it was unpredictable, that an audience a young audience. and not so young audience, and lots in between could relate to those older ladies. if you couldn t see why didn t you call me to come and get you? i tried but every time i put in a dime and dialed, a condom popped out. i got five in my pocket, here, darling. a lifetime supply. she was recently named along with norman lear and jim brooks as one of television s most gifted creator writers. when you look back at past role models in television? it is easy to see susan harrises impact. susan harris was the greatest writer, in my opinion, of that time. singularly. so, all credit to her for coming up with so many iterations of something so amazing. do you think there is a
episode of máaásáh are the last call for the pre-cable world of television. they are like the last time that the huge audience will all turn out for one event. all right, that s it, let s roll. hey. let s be careful out there. when quality does emerge on television, the phrase, too good for tv, is often heard. one recent network offering that seems to deserve that phrase is hill street blues. hill street is one of the changing points of the entire industry, in the history of tv. we had all watched the documentary about cops, and it had this real handheld, in the moment quality which we were very enamored of.
could feel it watching it on tv. ohigh school kids can dunk, tyson was made for tv because of the drama. not a lot of junior high school kids can dunk. everybody tried. i think that he is starting to transcend the sport if he is becoming a public figure. michael jordan becomes the model that every other athlete wants to shoot for. they want to be a brand, and that is what television does for these athletes. turns them into worldwide iconic trans. here is michael in the foul line, the bulls win. this became part of an ongoing group of people we cared about. we had an enormous pent-up demand for sports and the 80s began to provide it, thank goodness. television will continue to grow, estimated it will go into more than 1 million u.s. households this year. with cable-television
it s not fair, alex. yeah. there s nothing you can do about it, jen. my advice to you is that you just enjoy being a child for as long as you can. i know i did. it s the best two weeks of my life. [ laughter ] fox: alex is a little bill buckley. he the wall street journal is his bible. [ laughs ] he has a tie to go with his pajamas. he s very conservative and a very intense 17-year-old. now the first thing your teacher s gonna ask is what you did over the summer. now, a lot of kids are gonna say, i went to the zoo. or i went to the beach. or i went to a baseball game. what are you gonna say? i watched the iran contra hearings. [ laughter ] peterson: if mom and dad thought this generation was going to the dogs, think again. this is the generation that has discovered hard work and success. troy: american culture is changing in the 80s. and in terms of television, there s a whole notion of demographic segmentation. bochco: networks were beginning to not be afraid
to appeal to a very specific demographic. hi, handsome. look at that shirt. is that a power shirt or what? nice suit ellen, good shoulder pads. you looking to get drafted by the eagles? [ chuckles ] thirtysomething said, we re not gonna have cops, lawyers, or doctors. we re just gonna be about people. what are we doing here? why did we start this business? to do our thing. but right now we got two wives, three kids, four cars, two mortgages, a payroll. and that s life, pal. you be the breadwinner now. is that what i am? holmes: thirtysomething is a very important show as you re going into this era of television being more introspective and more emotional. and some people weren t buying it. but for other people, when they were talking about things like having kids and who was gonna go back to work and some of these issues that hadn t been talked about a whole lot, it was important to people. [ fussing, crying ] i was so looking forward [ louder ] i was so looking forward to doing