it s a time of enormous turmoil. shut up in here. the 60s are over, dad. here s michael at the foul line, a shot on ehlo. good! [ laughs ] we intend to cover all the news all the time. we won t be signing off until the world ends. isn t that special? any tool for human expression will bring out both the best and the worst in us, and television has been that. they don t pay me enough to deal with animals like this. people are no longer embarrassed to admit they watch television. we have seen the news, and it is us. slowly but surely, the 1970s are disappearing. the 1980s will be upon us. what a decade it is coming up. happy new year! as you begin the 80s in the television world, the landscape was, on any given evening, nine out of ten people were watching only one of three networks. more than 30 million people are addicted to it. social critics are mystified by its success. what is it? it s television s primetime, prairie pot boiler, dallas. a m
sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name even the theme song to cheers put you in a good mood. evening everybody. norm! norman. what s shaking, norm? all four cheeks and a couple of chins, coach. by the end of the cheers pilot, not only did you know who everybody was, but you wanted to come back and see what was going to happen. it s like, all you have to do is watch it once, you re going to love these people. these are universal characters, and the humor worked on so many levels. last night, i was up until 2:00 in the morning finishing up kierkegaard. i hope he thanked you for it. you have to create a community that people are identifying with. and cheers gives you that community. boy, i tell you, i ve always wanted to skydive. i ve just never had the guts. what did it feel like? well, imagine it s a lot like sex, sammy. not that i have to imagine what sex is like. but i ve had plenty of sex, and plenty of this, too.