by its for lack of a better way to put it its stick-it-to-the-man ethos that said, don t trust the government, don t trust big business, don t trust anybody but yourself and your friends and family, i guess. it s a message that s somewhat dark and cynical, but was kind of a breath of fresh air in the early 90s. - the 90s was a time of conspiracies, and the internet was starting to spread beyond just, like, hard-core computer users. so you could have message boards and usenet newsgroups, 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. and i would go to alt.tv.the-x-files and people were so nuts for this show. - it s just pure science fiction, and that s probably what i like most about it. - the x-files changed the way people watch television. - you could sense these successful creators trying to see how they could do things different
but as late as the 90s, that wasn t done on television. - when a cop shoots somebody, he stands by it. he picks up the radio mic and he calls it in. he stands by the body. if not, cops are no better than anybody else. - in the 90s, television was getting more complicated, stories were starting to become more episodic, characters were starting to develop and change. none of that happened on law & order. [ law & order dramatic sting] - this was a show that completely delivered on its formula every time. [siren wails] you d get a crime. - all right, let s roll. - you got the investigation into the crime. - you better be packing more than a dirty mouth. - you got an arrest. - what s the charge? hey, i m asking you a question. what s the charge? - ah, there s no charge. this one s on us. - and then you had a trial. - he s badgering, your honor. - sit down and shut up, mr. fineman. - overruled. and you will address the court from now on, mr. mccoy. - and so every time you watched, you g
it s a freezer. - no! - we kind of all were part of, i think, this chapter in television where we realized we were in the right place at the right time. let s see how you like this, naughty boy. - whoa! - [shrieking] - we certainly associate nbc of the 90s with having extremely successful sitcoms. but they weren t the only network that found their way to having some success. [jesse frederick s everywhere you look ] tgif was on abc on friday. and it was their block of family-oriented comedies. - i can t take it. i need the cake. - oh, michelle! miche - it was not sophisticated television. but these were shows that people adored. - [laughs, snorts] [laughing] oh! [dramatic music] male announcer: cbs. - cbs was in a really bad spot. they had just fallen apart over the early part of the 90s. and they d gone through a couple different network executives. - [whistling descending tone]
- listen to it. oh! [crowd cheering] they know when it hits the bottom, it ll be 1990. good-bye to the 80s in. all: ten, nine. all: eight. eight! eight! eight! - oh, will this horrible year never end? - when the 90s begin, we re starting to see a lot of experimentation. [gunshots] all: [quickly] seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! [cheering] when the 90s gain, we re starting to see a lot of experimentation. five, four, three, two, one. and the simpsons was inspired by, not necessarily hatred of television, but a distrust of a lot of the ways in which television was talking to us. tv respects me. it laughs with me, not at me. you stupid. doh! i think the sitcoms of the 80s i love you guys. were such a sort of warm,
to documentary to get our what we called at that time a docusoap. - this is the true story. - true story. - of seven strangers. - it was kind of this social experiment to kind of watch what happens when you put these strangers together in a house. you know, when people stop being polite and start getting real. [beeper beeping] - do you sell drugs? why do you have a beeper? [laughter] - you hadn t seen anything like that on television. that kind of open, honest discussion of race. - i could try as much as i can to try to deal with you, but ignorance is ignorance, stupidity is stupidity, and that s it. black, white, green, purple, blue, whatever. - the real world becomes this kind of, you know, big-bang moment for reality tv, where the idea is that, oh, my god, all we have to do is just take cameras and put them on people and we ll 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 doctor s door.