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 go. pivot. pivot. pivot! pivot! pivot! pivot! >> 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 got to tell you this really does put me in a better mood. >> the kids who were watching, the young audience, saw a lifestyle that was aspirational. i wish i had an apartment in new

york city that no one seems to be worried about the rent for. i wish that i looked like matt leblanc. i wish that i had jennifer aniston's hair. one of the things that made "friends" a phenomenon is people beyond the laughs actually bonded with these characters. they emotionally were invested in ross and rachel's relationship. >> i could not 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? >> you look pretty tonight. >> oh, thanks. >> the one with the prom video is one of my favorites. >> you guys, we don't have to watch this. >> yeah, we do. >> come on. come on. >> where's chip? why isn't he here yet? >> he'll be here, okay? take a chill pill.

>> this seemed like a really surprising way to get rachel to know how ross feels. >> i can't go to my own prom without a date. >> take her. you can wear my tux. >> dad, she won't want to go with me. >> she's learning something new and he thinks, oh, god, please don't let her see this. please don't let her see this. >> rachel, ready or not, here comes your knight in shining -- oh, no. >> bye! don't wait up! >> 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. >> when she crossed the room, i still kind of get chills from it. when she crossed the room and gave him that kiss -- [ cheers and applause ]

>> -- the audience went insane. >> at the height of must-see tv, thursday nights on nbc, 75 million americans watched thursday night. that was at the time one-third of the country. >> ooh! what is this stuff? >> the sweater is angora. >> well, it's wonderful. >> the machine that was nbc in the '90s for comedy was untouchable. >> you're not from around here, are you? >> it generated so much viewership and money and awards. >> you do not need this. >> it's the top of our wedding cake. >> we're not -- it's not a scrapbook, it's a freezer. >> no! >> we were all kind of part of this chapter in television where we realized we were in the right place at the right time. >> let's see how you like this, naughty boy. >> we certainly associate nbc of

the '90s with having extremely successful sitcoms but they weren't the only network that found their way to having some success. tgif was on abc on friday, and it was their block of family-oriented comedies. >> i can't take it. i need the cake. >> it was not sophisticated television. but these were shows that people adored. [ laughing and snorting ] >> cbs. >> cbs was in a really bad spot. they had just fallen apart over the early part of the '90s and had gone through a couple different network executives. >> but then suddenly they had this hit with an unknown comic. this was the year of seinfeld, no hugging, no learning, and this was a show being made as if it was produced in the era of the dick van dyke show. >> i love you. >> there was hugging.

there was learning. >> i love you, son. >> all right, all right. >> if you worked for me, your job was so go home, get in a fight with your wife and come back in and tell me about it. >> don't sleep on the couch. i just cleaned down there. >> in fact, the pilot, i put in this true thing that happened to me wherein i sent my parents a gift for the holidays of the fruit of the month club. >> and did you know you sent me a box of pears from a place called fruit of the month? >> that's right. that's right. how are they? >> and my mother reacted as if i had sent her a box of heads from a murderer. >> why did you do this to me? >> oh my gosh. >> i can't talk. there's too much fruit in the house! >> oh! what is happening? >> what do you think we are, invalids? we can't go out and get our own fruit? >> i tried to tell him. >> all right. i'm cancelling the fruit club. >> the real story is where the real connection with your audience is.

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host of "the tonight show." johnny carson was the man that america said good night to for 30 years. ♪ >> and on my watch, johnny decided that 30 years was a great time to take a bow and say thank you and good night. >> 30 years is enough. it's a good time to get out while you're still on top of your game plan. >> johnny carson retiring in the early '90s was the great moment where a huge chunk of the ice shelf breaks off. something that has been there for centuries, for thousands of years, suddenly is no longer there. >> a tremendous part of history. and that's lovely to have made your mark on an era like that. >> johnny had told no one what he had planned to do, and we weren't prepared. and that set off a game of musical chairs for who would get the throne, and there only was one late-night throne.

>> hi, you guys! >> jay leno had been pretty much carson's regular substitute host when he went on vacation. >> you know what's amazing, only six months ago people were talking about donald trump as a presidential candidate. right? that's true. since then he's had an affair, left his wife, run up 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. >> okay, we just wanted to drop off this basket of fruit -- >> part of dave's thing used to always be attacking authority, he liked that. >> he needed a corporate bad guy to go up against. i was oftentimes that target. >> i can hear this warren littlefield guy whining all year long about not getting his name on the card last year. >> he's on it.

>> look, what about me? 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 big decision that's had the entertainment industry buzzing is due this week. that of course is the fate of nbc's late-night stars jay leno and david letterman. >> most of us thought the person who deserved to get it was david letterman. he didn't get it. jay leno got it. >> leno, who earlier rode his motorcycle into a news conference hosted by nbc entertainment president warren littlefield, still has a bruised ego about the way the network wavered in its support for him. >> 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 disrespected because we did 11 years of great shows. >> just how pissed off are you? [ laughter and applause ] >> 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 night. it's going to cost you a fortune. and they put our backs to the wall. >> i can only tell you that it has 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 i think you will like and come back, that you will be as gracious inviting me into your home 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 that were filled for 30

years by johnny. >> cbs came to us and made a very attractive offer. >> here we go, number ten. heads cbs, tails cbs. number nine -- >> letterman did place 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 linchpin. letterman always took johnny's advice. >> the late-night wars are about to begin in earnest on american 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 dave and jay prepare to 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 combatants join "the tonight show" with jay leno, "arsenio," and "nightline." >> it became a crowded space and the competition became that much more difficult. >> in the third corner, his ratings fading rapidly, arsenio hall. some tv writers think "arsenio" could be the big loser in this free-for-all. >> when letterman came in, it essentially diluted arsenio's brand because there were so many alternatives. >> i'm sad to see you go because america is going to have a big chunk missing out of its existence. >> losing "arsenio," yeah, it was bad. he was the lone voice, gone. >> david letterman had the suits

at nbc pausing for a moment. did we make the right choice? because he came out gangbusters, 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. >> it's true confessions time for actor hugh grant who is trying hard to put his recent encounter with a hollywood prostitute behind him. >> when hugh grant was arrested, it was big, live action news. and hugh grant was supposed to do "the tonight show" that night. >> what the hell were you thinking? [ rim shot ] [ cheers and applause ] >> 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, we've got access to every star in the business who wants to do the show. >> somebody bring me the jaws of life! >> so, i think going to cbs was heaven-sent. it really was. >> good night, everybody! lemons, lemons, lemons. look how nice they are. the moment you become an expedia member, you can instantly start saving on your travels. so you can go and see all those, lovely, lemony, lemons. ♪ and never wonder if you got a good deal. because you did. ♪ the world is full of make or break moments. especially if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture, it's time to make your move to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®.

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in the mid-1990s if you took a look at the list of the 50 most-watched shows on cable, at the top would be nickelodeon. "rug rats," "blues clues." >> don't you know cartoons will ruin your mind? >> "ren and stimpy" had some very surreal, high-concept humor to it. this is the beginning of the splintering of the television audience and splintering of the family audience, really, because with families having three or four tvs in the house you had a kid watching nickelodeon, the dad watching espn sports, the mom watching lifetime. you know, they were in their own separate universes watching television. by the time of the '90s, mtv wasn't merely a music channel. they were having great success in terms of creating shows that incorporated music but that also were shows and programs that stood on their own. >> yes!

>> huh huh huh! huh huh huh! huh huh huh! that was cool! >> "beavis and butthead" established what mtv could be because the show was about people making fun of music videos, just like the people in the audience were doing. >> whoa, check out his neck. >> yeah. there's like all these bones and stitches moving around. >> yeah. >> my manager would call me, like, hey, you got this big bump because you were on "beavis and butthead" last night. >> i sit there like a doughnut watching these guys. and i find them endlessly entertaining because i know and you know and the world knows, these guys are, always will be, and cannot be anything but idiots. >> that's right. >> mtv has a detrimental, damaging developmental effect on the sexuality, on the morality, on the spirituality, maybe even

the physical development of our young people. ♪ >> now we hit the '90s and once you can go for an audience of 5 million and have a successful show, you can say, i don't care if the parents don't like this. >> can i tell you something, miss ellen? >> of course, wendy. >> don't [ bleep ] with me! >> what? >> you heard me. stay away from my man, bitch, or i'll whoop your sorry little ass back to last year! >> trey parker and matt stone were two of the funniest people i ever met. and their success story is proof that if you just stay true to yourself, you don't have to do anything else. >> people think, oh, you came and did the show and now you're big sellouts. the truth is, we were sellouts to begin with. >> perhaps there is no stopping the corporate machine. >> i mean, we were sleeping at friends' houses, had no money, and then one fox executive had

seen a cartoon we had made in college and he said, make me another christmas video i can send out as a christmas card. he gave us like 700 bucks. we went and made this five-minute short. >> i come seeking retribution. >> he's come to kill you because you're jewish, kyle. >> oh [ bleep ]. >> it went around the tv community like wildfire. >> i mean, it -- it was the funniest thing you'd ever seen in your life. >> go, santa! >> somebody showed me the short. >> go, jesus! >> i thought it was hysterical. i called and said get them in here right away. >> oh, my god! they killed kenny. you bastards! >> "south park" was able to be topical. >> just call me saddam hussein. >> "south park" really, really detests hypocrites. >> christians and republicans and nazis, oh, my! >> well, okay, mrs. cartman, i'll legalize 40th trimester abortions for you.

>> could you imagine back then that these people would ever get on network television? or any kind of television? >> it's a miracle. "south park" is a miracle. >> the early '90s the hbo shows start to kind of come into their own. >> and then have i always had these breasts? >> a lot of people want freedom. they don't want to go back to the networks which are saying, you can come to us where you'll make more money but you'll also have content restricted. you could go to cable and have no restrictions. not make as much money but have freedom of expression, which almost everybody who works in these mediums wants. >> some of the content truly was, you can't get this anywhere else. >> you're a fantasy maker, the

only limit on the kinds of fantasies is people's imagination. >> hbo turned to people who said, i can't do that on television, but you can do it on hbo. >> white people don't trust black people. that's why they won't vote for no black president. like a black brother will [ bleep ] up the white house. like the grass won't be cut. dishes piled up. cousins running through the white house. cookouts. basketball going in the back. >> in the late '80s hbo was just sort of gaining ground for series. >> by the '90s hbo had started to begin its explosion. >> when we started doing "dream on," one of the things hbo said to us was, it's got to be something that couldn't be on network tv. ♪ >> because hbo was driven by subscribers and not by

commercials and selling advertising time, they had a different way of looking at success or failure. what they were looking for was critical acclaim. >> you've watched letterman, you've watched leno, but what about larry? larry sanders, that is. he's the tv alter ego of comedian garry shandling. >> garry shandling wanted to do a show that deconstructed the kind of show "the tonight show" was. >> just pretend like you're talking to me till we're off the air so it won't seem weird. >> okay. blah, blah, blah, blah. >> "the larry sanders show" was sort of cathartic. because in the world of "the larry sanders show," there was a network. >> you want me to [ bleep ] your budget? is that what you want me to do? >> so it became this weird funhouse mirror thing, where you could use stuff from your misery, from your career, as fodder. >> don't take this as a threat but i killed a man like you in korea, hand to hand. my boy doesn't want to do any more commercials. >> larry sanders to me was,

aside from being a brilliant television show -- >> can you say, hey now. >> hey now. >> it was my everyday life. >> i'm here for three good reasons. last show. big ratings. movie coming out. bim, bam, boom. >> "the larry sanders show" was very unique in that it was very deadpan. and really groundbreaking in its day. >> i think it made people really go, that's the level of work you may be able to do on a cable network. >> please, do not flip around. come right back. [ applause ] >> hey now! oh, you sound good. ♪ ♪ excuse me! uh, sir, we just cleaned the windows.

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♪ in the '90s you suddenly had shows that were aiming at a young audience. one of the things that really made "90210" stand out is it was 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. lots of 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 him down and have a kid-to-parent talk? >> no, you can't talk to parents on that mature level. tragic but true. >> if the '60s had beatle mania, the '90s had "90210" mania. when "tv guide" had its "youth-quake" cover, that was a sign that suddenly television was focused on these young people. ♪ "my so-called life" was the punk rock version of "90210." it was earnest but not at all saccharine. it didn't have easy answers. it showed teen heartbreak in a way that was staggeringly real for the time. >> 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." >> 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 storyline 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. >> "buffy the vampire slayer" depicted high school in a similar way to "my so-called life" except rather than just feeling like hell, it actually was hell. her high school was literally built on top of hell. and so all of these creatures would come up that she would have to fight. >> three in one night. >> it was a brilliant metaphor for adolescence and 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 storylines 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 part of you inside that still remembers who you are. >> dream on, schoolgirl. >> in order to save the world, literally, she knows she has to send him to hell. >> buffy knows in an instant that angel has become good again. >> buffy! >> 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. in buffy in particular, we saw a character that was a reluctant protagonist. forced to make tough decisions. >> there was a kind of opening of the floodgates in the '90s

for women. the idea of being an ideal, i think, was kind of smashed through a lot of the characters on television. >> look, if you're a successful saleswoman in this city, you have two choices. you can bang your head against a wall and try and find a relationship, or you can say screw it and just go out and have sex like a man. >> "sex and the city" was a huge success right from the start. it was very funny, very clever, and very candid. >> are relationships the religion of the '90s? >> these are women who are making a good living, they were independent, they were single, and they were sort of feeling their power. >> i said all of them. bad waiter, bad waiter. >> what do you tip for that? >> i wanted these women to be objectifying men in the way men had always objectified women. >> all right. my turn. >> sorry, i have to go back to work. >> you didn't used to be able to discuss sex as sex.

network shows, there never were people talking about orgasms or organs or sex. >> okay, words are essential. tell me exactly how he worded it. >> we've been seeing each other for a couple of weeks, i really like you, and tomorrow night after dinner i want us to have anal sex. >> these are women who shared everything with each other and they're discussing what anal sex means. >> it goes up there, there's going to be a shift in power. either he'll have the upper hand or you will. >> and should she do this or not? >> this is a physical expression that the body -- well, it was designed to experience. and p.s., it's fabulous. >> what are you talking about? i went to smith. >> the show took an interesting turn by really focusing on the relationship between the women and telling the story of them as really soulmates 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 supporting each other was also an important narrative change. >> okay, girls, see you tomorrow. >> okay. >> night-night. >> the show had a message of freedom and liberation especially for women that really resonated. i think "sex and the city" helped make hbo a place for people to think, i wonder what they're doing next. best plan ev. (manny) yeah, that's what i do. (vo) with 5g ultra wideband in many more cities, you get up to 10 times the speed at no extra cost. get verizon business unlimited from the network businesses rely on. oh, marco's pepperoni magnifico. classic and old world pepperoni® on one pizza—and a large is just $9.99?! the phrase “slice of heaven” comes to mind... marco's. pizza lovers get it.

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in 1991 we got a call from mtv and they were toying with the idea of doing some kind of a scripted show about young people. >> they said it was like a mix between "the big chill" and "the breakfast club." >> but ultimately decided the idea of a show with writers and actors would be too expensive for them. >> the real world, that's what this was supposed to be. >> so we essentially applied all the drama rules to documentary to get our, what we called at that time, a docusoap. >> this is the true story. >> true story. >> of seven strangers -- >> it was kind of a social experiment to watch what happens when you put these strangers together in a house. when people stop being polite

and start getting real. >> do you sell drugs? why do you have a beeper? >> you hadn't seen anything like that on television, that kind of open, honest discussion of race. >> i can try as much as i can to try to deal with you, but ignorance is ignorance. stupidity is stupidity. and that's it. black white, green, purple, blue, whatever. >> "the real world" becomes this big bang moment for reality tv. the idea is that, oh my god, 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 gets an abortion, and the camera literally goes right up to the doctor's door. >> give me a hug. >> by the third season in san francisco, you have a young man who is dealing with aids. >> i'm hiv positive. >> when he told me he was hiv positive, it was 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 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, 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, all the frustration, that there's something bigger than that. >> aids has claimed a young man who made an enormous impact on a generation of young americans. pedro zamora died in miami today at the age of 22. >> i'm really glad i got to know pedro zamora. i'm grateful that his rich and fulfilling work is still remembered today. and i hope you enjoy and learn from pedro's life of compassion and fearlessness. >> you have to credit "the real world" with sort of helping the acceptance of the lgbt community. because there weren't many portrayals of guy people period on television at that point. >> her name is marla.

i'm seeing a woman. >> in the '90s, gay characters were always secondary or third. there was never a gay character that was the lead of a show. [ laughter ] >> so you want to go look at apartments tomorrow? >> great idea! >> ellen degeneres, the comedian, was about to come out. as a lesbian. >> look, on the cover of "time." >> and she does it on "time" magazine. yep, i'm gay. but they decide that the character 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, incest, who knows. >> we were getting bomb threats. disney was really getting a lot

of flack for even thinking about having a coming-out episode with ellen. >> i'm 35 years old. i'm so afraid to tell people. i mean, i just -- susan, i'm gay. [ cheers ] >> 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 report suggests abc made a bundle on ellen's highly publicized outing on national tv last night. the broadcast was accompanied by coming-out parties all around the country, including one in birmingham, alabama, where the local abc station refused to broadcast the show. >> she did a great thing. she was brave. >> i made the decision that i

wasn't going to live my life as a lie anymore. i was -- i belong with everybody else. and that's what i finally did. >> we used to say ellen opened the door and we knocked it down. ♪ i love my mister ♪ ♪ tell me lazy tell me so ♪ ♪ tell me i'm crazy maybe i know ♪ ♪ can't help loving that man of mine ♪ >> take it, jack! >> and pas de bouree, pas de bouree, i'm gay! >> "will & grace" was a great show in sort of helping a mainstream straight community connect to the gay community. >> i think i can fix this thing with your landlord but might get a little ugly. >> play hardball, baby. throw low and inside. he's crowding the plate and we've got to -- >> grace, sports, you're losing 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. >> give it to me! >> but if we could make believe that will and grace would get together. >> will, i told you, you live with a hetero long enough, you're going to catch it. >> maybe we could get people to watch thinking that would happen, knowing it would never happen. >> suffering sappho! >> you know, it's a shame. an image like this is completely wasted on us. >> i remember the network calling every other week saying, can will just fall in love with grace? and the creators were like, well, that's weird, he's gay. gay people don't do that. that's why they'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. >> guess what we are. >> uh -- a catholic girl gone bad -- and karen, what are you supposed to be? >> the best feeling i get is when people come up and say, thank you for all you do for the gay community, and thank you for playing that part in that show. and you feel so fortunate to have been a part of something so great. it's started. somewhere between a cuddle and a struggle, it's...the side hug. tween milestones like this may start at age 9. hpv vaccination - a type of cancer prevention against certain hpv-related cancers, can start then too. for most, hpv clears on its own. but for others, it can cause certain cancers later in life. you're welcome!

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>> what was happening at the end of the '90s was audiences started to look towards television for what they had only found before in feature film. >> victory is mine, victory is mine! great day in the morning, people, victory is mine. >> and actors no longer felt that it was a comedown to come work on television. >> what did i ever do to you except deliver the south? >> you shouldn't have made me beg. >> the segment of the audience that showed up to watch west wing, they watched, you know, newshour, they watched west wing, and documentaries in foreign languages, right? >> if the name of this nominee is leaked out before i wanted to be leaked out, i'm going to

blame you, and you're going to find that unpleasant. >> i got to tell you something, toby, your heart when you're like this. >> '90s television was, like, the first wave of what we now have. remarkably specific niche programming. >> freaks and geeks really sympathized with the losers. it had great empathy for its characters. ♪ >> freaks and geeks breaks my heart every time i think about it. >> oh, i'm sorry. did i crush your twinkies? >> it lasted 18 episodes, and they are a perfect 18 episodes, but nbc hated it so much. >> roll down the windows, because i got a big one brewing. >> oh, no, please don't. >> they thought it was a show by losers, about losers, for losers. they hated it. they wanted no part of it. they killed it. >> at the end of the '90s, the

jig is starting to be up for the networks. basically, quality migrates to cable. >> oz comes on in '97, and it's set in this fictional penitentiary. wow, what a strange show that was. >> in oz, sometimes the things you can't touch are more real than the things you can. for instance, fear. hatred. loneliness. they are more real to me than a shank. and a soul. >> it was jaw-dropping the violent. it's a men's prison. it probably should be. but, you know, it kind of announces the idea that hbo is, like, very serious about doing scripted dramas. >> it's finished! it's over! >> that hbo really, in my mind, comes to its own in 1999 with

the sopranos. ♪ >> sopranos just is one of those shows that was a benchmark. it changed, like, a lot of things for everybody. >> the route the handbook. tony soprano, the lead actor in the drama, he killed a man. we watched him. we took his daughter on a college tour. >> pretty? >> ya. >> it was just a melding of a guy and a world. and a behavior that promoted all of the feelings that you would have for a guy that you love in a guy that you hate, you know? sopranos came on tv, and it really showed us the future, whether we realize that was going to be the future of

television or not. >> this husband of yours, carmela, how much will you love him? he's the best. >> oh, god. >> he's like a father to me. >> just make sure nothing happens to him. >> that character in that show was a great inspiration to a great many shows that came after it, including the one that i worked on. >> you know what i want, tony? i want those kids to have a father. >> they got one. this one. me. tony soprano. and all that comes with it. >> oh, you >> some of everybody was watching the shows. there was still that communing slants from the earlier decades of tv, but it was being applied to shows that were reaching higher and farther, and they were great. because there were so many channels, and because so much storytelling was going on, you started to get more variety of stories being told. >> get the skull films. schedule a c.a.t. scan, and called the

neurosurgery resident. >> objection! >> television showed us women in their depth. it began to show us much more of a range of the african- american community. >> i'm always here for you. >> we started focusing on teenagers in a more realistic way. >> things change, dawson. evolve. >> what are you talking about? >> and thinking a little bit more outside the box in terms of what people might want to watch. >> you're out of order, he's out of order, this whole trial is. >> after 10 years of the '90s, we had a whole new television world that could take us anyplace we wanted, and even places we had never imagined. >> was that the oven timer? >> that's right, my friend. it's time for brunch! >> oh! can you believe they gave stephanie skin cancer? >> i still can't believe they promoted her to lieutenant. >> oh, you're just saying that because you're in love. >> well, how could anyone not

be in love with yasmine lee? hey, hey. they're running. see, this is the brilliance of the show. i say, always keep them running. all the time, running! run! run! run, yasmine, run like the wind! >> in the '90s, we are going to revolutionize humic medication using the desktop computers. >> what is the world wide web? >> and the world of computers is kill or be killed. >> please welcome bill gate! >> to you or agree or disagree that you have a monopoly? >> this is imac. >> is a technological revolution that's changing the way we do everything, from making friends to falling in love. >> when the new millennium arrives, so will a