're unhappy with my work, tell me now! >> you're through, you hear me, through! you'll never work in this town again! >> don't leave me hanging by a thread. let me know where i stand! >> we were a little worried because we had a new cast, but everyone loves us. >> you guys have been so nice to us during our stay. >> isn't that special. >> i am hans. >> and i am franz. >> and we just want to pump -- you up. >> a lot of things they could do on "saturday night live" they couldn't do on a sitcom. the humor was more daring and more satirical, and it was political. >> you still have 50 seconds left, mr. president. >> let me just sum up, on track, stay the course. a thousand points of light. stay the course. >> governor dukakis, rebuttal? >> i can't believe i'm losing to this guy.
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[ phone rings ] >> i'll get it. >> it's the garry shandling show. >> people were taking all the old principles of comedy and trying to turn them into something new. we spent years and years watching sitcoms and dramas and talk shows by then, we knew them by heart, that if somebody played on that and parodied it, we got it instantly. >> i appreciate you coming in under these conditions, lewis, i really do. you want to hold the credits? see, we were going to show the credits and you screwed that up because you're late. >> "the garry shandling show" was aware of the fact that it was a situation comedy. it highlighted the cliches in funny ways. >> are you looking into the camera? >> no. no, i didn't -- >> don't look into the camera. >> i didn't. >> don't. you don't come in here and look into the camera. >> i didn't. >> i'll bop you. i will. if i see a tape of this show and you're looking into the camera --
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>> well, it's about that time. >> "pee-wee's playhouse" on cbs, a so-called saturday morning kids' show that adults could watch and wink at each other as they were watching it, it was very clever. >> good morning. >> what's today's secret word? >> the secret word is -- good! >> it was a show certainly for kids, and it was for stoned baby boomers who were totally wasted on saturday morning and watched "pee-wee's playhouse" and saw god. >> i sure had a lot of fun. see you all real soon. until then, everybody be good. it's not "pretty good or nothing." it's not "acceptable or nothing." and it's definitely not "close enough or nothing."
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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 -- it looks like my 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
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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 tone of the baby boomers in the 1960s is about rebellion, about being students. by the 1980s, it's time to grow up. and so they shave their beards, give up their dashikis, and put on power suits, a whole new notion. >> ah, the yuppies. last year the politicians were talking about winning their votes. now those 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
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clear that the generation after the generation of the '60s may be embodied by alex keaton on "family ties," seemed to be a lot more interested in the corner office than the new jerusalem. >> you're 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. >> no! >> this is him. 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 kind of youthful reaganite that's focused on the future, that's focused more on a critique of the '60s. >> michael j. fox as alex keaton really became the center of the show. and the writers were smart
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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's a very conservative and very intense 17-year-old. >> the first thing the teacher's going to 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
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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. you looking to get drafted by the eagles? >> "thirtysomething" 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 got 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 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
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important to people. [ baby crying ] >> 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. >> no 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 soap. i don't think it has anything to do with what the show is. >> "thirtysomething" 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, 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.
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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. >> 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 was 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. >> what are you doing for dinner tonight? >> i was planning on having you. >> in that case, skip lunch. >> the formula had gotten established of how you can do a
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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 respect all right, what are the rules now? >> 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. >> last night! >> stop that, david! >> stop, that david! >> i'm calling the police, david. hello, police? >> police? >> the networks realized there was an audience looking for something less predictable than traditional primetime fare. >> "moonlighting" was another of those shows that said, okay, i've seen the formulas that we've had up to here, let's do different things. >> hello. >> hello. >> we're looking a little pale today, aren't we? who have we here? >> i don't know. >> "moonlighting" was a really experimental show. they had a shakespeare episode, they had a black and white episode. they did a musical episode.
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they tried a lot of different stuff. >> 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. >> the flirtations were great and bruce and cybill were great. glenn caron kept 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" was 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 mattie? do they get together at some
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point? >> well, that's going to be resolved this year. we like to think of it as two and a half years of foreplay. >> people who had been watching "moonlighting" for years were waiting for this moment. and your emotions are already there built on to the emotions that you're seeing on the screen. so when "be my baby" by the ronettes starts playing, it's like a perfect storm of romance. ♪ ♪ the night we met i knew i needed you so ♪ (dad) hey! alright, let's get going! (girl) and you want to make sure to aim it. (dad) i'm aiming it. (everyone) awww. (girl) i ordered it for everyone. (dad vo) we got the biggest subaru to help bring our family together. (girl) i'm just resting my eyes. (dad vo) even though we're generations apart. (grandma) what a day. i just love those kids. (avo) the three-row subaru ascent. (dad) wave to grandma, everybody. (avo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.
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juul record. they took $12.8 billion from big tobacco. juul marketed mango, mint, and menthol flavors, addicting kids to nicotine. five million kids now using e-cigarettes. the fda said juul ignored the law with misleading health claims. now juul is pushing prop c, to overturn san francisco's e-cigarette protections. say no to juul, no to big tobacco, no to prop c.
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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. 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
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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. 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 built, and led the way to oprah. ♪
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>> 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 furniture, but oprah remodeled the whole house. >> there are a lot of other people out there watching who really don't understand what you mean when you say, we're in love. because i remember questioning my gay friends, you mean 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.
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>> oprah was connecting with people in a way that no one had on tv before. and it was really special to see. >> well, did you know that for the longest time i wanted to an 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. you know, we get accused of being tabloid television and sensational and so forth. but what i really 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, 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
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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. >> 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 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 downey jr. being the offensive caricaturish person that he was, or geraldo. he did his own outlandish
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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 other level, trying to put people on stage who hate each other, who are going to fight -- >> in the case of the temple of set and the church of satan, we have not had problems with criminal behavior -- >> but yet when you hear story after story after story of people who commit 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 devil worship. but today he found himself in a real free-for-all. >> i get sick and tired of seeing uncle tom here, sucking up, trying to be a white man -- >> go ahead. >> sit down. >> hey, hold it. hold it. >> sit down. >> rivera suffered a broken nose
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but he 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. >> give people light, and they will find their own way. relax, america will survive the talk shows.
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>> hi, i'm tom hallick. welcome to our opening night. the premiere edition of "entertainment tonight." >> all of the critics were kind of unanimous in that they said it will never last because there simply isn't enough entertainment news to fill a half hour every night. >> "entertainment tonight" has surveyed tv critics in the united states and canada to find out which television shows had the most impact on viewers over the years. >> now, up until this time, nobody had done television like this. nobody. >> burt reynolds, the hottest actor in hollywood. >> i'm surprised to see you here. >> well, i'm glad to see you. >> oh, thank you. >> we can meet here every night if you like. >> thank you. >> a lot of what makes successful television programming is being in the right place at the right time. and it was the right time. >> entertainment journalism evolved as viewers got more curious and had more access. until that point, the entertainment business had been something we didn't know all that much about.
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>> we could go behind the scenes in our effort to really give an insider's look. >> the crafty old j.r. of "dallas" fame was with his mother actress mary martin as he was presented with a star on the hollywood walk of fame. >> it was very honorific of the industry. they would do serious coverage of it. it wasn't salacious. and you would see actors speaking as actors instead of on a johnny carson show. >> what are you like on camera? >> i'm like this. this is on camera. >> this is on camera. >> it was the beginning of a lot of money being made talking about entertainment and celebrities. >> robert redford plays the good guy in the movies, but don't tell that to his neighbors in utah, they are still bitter and redford is the target of their ire -- >> the audience grew and grew. and that was showing us the appetite for celebrity news was big. it was big. >> get ready for "lifestyles of the rich and famous." television's most dazzling hour of excitement. >> hi, i'm robin leach in monaco. the glittering gem of the
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riviera. >> and you've got a vip ticket to prince ranier's private party. >> your sunday newspaper is still delivered with the comics around the news. and that was what i always thought "lifestyles" was. we were the comic around the news. except we did it as seriously as they did news. >> finally in the driving seat of his own career, he burned rubber in a new direction. david hasselhoff, rock idol. >> it was a time where pushing the limits with wealth and ostentatiousness in a lot of cases was very comfortable. >> one of the earliest stories that we presented to you on "lifestyles" was about the amazing real estate wizard donald trump. if he didn't shock and surprise you back then, he's had plenty of time since. >> with all of this costing billions, not millions, do the figures ever frighten you? >> the answer is no, it's my business, it's my life. it's my lifestyle. i love it. the good, the bad.
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>> does this bring with it political aspiration? >> no political aspiration. >> your show has gotten a lot of ridicule. there are people who say it's nothing more than trash. >> that doesn't upset me, because i think it's the best trash there is on television. i am not in the business of brain surgery. i am in the business of fluff. >> that's the fantasy element. at a time when the access is possible. it's escapism, and it's aspirational. you want to stand in a hot tub with a glass of champagne, rock on. >> we've never seen that kind of wealth ever before. we didn't mock it. we didn't say it was right, and we didn't say it was wrong. we were just through the keyhole. >> sometimes it absolutely amazes me. i walk away from a shoot and i think, well, we did it again. >> there was more of everything in tv by the '80s. your opportunity for watching stuff is increasingly vast.
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>> nbc presents "real people." >> my name's michael lee wilson. this dawned on me, that the application of a small motor on a pair of roller skates might really be a great thing. >> somebody once said that each one of us will be a star for 15 minutes, and i think that that's probably going to happen. >> american culture used to be a culture that celebrated privacy. in the 1980s as we're watching celebrities sort of play out on stage, hey, i want to join too. all the world becomes a stage. you start seeing shows like "real people" or "the people's court." >> "the people's court." where reality television is taken one step further. >> to see more tv, producers had to come up with new and different ways to give them television. >> don't be stupid! >> get over here! >> i told you not to be stupid. >> what "cops" did was, it took away the script and just brought the camerapeople and the crews on location to try and catch actual things happening. >> cocaine.
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with this ring -- >> with this ring -- >> -- i thee wed. >> -- i thee wed. >> with my body -- >> with my body -- >> -- i thee honor. >> the biggest television event of the 1980s is the marriage of charles and diana. it's like the world stops when that happened. that was like, just massive. >> this was the final act of a spectacle that may never again be seen in this century, if ever. >> the archbishop of canterbury called the wedding of prince charles and lady diana spencer today the stuff of fairy tales. >> good evening. the royal couple at this hour is off on the honeymoon, while a lot of people here in london tonight are still talking about the events of the day. >> when you have great moments like the royal wedding, they are part of history and it's done beautifully and everybody has a
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chance to watch it all on television and everybody just wants to drink a toast to chuck and di. >> a princess who must now be aware, as it was on this day, that every single move she makes in public will be recorded and observed. a very difficult life indeed. >> we'll be back in just a moment with some closing observations and one final look at what has justifiably been called the wedding of the century. >> by the authority of the state of new york, i pronounce that they are husband and wife. you may kiss the bride. >> your wedding was seen by an astonishing number of people. 16 and 19 million viewers. how do you account for that kind of popularity? >> oh, i can't. i can't. the way it's grown is just amazing to me. >> it did appear in the '80s it was a good time for daytime soap operas, especially for a show like "general hospital" which had that huge success with luke and laura's wedding. >> i remember when luke and laura got married because it was nighttime newsworthy. >> the soap opera discovers the blockbuster mentality, the sweeps month mentality. like, what can we do to get even more people watching? you have a wedding.
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you have a kidnapping. you have an evil twin. and primetime stole from daytime. >> after "dallas" proved that ewing oil was better than real oil for cbs, the networks rushed to give the public more. >> the great prime-time soap operas of the 1980s, "dallas," "dynasty," they're all about excess. this is about being over the top, stabbing each other in the back, going for the gusto, and having fun. >> i know what's wrong with you. the empty-armed madonna. mourning the baby that she couldn't have and the baby that she almost got to adopt. that is it, isn't it? >> you miserable bitch! >> there was a bigness to the stories. and they could afford to do it on a network if you're doing one episode a week. you can't do that if you're doing five episodes a week for a daytime show. so just the production value
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gave it that pizzazz. >> if you can't have it, watch other people with it, or so say the three networks who are programming nearly 40% of their primetime fare with series about the very rich, and the public is devouring it at such a rate that make-believe money has become ratings gold. >> the characters were larger than life, they were more evil and more cunning and manipulative. and more gorgeous. i mean, really, look at the way they were dressed. look at the way they lived. everything, it was fascinating. >> alexis. >> yes? >> i didn't thank you for your present. >> it's he you should slap, dear, not i. >> we all wanted to live like everyone on "dynasty," like the carringtons. and it all just ended up being a wonderful picture of fun and debauchery. >> greed was encouraged in the '80s.
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there was a sense of conspicuous consumption as being okay. and those shows kind of exploited that. >> primetime families like the carringtons who live here in luxury on the "dynasty" sound stage are not the only rich folk on tv. in the last five years, more than half of all new shows have featured the wealthy. ten years ago, that figure was zero. >> it was an accident. your father's dead. >> "falcon crest" was a wine family. there's lorenzo lamas, and there's ronald reagan's first wife. jane wyman is on that show. >> emma is pregnant. >> i know a doctor who could take care of it right away. >> that will never happen. >> all of those shows where, oh my god, what's next? what's going to happen with that? he can't get away with that. and then you tune in, it was appointment television. >> what will become of the missing twins on "knots landing"? >> what? >> they all had spinoffs. "dallas" had the spinoff "knot's
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landing." "the colbys" was a spinoff for "dynasty." they were seeing how much they could max this stuff out. because it was really successful. >> where's your son miles? isn't he going to be part of this venture or is he just playing polo as usual? >> the colbys can always find room for another trophy. >> you had these people fighting over oil and mansions and -- it was fantasy, but in a kind of so over the top way that it was fun. >> there's nothing devious about using your femininity. >> these shows took themselves so unseriously that they were camp, but that was okay with the central audience that was loving them. >> it was entertainment. we weren't trying to do high drama. we were there to entertain. we were glossy. there was no getting around it, we knew what we were there for, and we did it as best we could. it's not "pretty good or nothing."
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>> a huge development in television and presumed to be complete and rupert murdock arrived in america and says i don't know why there should only be three networks, i'll make third one. >> he'll have to become an american citizen if he is to own tv stations here. >> some people saying it will take you 20 years to get your fox network on par with the big three. are you prepared to wait that long? >> i certainly intend to live that long but i don't agree with the 20 years. >> it was similar to the reaction of it ted turner starting cnn. what does he know about television? >> there's no question we have an inferior line up of stations to our ocounterparts and means vee to work harder to get shows sampled.
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>> they had an idea that we had to differentiate ourselves from the network withes. we had to do things they would not do. >> fox started throwing anything against the wall. first shows were things like "21 jump itstreet." "joan rivers" in late night. >> we have been banned in boston. >> and "tracy ullman show". it was a sketch show and they needed something to go between the sketches. again they were leaguing for something different. >>iable rr but to have those candy bars. >> better not be thing ogostealing the candy bars. >> the "simpsons" would neverb have come along had it not beenb for the "tracy ullman show." fox was thrilled that it was
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different. they said sure, bee experimenta. do what you want. "married with children" was their first big, big hit in that way that said if all the rest otelevision is going this way, we're going that way. >> you want to come down and help me in the kitchen? that should buy us about ten minutes. seven more than we'll need. >> the title o"married with children" on the script was not the "cosby show." great. you got to love that. great fun. >> never wanted to get married, i'm married. never wanted children i got two of them. how did this happen? >> they were almost like purposeful reaction to the huxtables.
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this wonderful perfect black family and these horrible, miserable white people. you could find things to relate to them both. >> howdy neighbor? >> yeah. >> it was a lot of fun to be had with al and peg bundy. >> after "married with children" and back on abc they came up with another major hit "rose an." >> you think this is a magic kingdom and you sit up here on your thrown and poof, the laundry's folded, poof, dinner's on the table. >> you want me to fix dinner? i'm fixing dinner. >> oh, honey, you just fished tv three years ago. >> tippal can american families weren't on television. the "father knows best" that was the way advertisers wanted you to live. >> i know what might make you
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feel better? >> me to but i bet it's a different list than what you got. >> you can subvert whatever common stuff is said about families and parenting. >> oh, i got you kids new leg irons. >> her loudness and unfilteredness we like her. she was saying stuff about men and wem. so it was about raising kids and marriage and how hard it is. >> what else is new? >> shut up. >> this is why some animals eat their young. >> tv in the '80s was a big decade for the evolution of drama, it just pushed everything forward. >> do you think perhaps this generation is paying more attention to the dialogues in television than years previous? >> certainly people watching our
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shows are and "30 something" and "cheers." they're smartly written. it's their words that define them and i think that's what people like. >> well, we're supposed to be here is the one thing people can can trust. if you go throughout like a burn off night riders, what you but just another vicious street gang? >> that spawned an extraordinary number oshows that really carved out a unique niche for themselves. we began to turn television into an art form and for the first time people were proud to say i write for television. >> up until that point television was second class. in the '80s it was something else entirely and new and kind of ointeresting. >> like everyone in the '80s starts to want to tell their story. that's what really changes things. the unexpected was welcome in the 80s.
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>> television has an impact on every era, every decade. >> television still shapes the thinking of america like no other element in our country. sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. >> it gave rise to people pursuing artistic contents in a way i think has raised the bar in television production exponentially. there's a shift in the '80s from just wanting to play kate the audience to wanting to please and challenge the audience and that's the decade when it happened. >> we had one hell of a run, didn't we partner? >> yeah, we did. >> i'm going to miss you, man. >> i'm going to miss you too, sonny. >> can i give you a laid to airport? >> why not.
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♪ rock is probably the most important cultural event and spawned a whole new generation of freaks. sglitser what guys get off on. >> & the sights and sounds, wro acan get your bottom we got them, bobby. >> you robably noticed america's latest craze is disco dance. >> this is punk rock and its purpose is to promote violence, sex and distortion in that order. ♪
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