tonight on "nightline," picky eaters. is there any help for children so picky there's almost nothing they'll eat. >> no. >> a year in the life of one family and a team of determined doctors battling what they call fear of food. revolution in a box in roseanne barr to edie falco, how the desperate housewives and mad mention are flipping the scripts. do women have the upper hand in tv land? and born to run. the american dream on wheels. now chevy's turning a hundred. we've long been singing its praises. now time for happy birthday.

good evening, i'm juju chang. it's common for children to turn up their noses at some food, but for certain kid cans meal time pickiness goes way beyond a hatred of vegetables. their condition is so extreme doctors have a name for it. food neophobia and for these little ones developing a healthy diet could mean coaxing and thera therapy. one child with a big challenge, pizza. >> reporter: when we meet the graham family in kansas city in august last year, this is what dinner looks like. >> and here's your plate. >> yummy. >> reporter: the family dives in but erin who was 7 at the time stares at an empty plate. >> are you going to do it? >> reporter: what eric her father was wants her to do is eat one-half of a cherry tomato but erin won't. that's bus she's not just a

picky eater she's an extremely picky eater. >> just one. we'll do it at the same time. okay. >> no. >> reporter: actually erin suffers from what doctors call food neophobia. a virtual fear of food. that spaghetti she's's offered and the cherry tomato. she can burly keep them down. it was a nightly routine at the grahams. her entire food repertoire had ten items. >> kids just love pizza, don't they? >> not me. >> what about chicken nuggets. do you love chicken nuggets. >> no. >> hamburger. >> no. >> hot dog. >> no. >> reporter: at breakfast we discovered what erin would eat. >> are you going to want another piece? breakfast foods like waffles and pancakes and french toast. >> i need more. >> reporter: sometimes breakfast is the only meal she'll eat. she also likes some fruits, grilled american cheese sandwiches prepared a certain way, chips, fries, crackers and

peanut butter but only if it's creamy and only certain brands. >> cut up an apple and peanut butter. >> reporter: no meat or vegetable. no pasta or salad. she's even choosy about deserts. were you hard on her or have you always been understanding -- >> oh, no, we've been plenty hard. we've been doing the wrong thing all along and recognized she's not going to get better. >> reporter: she's your average active kid. but this is affecting her health. she often has bad stomachaches. it began in infancy. she had acid reflux. every feeding was painful. what do the doctors tell you? >> she's outgrow it. she'll outgrow it. we've had the advice of when she's hungry she'll eat. just starve her. >> reporter: did you try to starve erin? >> i would say this is what's for dinner. people say i'm making a meal for her all the time and it's my

fault. if i would show her who was boss -- >> reporter: finish that. >> she would eat and the fact of the matter is no she won't. >> reporter: for some with food neophobia some make her physically ill. for others it simply tastes bad. for erin it's both. that's why her parents and erin are at wit's end and decide to take drastic measures. >> hello. >> reporter: by enrolling her at duke kufrts in an intensive five-day program run by dr. nancy skzucker. >> we are not talking about i won't eat my peas. >> reporter: she runs the center for eating disorders at duke where they study food neophobia. >> every kid goes through phases, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches day after day and that's just normal. a picky eater is one whom that

variability doesn't work. >> reporter: midway through her week in rehab things are intensifying. a girl that never mixes foods is asked to try different combinations and try pizza sauce. her big wish is eat pizza at sleepover. >> the salty part of your tongue. >> reporter: not yet her first breakthrough is turkey bacon. >> okay, here's the hard part. here's a big piece. and break a little piece off and chew it. just a little piece. oh, look at that. she's chewing bacon. >> reporter: what seems like nothing to most people is huge for a girl who's never eaten meat. >> that went better than i would have expected by far. >> reporter: with dr. zucker's help she's able to alter some of her eating habits.

>> bye. >> reporter: armed with these new strategies, the grahams head back to kansas city to try it for themselves. so a year later we check in on erin to see how she's doing and to our surprise she's made some major strides. for breakfast erin still got her sweet tooth but added different flavors. it's pumpkin pancakes today with a side of -- you guessed it. crispy bacon. so that week, that was five days. did that really change your life. >> we did come home and say that was exhausting. she was a mess emotionally and i think we were all drained but if it weren't for dr. zucker and her team i don't think erin would be motivated or believe that it could work. >> reporter: once a week they try something new. it's what they call a food adventure. this is her food adventure plate. it only comes out for food adventures only. dr. zucker says what she really likes are strong tastes. we called her picky but she has

a very fine palette apparently. >> reporter: celery, peanut butter with a little salt on top. it's been a long road. every meal logged, every bite recorded. but the biggest surprise comes during lunch at a restaurant with amy and erin so when we look at the menu, what's on here thaw want and don't want. >> calipari. >> reporter: you heard right. calamari. >> can i please get a cheeseburger with onions and cheese only. >> reporter: and a cheeseburger. new tastes and an expanding palette. not quite at pizza yet. >> uh-huh. >> you're welcome. >> reporter: but oh, so close. this is vicki mabrey for "nightline" in kansas city. >> the triumph of a hamburger. our thanks to vicki mabrey. have women come out on top in prime-time tv?

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the question of who wears the pants in the family might just be answered by classic prime-time tv shows. is it cosby or rose anne. mad men or the desperate

housewives. in modern tv land perhaps it should be mother knows best. here to get to the bottom of it is chris connelly with a look at america in prime time. >> when i first was a young mother and would sit home watching television with my kids and i was just appalled at television. i had the fantasy of, man, if i ever got a chance on here's what i would do. >> it's not like i don't have nothing to do. >> i'm sorry. what do you want me to do, throw myself off a bridge. >> yeah, and take your brother and sister with you. >> reporter: parents admonish their children for watching too much of it but in recent years television has offered substantially more physical skated portrayals of men and women and the endless variety of their relationships, yet as america in prime time shows wasn't always that way. >> my friends over. >> for me i grew up knowing i would never be a successful

mother as portrayed on tv. i will be a failure. >> it was a less complicated time and there was more -- it was more idealized and aspirational when they portrayed the family. >> kids are bathed in their pa yam mas. he puts a briefcase down and gets a martini. >> reporter: the medium swung from serving up the idealized moms of the past to showcasing hyper vivid housewife, desperate and otherwise. >> what i liked about lynette it gave voice to what i felt were the difficulties and challenges of motherhood. >> how about you? >> four at home. two on the way. >> oh, big family. you're so blessed. >> i really wanted to show, hey, you can be different and okay. you can be fat and okay. you can can can be unemployed. your kids are brats. you're still okay. as long as you have honesty and

integrity and some measure of intelligence it's all okay. >> off-limits at this point. it doesn't seem like -- if it's within the realm of experience then i've had -- the people i know have had, the writers have had, that it's all gained. >> tv is becoming literature and our sense what have we need from a show. >> television now has taken on the role that movies had of actually being more challenging, more psychologically astute. >> reporter: shows that once represented the ping nakal of culture come across today as ironically enjoyable cure joes bound by the standards of a bygone era. >> good night. >> good night. >> if you are in the same bed at least one foot has to be on the floor. >> they gave me every reason in the world to -- people don't make love. people don't screw. >> reporter: televisiyes.

>> television was born and though the few situational comedies about families, the dads were kind of weak and bumbling and along comes bill cosby. >> you're going to do it because i said so. i am your father. i brought you in this world and i'll take you out. >> finally a dad who had some balls. >> reporter: others learned an imperfect dad made for the per secretary sitcom character. >> it never occurs to him that his kids should come first in anything. >> look, homer, lisa is taking her first steps. >> you taping it. >> yes. >> i'll watch it later. >> i think on some level we like to be on the couch being selfish lugs. >> are you hungry senor naval?

si. >> homer simpson is a superexaggerated version of ray ma rhone. >> i should go to work and raise the kids. what do you do all day? i'm sorry. >> anything you say, dear. >> the real role of man of the house has changed in a lot of ways from the '50s. when you want tv to be an antidote for that you still have to find ways to reflect it otherwise it seems like a fantasy or it's not relatable anymore. >> reporter: few characters presented a more rarefied complexity than don draper modeling a father knows best atop a ticking time bomb of sex and secrets. >> nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. >> really for the first time explored that time period in a very honest way and has shown it in a gritty way and sad way and

has really shown that it wasn't all perfect. >> reporter: once well behind the stage and the big screen when it comes to social realism, television has become the pre-eminent immediate dwrum where we see ourselves, warts and all. i'm chris connelly for "nightline" in los angeles. >> that's deep. america in prime time, a production of the documentary group airs sundays on pbs. our thanks to chris connelly. and next up, a happy mile marker in america's love affair with the open road.

freight rail delivered caterpillar to peoria more than 100 years ago. and they're still delivering cat machines today. you can find us on every continent. and the journey starts here on freight rail america's freight rail companies. helping deliver jobs across this country and goods around the world. reinvesting billions of their own money every year to build a rail network that wers our economy. nobody moves more dirt than caterpillar.

and we rely on freight rail to move us.

it's a big country out there, 3,000 miles from sea to shining sea. that's a lot of open road with a lot of incredible dashboard views long the way but the american love affair with cars, which can can border on obsession, is showing signs of strain. just as one of our favorites passes a big mile marker. here's abc's john donvan. >> 1953, cue up harp. harp, 2011. then dinah shore. ♪ rolling ♪ america is beck you to call >> reporter: now the cast of "glee." ♪ nothing can beat her. >> reporter: past, present. that's what you get to do when your brand has been around forever or in the chase of

chevrolet this week exactly 100 years. years during which chevrolet didn't really need too sing its own song because the culture was making up its own. elton john's "crocodile rock" ♪ an old chevy and a place of my own ♪ >> reporter: don mclean with "american pie". ♪ but the levee was dry". >> reporter: taylor swift singing -- ♪ just a boy in a chevy truck >> reporter: the story they tell is about the american dream up on wheels. >> the '57 chevrolet. >> reporter: it's what they drove around america in in classic tv shows like "route 66." it's how marisa tomei set the record straight with a new york accent in "my cousin vinny." >> the 327 didn't come out in '62. >> this is watson, 1960 chevrolet corvette. >> reporter: the car is a classic and the guy driving it,

joel ewanic, chief operating officer for general motors. >> this makes cars fun. no longer transportation but starting to become what people wanted to have. >> reporter: here's the delicate balance when you have 100 years behind you how do you talk about those glory days as chevrolet is doing when the hard facts are japan's cars are the best-selling and the u.s. taxpayer had to buy gm out of bankruptcy and the romance of the road is as gone now. how do you talk about those glory days and not risking saying it will never be that good again. >> it allowed you to have something other thank black and allow you to finance a car. chevrolet was the car that, you know, the working americans drove for 100 years. >> reporter: which is why in the gm heritage center where they've lined up all these museum quality classic, the 1969 camaro 1970 el camino and 1935 suburban like an suv before there were suvth, it goes to the volt, the

new electric car that you plug in and recharge at night. >> every month, every year we expect to have more interested buyers. >> reporter: with about 4,000 sold so far and a price tag that starts at $40,000 it's still not every manage's car. >> we know for the public it's tough to understand without very good education of what the reek is all about. >> reporter: but just maybe 100 years from now will a volt have the history in the place of chevrolet have. >> oh, there's no doubt. in museums around the world 100 years from now there will be a volt there. >> reporter: well, maybe but we'll know for sure when these days are the good old days. i'm john donvan for "nightline" in detroit. >> and that was john donvan in a red convertible. thanks to him and thanks to you for watching abc news. check in for "good morning america." they're working while you're sleeping and we're always online