charges were leveled at the commercial television networks. congress has no right to interfere in the media. excuse me! we have the responsibility to give the audience what it tuned in to see. the years of the 60s which end in a few hours have a bad reputation that is not entirely justified. some things got worse, obviously. but tv and other news coverage is better, not worse. we simply developed more demanding standards. when i think of tv, i think of the 70s. what is this world coming to? the american public was hungry for more. more was allowed that hadn t been before. it was the last decade where it was a campfire television, where there was one in the living room. i want to watch an all-black show for a change. oh, where are you going to find one? here s one the los angeles lakers against the milwaukee bucks. young people were interested in relevant things. and so, television began to reflect that. this is cbs. really it was very
asner: i ll tell you about the golden age of television. thisis period inin time will be looked upon as the platinum age. lear: our obligation is to entertain, anand if we veve left somethino think k about, so o much the b . kunta. kunta kinte. televisionon should nonot be jujust entertainment. charges were leveled at the commerercial televevision netw. congress has no right interfere with the media. well, excuse m me! we havave a respononsibility to give e the audienence what it tuned in to see. ththe years ofof the 60s,, which h end in a f few hours, have a bad reputation that is not entirely justified. some things got worse, obviously, but tv and other news coverage is better, not worse. we simply developed more demanding standards. when i think of tv, i think of the 70s. whwhat is thisis d coming to?o? the american public was hungry for more. what was allowowed that hadn t bebeen before?e? it was t the last dedecade whe it wasas a campfirire televisi, wherere there wawa
it wasn t this contrived it was a full-throated performance. this is not regular television. it s subscription. you can say any [bleep] mesce: because you re not using public airwaves, the fcc can t regulate your content. i understand you had two orgasms yesterday. can you tell us about them? mesce: hbo gave cable something to sell. you were getting movies uncut in your home, all the naughty bits intact. and then september 1975, we debut coast to coast with the thrilla in manila, one of the all-time classic heavyweight fights frazier/ali and that s when hbo explodes. man: it s all over, and muhammad ali at the end of the 14th round. mesce: before that, you re counting growth in tens of thousands of subscribers. after that, you re counting in millions. that s really day one for both businesses
do. nobody knew what you couldn t do. but you were desperately trying not to be commercial television. how much time we got? ladies and gentlemen, robert klein! the beauty of it was you didn t have to pack everything quickly. you could warm up and get to know and take the stage, so to speak. the talk shows are okay. you know, i do the tonight show. i come in, i have to be funny in a hurry. gets a little tiring. six minutes and boom, boom, boom, boom! it wasn t as contrived. it was a full-throated performance. this is not regular television. this is subscription. you can say anything. [ bleep ]. because you re not using public airwaves, the fcc can t regulate your content. i understand you had two orgasms yesterday. can you tell us about them? hbo gave cable something to sell. you were getting movies uncut in your home. all the naughty bits intact. and then september 1975. we debuted coast to coast with the thrilla in manila, one of