unclear. the vessel caught a typhoon and went down. i am phil mattingly in washington. "the '90s" starts now. pbs is changing dramatically now with 150 channels. >> there is a lot of things we could not do. >> people were trying to do something adventurous. >> this is celebrations. opening the doors for our america to come on inside. there is always something on television and some of it are better than we deserve. >> oh, cool. ♪

>> they know when it hits the bottom, it would be 1990, good-bye to the '80s. >> oh, it is horrible year never ends. >> when the nineties began, we

started seeing a lot of experimentation. >> "the simonsimpsons" was not d or anything. it was a distrust. >> tv disrespects me, it laughs at me, not with me. >> the sitcoms of the eighties were sort of a warm, safe humor. >> the kids, they listen to the rap music which gives them the brain damage. >> there was a real yearning for another type of humor. >> we were able to spoof fatherhood which at the time and i stress, at the time was bill

cosby as the shining example. ♪ >> stuff that got away with because it is a cartoon. the father strangling the child. >> we are going to keep on trying to strengthen the american family, make american families a lot more like the waldens and a lot less like the sim simpsons. >> we go to the bizarre period of time when the sitting president is raging against sitcoms. >> they dealt with issues of racism and sexism. >> don't ask me, i am just a girl. >> it is not funny, bart. >> they have found a way to talk about everything that's going on in our lives through the show.

>> they want all the benefits to live if springfield but they did not bother to learn the language. >> one of the governing things that's happening with the simpsons is a distrust. anyone tells us we should trust them but we did not earn that trust. >> sold. >> when they make fun of how fox works. >> you are watching fox. >> we are watching fox. they're telling you don't trust us either. >> eat my shorts. >> eat your shorts? >> the simpsons is like shakespeare in the sense that we quote the simpsons all the time. >> excellent. >> i wish i could create something that culturally indelible. it is unlike anything tv ever

want. >> "between peaks" showed up out of nowhere. the pilot episode was one of the most exciting i have ever seen. >> what's your name? >> it was incredible. i mean just how slowly in the beginning the news spread around this little town that this young beautiful girl had died. that haunting music was so dark and so beautiful. ♪ >> what on earth is essentially

a art film doing in primetime television? >> american network television considered the home of the plans of the cautious and the predictable. the abc network launched the new series that was none of those things. "twin peaks," the series that'll change tv is directed by david lynch. >> david lynch was a film maker known for his test in the eccentric and memorable. >> the idea that he would do television in the nineties was crazy. >> i like the idea of television but i am too busy to see too much of it. >> what do you think of what you see on television? >> some of it is what i really enjoy. >> are you being diplomatic? >> sort of. >> the beautiful thing about

television is you have the chance to do a continuous story. that's the main reason for doing it. >> i think that "twin peaks" with the initial attention it got, allow all the other networks to say let's do something different. what was interesting about knowing the exposure, it was in od and sort of universe. >> it ain't going to be long. you are going to snuggle up to your fiber-optics baby. >> you also have experimentation that sets the stage for a lot of what came later. >> it is hard to pin down what exactly the x-file is. it is a show of investigating

paranormal activities. >> tell me i am crazy. >> you are crazy. >> that dynamic of the traumatic tension of believable skeptics is one of the engines of the show and you have seen it from a specific point of view. >> they're equal. absolutely. >> they equal in a way they kind of switch gender stereotypes because the character i play, the entintuitive one. >> a lot of folks enjoyed "x-files" who did not watch tv may have been drawn to the show by, stick it to the man ethos. don't trust big business or anybody but yourself and friends and family, i guess. it is a message of some what dark and cynical. it was kind of a breath of fresh air in the early nineties.

>> you can have message boards and use net news groups and everybody wanted to talk about the black oil and the bees and boulder sisters and what the cigarette smoking man was up to. people were so nuts for the show. >> it is pure science-fiction and that's what i like about it. >> the "x-files" changed the way people watch television. >> sometimes that led to really challenging network television that was cool and fun to watch and sometimes it just seemed to fall off the edge a little bit. at the time steven botchko was a

successful producer of "rour drama." >> i saw a bunch of gang bang in jail and they began to sing life in the hood, ain't no pizza pie, everybody dies when the bullets fly. and i said wait a minute, wait a minute -- i thought well, this is it. this is going to be great. this is going to be as innovative as anything i have ever done. ♪

>> it is just -- it circles the dream. >> i will give credit to anybody who goes outside the box and swings really hard for the fences. >> i amely proud of it and i am glad we tried it. i don't think i want to do it again. (vo) get verizon business unlimited from the network businesses rely on. like manny. event planning with our best plan ever. (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. this fourth of july, brighten your home. with hgtv home by sherwin williams paints and cabot exterior stains. get $10 off 1-gallon cans

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many young souls are turning to be a hard sell. in the nineties, what we realize that advertisements would pay for college young adults, we try to speak to that audience. where is someone? i am starving. >> right here. >> is there a table ready? > >> the chinese restaurant was one of the early episodes of "seinfield" and truly nothing happened in the episode. they were waiting for a table. >> i feel like walking over there and take food off somebody's plate. we said to larry david, hey, nothing happened and larry was

offended. nbc believed in show so they said we are committing to four episodes. >> yes, yes. >> four episodes. normally it is 13 or 8 or something. >> at least. >> we didn't think they had too much confidence in the show. we didn't think it would work but we felt they had to go through the process and they would learn. they knew better than we did. my mother caught me. >> doing what? >> you know? [ laughter ] >> i was alone -- >> the turning point for "seinfield" from a nice show that all the cool people kind of know about but that's it to massive was the episode called "the contest" where they try to on stain from self-pleasure for as long as possible. >> 6:30, time for your bath.

>> george, i am hungry. >> hang on, ma, hang on. >> once you do 30 minutes on masturbation, you can get away with anything. >> are you still master of your domain? >> i am king of the county. >> the week after that, people were talking about that in the workplace, they're still talking about it. 0 52 seconds. >> i am out. >> one of the shorthand description of "seinfield" is no hugs and no lessons. let's push it further than it ever been pushed before. >> i think the big breakthrough of "seinfield" that the characters were not nice people.

>> they were narcissistic and they would screw each other and yet be best friends next week. you don't have to love them, we just have to laugh at them. >> i am really sorry. [ laughter ] >> the idea of a character with darker ten darker tendencies. >> that was so taboo in television comedy. >> are you about done? i am just getting warmed up. >> with network tv and commercials, a lot of things that are highly structure and we

are able to find ways pushing those boundaries. it took us to a new level of comedy and a kind of line like yeah, nbc, thursday night, this show, expect the unexpected. >> can you sing the theme song from "cheers"? >> yeah, making your way in the world today. >> that's so corny. >> i know, i know, but it is cute. ♪ ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ ♪ where everybody knows ♪ ♪ your name ♪ >> over 93 million people watched the finale of "cheers," it was a sad experience for everybody. it was our baby for 11 years and we are not going to be around these people everyday. we have been serving fake coffee

forever, it was time for everybody to sip. i was sipping along with him. >> time goes by, people move in and out of your life. you must tell these people how much they mean to you. >> we have been so much together, it does become your family. >> we are lucky to have the friends. >> the legacy of "cheers" are our need to belong. that's what we as americans are longing for. >> the final scene of "cheers" was really, what was sam's real first love? you can never be unfaithful to your one true love. >> i am the luckiest son of

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knew i would one day end up doing a talk show. in less than two years, arsenio hall, fired his show into late night television. >> how come i didn't hear all that going on? >> too many white people. >> johnny was the big dog. i knew everybody on the planet was not watching him. and it dawned on me that i could go many weeks and not see a motown grown on "the tonight show." arsenio hall has been dubbed as the star at late night. >> two live crew came on and

sang "me so horny." i never seen anything like that. it was explosion in the audience. >> he appealed to black and white and young audience and broader appeal of the powers of being. >> that's real big among our team. >> of course, it is. >> having maya angelo. >> female lady home last night, jump that, honey, jump that. he will her hand and squeeze it tight. jump that. >> he didn't just have black people on his show. if you were him, you would to be on arsenio. >> this is something i heard

political analyst talks about recently. he said you were pulling back a little bit, you were instructed no t to say as much or be as out spoken. >> i heard that, i never know who said it. i think it is wishful thinking. >> guess who suggested to bill to do the arsenio show if you want to get a younger demo? >> he attracted a lot of people who were not fans before that night. >> the nineties was a glorious moment for black television. you saw these representations that you never seen before. ♪ the premise of "the fresh

prince" was this kid comes from philadelphia, his mom says i am going to send you to live with your uncle. he shows up with a baseball cap and like he does not know how to act in this environment. >>. >> the incredible work of "the fresh prince" when it was most triu triumphant, when it shows being black is always a problem no matter what. >> here is the episode i remember where they get pulled over in a car. >> what? >> he's going to tell us to watch out of the car. >> too much tv, will. >> you have an officer that's horrible and racism in a lot of

ways. >> carlton has this epiphany how money won't save you. >> no math or glee club or who your daddy is. when you are 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 bellaire had a really hard time approaching it. don't touch that dial. fox. >> ladies and gentlemen, "living color" was the first show created by, written by and directed by and starring african-american, all of those things in one.

>> this was a celebration of culture. exchanging us and opening the doors to come inside. >> yo, yo. welcome to the network! >> a lot of what they did on "living color" was trying to take the stereotypes or the misperception of what black men are and turn them upside down. >> not only will you get like all the cable stations out there. you will be able to talk directly to the astronauts. >> it brought this smart, very controversial comedy of black folks informer seen before that centers around their life experiences. >> who are you? >> african-americans compose of 25% of fox's market. >> i always get trapped in the corner with somebody named bob.

>> i just saw "boy in the hood," all right. i didn't know, martin, i didn't know. >> they knew they needed to capture this audience to grow. >> i guess you think you are smart and cool. if you think you are getting a job here, you are a damn fool. now, get out. >> they basically gave black creators freedom to do whatever you want. just get the audience. >> the wb took that concept on fox going under this under serve audience of minority viewers and ran with it. >> i am a millennial woman who'll not be defined by traditional roles. >> the african-american shows index lower in terms of household income so over the course of the decade, the network starts to move away from

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i came with a notion to do a cop show was r-rated when abc's broadcast standards read our script, they want preserve. >> i was drawing pictures, showing them what we would show and would not.

>> grown-ups, doodling. >> the program premiered with an advertising boycott. >> channel 7, shame on you. >> it was an immediate hit, the boycott lasted for four weeks. >> they could use the nudity to go deeper into the actual burden of being a cop. >> it had this character, andy, he's a raging alcoholic and racist and sexist. can you provide names and addresses of these friends. >> you know you are a racist scum bag. >> there is a famous episode

where they investigated a young boy where they found a child mole molester. >> you are going to feel a lot better if you tell the truth. >> you can see on his face that this is killing him to not s destroy this guy right now. >> he walks out of the room and he breaks the door. >> and i am choking and talking about it right now. that's a great moment of tv. >> 20 years from now. the best tv drama? >> i don't know. >> will it be bolder than what we see today? >> i am sure. >> the nineties gave us several shows that did not explode in

ratings but were influential to other people making television, homic "homicides" is one of them. >> "homicides" was innovative in terms of its style. it used music and ways that advance the narrative. >> tears coming out of your eyes. they had so many african-american characters in the cast ta on several occasions, they were the only people on camera interacting with one another. that sounds like so -- as late as the nineties, that was not done on television. >> when a cop shoots somebody, he stands by. he stands by the body. cops are no better than anybody else. >> television was getting more complicated and stories becoming

more entreppisodic and characte started to change. none of that happened on "law and order." >> you get a crime. you got the investigation into the crime. >> you better be packing more than your dirty mouth. >> you got arrests. >> is there a charge? >> no, this one is on us. >> sit down and shut up. >> overruled. you will address the court from now on mr. mccoy. >> tell, me, doctor, all those women you ran through your examination room, did you remember their faces or did you not even bother to look it up? >> you had characters.

maybe, it is not really such a bad medium after all. >> the supreme court's decision. the whole thing were legally ob obtained. >> "law & order" was like crack. you have to sit and watch me 15 minutes just like, not moving, bar barely breathing. there is times i have passed out watching "law & order." >> he had this two-hour piece, a

reflection of michael experience. >> you need to transfuse him. >> "er" is a hospital show but it is really an action movie. >> people shouting and climbing up on the body and doing cpr and they are racing off to the surgery suit. someone wanders in and tossing medical jargons. they don't stop to explain what it is. >> i think i know what it is now because i watch a lot of "er" over the years. >> you can try thumping is heart. >> what do you think? you are the attending. there was so much information coming at you. you had to stay involved in it the whole time. >> come on, hold on, buddy. >> there was a lot of research

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this has been one dynamite company. late night to the early 1930s, we'll get some of the broadcasting time to public service but 1990s, services changed a great deal. we could not talk about public service. it was what the demographics going to be and the profit, what it is going to be. well, sensation themselves in a paid bargain, amy fisher got up to 15 years of prison for shooting the wife of her alleged lover. >> there are three, three major tv in the works for it. you make money off of sex and crimes. >> the press calls the case, the beverly hills mansion murders. the story reads one of the young souls here in hollywood.

>> a story of basic instincts, anger and fear. >> i was scared and i wanted him to leave me alone. >> brooke and journalism uses its purity and became much more shotty and it all comes together with oj simpson. >> los angeles county district attorney just filed murder charges against oj simpson. >> i understand we are going to live picture in los angeles. police believe that oj simpson is in that car. >> the oj simpson story starts with the chase and culminates the trial going on and on and days for days. >> this is a long trial and a lot of evidence coming in.

the oj simpson kill was such a national phenomenal that those of us who were covering it lived this case 24 hours a day because there was so much >> as simpson struggled to slide the gloves on to his hands and turned to a juror saying "they're too small," prosecutors were incensed. >> the trial was on television during the hours that had traditionally been the time for soap operas. >> 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 it's your turn. >> no question that the best tv show of the '90s was the o.j. simpson trial, and everybody on it was riveting. >> nbc news in depth tonight. the simpson trial finally winding to a close. >> we, the jury in the above-entitled, action find the defendant, orenthal james simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder in violation of penal

code section 187-a -- >> the verdict of the o.j. simpson trial viewed by 150 million people. it's more people than watch presidential election returns. that's 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, it's tabloid. but on the other hand, it's a tabloid era. here's the point. here's where the fear comes into it, i think, larry. it's the fear that says, gosh, if we don't cover it big time, our competition is. when they cover it big time, they'll get a big jump in the ratings. the first thing is to last, to last and survive, we've 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 don't have any capability of producing oil. >> they're certainly selling a lot of oil -- >> no they're not -- >> the networks were doing good journalism but they became much more preoccupied by profits. it's much cheaper to have someone in your studio pontificating than to have reporters out in the field reporting. >> i don't 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. three times the electorlytes and half the sugar. ♪ pedialyte powder packs. feel better fast. [whistling] with technology that can scale across all your clouds... it's easier to do more innovative things. [whistling]

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tv is changing dramatically now with 150 channels that might be available in the near future. >> there are more choices than ever before. it's 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 built-in audience, and great potential for building out the character to another place. ♪ >> "frasier" was kind of like one-act 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, that's it. >> we always assumed the audience was smarter than most other people did. and we played to that. >> just unschooled like liza doolittle. find the right henry higgins, she'll be ready for a ball in no time. >> leave it to you to put the pig back in pygmalion. >> kelsey grammer played pom -- pompousity like nobody you've

ever seen and got huge laughs. >> don't consider a move until my fingers have completely cleared the piece. >> what's taking so long? >> but i am analyzing my options. unlike your wing-it 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 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