>> the '90s was a time of the top would be nickelodeon. "rug rats," "blues clues." conspiracies. and the internet was starting to >> don't you know cartoons will ruin your mind? spread beyond just like >> "ren and stimpy" had some hard-core 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 mulder's sister and what the cigarette smoking man was up to. very surreal, high-concept 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. >> it's just pure science mom watching lifetime. fiction. that's 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 wasn't 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 ♪ let's be careful out there stood on their own. >> at the time, steven bochco