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tv   The Nineties  CNN  November 3, 2019 12:00am-1:00am PDT

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ira babysitter and educator of their kids. >> totally, dude, good point, man. quick, jump through the window! >> ah! don't touch that dial. we're about to flip it for you. >> in five, four, three, two. >> i think the reason it's so popular to young people is we give credit to being intelligent. >> my goal was to get cancelled in four episodes and have people go, you got screwed. >> i made the decision that i wasn't going to live my life as a lie anymore. >> this is more celebration of culture and opening the doors and allowing america to come inside. >> there's always something on television, and some of it may be better than we deserve.
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♪ generation x, the 20 somethings somethings, whatever they're called, they're turning out to be a hard sell. >> in the '90s, advertisers would pay premiums for
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college-educated, young adults, 18-49, and we started reinventing nbc and trying to speak to that audience. >> where is someone? i'm starving. >> this is him right here. >> oh, is there a table ready? >> the chinese restaurant was one of the very, very early episodes of seinfeld. and truly nothing happened in the episode. they were waiting for a table. >> i feel like just walking over there and taking some food off somebody's plate. >> we said to larry david, hey, like nothing happens. and larry was offended. >> he was like wildly offended. >> nbc believed in the show, so they said we're committing to four episodes. >> yes, yeah, right, four episodes. >> normally it's 13 or eight or something. ? ye . >> yeah, at least, so i don't think they had too much confidence in the show. >> we didn't think it would work, but we felt they had to go
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through their process, and they would learn. and ultimately, they knew better than we did. >> may mother caught me. >> caught you, doing what? >> you know. i was alone? >> the turning point for seinfeld from like nice show that all of the cool people kind of know about, but that's it, to massive hit was the episode called "the contest", where they tried to obtain from self-pleasure for as long as possible. >> 6:30, time for your bath. >> george? i'm hungry! >> hang on, ma, hank on. >> once do you 30 minutes on masturbation, you can pretty much get away anything. >> i guess you'll be going back to that hospital. >> my mother, jerry.
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>> but, are you estimate master of your domain? >> i am king of the county. >> the week after that aired, people were talking about that in the workplace the entire week. >> they still are talking about it. 52 seconds and two of the greatest words in sitcom history. >> i'm out. >> i think the big break through of seinfeld is that the characters were not nice people. >> someone help! >> shut up, you old bag. >> they were narcissistic. >> no! >> they would screw each other over at the drop of a hat. >> he's just a dentist. >> yeah, and you're an anti-dentite. and yet be friends the next week. >> you don't have to love them. we just have to laugh at them. >> i'm really sorry. >> i was in the pool!
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i was in the pool! >> the idea of a character with darker tendencies. that was so taboo in television comedy. >> ah, are you about done? >> i'm just getting warmed up. >> we're in the confines of network tv, with commercials, with still a lot of things that are re highly structured, and yet we're able to find ways of pushing in those boundaries. >> no soup for you! >> the audience was saying we reward smart intelligent, high-quality programming. and the more we were putting out, the better we were doing. ♪ >> "friends" is about that time in your life when your friends are your family. when david crane and i lived in
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new york we part of a group of six people. we were all attached at the hip. and we went everywhere together and celebrated everything together. and there's that period where you're looking to be out there on your own. and the people you rely on are the ones who live down the hall. >> here we pivot! pivot! pivot! pivot! >> shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up! >> "friends" permeated the culture in a way that was really special. everybody was obsessed with the show, and it became like which one of these characters are you? if you were a girl, were you phoebe, monica or rachel? >> i really got to tell you u this does put knme in a better mood. >> the kids who were watching the young audience saw a
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lifestyle that was aspirational. >> i wish i had an apartment in new york city that no one seems to be worried about the rent for. i wish that i looked like matt le blanc. i wish i had jennifer anniston's hair. one of the things that made friends a phenomenon is that people beyond the laughs actually bonded with these characters. they emotionally were invested in ross and rachel's relationship. >> i couldn't have done this without you. >> okay. more clothes in the dryer? >> i was dropping my daughter off for sunday school at our temple. and literally, my rabbi stopped me and said, what's going to happen with ross and rachel? >> where's chip? why isn't he here yet? >> he'll be here, okay? take a chill pill. >> the one with the prom video is one of my favorites. >> i can't go to my own prom without a date.
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>> take her. can you wear my tux. >> dad, she won't want to go with me. >> this seems like a really surprising way to get rachel to know how ross feels. >> rachel, ready or not, here comes your knight in shining -- oh, no! >> bye! >> chip? >> oh, dear. >> ross sees himself, and you see that look on his face and how sad he is, because he wanted to take her to the prom. >> she crossed the room. i still kind of get chills from it. when she crossed the room and gave him that kiss. the audience went insane.
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may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms or sores. liver problems can occur with entyvio. ask your doctor about the only gi-focused biologic just for ulcerative colitis and crohn's. entyvio. relief and remission within reach.
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okay. let's play showbiz. >> as a young kid in cleveland, i always knew i would one day end up doing a talk show. >> it's arsenio hall! >> in less than two years, ar
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te arsenio la arsenio has fired up his crowd. >> how come i didn't hear all that woofing going on? >> too many white people. >> johnny was the big dog. but i knew everybody on the planet wasn't watching him, and it dawned on me that i could go many weeks and not see a motown group on the "tonight show." >> arsenio hall has been dubbed the prince of late night. >> there was a whole world of talent that had never and would never have been on any late night show. ♪ sitten at home >> two live crew came on and sang "me so horny." like it was the sex pistols. i'd never seen anything like it. it was an explosion in the audience. >> he appealed to a black and white, young audience, and it was a much broader appeal than
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the powers that be had estimated. >> rap, rap is real big among our teens. that's poetry. >> of course it is. >> having maya angelou on, where else would you have seen her otherwise. >> in 1892. wrote a poem called a negro love song. it said, seen my lady home last night, jump back, jump back, honey jump back. >> he didn't just have black people on his show. but if were you hip, you wanted to be on arsenio. >> this is something i heard a political analyst talk about recently. he said you kind of were, i used the word chilling out, he said were you pulling back a little bit. you've been instructed not to say as much or be as outspoken. no? >> i've heard that, but never know who says it. i think it's wishful thinking on the part of some people. >> guess who suggested to bill to do the arsenio show if you
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want to get a younger demo? hill-dog. >> he attracted a lot of people who weren't fans before that night. the '90s was a glorious moment for black television. you saw these representations that you've never seen before. but the premise of the "fresh prince", was this kid comes from philadelphia. his mom says, i'm going to send you to live with your uncle. he shows up at this mansion in bel-air. baseball cap on backward, like he doesn't even know thousand a how to act in this environment. the black producers and
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directors and writers were always playing with this kind of subverting expectations of what is blackness. >> the incredible work of the fresh prince at its most triumphant was when it was showing the ways that being black is always going to be a problem, no matter what. >> vehicle registration, please. >> just a sec. but the thing is, officer, this isn't my car. >> there's the episode i remember where they get pulled over in a car. >> what? >> you're going to tell us to get out of the car. >> you watch too much tv, will. >> you have horrible and racist in a lot of ways. and carlton has this epiphany about how money won't save him. >> no map is going to save you. and neither is your glee club or your fancy bel air address or who your daddy is. because when you're driving in a nice car in a strange neighborhood, none of that matters. they only see one thing.
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>> the writers of "the fresh prince of bel air" had a really tough task to approach these topics with nuance, and were doing it at a clip that was way ahead of their time. >> now don't touch that dial. we're about to flip it for you to one of the most talked about tv shows. it is, as they say, on another network. fox. ♪ you can do what you want to do ♪ ♪ in living color >> ladies and gentlemen. keenan ivory wayans. >> "in living color" was the first show created by, written by, directed by, starring an african-american, all of those things in one. >> this is celebration of culture and of change. us opening the doors to allowing america to come inside. >> yo, yo, yo, all you bad bargain hunters out there, welcome to the homeboys shopping network. >> a lot of what they did on "in living color" was trying to take the stereotypes or the misperceptions about what black men are and turn them upside
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down. >> not only will you get all the cable stations out there, but you'll be able to talk directly to the astronauts. >> it brought this smart, very controversial comedy that black folks had never seen before that centered around their life experiences. >> who are you? >> i am the minister louis farrakhan. >> african-americans composed 25% of fox's market. >> i always get trapped in the corner with somebody named bob. hey, listen, martin, i just saw "boys in the hood," all right? i didn't know, martin, i didn't know. >> they knew that they needed to capture this audience to grow. >> i guess you think you smart and cool. but if you think you get a job here, you're a damn fool. >> so they basically gave the black creators freedom to do whatever you want.
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just get the audience. >> the wb and upn took that concept from fox. >> your shoulders are harder than cheap breast implants. >> going after this underserved audience of urban minority viewers and really ran with it. >> i'm a new millennium woman who will not be defined by traditional roles. >> a lot of the networks built themselves up partly on african-american viewers. >> the african-american shows indexed lower in terms of household income. so over the course of the decade, the network started to move away from those shows. >> i don't know about you people, but i'll be damned if it i'm going to let them destroy my neighborhood. >> black creators felt used and abused. you made your money. you built your audience on us and now, you know, you're done.
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that could allow hackers devices into your home.ys and like all doors, they're safer when locked. that's why you need xfinity xfi. with the xfi gateway, devices connected to your homes wifi are protected. which helps keep people outside from accessing your passwords, credit cards and cameras. and people inside from accidentally visiting sites that aren't secure. and if someone trys we'll let you know. xfi advanced security. if it's connected, it's protected. call, click, or visit a store today. in the '90s, you suddenly had shows that were aiming at a young audience. one of the things that really made 90210 stand out was it was
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one of the first dramas to really get into the teenager's point of view. >> do you have protection? >> of course. it's always been my problem. not the protection, but no one to protect. ? i wanted to do a tv series that was going to be relevant to teenagers, and it's not about the parents solving the kids' problems, it's about the kids basically solving their own problems. >> what are we supposed to do, sit them down, have a kid-to-parent talk? >> no, you can't talk to parents on that level. >> if the '60s had beatle mania, the '90s had 90210 mania. they had the cover and it was a sign that television was focussed on these young people. my so-called life was like the punk rock version of 90210. it was earnest but not at all saccharin. it didn't have easy answers.
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it showed teen heartbreak in a way that was staggeringly real for the time. >> why are you like this? >> like what? >> like how you are. >> hey jordan, you coming or not? >> how am i? how am i? >> "my so-called life" was your actual life. and the idea that everyone in high school is a misfit, that you have this deep insecurity about who you're supposed to be. >> you know how sometimes the last sentence you said like echoes in your brain? and it keeps just sounding stupider? and you have to say something else just to make it stop. >> oh, i just remembered. i owe you $30. >> "my so-called life" was not necessarily the show the cheerleader or captain of the football team were watching. they were still watching "90210". but it was the people who maybe didn't recognize themselves in "90210" who felt like, ah-ha, now i recognize myself in "my so-called life."
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>> demarco asked me if you were getting a sex change. >> exactly. i don't want to be a girl. i just want to hang with girls. >> ricky was out on the show eventually, and that was a story line treated with great sensitivity. >> and i belong nowhere. with no one. and i don't fit. >> i mean, it was -- it was so deeply felt. it was saying to the viewer, things that you have gone through, they matter. >> man, i hate high school. >> freaks and geeks really sympathized with the losers. it had great empathy. >> it was about the kinds of characters who tv didn't want to show you in their high school shows or treated them as the butt of the joke. and these were the people who the show put its sympathy
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behind. >> roll down the window, i got a big one abrewin'. >> please don't. >> the young audience was the audience everyone wanted to get. and people in network tv could see that channels like mtv had that audience's loyalty and had the advertiser dollars to go with it. >> this concept of explaining me as real life soap opera. >> in 1991, we got a call from mtv, and they were toying with the idea of doing some kind of a scripted show about young people. >> they said it was like a mixture between the big chill and the breakfast club. >> but ultimately decided the idea of a show with writers and actors would just be too expensive for them. >> the real world, i guess that's what this is supposed to be. >> so we eventually allied all the drama rules to documentary to get our, what we called a docu-soap. >> this is the true story, true story. >> of seven strangers. >> a social experiment to see what happens when you put these
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people in a house, when they stop being polite and being real. >> do you sell drugs? >> you haven't seen that kind of thing on television, an honest discussion of race. >> i can try to deal with you, but ignorance is ignorance, blue, purple, whatever. >> the world becomes this big bang moment for reality tv. all we have to do is take cameras and put them on people and we'll get great stuff. you had in the next season in l.a. a young woman who get as abortion, and the camera goes literally right up to the doctor's door. by the third season in san francisco, you have a young man who is dealing with aids. >> he's hiv-positive. it's just like, no, not him. i like this guy, and i don't want him to have to suffer. >> it was such a triumph that pedro had the courage at his age
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to come out as someone with aids, in my small gay community on campus, we all felt like, wow, he was our hero. >> he falls in love, and he and his partner, shawn, have a ceremony. you know, and this is long before same-sex marriage was legal. the tv shows weren't doing this. movies weren't doing this. >> i have to believe that all the pain that i'm going through, that all the anger, the frustration, that there's something bigger than that. >> aids has claimed a young man who made an enormous impact on young americans. pedro zamora died in miami at the age of 22. >> i'm really glad i got to know pedro zamora. i hope you enjoy and learn from pedro's life of compassion and fearlessness. my parents never taught me anything about managing money.
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causing uncontrollable tremors. now, abbott technology can target those exact neurons. restoring control and harmony, once thought to belost forever. the most personal technology is technology with the power to change your life. tell us about the guy! what's his name? >> why don't you tell us? we're just going to bug you until you do. >> it's too soon. >> come on! tell us! >> you big baby. >> all right. her name is marla. i'm seeing a woman. >> in the '90s, gay characters were always secondary or third. there was never a gay character that was the lead of a show.
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>> sir, you want to go look at apartments tomorrow? >> the comedian, ellen degeneris was about to come out. they decide that the character that ellen plays on tv will also come out. >> it is just reprehensible that abc, now owned by disney of all companies, is going to feature ellen as coming out of the closet. it won't be long before god knows what, you know, bestiality, who knows. >> we were getting bomb threats. disney was really getting a lot of flak for even thinking about having a come out episode with ellen. >> i'm 35 years old, i'm so afraid to tell people, i just -- >> susan -- >> i'm gay.
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>> ellen coming out was a huge moment for me personally, because, you know, i was a closeted gay guy, gay child at that time. and it was the bravest thing i saw. >> that felt great. that felt so great. >> initial reports suggest abc made a bundle on ellen's highly-publicized outing on national tv last night. the broadcast was accompanied by coming out parties all across the country, including one in birmingham, alabama where the local abc station refused to broadcast the show. >> she did a great thing. she was brave. >> i made the decision that i wasn't going to live my life as a lie anymore. i was, i belong with everybody else. and that's what i finally did. >> we used to say ellen opened the door, and we knocked it
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down. ♪ i love my mister ♪ tell me lazy ♪ tell me slow ♪ tell me i'm crazy ♪ maybe i know ♪ can't help lovin' that man of mine ♪ ♪ >> i'm gay! >> "will & grace" was a great show in helping a mainstream straight community connect to the gay community. >> i think i can fix this thing with your landlord, but it might get a little ugly. >> play "hardball," baby. throw low and inside. he's crowdin' the plate -- >> sports. you're lossi you're losin' me. >> i figured 25% of the country wouldn't watch the show, just based on the fact that we had two gay men on it. but if we could make-believe that will & grace would get together >> will, i told you, you live with a heterolong enough, you're going to catch it.
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>> maybe whe could get people t watch, thinking it would happen, knowing it would never happen. >> sufferin' salveo. >> it's a shame. an image like this is completely wasted on us. >> i remember the network calling every other week, saying can will just fall in love with grace? and the creators were like, well, that's weird. he's gay. that's, gay people don't do that. that's why they're gay. >> why wasn't i your girlfriend, queer bait? >> will and grace was the first time you saw characters on television that made gay normal. you wanted to be friends with them. >> that's what we are. >> a catholic girl gone bad. and karen, what are you supposed to be? >> there was a kind of opening of the floodgates in the '90s, in terms of allowing yourself
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not to be perfect. >> if you're a successful saleswoman in this city, you have two choices. you can bang your head against the wall and try to find a relationship or screw it and just have sex like a man. >> "sex in the city" was a huge success right from the start. it was very funny and very clever and very candid. >> are relationships the religion of the '90s? >> these were women making a good living. independent, single and feeling their power. >> i said all of them. >> bad waiter? >> bad waiter. >> i wanted these women to be objectifying their men in the way men had always objectified women. >> all righty. my turn. >> oh, sorry. have to go back to work. >> you didn't used to be able to discuss sex as sex on network shows. there never were people talking about orgasms or organs or sex.
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>> okay. words are essential. tell me exactly how he worded it. >> we've been seeing each other for a couple weeks. i really like you. and tomorrow night after dinner, i want us to have anal sex. >> these are women who share everything with each other and are discussing what anal sex means. >> there's going to be a shift in power. either he'll have the upper hand or you will. >> in is a physical expression that the body was designed to experience, and ps, it's fabulous. >> the show took an interesting turn by focussing on the relationship between the women and telling the story of them as really soul mates together as well. >> you did the right thing buying that apartment. you love it, right? >> yeah. >> and you won't be alone forever. >> historically, women are often set up in narratives in which only one can succeed. and so showing women not competing with each other and as
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supporting each other was also an important narrative change. >> okay, girl, see you tomorrow. >> okay. >> okay. >> night night. >> the show had a message of freedom and liberation, especially for women that really resonated. i think section in t"sex in thed make people think i wonder what they're doing next. panera's new baja warm grain bowl is full of good. full of tasty, good for you ingredients. fresh and filling. so that you too will be full of good. try our new warm grain bowls today. order now on doordash.
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with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, your plans can change in minutes. your head wants to do one thing, but your gut says, "not today." if your current treatment isn't working, ask your doctor about entyvio. entyvio acts specifically in the gi tract to prevent an excess of white blood cells from entering and causing damaging inflammation. entyvio has helped many patients achieve long-term relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms or sores.
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liver problems can occur with entyvio. ask your doctor about the only gi-focused biologic just for ulcerative colitis and crohn's. entyvio. relief and remission within reach.
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and now, ladies and gentlemen, here's johnny!
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♪ >> johnny carson wasn't just the host of the ""tonight show."" johnny carson was a man america said good night to, for 30 years. and, on my watch, johnny kndecid that 30 years was a great time to take a bow and say thank you and good night. >> 30 years is enough. good time to get out, while you're still on top of your game plan. >> johnny had told no one what he was prepared to do, and we weren't prepared. and that set off a game of musical chairs for who would get the throne. and there really only was one late-night throne. >> jay leno had been pretty much carson's regular substitute host when he went on vacation. >> only six months ago, people were talking about donald trump as a presidential candidate. right? nice joke. now since then, he's had an
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affair, left his wife, run up a debt of several million dollars, so i guess he's going to be running as a democrat, huh? >> jay leno wanted to essentially just continue doing a johnny carson type show, and david letterman was the show immediately following carson. and they had different styles. >> what is your name? >> i'm going to ask you to turn the cameras off, please? >> we just wanted to drop off this basket of fruit. >> part of dave's thing was attacking authority. he liked that. >> cut the cameras please. >> he needed a corporate bad guy to go up against. i was oftentimes that target. >> i can hear this, this warren littlefield guy whining about not getting his name on the card. >> i could be on there, couldn't i? >> it was always letterman's dream to be the host of the "tonight show." he idolized johnny carson, rightfully so. >> the decision that's had the
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entertainment industry buzzing is due this week. >> most of us thought the person who deserved to get it was david letterman. he didn't get it. jay leno got it. when we found out that leno was going to get the "tonight show," we were all obviously depressed. we felt like we were being punished for making fun of them and not cooperating and not being as collaborative as we could have been. and we also felt like we were being t being disrespected because we did 11 years of great shows. >> just how pissed off are you? >> by all rights, david letterman should have taken over for johnny carson, but his agent took a very, very aggressive stand. we're going to really control all of late nate. it's going to cost you a
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fortune, and they put our backs to the wall. >> i can only tell you that it's been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. and i hope when i find something i want to do and that i like and that i think you'll like that you'll be as gracious as inviting me in as you have been. i bid you a very heartfelt good night. >> the "tonight show" without johnny carson as the regular host made its debut last night. jay leno emerged from behind the curtain, stepping into the big shoes filled by johnny. >> here we go, number ten then. heads cbs, tails cbs. >> he placed a call to johnny carson asking for his advice. and johnny said, if it was me, i would leave. and i think that advice was really the lynch pin. letterman always took johnny's advice. >> the late night wars are about
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to begin in earnest on television. david letterman is now headed for cbs. >> cbs had lured him over with a salary more than four times that of leno and given him what he really wanted, the 11:30 time slot. now as tadave and jay prepare t go head to head, one thing is clear, late night tv will never be quite the same. >> all of a sudden there's a talk show war. >> start up your remote controls. the late night race is about to begin. on monday, david letterman's new show debuts here on cbs, followed a week later by chevy chase on fox and a week after that by conan o'brien on nbc. these join the "tonight show" with jay leno, arsenio and nightline. >> it became a crowded space, and the competition became that much more difficult. >> some tv writers think arsenio could be the big loser. >> i'm sad to see you go, because america is going to have a big chunk missing.
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>> losing arsenio, yeah. it was, it was bad. he was the lone voice. gone. >> david letterman had the suits at nbc pausing for a moment. did we make the right choice? because he cam out gang busters, and he was beating jay leno in the ratings. >> there's some people who say you blew it, that by picking leno to replace carson over letterman that that was a big programming mistake. >> it was a shaky start, a really, really shaky first season start. >> well, it's true confessions time for actor hugh grant, who's trying to put his recent encounter with a whootd prostitute behind him. >> when hugh grant was arrested, it was big, live action news. hugh grant was supposed to do the "tonight show" that night. >> what the hell were you
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thinking? >> it all came together in that moment, and everyone saw it. and that's it. we were never number two again. >> hey, hey! >> for us, it was the fun experience. we got our own theater. we got an unlimited budget, access to every star in the business who wants to do the show. >> somebody bring me the jaws of life! >> so i think going to cbs was heaven sent. it really was. >> goodnight, everybody!
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as the decade starts, fantasy, sci-fi, those were not big things on television. you went to the movies for that. >> it's hard to pin down what the x-files actually is. on the surface, it's about investigating paranormal
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activi activities. >> you're crazy. >> that dynamic, that dramatic tension of believer versus skeptic is one of the engines of the show. and you're always seeing it from a specific point of view. >> they're equal. >> yeah, absolutely. >> they're equals, and in a way they've kind of switched gender stereotypes, because the character i play is the intuitive one. >> the large intestine. >> and scully is the rationalist, the doctor. >> a lot of folks who enjoyed the x-files who otherwise didn't watch tv might have been drawn to the show by its, for lack of a better way to put it, it's stick it to the man ethos. don't trust big business, don't trust anybody but your friends and family. a message somewhat dark and cynical but was a breath of fresh air in the early '90s.
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>> the '90s was a time of conspiracies, and the internet was starting to spread beyond just like hard core computer users, so you could have message boards and use net user groups, and everybody wanted to talk about the black oil and bees, and what the cigarette smoking man was up to. and go to at tv.x-files, and people were so nuts for the show. >> it's pure science fiction. that's probably what i like most about it. >> i definitely think the x-files influenced nerd culture and nerds taking over culture. people realized, this isn't just niche programming. this is an opportunity to reach a wide audience. and so it did lead to shows like "buffy the vampire slayer." "buffy the vampire slayer" is a
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major work of american art as far as i'm concerned. it depicted high school in a similar way to "my so-called life", except rather than depicting hell, it was hell. her high school was literally built on top of hell. so all of these creatures would come up that she would have to fight. >> 3-in-1 night. >> and it was a brilliant metaphor for all the demons that you have to slay. >> you know, buffy was a teenager, and she was still finding out who she was. one of the story lines of it that was very popular and much talked about was where she has sex with her boyfriend for the first time. and then, in sort of the world of buffy, he becomes literally evil. >> there must be some part of you inside that still remembers who you are. >> dream on, schoolgirl. >> in order to save the world,
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literally, she knows she has to send him to hell. buffy knows in an instant that angel has become good again. >> buffy. >> and so she has this moment of reckoning that she has to decide whether to do this or not, and she makes the sacrifice to push him back into hell. >> the show was really working on multiple levels, and in buffy, in particular, we saw a character that was a reluctant protagonist, forced to make tough decisions. >> because '90s television was trying to do something different, that included who was held up as a hero. >> television showed us women in their depth. it began to show us much more of a range of the african american
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community. >> i'm always here for you. >> we started focussing on teenagers in a more realistic way. >> thing change, dawson u evolve. >> what are you talking about? >> thinking outside the box in terms of what people might want to watch. >> you're out of order, he's out of order. this whole trial is sexy. >> by the end of the '90s, it feels like a 300-network world. and that means an explosion of opportunity for all sorts of different stories to be told. >> was that the oven timer? >> that's right, my friend. it's time for -- "baywatch"! can you believe they gave stephanie skin cancer? >> i still can't believe they promoted her to lieutenant. >> you're just saying that because you're in love with yasmin breathe. >> hey, hey, they're runnin'.
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see, this is the brilliance of the show. i say always keep them running. all the time running. run. run. run. run like the wind! it seems that television has become a kind of electronic confessional. >> it is juicy, newsy, exciting stuff. >> what are we doing here? why did we start this business? >> any tool for self-expression will bring out the best and worst of us. and television has been that. >> they don't pay me enough to deal with animals like this! >> why don't you just get off my back, okay? >> people are no longer embarrassed to admit they watch television. >> hello. >> people used to say i was there. now they watch it on television.

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