Transcripts For CNNW The Nineties 20191230

By all rights, David Letterman should have taken over for Johnny Carson, but his agent took a very, very aggressive stand. Were going to really control all of late night. Its going to cost you a fortune. And they put our backs to the wall. I can only tell you its been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. And i hope when i find something listen to it. I want to do and i think you oh, they know when it hits the bottom, it will be 1990, will like and come back, that goodbye to the 80s. You will be as gracious inviting me into your home as you have been. I bid you a very heartfelt good ten, nine, eight eight, night. The tonight show without Johnny Carson as the regular eight, eight oh, will this horrible year never end . When the 90s began, we started to see a lot of host made its debut last night. Jay leno emerged from behind the experimentation. 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. Head cbs, tails cbs. Number nine and the simpsons i think in some senses was inspired by not necessarily hatred of letterman did place a call to television, but a distrust of a lot of the ways in which Johnny Carson asking for his television was talking to us. Advice and johnny said, if it tv respects me. Was me, i would leave. It laughs with me. And i think that advice was really the linchpin. Not at me. Letterman always took johnnys advice. The latenight wars are about youre stupid. To begin in earnest on american television. David letterman is now headed doh for cbs. I think the sitcoms of the cbs had lured him over with a 80s were such a warm, safe, humor. Salary more than four times that i love you guys. Of leno and given him what he really wanted, the 11 30 time the kids, they listen to the slot. Rap music, which gives them the now as dave and jay prepare to brain damage. Go head to head, one thing is clear latenight tv will and i think there was a real never be quite the same. Yearning for another type of all of a sudden, theres a talk show war. Humor. We were able to spoof start up your remote controls. The latenight race is about to fatherhood what a bad father. Begin. On monday, David Lettermans which at the time, and i new show debuts here on cbs. Stress at the time, was bill followed a week later by chevy cosby as the shining example. Chase on fox and a week after that by conan obrien on nbc. Did you ever know that youre my hero these combatants join the the stuff they got away with tonight show with jay leno, because its a cartoon. Arsenio, and nightline. The father strangling the child. Why you little it became a crowded space and we are going to keep on the competition became that much more difficult. Trying to strengthen the American Family to make American Families a lot more like the in the third corner, his waltons and a lot less like the ratings fading rapidly, arsenio simpsons. Hall. Some tv writers think arsenio could be the big loser in this we go to a completely bizarre freeforall. When letterman came in, it essentially diluted arsenios period of time in 1992 when a brand because there were so many sitting president is raging against a sitcom. They have dealt with politics. They have dealt with popular culture. Alternatives. Theyve dealt with all kinds of im sad to see you go because issues of racism, of sexism. America is going to have a big dont ask me, im just a chunk missing out of its existence. Losing arsenio, yeah, it was bad. Girl. Right on, say it, sister. He was the lone voice, gone. Its not funny, bart. Millions of girls will grow up thinking this is the right way to act. They have found a way to talk about everything thats going on David Letterman had the suits at nbc pausing for a moment. In our lives through the filter did we make the right choice . Of the simpsons. Them immigrants. Because he came out gangbusters they want all the benefits to living in springfield, but they aint even bothered to learn themselves the language. And he was beating jay leno in yeah, those are exactly my the ratings. Theres some people who say, sentimonies. You blew it, that by picking leno to replace carson over letterman, that that was a big programming mistake. It was a shaky start. I think one of the governing things thats happening with a really, really shaky first season start. Its true confessions time the simpsons is a distrust of anyone who tells us we should trust them and doesnt earn that trust. For actor hugh grant who is trying hard to put his recent encounter with a hollywood prostitute behind him. When hugh grant was arrested, ill take that statue of justice too. It was big, Live Action News and sold. When they make fun of how fox hugh grant was supposed to do works you are watching fox. The tonight show that night. What the hell were you thinking . We are watching fox. They are telling you dont trust us either. Eat my shorts. All right. Ill eat eat your shorts . [ drum sting ] [ cheers and applause ] it all came together in that moment and everyone saw it and thats it. The simpsons is like we were never number two again. Hey, hey for us it was the fun shakespeare in the sense that we experience. We got our own theater, an quote the simpsons all the time, very often without knowing it. Excellent i wish i could create unlimited budget, weve got something that culturally access to every star in the indelible. Its unlike anything else tv has ever run. Twin peaks showed up out of nowhere at the beginning of the decade. Business who wants to do the show. Somebody bring me the jaws of life the pilot episode of that was so, i think going to cbs was heavensent. It really was. One of the strangest and most good night, everybody exciting things i have ever seen. paul im going to keep this short and sweet. Im at the twin peaks county morgue. With the body of the victim. Whats her name . [ screaming ] it was incredible. Now you can switch to sprint and get both just how slowly in the beginning an unlimited plan and the Samsung Galaxy s10 plus the news spread around this included for just 35 a month. Little town that this young, yup. Short and sweet. Beautiful girl had died and that haunting music was so dark and for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. So beautiful. Ive got good news. The gum you like is going to come back in style. What on earth is essentially a art film doing in prime Time Television . American Network Television quitting smoking is freaking hard. St, has long been considered the home of the blands, the cautious and the predictable. Like quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So, try making it smaller. So it was with some trepidation and youll be surprised at how easily starting small. Can lead to something big. That the abc Network Recently start stopping with nicorette launched a new series that was none of those things. Theres room for more than just the business you came for. Twin peaks is already described by one critic as the whether thats keeping up with what you always do. Series that will change tv. Its directed by david lynch. Or training for something youve never done before. David lynch was a filmmaker known for his taste in the thats room for possibility. Eccentric and memorable. The idea that he would do [ alarm b ng ] Network Television in the 90s was crazy. Do you watch much of it . I like the idea of television, but im too busy to see very much of it. What do you think of that which you do see . Some of it i really enjoy. Are you being diplomatic . Sort of. [ screaming ] what if once in a blue moon happened more than once in a blue moon . The beautiful thing about reach for the moon. Television ihe initial attentio got allowed all the other networks to say, lets do something different. What was interesting about northern exposure it was an odd sort of universe that this guy was dropped into. The days coming. It aint going to be long when you aint going to have to leave your living room. No more schools, no more tabernacles. No more cineplexes, all right . Youre going to snuggle up to your fiberoptics and bliss out. What are you doing back there, junior . Since were obviously lost, im rescheduling my Xfinity Customer Service appointment. Ah, relax. I got this. You also had experimentation that set the stage for a lot of what came later. Which gps are you using anyway . Its kind of hard to pin down a Little Something called instinct. Been using it for years. What exactly the x files is. Yeah, thats what im afraid of. He knows exactly where were going. I mean, on the surface, its a my whole body is a compass. Oh boy. Show about investigating paranormal activities. Unidentified flying objects. The my account app makes todays i think that fits the description pretty well. Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Tell me im crazy. Not my thing. Mulder, youre crazy. That dynamic, that dramatic tension of believer versus skeptic is one of the engines of the show. You were always seeing it from a specific point of view. Theyre equals . Yeah, absolutely. They are equals in a way they have kind of switched gender stereotypes because the character i play, mulder is the intuitive one. And scully is the rationalist, the doctor. A lot of folks who enjoyed the x files who otherwise didnt watch tv might have been drawn to the show by its, for lack of a better way to put it, stick it to the man ethos. Dont trust the government or big business or anybody but yourself and your friends and family, i guess. In the mid1990s if you took a look at the list of the 50 mostwatched shows on cable, at its a message thats somewhat dark and cynical, but was kind of a breath of fresh air in the early 90s. The 90s was a time of the top would be nickelodeon. Rug rats, blues clues. Conspiracies. And the internet was starting to dont you know cartoons will ruin your mind . Spread beyond just like ren and stimpy had some hardcore computer users. So you could have Message Boards and use net news groups. And everybody wanted to talk about the black oil and the bees and mulders sister and what the cigarette smoking man was up to. Very surreal, highconcept humor to it. This is the beginning of the splintering of the Television Audience and splintering of the i would go to alt. Tv xfiles. Family audience, really, because with families having three or four tvs in the house you had a and people were so nuts for this kid watching nickelodeon, the dad watching espn sports, the show. Its just pure science mom watching lifetime. Fiction. Thats probably what i like most you know, they were in their own about it. The xfiles changed the way separate universes watching television. By the time of the 90s, mtv wasnt merely a music channel. People watched television. They were having Great Success you could sense the successful creators trying to see how they could do things different five or ten years ago. In terms of creating shows that sometimes that led to really challenging Network Television that was cool and fun to watch. And sometimes it seemed to Fall Incorporated music but that also off the edge a little bit. Were shows and programs that lets be careful out there stood on their own. At the time, Steven Bochco was a very successful producer yes huh huh huh of hour dramas and wanted to try huh huh huh huh huh huh something brandnew. Were the police we have a warrant for your arrest. So his idea was to combine a that was cool gritty cop show with a broadway musical. Beavis and butthead i saw one in which a bunch of established what mtv could be because the shows were about gang bangers were in jail. Making fun of music videos just they began to sing. Like people in the audience were doing. Whoa, check out his neck. Life in the hood aint no pizza yeah. Theres like all these bones and pie, everybody die when the stitches moving around. Yeah. My manager would call me, like, hey, you got this big bump bullets fly. Because you were on beavis and life in the hood aint no butthead last night. I sit there like a doughnut pizza pie, people die when watching these guys. Bullets fly and i said wait a minute. I thought this is it. This is great. This is going to be as innovative as anything i have and i find them endlessly entertaining because i know and ever done. You know and the world knows, these guys are always, will be, he is guilty, he is guilty, judge, you can see it in his and cannot be anything but eyes he did the crime and now hes idiots. Thats right. Mtv has a detrimental, got to pay it circled the drain. Damaging, developmental effect on the sexuality, on the morality, on the spirituality, maybe even the physical development of our young people. I will give credit to anybody who goes outside the box and swings really hard for the fences. Now we hit the 90s and once i worked real hard and i got you can go for an audience of 5 million and have a successful my education im creatively proud of it. Show, you can say, i dont care still. If the parents dont like this. Can i tell you something, miss ellen . Of course, wendy. Dont [ bleep ] with me what . Im very glad we tried it. I dont think id want to do it you heard me. Stay away from my man, bitch, or ill whoop your sorry little ass back to last year trey parker and matt stone again. Were two of the funniest people i ever met. And their Success Story is proof that if you just stay true to vo in every trip, theres room for more yourself, you dont have to do than just the business you came for. Anything else. People think, oh, you came and did the show and now youre big sellouts. Whether thats getting a taste of where you are, the truth is, we were sellouts to begin with. Perhaps there is no stopping the corporate machine. Or bringing some of that flavor back home. I mean, we were sleeping at friends houses, had no money, and then one fox executive had thats room for possibility. Seen a cartoon we had made in college and he said, make me lets get to living another christmas video i can send out as a christmas card. He gave us like 700 bucks. We went and made this fiveminute short. I come seeking retribution. Hes come to kill you because youre jewish, kyle. Oh [ bleep ]. It went around the tv Community Like wildfire. I mean, it it was the funniest thing youd 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 ew keurig kduo brewer makes any occasion the perfect coffee occasion. South park was able to be topical. Family brunch just add Ground Coffee for a carafe, or pop in a pod for a freshly brewed cup. Good strong coffee. Our french roast. It was a decaf for you, yes . South park really, really detests hypocrites. Christians and republicans in your favorite mug. There we go. And nazis, oh, my well, okay, mrs. Cartman, ill 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 . Howdy ho its a miracle. South park is a miracle. The early 90s the hbo shows start to kind of come into their own. You have a brother in [the second battalion . And then have i always had yes sir. These breasts . Theyre walking into a trap. Your orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrows attack. A lot of people want freedom. If you fail we will lose sixteen hundred men. They dont want to go back to the networks, which are saying your brother among them. You can come to us where youll make more money but youll also have content restricted. You could go to cable and have we need to keep moving. Come on theres only one way this war ends. Last man standing. No restrictions. paul do you get confused byi dont blame you. Claims . The most reliable. The most awarded. Not make as much money but have the best, the fastest, freedom of expression, which almost everybody who works in the best and the fastest. These mediums wants. Its too much. Some of the content truly sprints doing things differently. Was, you cant get this anywhere theyre offering a 100 total satisfaction guarantee. Else. Youre a fantasy maker, the only limit on the kinds of fantasies is peoples i mean i think Sprints Network and savings are great. Imagination. Hbo turned to people who but dont just take my word for it. Try out the network and see the savings for yourself. Said, i cant do that on television, but you can do it on hbo. Switch and get both an unlimited plan and the Samsung Galaxy s10 plus included, white people dont trust black people. For just 35 a month. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. Thats why they wont vote for no black president. Like a black brother will [ bleep ] up the white house. Like the grass wont 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, its got to be something that couldnt 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 generation x, the 20 critical acclaim. Somethings, boomerangers, youve watched letterman, youve watched leno, but what about larry . Baby busters, whatever the 46 million young souls are called are turning out Larry Sanders, that is. To be a hard sell. Hes the tv alter ego of comedian Garry Shandling. In the 90s, what we realized Garry Shandling wanted to do is advertisers would pay premiums for College Educated young adults 18 to 49. We started reinventing nbc and a show that deconstructed the trying to speak to that audience. Where is someone . Im starving. Kind of show the tonight show was. This is him right here. Just pretend like youre talking to me till were off the air so it wont seem weird. Okay. Blah, blah, blah, blah. The Larry Sanders show was is there a table ready . The Chinese Restaurant was sort of cathartic. One of the very, very early because in the world of the Larry Sanders show, there was a episodes of seinfeld. Network. You want me to [ bleep ] your and truly Nothing Happened in budget . The episode. Is that what you want me to do . They were waiting for a table. So it became this weird funhouse mirror thing, where you i feel like just walking over there and taking some food off could use stuff from your of somebodys plate. Misery, your career, as fodder. Dont take this as a threat we said to larry david, hey, but i killed a man like you in like nothing happens. And larry was offended. Korea, hand to hand. My boy doesnt want to do any he was like wildly offended. More commercials. Larry sanders to me was, aside from being a brilliant nbc believed in the show so they said were committing to four episodes. Yes, yeah, right. Four episodes. Normally its 13 or 8 or something. Yes, at least. Television show we really didnt think they had too much confidence in the can you say, hey now. Hey now. Show. It was my everyday life. Im here for three good we didnt think it would reasons. Last show. Big ratings. Work, but we thought they had to go through their process and they would learn and ultimately movie coming out. They knew better than we did. Bim, bam, boom. The Larry Sanders show was very unique in that it was very my mother caught me. Caught you . Deadpan. And really groundbreaking in its doing what . Day. I think it made people really go, thats the level of work you you know. May be able to do on a cable network. Please, do not flip around. I was alone. Come right back. Hey now the turning point for oh, you sound good. Seinfeld from like nice show that all of the cool people kind of know about but thats it to massive hit was an episode called the contest where they tried to abstain from selfpleasure for as long as possible. 6 30, time for your bath. George, im hungry. Everything your trip needs for everyone you love. Expedia. Hang on, ma. Hang on. Once you do 30 minutes on masturbation, you can pretty for everyone you love. Robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start much get away with anything. Investing today wherever you are i guess youll be going back even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . To that hospital. My mother, jerry. But are you still master of download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Your domain . Ew keurig kduo brewer makes any occasion the perfect coffee occasion. I am king of the county. The week after that aired, family brunch people were talking about that in the workplace the entire just add Ground Coffee for a carafe, week. Or pop in a pod for a freshly brewed cup. They still are talking about it. 52 seconds and two of the good strong coffee. Greatest words in sitcom history. Our french roast. It was a decaf for you, yes . In your favorite mug. There we go. Im out. One of the shorthand descriptions of seinfeld is no hugs, no lessons. Lets push it a little further than its ever been pushed before. I think the big breakthrough of seinfeld was that the characters were not nice people. Shut up, you old cow they were narcissistic. Help they would screw each other at the drop of a hat. Hes just a dentist. And youre an antidentite. At tmobile, were lighting up 5g, and when you buy a samsung note 10 5g, you get one free. And yet be best friends the plus you can experience it on the nations largest 5g network. Next week. So you can stay connected like this. When you wish upon a star score a last minute this. You dont have to love them. We just have to laugh at them. Get home easier, like this. And share all of this. Im really sorry. With that. I was in the pool. So do this. On that. With us. I was in the pool and now, buy a samsung note 10 5g the idea of a character with and get one free when you add a line. Darker tendencies, that was so taboo in television comedy. Are you about done . Im just getting warmed up. Were in the confines of network tv with commercials, with still a lot of things that are very highly structured and yet were able to find ways of pushing in the boundaries. No soup for you. It took us to a new level of comedy. And it kind of defined like, yeah, nbc, thursday night, this show, expect the unexpected. Can you sing the theme song from cheers . Making your way in the world today come on, i know. Its cute. Just sing it. Takes everything you got taking a break from all your worries sure can help a lot wouldnt you like to get away sometimes you want to go where Everybody Knows your name we decided to end cheers in the 11th year. Over 93 Million People watched the finale of cheers. Its a sad experience for everybody. This was our baby for 11 years and were not going to be around these people every day. You people are as dear to me as my own family. We had been serving fake suds forever. It was time for everybody to sip. In fact, i was sipping along with them. Time goes by so fast. People move in and out of your life. You must never miss an opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you. We had been through so much together. You spend so much time with the same set of people, it does in the 90s you suddenly had become your family. Shows that were aiming at a young audience. One of the things that really i feel pretty lucky to have the friends i do. Made 90210 stand out is it was one of the first dramas to really get into the teenagers i think the legacy of cheers is our need to belong. And i think thats what we as americans are longing for. Point of view. Thank you, guys. The final scene of cheers was really what was sams real first love. You can never be unfaithful do you have protection . To your one true love. Of course. Its always been my problem. Lots of protection but nothing im the luckiest son of a on earth. His real first love was the bar. To protect. Sorry, were closed. I wanted to do a tv series that was going to be relevant to teenagers. And its not about the parents solving the kids problems. Its about the kids basically time, r by takf layovers and more, so you can be confident youre getting the right flight at the best price. Kayak. Search one and done. Solving their own problems. What are we supposed to do, sit him down and have a kidtoparent talk. No, you cant 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 youthquake cover, that was a sign that suddenly television was focused on these young people. My socalled life was the punk rock version of 90210. It was earnest but not at all saccharine. It didnt 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 socalled life was your actual life. And the idea that everyone in high school is a misfit, that you have this deep insecurity about who youre 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 socalled 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 the wait is over. Tmobile is lighting up 5g nationwide. Didnt recognize themselves in 90210 who felt like, ahha, while some 5g signals go only blocks, now i recognize myself in my socalled life. Demarco asked me if you were getting a sex change. Tmobile 5g goes miles. Exactly. I dont want to be a girl. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. I just want to hang with girls. Ricky was out on the show now, millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. And this is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. Eventually, and that was a story line treated with great sensitivity. And i belong nowhere. With no one. And i dont 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 socalled 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 story lines 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 okay, lets play show business. As a young kid in cleveland, i knew i would one day end up protagonist. Doing a talk show. Forced to make tough decisions. There was a kind of opening of the floodgates in the 90s its arsenio hall for women. The idea of being an ideal, i in less than two years, arsenio hall has fired his talk show for the mtv generation into a contender for the crown of late night television. Think, was kind of smashed through a lot of the characters on television. Look, if youre a successful saleswoman in this city, you have two choices. You can bang your head against a wall and try to find a relationship or you can say yes, yes screw it and just go out and how come i didnt hear all of have sex like a man. Sex and the city was a huge that woofing going on . Success right from the start. When i would watch you . Too many white people. Johnny was the big dog. But i knew everybody on the it was very funny, very clever, planet wasnt watching him. And very candid. Are relationships the and it dawned on me that i could religion of the 90s . These are women who are go many weeks and not see a motown group on the tonight show. Arsenio hall has been dubbed the prince of late night. Making a good living, they were independent, they were single, and they were sort of feeling there was a whole world of their power. I said all of them. Talent that had never and would never have been on any late bad waiter, bad waiter. What do you tip for that . Night show. I wanted these women to be objectifying men in the way men sitting at home watching had always objectified women. Arsenio hall 2livecrew came on and sang all right. My turn. Sorry, i have to go back to work. You didnt used to be able to discuss sex as sex. Network shows, there never were meso horny, it was like the people talking about orgasms or sex pistols. Id never seen anything like it. It was an explosion in the audience. Organs or sex. Okay, words are essential. Tell me exactly how he worded it. Weve been seeing each other he appealed to a black and white young audience and it was for a couple of weeks, i really like you, and tomorrow night a much broader appeal than the after dinner i want us to have anal sex. These are women who shared everything with each other and theyre discussing what anal sex means. It goes up there, theres going to be a shift in power. Either hell have the upper hand powers that be estimated. Rap. Or you will. Rap is real big among our teens. Thats poetry. Of course it is. And should she do this or not . This is a physical expression having maya angelou on, i that the body well, it was designed to experience. Mean, where would you have seen her otherwise . And p. S. , its fabulous. What are you talking about . In 1892 he wrote a poem that i went to smith. Called a negro love song. The show took an interesting it says seen my lady home last night, jump back, honey, jump turn by really focusing on the back. Relationship between the women held her hand and squeezed it tight, jump back, honey, jump back. He didnt just have black and telling the story of them as people on his show. Really soul mates together as but if you were hip, you wanted well. You did the right thing to be on arsenio. This was something i heard a buying that apartment. Political analyst talk about you love it, right . Yeah. Recently. He said you kind of were i use the word chilling out. And you wont be alone forever. Historically women are often set up in narratives in which he said you were pulling back. You had been instructed not to say as much or be outspoken. No . Ive heard that, but i never know who says it. Only one can succeed. Its Wishful Thinking on the and so showing women not competing with each other and as supporting each other was also an important narrative change. Part of some people. Okay, girls, see you tomorrow. Guess who suggested to bill okay. To do the arsenio hall show if nightnight. The show had a message of you want to get a younger demo . Hilldawg. 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 theyll be doing next. In 1991 we got a call from he attracted a lot of people who werent fans before that night. The 90s was a glorious moment for black television. Because you saw these representations that youd never seen before. The premise of the fresh prince was this kid who comes from philadelphia. In West Philadelphia born and raised on the playground is where i spent most of my days his mom says im going to send you to live with your uncle. He shows up at this mansion in bel air, baseball cap on backward. Like he doesnt even know how to act in this environment. The black producers and 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 is when it was showing the ways that being black is always going to be a problem no matter what. Vehicle registration, please. Just a second. But the thing, officer, this isnt my car. Theres the episode i remember where they get pulled over in a car. What . He is going to tell us to get out of the car. You watch too much tv. Get out of the car. It is horrible and racist in a lot of ways. Continue continue and carlton has this epiphany about how money wont 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 youre driving in a nice car in a strange neighborhood, none of that matters. They only see one thing. 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 dont touch that dial. Were 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 africanamerican, all of those things in one. This is celebration of culture and exchange. 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 down. Not only will you get all the cable stations out there, but youll 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. Africanamericans composed 25 of foxs 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 didnt know, martin, i didnt 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, youre a damn fool. So they basically gave the black creators freedom to do whatever you want. Just get the audience. In 1991 we got a call from mtv and they were toying with 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. Im a new millennium woman who will not be defined by 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 traditional female roles. A lot of the networks built themselves up partly on africanamerican viewers. The africanamerican shows indexed lower in terms of breakfast club. But ultimately decided the household income. Idea of a show with writers and actors would be too expensive so over the course of the for them. The real world, thats what decade, the network started to move away from those shows. This was supposed to be. So we essentially applied all i dont know about you the drama rules to documentary people, but ill be damned if it to get our, what we called at that time, a docusoap. Im going to let them destroy my this is the true story. Neighborhood. Black creators felt used and abused. You made your money. You built your audience on us and now, you know, youre done. 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 hadnt 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 thats 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 well 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 doctors door. Thats room for possibility. Give me a hug. By the third season in San Francisco you have a young man who is dealing with aids. Robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are im hiv positive. Even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . When pedro told me he was hiv positive, it was just like no, not him. Download now and get your first stock on us. I like this guy and i dont want robinhood. [ alarm b ng ] 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. What if once in a blue moon happened more than once in a blue moon . Reach for the moon. You know, this is long before samesex marriage was legal. The tv shows werent doing this. Movies werent doing this. I have to believe that all the pain that im going through, that all the anger, all the frustration, that theres 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. Im really glad i got to know pedro zamora. Im grateful that his rich and fulfilling work is still remembered today. And i hope you enjoy and learn from pedros life of compassion and fearlessness. You have to credit the real world with sort of helping the acceptance of the lgbt community. Because there werent many portrayals of gay people, period, on television at that point. Her name is marla. Im 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. Quitting smoking is freaking hard. St, like quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So, try making it smaller. And youll be surprised at how easily starting small. Can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette so you want to go look at apartments tomorrow . Great idea ellen degeneres, the comedian, was about to come out. As a lesbian. And she does it on time magazine. Yep, im 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 wont 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 comingout episode with ellen. Im 35 years old. Im so afraid to tell people. I mean, i just susan, im gay. 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 ellens highly publicized outing on national tv last night. The broadcast was accompanied by comingout 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. The following movie is rated r. In 1990, 91, there was not a whole lot of original programing for cable, but they were airing i made the decision that i wasnt going to live my life as a lie anymore. I was i belong with everybody movies. Else. And thats 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 so we needed to compete and i tell me im crazy maybe i felt that if we didnt, we were going to kind of get swept out. So i came up with a notion of doing a cop show that was rrated. Know cant help loving that man of mine take it, jack and pas de bouree, pas de when abcs broadcast standards bouree, im gay will grace was a great read our script, they went berserk. 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 i was sitting with a pad and a little ugly. Play hardball, baby. A pencil drawing pictures of throw low and inside. Breasts to try to show them what we would show and what we wouldnt show. Hes crowding the plate and weve got to grownups sitting in a room doodling. Grace, sports, youre losing then we started on the language. Me. I figured 25 of the country wouldnt watch the show just based on the fact that we had two gay men on it. We heard some reporter called a low life with the brains 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, of a flea and the balls of a moth. Youre going to catch it. The program premiered with an advertising boycott. Channel 7, shame on you but it was such an immediate hit, that boycott lasted, oh, four weeks. They could use the nudity and the curse words to go deeper into the actual emotional burden maybe we could get people to of being a cop. Watch thinking that would happen, knowing it would never im an asshole. Happen. And it had this character, andy sipowicz. Suffering sappho he is a raging alcoholic, racist, sexist, violent. You know, its a shame. He created the tv antihero. An image like this is completely i know the great wasted on us. I remember the network africanamerican George Washington carver discovered the peanut. But can you provide names and calling every other week saying, addresses of these friends . Can will just fall in love with grace . And the creators were like, you know, youre a racist well, thats weird, hes gay. Scumbag. Despite his flaws, despite his prejudices, i think people identified with his pain. I wish there was a way to say gay people dont do that. Thats why theyre gay. Why wasnt i your girlfriend, queer bait . This that wouldnt hurt you. Will and grace was the first time you saw characters on television that made gay normal. Theres a famous episode you wanted to be friends with where they are investigating the rape and murder of a young boy. Them. Guess what we are. Uh a catholic girl gone and they find a homeless child bad and karen, what are you molester who murdered the kid and sipowicz to get the supposed to be . Confession has to be very sensitive and very good cop. I know this has to be tearing you up inside. But youre going to feel a lot better if you just tell the truth. You can sort of see on dennis franzs face this is killing him to not destroy this guy right now. The best feeling i get is finally, he gets the confession when people come up and say, he gets the signed statement. Thank you for all you do for the Gay Community, and thank you for playing that part in that show. He walks out of the room, he and you feel so fortunate to have been a part of something so great. Goes into another Interrogation Room and he breaks the door in two with his fist. Yup. Short and sweet. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. And im choking up talking about it right now, because thats how great a moment of tv that it is. 20 years from now, the best tv dramas, what do they look like . I dont know. Will they be bolder than what we see today . Oh, assuredly, assuredly they will be. The 90s gave us several shows that didnt explode in the ratings, but were influential to other people making television. Homicide is one of them. Shell me with questions all night im living in a danger zone quitting smoking is freaking hard. St, homicide life on the like quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So, try making it smaller. Street was really innovative in and youll be surprised at terms of its style. How easily starting small. It used music in ways that advanced the narrative and also. Can lead to something big. Used feature film directors that brought a look and style to the start stopping with nicorette show that really stood out on television. Tears coming out of your eyes. Theres room for more than just the business you came for. Aint no tears coming from my eyes. Those eyes are brimming with tears. They had so many whether thats taking in every moment. Africanamerican characters in the cast that on several or capturing a moment worth bringing back. Occasions they were the only people on camera interacting thats room for possibility. How far we can go, oh oh with one another. And that sounds like, so . But since they bought their new house. But as late as the 90s, that which menu am i looking at here . Wasnt done on television. Start with tapaz. When a cop shoots somebody, oh, its tapas. Tapas. He stands by. He picks up the radio mic and get out of town. Calls it in. He stands by the body. If not, cops are no better than its like eating dinner with your parents. Sandra, are you in school . Anybody else. Yes, im in art school. Oh, wow. So have you thought about how onna make money . In the 90s, television was getting more complicated, at least were learning some new things. Stories were starting to become we bundled our home and auto with progressive, saved a bunch. More episodic and characters were starting to develop and change. Oh, we got a wobbler. None of that happened on law order. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. This was a show that completely delivered on its thats what the extra menus for. Formula every time. You get a crime, you got the investigation into the crime. You better be packing more than a dirty mouth. You got an arrest. Whats the charge . Hey, im asking you a question. Whats the charge . Theres no charge. This ones on us. Then you had a trial. Hes badgering, your honor. Sit down and shut up. Overruled. You will address the court from now on, mr. Mccoy. So every time you watched you got what you came for. Tell me, doctor. All those women you ran through your examination rooms, do you remember their faces or did you not even bother to look up . You had in law order the kind of characters people take to heart. Ill let you take me to lunch. Onetime offer. And if youre an actor and you say well, gee, maybe its not really such a bad medium after all. Miranda, bottle of mayo, the when you bundle with us. [ drathis holiday. Supreme courts menet decision. Ahhhhh ahhhhh a distant friend returns. The whole thing was illegally elliott. Obtained. They were both represented by you came back counsel. And while lots of things have changed. Wooooah woah its called the internet. You just get hooked in. Some things havent. Its life and death and stuff. We know what you did. Counsel. You hear me . Do you hear me . Look at me law order was like crack. Youd have to sit and watch me get ready for a reunion for 50 minutes just like, not 3 million light years in the making. Moving, barely breathing. Theres times i have almost passed out watching law order. Woohoo yeah i need your help. E. R. Had originally been written as a movie, forced Steven Spielberg to direct. We had this twohour piece which was michaels reflection of experiences as a medical student. I need an angiocahh and 16 needle. Stan what was happening at the you need large in case theyre end of the 90s. Bleeding. Audiences started looking do you know how to start an i. V. . Actually, no. E. R. Is a hospital show, but its really an action movie. Towards television for what they three walking wounded. Red urgent, yellow critical and have found in feature film. Black a gurney. Victory is mine. Got it. A gurney comes in, people are shouting instructions, climbing on the body and doing cpr and racing off to the surgical great day in the morning, suite. Get that gurney out of there someone wanders in. Theyre tossing around medical victory is mine. Actors no longer felt it was jargon. They dont stop to explain what a come down in television. It is. Prep for a peritoneal lavage. I think i know what that is now, what did i ever do to you except but only because i watched a lot of e. R. Over the years. Deliver the south . You try. You should not have made me pay. The segment of the audience showed up to watch the west a plural levage . Wing, they watched the mcneil, they watched west wing and we can bypass him. That would be the fastest way. What do you think . Youre the attending. There was so much information coming at you that i think it made the experience feel as if documentaries in foreign languages. If the names of the nominees you had to watch it in the same way that youd watch a film. You had to stay involved in it leaked out before i wanted to be the whole time. Come on, ben. Hold on, buddy. Hold on. Leaked out, i want going to blame you and you are going to there was a lot of research that said people didnt want to find it unpleasant. Watch anybody have anything 90s television was the first other than a happy outcome. Wave, remarkably perfect snitch its not flatlined, its defib. Another line of epi. We argued that wasnt really showing what the world was for physicians. Programming. Freaks and geeks really sympathized with the losers and had great empathy for its i had unbelievable amount of respect for the people who did this because i understood how human they were. Characters. Freaks and geeks break my heart every time i think about it. It lasted 18 episodes. Theyre perfect 18 episodes but nbc hated so much. Roll down the windows because smoke alarm i got a big one. Oh no. Please dont. The show is about losers and four losers. They killed it. At the end of the 90s. Basically quality migrates to cable. 97, oz comes along. Wow, what a strange show that was. In oz, sometimes the thing you cant touch are more real than you think you can. Hatred and loneliness. It was jaw dropingly violent. It kind of announces the idea that hbo are serious of doing scripted drama. It is finished. It is over. Hbo really in my mind comes to its own in 1990 with were proving the new keurig kduo brewer makes any occasion the perfect coffee occasion. Breakfast in bed just add Ground Coffee for a carafe, or pop in a pod for a freshly brewed cup. Exactly how i like my coffee. Sopranos. Youve got your carafe. Ive got my light roast. Were brewing the love. The sopranos was a lot of things for everybody. Throw out the handbook. Country roads, take me home tony soprano, the lead actor in theres a booking for every resolution. A drama, he killed a man. Book yours at any price, at booking. Com we watched him. Pretty, huh . Yeah. It was just a melting of a guy in a world and the behavior that promoted all 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 shows us the future whether we realize that was going to be the future of television or not. This husband of yours, how much we love him. Hes the best. Come on. It is bothering me. Make sure nothing happens to him. paul do you get confused bbyi dont blame you. Claims . That character was a great the most reliable. The most awarded. Aspiration. I want those kids to have a the best, the fastest, father. They got one. The best and the fastest. This one. Its too much. Sprints doing things differently. Me. Theyre offering a 100 total satisfaction guarantee. Tony soprano and all that goes with it. I mean i think Sprints Network and savings are great. Oh, you prick. But dont just take my word for it. Some of my favorite shows aired try out the network and see the savings for yourself. In that decade and everybody was switch and get both an unlimited plan watching them. There was still that communal and the Samsung Galaxy s10 plus included, sense from the early decade of tv but it was being applied to for just 35 a month. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. Com. Shows that was reaching higher and further and they were great. Because there were so many channels and so much story telling going on. You started to get more variety of stories being told. Attention. Television showed us women in their depths. It began to show us a range of the africanamerican community. We started focusing on teenagers in a more realistic way. Things change, dawson. Evolved. It became a little more outside the box in terms of what people may want to watch. You are out of order. This whole trial is. After ten years of the 90s, we have a whole new Television World that can take us any place we want it and even place that a new era of technology is he did not imagine. Was that the oven timer . Thats right, my friend. Forcing networks to reexamine it is time for bay watch the way they do business. New owners spent billions buying the networks recently. Ge buying nbc. Capital cities, abc. Can you believe they gave and loewstisch brothers buying cbs. Stephanie skin cancer . I cant believe they promoted and all of them want their moneys worth. Well now have the strongest her to tenant. Network. Well have a stronger defense you are just saying that piece. This is going to be one dynamite company. Theres a danger that news will be mixed up with the rest because you are in love with of television and considered yasmee. Hey, hey, theyre running. Just another profit center. This is the briehl yens lliae show. I say always keep them running. All the time running. Late 1920s, to early 1930s, to the 1980s, the sense was if some of the broadcasting time run. Took public service, 1990s, journalism in the country changed a great deal. You couldnt talk about public run. Run yasmee, run like the wind. Service. What are the ratings going to be . What are the demographics going to be . What is the profit going to be . Well, sensationalism sells. In a plea bargain, 18yearold amy fisher got up to 15 years in prison for shooting the wife of her alleged lover. So intense is the interest in it this case there are three, three madefortv movies now in the works about it. You make money off sex. You make money off death. You make money off crime. The press calls the case the Beverly Hills mansion murders. The story reads like a script that circulates here in hollywood. We enter into the Television News soap opera. A story of basic instincts, anger and fear. I was scared and i just wanted him to leave me alone. And so, broadcast journalism loses its purity and becomes much more shoddy and sensationalistic. And then it all comes together with o. J. Simpson. Im larry carrol in los angeles. The los angeles District Attorney has just filed murder charges against o. J. Simpson. I have to interrupt this call. I understand were going to go to a live picture in los angeles. Police believe that o. J. Simpson is in that car . The o. J. Simpson story starts with the chase and then goes on to his arrest and then culminates with the trial, which goes on and on and on and is televised day after day after day. This is going to be a long trial. Theres a lot of evidence to come in. The o. J. Simpson case was such a National Phenomenon that those of us who were covering it just lived this case 24 hours a day because there was so much demand for people talking about it. As simpson struggled to slide the gloves on to his hands and turned to a juror saying theyre too small, prosecutors were incensed. The trial was on television during the hours that had traditionally been the time for he appears to have pulled the gloves on, counsel. And o. J. Was very much a soap opera. Impeached by his own witness. I ask you to put a stop to it. Excuse me, mr. Bailey. Will you stand up and speak when its your turn. No question that the best tv show of the 90s was the o. J. Simpson trial, and everybody on it was riveting. The Simpson Trial finally winding to a close. We the jury in the above entitled action find Orenthal James simpson not guilty of the crime of murder. In violation of penal code section 187a the verdict of the o. J. Simpson trial viewed by 150 Million People. Its more people than watch president ial election returns. Thats crazy. Because there was trial footage every day, cnn saw its audience increase like five times. The success of cnn was not lost on other people. And so there were competing forces coming into play. How delighted i am we have now reached this moment when we can firmly announce the starting of a fox news channel. Unfortunately, with cable news and the ability or the need to be on the air 24 7, where you try to get as many eyeballs as possible at one time, to gravitate toward those stories that are sensational, it brought us the ability to go too far. Is the Jonbenet Ramsey Murder Investigation turning into a media circus . Yes, its tabloid. But on the other hand its a tabloid era. Heres the point. Heres where the fear comes into it, i think, larry. Its the fear that says, gosh, if we dont cover it big time, our competition is. When they cover it big time, theyll get a big jump in the ratings. The first thing is to last, to last and survive, weve got to do it. What you also see is a whole army of commentators, people who make their business talking about the news. What i say is what we should do is we should bomb his capability of producing oil. Take out his refineries, his stations, his wells. They dont have any capability. Theyre certainly selling a lot of oil no theyre not the networks were doing Good Journalism but they became much more preoccupied by profits. Its much cheaper to have someone in your studio pontificating than to have reporters out in the field reporting. I dont know if any of this is true. But what i heard is that the father went down, opened his basement room, which the fbi had bypassed. Every single sentence on cnn, perhaps, on cnbc, on fox, on msnbc, begins with the words i think but after a while people get confused by what is speculation, by what is innuendo, by what is fact. And as far as the viewer is concerned, be very, very careful of unsubstantiated information presented with great hype. Lets get to living male anchor . An update on the cat who captured our hearts. Female anchor how often should you clean your fridge . Stay tuned to find out. Male anchor beats the odds at the box office to become a rare nonfranchise hit. You can give help and hope to those in need. [ chuckles ] so, what are some Key Takeaways from this commercial . Did any of you hear the bundle your home and auto part . I like that, just not when it comes out of her mouth. Yeah, as a mother, i wouldnt want my kids to see that. Good mom. To see wait. Im sorry. What . Dont kids see enough violence as it is . Ive seen violence. Maybe we turn the word bundle into a character, like mr. Bundles. Top o the bundle to you. [ laughter ] bundle, bundle, bundle. My kids would love that. Yeah. Bundle, bundle, bundle. The wait is over. Tmobile is lighting up 5g nationwide. While some 5g signals go only blocks, tmobile 5g goes miles. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. Now, millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. And this is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. Tv is changing dramatically now with 150 channels that might be available in the near future. There are more choices than ever before. Its a tough job. You have to try and get a sense of what is the audience going to really make an attachment to. In the 90s, cable was coming on strong. So we had to examine who are we going to be . Well, we wanted to be smart, sophisticated comedy. Six months ago i was living in boston. My wife had left me, which was very painful. Then she came back to me. Which was excruciating. I thought frasier was dead with cheers. But we thought, we got a builtin audience, and Great Potential to build out the character to another place. Frasier was kind of like oneact plays. Mother and i moved here when i was a small boy after the tragic death of my father. I kept the pain of that loss buried deep within me like a serpent coiled within a damp cave. Okay, thats it. We always assumed the audience was smarter than most other people did. And we played to that. Just unschooled like liza doolittle. Henry higgins. Shell be ready for a ball in no time. Leave it to you to put the pig back in pygmalion. Kelsey grammar played pom positive like nobody youve ever seen and got huge laughs. Dont consider a move until my fingers have completely cleared the piece. Whats taking so long . But i am analyzing my options unlike your wingit approach i like to plan a strategy, like a general leading his troops into battle. Checkmate, schwarzkopf. I think frasier stands as the single most successful spinoff, at least in the history of sitcoms. And the emmy goes to frasier. Frasier. Frasier. We were lightning hot and it was critical for us to be leading the way, not just following. Friends is about that time in your life when your friends are your family. Ow when david crane and i lived in new york we were part of a group of six people. We were all attached at the hip. We went everywhere together and celebrated everything together. And theres that period where youre 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 Anistons 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 rachels 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, whats 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 dont have to watch this. Yeah, we do. Come on. Come on. Wheres chip . Why isnt he here yet . Hell be here, okay . Take a chill pill. This seemed like a really surprising way to get rachel to know how ross feels. I cant go to my own prom without a date. Take her. You can wear my tux. Dad, she wont want to go with me. Shes learning something new and he thinks, oh, god, please dont let her see this. Please dont let her see this. 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. 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 mustsee tv, thursday nights on nbc, 75 million americans watched thursday night. That was at the time onethird of the country. Ooh what is this stuff . The sweater is angora. Well, its wonderful. The machine that was nbc in the 90s for comedy was untouchable. Youre not from around here, are you . It generated so much viewership and money and awards. You do not need this. Its the top of our wedding cake. Were not its not a scrapbook, its 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. Lets see how you like this, naughty boy. We certainly associate nbc of the 90s of having extremely successful sitcoms but they werent the only network that found their way to having some success. Tgif was on abc on friday, and it was their block of familyoriented comedies. I cant 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. Dont 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. Thats right. Thats 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 cant talk. Theres too much fruit in the house oh what is happening . What do you think we are, invalids . We cant go out and get our own fruit . I tried to tell him. All right. Im cancelling the fruit club. The real story is where the real connection with your audience is. Thank god, all your families are crazy, too. Looks like you got the whole family together. Yeah, yeah, its dysfunction palooza. And now ladies and gentlemen, heres johnny Johnny Carson wasnt just the 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. Its a good time to get out while youre 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 thats lovely to have made your mark on an era like that. Johnny had told no one what he had planned to do, and we werent prepared. And that set off a game of Musical Chairs for who would get the throne, and there only was one latenight throne. Hi, you guys jay leno had been pretty much carsons regular substitute host when he went on vacation. You know whats amazing, only six months ago people were talking about donald trump as a president ial candidate. Right . Thats true. Since then hes had an affair, left his wife, run up debt of several Million Dollars so i guess hes going to be running as a democrat, huh . Jay leno wanted to essentially just continue doing a Johnny Carsontype show. And David Letterman was the show immediately following carson. And they had different styles. What is your name . Im going to ask you to turn the cameras off, please. Okay, we just wanted to drop off this basket of fruit part of daves thing was he 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