The Seventies (2015): Season 1, Episode 1 - Television Gets Real - full transcript
Tonight,
television takes a look at itself.
What's on the idiot box?
It's only an idiot box
if an idiot is watching.
I'll tell you about
the golden age of television.
This period of time will be
looked upon as the platinum age.
Our obligation is to entertain.
And if we've left something to think about,
so much the better.
Kunta.
Kunta Kinte.
Television should not
just be entertainment.
Charges were leveled at the
commercial television networks.
Congress has no right
to interfere with the media.
Well, excuse me!
You have a responsibility to give
the audience what it tuned in to see.
The years of the '60s,
which end in a few hours,
have a bad reputation
that is not entirely justified.
Some things got worse,
obviously.
But TV and other news coverage is better,
not worse.
We simply developed more
demanding standards.
When I think of TV,
I think of the '70s.
What is this world coming to?
The American public was
hungry for more.
More was allowed that hadn't
been before.
It was the last decade
where it was a campfire television,
where there was one in the
living room.
I want to watch an all black
show for a change.
- Where're you going to find one?
- Here's one.
The Los Angeles Lakers
against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Young people were
interested in relevant things.
And so television began
to reflect that.
This is CBS.
Really it was very simple.
You had three channels plus PBS.
When the decade turned over into the '70s,
television was very rural.
Hee haw!
The Beverly Hillbillies.
CBS had Beverly Hillbillies,
Green Acres.
Petticoat Junction and these kind of
rural fantasies of Mayberry-ism.
The hillbilly shows were everywhere,
and then they weren't.
Fred Silverman,
who was running programming at CBS, said
we're going to get rid of the shows
that are the most highly rated
and replace them with shows
that they thought
would be more appealing
to that younger audience.
It changed the face of television.
My name is Norman Lear.
Until 1971,
he was a very successful,
if largely unheralded,
producer/writer in Hollywood.
But then he burst upon
the public consciousness
when he took on bigotry
with his All in the Family.
Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin
created absolutely iconic shows.
They revolutionized not only CBS,
but all of American television.
Our world is coming crumbling down.
The goons are coming!
To use language like that on TV
was just unheard of,
but it really captured
a certain moment.
Archie,
12% of the population is black.
There should be a lot of
black families living out here.
Yeah, this is only a beginning
but I think it's wonderful.
Well let's see
how wonderful it is
when the watermelon rinds
come flying out the window!
It scared me when I first saw
All in the Family, a little bit.
I thought, "they better be careful."
There was no doubt in my mind
the American people were going to accept it.
Do you have a quick answer for the people
who say the show reinforces bigotry?
- That charge started from the beginning...
- Yes. My quick answer is no.
Everybody was going to see something
they knew damn well was going on.
Nothing that surprising.
Edith, I'm out of toilet paper.
No, we're not.
I bought some yesterday.
It's in the closet in the kitchen.
I ain't in the kitchen.
Oh!
Hearing a toilet flush
for the first time
was a big deal
and made headlines.
What's the country coming to anyhow?
- What is it, Archie, bad news?
- What else?
We get out of Vietnam or something?
Don't be a wise guy, huh.
I wasn't going to
play around with
Mom dented the car,
how are we going to
keep Dad from
finding out about it?
Not when I see everything
that's going around in our country.
Just because a guy is sensitive
and he's an intellectual
and he wears glasses,
you make him out a queer.
I never said a guy
who wears glasses is a queer.
A guy who wears glasses
is a four-eyes.
A guy who's a fag is a queer.
All in the Family did something
really new for television.
It put before the American public
Archie's friend
who was very masculine
and who happened to be gay.
How long you known me?
- 10, 12 years?
- Yeah.
In all that time,
did I ever mention a woman?
Oh, come on, Steve.
_
_
Nixon objecting to the show...
Uh, that was a badge of honor.
And it was really culturally on point.
Every time.
For a sitcom,
that was unheard of.
One, two, three!
I wanted to do an episode
where somebody could
give Archie what he'd earned.
Shut up all of you!
We created a character that
could really let him have it.
Maude!
I'm only here because of Edith.
The fact that you happen to be here
with her is beyond my control.
Like any other freak of nature.
Before that show was off the air,
Fred Silverman was on the telephone with me
saying,
"there's a show in that woman."
Hello?
No, this is not Mr. Findlay,
it's Mrs. Findlay.
Yeah, Mr. Findlay has
a much higher voice.
Now get your coat and come on!
What makes you think you can
order me around like that, Henry?
You're my wife.
That gives me the right!
When he says "wife,"
he means "possession."
So what, Maude? You told me
a hundred times you want to feel possessed.
Walter Findlay,
I never said that standing up, and you know it.
Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin really turned
the spinoff series into an artform.
Norman Lear hates to hear it
called the "Lear Factory."
All his series
come out of this building,
allowing Lear to move
from show to show like a dervish.
Good Times was like, "Holy smokes!
There's black people on TV!"
There'd never been a complete
black family on TV before, with a father.
What made it so unique
and universal is that
we had the same problems
in our household,
and we do not live in
the projects in Chicago.
Dynomite!
You want to worry your head about nothing,
go on and do it.
We got $32 in the shoe box and I got
another $6 right here in my pocket.
You worked all night
and all they paid you was $6?
There were a lot of folks
who were not happy with the show.
The Black Panthers were very upset.
When Huey Newton came to see me,
the big complaint was
"why can't we see a black man
that's doing better than that?"
The Jeffersons had started as
neighbors of Archie Bunker.
Don't call me "honky"!
Why're you so sensitive
of of a sudden?
How would you like it
if I called you "nigger"?
He called me "nigger"!
- That's no worse than "honky."
- You're right.
Nothing's worse than "honky"
except being married to one.
Norman Lear set the stage
for other shows in the '70s
that just brought gravitas
to television.
What're you staring at?
I was just thinking I ought to bring
my neighbor's kids over here.
This place is better than the zoo.
On Saturday nights,
the CBS lineup in the early '70s was amazing.
8:00, All in the Family.
8:30, M*A*S*H.
9:00, The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
You had The Bob Newhart Show...
And it ended with
The Carol Burnett Variety Show at 10:00
They used to call it murderer's row.
People had no DVRs, they had no VHS,
they had nothing with initials,
so people would stay home
on Saturday nights.
They wouldn't go to the movie.
They wouldn't go to restaurants.
That may be the best night of
television in all of television history.
Mary Tyler Moore was
a single woman
working as an associate producer
on a nightly TV show.
You know what?
You've got spunk.
- Yeah.
- I hate spunk!
There were a lot of young women
entering the workplace then.
And for some of them,
Mary Tyler Moore was like a port of entry.
- I'm doing as good a job as he did.
- Better!
Better.
- And I'm being paid less than he was because...?
- You're a woman.
The television female
could be a hero.
She could be the main event.
Read it?
All right.
Out loud!
The first script written by
Allan Burns and Jim Brooks
had Mary coming to Minneapolis divorced.
And well, very quickly CBS said,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
At the beginning of the decade,
divorce was considered somewhat scandalous.
Uh...
She went on dates
with a lot of guys.
But the guys
weren't really important.
We seem to be hitting it off,
and I just thought...
You just thought!
She's not obsessed with
finding a husband.
- Don't forget to take your pill.
- I won't.
This was about people
coping with one another,
and the workplace
was like a family.
I told Ted to close
with the copy for Sue Ann.
Oh my God!
- What's wrong?
- I told the projectionist
it was the other way around!
Oh my God!
Local pig farmers served notice today
that rising corn prices
are forcing them to find other means
to feed their stock.
Here's one pig.
Just look at her gobble up that slop.
Starting tomorrow,
we'll be presenting a new feature on WJM.
Dining Out with Sue Ann Nivens.
Once Jim Brooks said to me,
"I know there's a world of comedy
in my wife's purse.
"I just can't access it.
We've got to find some female writers
for this show."
- Did you crash the men's room?
- Of course not.
I went as somebody's guest.
Why do you think it's such a winner?
I think because of the casting.
And I think because of the writing.
They've don't sacrifice the character
for the sake of a good joke.
That effort to keep
the female sensibility
is what made it
authentic and good.
People would say
"you're just like me and my girlfriends."
How can you gorge yourself like that
and stay so skinny?
I'm going crazy with hunger.
- Well eat something.
- I can't.
I've got to lose 10 pounds by 8:30.
Freddy Silverman,
head of the network at the time, said
"Valerie, listen.
I'm going to spin you off."
And I thought,
"oh my God, I'm fired."
Because "spinoff" is a term
that was originated in the '70s.
If we're going to start living together,
we've got to tell each other everything.
Okay, Joe, I want to be married.
Rhoda and Joe's wedding
became a huge national event.
52 million people
tuned in to see that.
Suddenly Rhoda is in a happy relationship
and they didn't know what to do with that.
And then they had to have her
get divorced to try to reboot the show.
Why did you marry me?
Just answer me that. Why did you marry me?
- You made me marry you.
- I feel so funny.
- Oh, come on.
- It's just a matter of trust.
Oh, she's not going to do it.
Doctor, where does that leave us,
and where do we go from here?
That we'll have to discuss
in future sessions.
The '70s also had this
therapeutic overlay.
- Hi, Bob.
- Oh, hi, Bob.
- Hi, Bob.
- Hello.
We decided to make him
a psychologist.
We seem to have
run out of things to say.
- Why don't we pray?
- Yeah, let's pray for the end of this session.
I didn't know anything
about therapy prior to that.
I'm from the planet Blothar.
It's in the Galoo galaxy.
How long are you going to
be in town?
I didn't want to do a show
where we had children.
I didn't want to be the dumb dad.
Sit, boy.
Howard, I don't care where we go.
I just don't want to make any more decisions.
People'd say, "gee,
my dad and I used to watch the show."
And it was great.
And you realize
you're part of people's lives.
The '70s was the era
where a certain artistry developed.
M*A*S*H really changed many people's
perception of what a sitcom can be.
A sitcom could be cinematic.
M*A*S*H was shot like a movie.
And M*A*S*H was maybe the single
most unique situation comedy ever.
I have a headache.
A tremendous headache.
It goes all the way
down to my waist.
The television series M*A*S*H
had one thing the movie,
in my estimation, did not,
which was heart.
There are certain rules
about a war.
And rule #1 is young men die.
Rule #2 is
doctors can't change rule #1.
It was about Korea,
but we were talking about it
doing things that had to do with Vietnam,
and everybody knew it.
Rolling. Action.
War isn't hell.
War is war and hell is hell.
And of the two,
war is a lot worse.
We had 30 million people a week
watching M*A*S*H.
Have you ever really
considered the foot?
Yeah, but I prefer girls.
Better not bump into Henry
and that general.
I intend only to bump into Nurse Baker.
Repeatedly, if possible.
Programming practices. These were
the people who'd go through the scripts
and say, "you can't use this word."
We felt like we were
in the midst of a battle.
This is freedom of speech.
At the Senate hearings on
television violence today,
strong charges were leveled at
the commercial television networks.
The broadcasting industry
now stands charged
with having molested the minds
of our nation's children
to serve the cause of corporate profit.
The family hour was established
by the three networks
and the Federal Communications Commission
in response to complaints of too much
sex and violence on early evening television.
The family hour.
The two hours from 7:00 to 9:00 PM,
during which parents and children
are supposed to be able to watch television
without being made
to feel uncomfortable.
It's complicated.
So it just seemed altogether unfair.
And we sued.
Family hour is under attack
from some producers,
unions and others
in the television industry.
They have filed a lawsuit
to have it abolished.
As those scheduled to testify arrive,
like Grant Tinker and Allan Burns
of Mary Tyler Moore enterprises,
they pass through a picket line
protesting the hearing.
Congress has no right whatsoever
to interfere in
the content of the media.
If you can censor a joke today,
then tomorrow you can censor
the expression of any thought,
If you can censor a joke,
it just becomes easier
the next day.
A federal judge
in Los Angeles ruled
the so-called family hour
on television from 7:00 to 9:00
was unconstitutional.
A violation of the first amendment
guarantee of free speech.
The first amendment was upheld
in a most important decision.
And it's really,
truly a victory for everybody.
The Rookies
will not be seen tonight
so that we may bring you
the following special program.
Tonight,
television takes a look at itself.
We are looking at
what you watch most of the time.
Entertainment programming
on the three commercial networks.
What are you looking at?
And is it good for you?
Somewhere around
the middle or late '70s,
it's like people got tired of
talking about real stuff.
Well, if the good Lord
provided us with berries,
then I think
we ought to eat them.
There was a longing for
a simpler time,
when it didn't seem like there was
so much anger and contentiousness.
When people weren't
so mad at each other.
During last season,
the Waltons caught on.
- Good night, John boy.
- Good night.
This year there'll be more nostalgia
and wholesome family drama.
Now that dinner's over,
let's try out the piano.
- Good.
- I am taking requests.
♪ Sunday, Monday,
happy days... ♪
I created Happy Days
not where where a family really was.
I thought it would be good
if there were some families
that didn't get divorced.
You guys are really...
Wow!
It wasn't by accident everybody
on Happy Days hugged each other.
It wasn't by accident
everybody in the family
ate at the same time
at the same table.
It was a sweet tender show
in the vein of American graffiti.
Looking back on the era of the
'50s with a certain affection.
Eh!
ABC wanted Fonzie's "eh!"
to compete directly with
Jimmie J. J. Walker's "dynomite!"
'Cause I'm the Fonz!
Eh!
Catch phrases would be...
- Sit on it, Marvin!
- Sit on it, Howard.
Does anyone say,
"thank you, Arnold"? No.
- You know what they say?
- Sit on it, Arnold.
That's what they say.
You watch Fonzie
and you just want to be Fonzie.
Hey, girls, knock yourselves out.
I'm really sorry.
It was a slip of the fingers.
It's a fantasy
of what teen life could be.
Hey, De Fazio! They're here.
- All right.
- Mwah!
Laverne! This is Laverne De Fazio.
She's mine.
And this is Shirley Feeney.
She's yours, as you can see.
- Nice to meet you, Richie.
- My pleasure.
When Laverne and Shirley
made a guest appearance,
one of the cameramen said,
"look at this two-shot. That's a series."
Schlemiel! Schlimazel!
Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!
Tuesday night between 8:00 and 9:00
is called "the death spot."
death to any program that dares
to go head-on against
against ABC's Happy Days
and Laverne and Shirley.
Laverne and Shirley is one of
the few sitcoms that ever debuted as #1.
The absolute top #1 show
this season is Laverne and Shirley.
A seemingly harmless but essentially
brainless exercise in adolescent silliness.
You have to go all the way
back to I Love Lucy
to get the same sort of
slapstick and physical comedy.
I mean, we never
thought about its importance
except that, you know,
it was two girls trying,
and the value of friendship.
It must have
something going for it.
I don't vo-dee-o-dodo.
You vo-dee-o-dodo!
I don't vo-dee-o-dodo!
They couldn't say "sex,"
so they said "vo-dee-o-do."
You vo-dee-o.
Everybody knew
what we were talking about.
Once!
My son didn't watch Laverne and Shirley
or Happy Days.
I said, "you don't like?"
He said, "I like it."
"But what's missing?"
"Space men."
Because we were getting into space.
And so that's when I created...
A space man.
- Wait a minute, who are you?
- I am Mork from Ork.
The writers all rolled their eyes.
"An alien, he wants an alien."
I had to make up a story.
"Fonzie's running out of adversaries."
That's right.
Fonzie's never lost a Holo-tacker yet.
And we've got
the home planet advantage.
Then we got him on his own show
and Mork and Mindy
was the hip show of the '70s.
Shazbah!
Ah!
The audience... Talk about
a willing suspension of disbelief...
is willing to buy the premise...
Mind if I do?
Just so they can
watch Robin Williams.
Nanu, nanu!
Well excuse me!
That was an interesting part
of the balance, I think,
of the television diet.
There was an attempt to explore deeper
into the psyche of what makes us tick,
but there was also, you know,
a need to escape.
I'm going to a beach barbecue.
Uh-huh. I can see
what's going to heat up the coals.
If there's any single phenomenon
that has tilted the rating books
in CBS's direction,
it's T and A.
Herb Jacobs, at the CBS affiliates
meeting, he explained to us
how these T and A shows are concocted.
Now they take their clothes off
three times, they get ideas.
And then they want them to run
two or three times, and they jiggle.
And all are well endowed, of course.
And then they say,
"now let's get three undressed scenes,
and three jiggles,
and write a script around it."
Well, there are some
who'll tell you that
T and A has peaked
and it's on its way out.
But ABC has shows like The Love Boat
and Three's Company.
"Jiggle TV" referred to the fact that
these were women who were,
you know, who were...
You know.
- Good morning, angels.
- Good morning, Charlie.
Charlie's Angels became a very
enduring trademark out of the '70s.
I've already made arrangements
for you three to go to prison.
- Open your towel.
- I'll be standing as erect as ever.
Good luck, angels.
Battle of the Network Stars.
Oh, God. I did Battle of the Network Stars
a couple of times.
And I hated it.
I think I made up some
pretty good time on Billy Crystal.
Networks would loan out
their TV stars
to compete in a series
of quasi-Olympic-type events.
She's leaning so far over the boat,
it seems to be wobbling a great deal.
Erin Gray with that lithe,
supple body.
She's got a great set of legs.
What the heck.
I think that we have a lot to apologize for,
with the worst of television.
My only defense was,
"it was the '70's."
Did I jiggle much?
Uh. Live and learn.
Public television has been
expected to do a great deal.
Almost half of noncommercial
program hours are aimed at children.
And it has come to be so many things
to so many people.
The PBS children's programming
in the '70s
became the platinum standard
on the planet
for how you use this medium
to educate kids.
♪ Would you be my,
could you be my, ♪
♪ won't you be my neighbor? ♪
It was Fred Rogers
who made it okay
to speak to an audience of kids
like they were human beings.
There are some things that are
very difficult to understand
in a newspaper.
Every now and then
I think back to Mister Rogers
I think he would say, "don't be scared.
Life is good. Life is special."
Well, everybody is so special
because everybody is different.
Just go and do the thing that you love.
And that always stuck with me.
See you tomorrow.
♪ Can you tell me how to get,
how to get to Sesame Street. ♪
Sesame Street
introduced my children to
interaction with people
of different backgrounds.
♪ It's not that easy being green. ♪
- Count this penny.
- Count that penny?
- Yeah, count it.
- Okay.
- Count
- One.
Sesame Street was aggressive
in terms of learning not only
concepts of reading,
but concepts of interacting.
- I may be small...
- I may be small...
- But I am...
- But I am...
- Somebody.
- Somebody.
Sesame Street was as big
as it got in terms of celebrity.
Everybody wanted to hang
with the Muppets.
- Aren't you Johnny Trash?
- Cash.
Cash, Cash.
Educational children's television
really matured in the '70s.
- I'm leaving.
- I love you.
- I love you too.
- Oh, thanks.
An now for something
completely different.
When I was 13,
this show from England came on PBS,
which before that,
was only the realm of my parents.
- Bleh!
- What do you mean, "bleh"?
I don't like spam!
And suddenly they're doing
the most outlandish,
racy, non-sequitur
type of humor,
and killing me,
the 13-year-old.
It's extraordinary what you can't do
on American television.
I think you can do it on PBS,
that's why I hope you all watch it.
Come at me with that lower angle.
- Attack me with it.
- Ah!
Once you have this generation
of comedy nerds
who don't even know that
they're comedy nerds.
This parrot is no more!
It has ceased to be.
Monty Python turned out to
break so many rules.
I mean, it changes everything.
Just like with the Beatles you can say,
"oh, they came after the Beatles."
You look at Saturday Night Live,
you look at SCTV,
"oh, after Monty Python."
Beginning October 11,
Saturday Night will open up a whole new
live venture from New York City.
We just happen to have
the producer of the program,
members of his company.
- What should we look for on the program?
- Anxiety.
Lorne Michaels,
this Canadian comedy producer,
was given free rein.
Hi, I'm Lorne Michaels,
producer of Saturday Night.
And he ultimately winds up hiring
a bunch of improv comics.
Rehearsal warm-up...
Do 20 face-slaps.
Come on. Slappa-dappa.
Come on. Make it hurt.
George Carlin was the first host,
and wanted to be a permanent host.
Nice to see you.
Welcome and thanks for joining us live.
There were a lot of names
bandied about
in terms of permanent hosts.
That's one of those TV rules
that you must break,
until you do
and then you realize
why don't you have
a different host every week?
But it was the cast
that finally won people's hearts.
Come on, who is this?
- Candy-gram.
- Oh no!
You cut your own steaks.
We give you the sauce.
I'm Barbara Wawa.
Thank you, thank you very much.
You're beautiful. Thank you.
You were drawn to the TV set because
you knew something insane might happen.
- Live...
- Live from New York.
Partly because it was live,
partly because you knew
television was now in the hands
of the television generation.
♪ NBC's smart as a peacock! ♪
And these were "kids"
who just might do anything.
Yes, having sex with women!
The president! Within these very walls!
That never happened when Dick Nixon
was in the White House!
It was counter-television.
That's partly what made it attractive.
No problem.
Every one of their episodes
became worthy
of Talmudic study,
if that's the word.
When I hosted,
Lorne called me into his office and said,
"you realize that
the kids are the stars."
The host wasn't nearly
as impactful.
That's not quite it.
Because the thing was all the rage.
They called themselves the
"Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players."
Not because they felt
they weren't good enough,
but because they felt
they were too good.
Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase,
and you're not.
Chevy Chase became an instant star.
- Our top story tonight...
- Our top story tonight.
_
- Boy are his arms tired.
- And boy are his arms tired!
Chevy Chase was on the show
for one year.
Are you sorry you left
Saturday Night Live?
I'm deeply, deeply sorry.
Chevy decided that he was too big
for the show, and so he left.
In some ways, Chevy leaving
after the first year was a blessing,
because it showed that Saturday Night Live
was going to do much more than survive.
♪ There are some things that just
aren't explainable... ♪
Hello, I'm Bill Murray.
You can call me Billy,
but around here everybody just calls me
"the new guy."
When Chevy Chase leaves,
Bill Murray comes in.
Come on, Pop!
Cut, cut!
Makeup, can we get in here, please?
Sorry, fellas.
And that just opened up other doors,
and Saturday Night Live
was just kind of taking off.
Two wild and crazy guys!
Super Vas-o-matic 76!
You'll never hade to steal, cut, or gut again!
Beat it, Roseanne, Roseanne-Dan.
Cheeseburger, cheeseburger here!
- Where do we come from?
- France.
It was the show for us,
it was the show about us.
You wanted to be a part of it.
It was inextricably linked
with the times.
Good afternoon.
- Good night.
- Good night. Pleasant tomorrow.
Monday, Monday,
Monday's the greatest day of the week!
Throughout high school there was one show
that was religious broadcasting,
that you had to watch,
'cause if you didn't see it,
you wouldn't have anything
to talk about
for all of Tuesday and
most of Wednesday
and a big part of Thursday.
Why? Because Monday night
is NFL football night.
That's why!
Monday Night Football got its start
on September 21st, 1970,
with the Cleveland Browns
hosting the New York Jets.
Welcome to ABC's Monday night primetime
National Football League television series.
And this game is underway on ABC.
Frank was there
to do play-by-play.
Don was there to do replays
and provide some humor to the telecast.
And Howard was there to be
the straw that stirred the drink.
Let's handle it, come on!
Let's go!
Let's go!
The pairing of Howard Cosell
with Don Meredith
is a classic sitcom odd couple
kind of pairing.
You couldn't help but be swept up
by what those guys were saying.
The booth itself was
almost like a variety show.
We have our extra
here with us this evening.
I've called it a traveling freak show
and it really was.
The head freak was Howard,
there ain't no question about that.
The tension
between the two of them
made for the kind of thing
you just wanted to see every week.
Professional football is rapidly
growing into a very big business.
You understand football here...
Our football,
- not the football in Europe.
- I like to watch, but I don't understand too much.
Would you like to learn more about it?
We were on a mission that took us
very close to saying
"screw the football fan,
'cause he's going to come anyway."
What we needed to do was
appeal to women.
We needed to appeal to
the casual football fan.
That's why we started telling stories
that humanized the players.
Joe Namath,
one of the greatest of all time.
Unfortunately his legs
do not go with that arm.
The things that people
associate with.
Recognize this fellow?
What's been your view of this
American professional football season?
It's an amazing event and sight.
It makes rock concerts
look like tea parties.
I'd like to have your job.
You know, be a sportscaster.
That show became,
week after week,
one of the most
highly-rated shows in America.
♪ Nothing like a party! ♪
It showed football was
an entertainment experience
on par with any primetime show
you could imagine.
Maybe it was better because
you didn't know how it was going to end.
60 Minutes decided to peer
into the electronic future
to take a look at
what may be in store
for television viewers
in the decade of the '70s.
It is television by cable,
a communications revolution that could
radically alter our way of life.
Cable, for a quarter of a century,
there's nothing distinctive about it.
Just a way for you to get
what everybody else can already get.
And that's the way it is
up until...
Welcome to Home Box Office
subscription television.
HBO debuts November 8, 1972,
and it is not an overnight success.
Presenting the Pennsylvania Polka Festival.
And the oft-repeated saying was,
"getting people to pay for TV
would be like getting them to pay for air."
Saturday mornings they would
play band music
and you'd see slides of...
Nothing, I'd call it.
Nobody knew what you could do.
Nobody knew what you couldn't do.
But you were desperately trying
not to be commercial television.
- How much time have we got?
- Ladies and gentlemen, Robert Klein.
The beauty of it was you didn't
have to pack everything quickly.
You could warm up and get to know
and take the stage, so to speak.
The talk shows are okay, you know.
I do The Tonight Show.
Come in, I have to be funny in a hurry.
I get so little time.
Six minutes and boom,
boom, boom, boom!
It wasn't as contrived.
It was a full-throated performance.
This is not regular television!
It's subscription.
They can say any shit.
Because you're not using public airwaves,
the FCC can't regulate your content.
I understand you had
two orgasms yesterday.
Can you tell us about them?
HBO gave cable something to sell.
You were getting movies uncut
in your home.
All the naughty bits intact.
And then September 1975,
we debut coast-to-coast
with the "Thrilla in Manila."
One of the all-time classic
heavyweight fights. Frazier/Ali.
And that's when HBO explodes.
It's all over. And Muhammad Ali
at the end of the 40th round...
Before that,
you're counting growth
in tens of thousands of subscribers.
After that, you're counting in millions.
That's really day 1 for both businesses,
HBO and the cable industry.
If you're a fan, what you'll see
in the next minutes to follow
may convince you
you've gone to sports heaven.
In the mid '70s in the sports world,
there were just these three giants...
CBS, ABC, NBC.
And then in Connecticut,
somebody got ahold of a transponder.
The picture you're watching right now
has been taken by a camera,
sent through some sophisticated equipment
to this earth transmitting station.
This guy, Bill Rasmussen,
who had been fired from his job,
and just trying to figure out a way
to deliver local cable sports.
Then when they found out
about the satellite, they said,
"so can we cover the whole state?"
And the guy looked at him and said,
"no, you don't understand."
For another 25 cents or whatever,
you can send this all over the country.
And they went, "oh, gee,
why would anyone want to do that?"
They didn't quite know
what they had.
And he wound up
revolutionizing television sports.
Welcome, everyone,
to the ESPN SportsCenter.
From this very desk
in the coming weeks and months,
we'll be filling you in on the pulse of sporting activity
not only around the country,
but around the world as well.
They didn't have the money
to go out and buy
baseball games or NFL games.
What they did do was
they took all the leftovers out there.
I'm Joe Boyle,
and I'll be handling the play-by-play
for tonight's game between
the Badgers and the Blue Demons.
That gave birth to arguably
the greatest media success story of all time.
At its best, cable television
could provide a refreshing relief
from the trend toward bigness,
toward centralization.
At its worst,
cable TV could invade our privacy,
tranquilize our children,
remove us electronically
from the flesh-and-blood world.
And we'd have to pay
for the privilege.
The question is, indeed,
will the miracle be managed?
The best thing PBS did for adults
in the '70s was the mini-series,
the idea of novels for television.
Good evening.
I'm Alistair Cooke,
here with the ninth episode
of I, Claudius.
We ought to put up a sign.
Discretion is advised.
I was not allowed to watch it
because it had nudity in it.
I very much wanted to.
Rather than try to come up with
a show that would run for years and years,
it was this idea that
here is a limited story.
We're going to tell it in
X number of episodes,
and let's just do this one
self-contained thing.
We all did things during
the reign of my mad brother
that we might not
otherwise have done.
It looks cheap. It was the script
and the performances that mattered.
In other words, it could be good for you
but it was fun at the same time.
The mini-series was such a huge success
for public television,
ABC was the network that hit gold
with Rich Man, Poor Man.
How are you going to tell a story
that isn't controlled by the clock?
Characters can grow
and change and differ.
Hey, listen.
I want to talk to you.
- About what?
- About making an honest man of me.
It's a subject I rarely
discuss in the nude.
What we saw in the '70s
was that the big event television,
if it was done right
and if it was compelling,
the audience kept on
coming back and back.
Here you have topics
that start to get serious
and important and groundbreaking
for television.
There's no life left here and I don't
want harm to come to you because of it.
I won't...
I won't listen to this.
Though majority reaction to the
Holocaust program has been positive,
it has not been without debate.
With Holocaust, the heat was
"you shouldn't even touch this subject.
It's disrespectful."
But finally the thinking was,
"no, to not talk about it
would be disrespectful."
To not perpetuate the memory
for another generation.
So if you're too young to know,
here's a depiction.
Not since the war have emotions
been so high in Germany.
The Holocaust telecast
caused heated discussion.
Its most tangible
political effect was shown
when the German legislature
debated the search for Nazi war criminals.
Holocaust made it easier for
lawmakers to vote
to continue the hunt for Nazis.
Holocaust brought it home.
It made it real,
even though it was a Hollywood creation.
Sunday night,
Roots begins in eight parts on ABC.
If it sounds like I'm plugging it,
I am.
Basically, television
will never be the same again.
There was really
no bigger television event than Roots.
It was based on
the 1976 book by Alex Haley
about his family in Africa
and coming to America as slaves,
and what happens to them
as the centuries go on.
I will go to my grave believing that
Roots is America's story.
Not just black America's story.
We might have come over
in the bottom of the ship,
but we all came over in ships.
Your name means "stay put."
But it don't mean "stay a slave."
As a 19-year-old kid, you know,
Roots was my first job.
We're not children.
We're very close to being men, Nyo Boto.
- What's your name?
- Kunta. Kunta Kinte.
The character that I got to
portray in Roots,
Kunta Kinte the adult,
was a dream role.
It was really genius to cast
all of America's favorite television dads
in the roles of the white slave owners
and the villains.
I'll be by to fetch you in the morning,
Captain. Sleep well.
It is difficult to explain
in today’s culture
how unprecedented Roots was.
No one had ever seen
the story of slavery before
told from the point of view
of the Africans.
It may be the first time that television
allowed an embracing of black pride.
Then we's free.
We's free, honey.
One of the reasons that Roots
was so incredibly popular
is not because ABC
had so much faith in it,
but because ABC didn't.
Earlier mini-series were broadcast
in weekly installments,
and the ABC executives determined
that if Roots were to fail,
they could just be done with it
in seven or eight nights.
It was high risk, high reward.
If it didn't work, you were out a lot of TV time
and not many of people watching.
The television premiere
on eight consecutive nights
attracted the largest audience
in the history of the medium.
There's something about it
that seems to touch all human beings.
It transcends age and race.
Entertainment was meeting humanity,
and I think that's the primary value...
Is to lead humanity forward.
If there's a legacy of
television in the '70s
it's that you matter.
While there's a lot going on in the world,
television was a reminder
of how much little things mean to us.
The smallest of situations.
No matter what the subject matter was,
it wanted to include you.
You're in the family.
Don't make fun of the outsider, include them.
Its legacy is look how long it's lasted.
Those shows, they were about people
who were kind and nice.
They were not mean-spirited shows.
There was a certain elegance to that.
I kind of miss it.
Oh, it was so delicious.
Five different flavors.
And Archie was sitting at another table
with that fellow Jefferson Pratt.
Remember him?
Anyway,
Archie was trying to get my attention.
So first he put two straws up his nose,
like a walrus.
And then he shot...
Tonight, television takes a
look at its own.
television takes a look at itself.
What's on the idiot box?
It's only an idiot box
if an idiot is watching.
I'll tell you about
the golden age of television.
This period of time will be
looked upon as the platinum age.
Our obligation is to entertain.
And if we've left something to think about,
so much the better.
Kunta.
Kunta Kinte.
Television should not
just be entertainment.
Charges were leveled at the
commercial television networks.
Congress has no right
to interfere with the media.
Well, excuse me!
You have a responsibility to give
the audience what it tuned in to see.
The years of the '60s,
which end in a few hours,
have a bad reputation
that is not entirely justified.
Some things got worse,
obviously.
But TV and other news coverage is better,
not worse.
We simply developed more
demanding standards.
When I think of TV,
I think of the '70s.
What is this world coming to?
The American public was
hungry for more.
More was allowed that hadn't
been before.
It was the last decade
where it was a campfire television,
where there was one in the
living room.
I want to watch an all black
show for a change.
- Where're you going to find one?
- Here's one.
The Los Angeles Lakers
against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Young people were
interested in relevant things.
And so television began
to reflect that.
This is CBS.
Really it was very simple.
You had three channels plus PBS.
When the decade turned over into the '70s,
television was very rural.
Hee haw!
The Beverly Hillbillies.
CBS had Beverly Hillbillies,
Green Acres.
Petticoat Junction and these kind of
rural fantasies of Mayberry-ism.
The hillbilly shows were everywhere,
and then they weren't.
Fred Silverman,
who was running programming at CBS, said
we're going to get rid of the shows
that are the most highly rated
and replace them with shows
that they thought
would be more appealing
to that younger audience.
It changed the face of television.
My name is Norman Lear.
Until 1971,
he was a very successful,
if largely unheralded,
producer/writer in Hollywood.
But then he burst upon
the public consciousness
when he took on bigotry
with his All in the Family.
Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin
created absolutely iconic shows.
They revolutionized not only CBS,
but all of American television.
Our world is coming crumbling down.
The goons are coming!
To use language like that on TV
was just unheard of,
but it really captured
a certain moment.
Archie,
12% of the population is black.
There should be a lot of
black families living out here.
Yeah, this is only a beginning
but I think it's wonderful.
Well let's see
how wonderful it is
when the watermelon rinds
come flying out the window!
It scared me when I first saw
All in the Family, a little bit.
I thought, "they better be careful."
There was no doubt in my mind
the American people were going to accept it.
Do you have a quick answer for the people
who say the show reinforces bigotry?
- That charge started from the beginning...
- Yes. My quick answer is no.
Everybody was going to see something
they knew damn well was going on.
Nothing that surprising.
Edith, I'm out of toilet paper.
No, we're not.
I bought some yesterday.
It's in the closet in the kitchen.
I ain't in the kitchen.
Oh!
Hearing a toilet flush
for the first time
was a big deal
and made headlines.
What's the country coming to anyhow?
- What is it, Archie, bad news?
- What else?
We get out of Vietnam or something?
Don't be a wise guy, huh.
I wasn't going to
play around with
Mom dented the car,
how are we going to
keep Dad from
finding out about it?
Not when I see everything
that's going around in our country.
Just because a guy is sensitive
and he's an intellectual
and he wears glasses,
you make him out a queer.
I never said a guy
who wears glasses is a queer.
A guy who wears glasses
is a four-eyes.
A guy who's a fag is a queer.
All in the Family did something
really new for television.
It put before the American public
Archie's friend
who was very masculine
and who happened to be gay.
How long you known me?
- 10, 12 years?
- Yeah.
In all that time,
did I ever mention a woman?
Oh, come on, Steve.
_
_
Nixon objecting to the show...
Uh, that was a badge of honor.
And it was really culturally on point.
Every time.
For a sitcom,
that was unheard of.
One, two, three!
I wanted to do an episode
where somebody could
give Archie what he'd earned.
Shut up all of you!
We created a character that
could really let him have it.
Maude!
I'm only here because of Edith.
The fact that you happen to be here
with her is beyond my control.
Like any other freak of nature.
Before that show was off the air,
Fred Silverman was on the telephone with me
saying,
"there's a show in that woman."
Hello?
No, this is not Mr. Findlay,
it's Mrs. Findlay.
Yeah, Mr. Findlay has
a much higher voice.
Now get your coat and come on!
What makes you think you can
order me around like that, Henry?
You're my wife.
That gives me the right!
When he says "wife,"
he means "possession."
So what, Maude? You told me
a hundred times you want to feel possessed.
Walter Findlay,
I never said that standing up, and you know it.
Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin really turned
the spinoff series into an artform.
Norman Lear hates to hear it
called the "Lear Factory."
All his series
come out of this building,
allowing Lear to move
from show to show like a dervish.
Good Times was like, "Holy smokes!
There's black people on TV!"
There'd never been a complete
black family on TV before, with a father.
What made it so unique
and universal is that
we had the same problems
in our household,
and we do not live in
the projects in Chicago.
Dynomite!
You want to worry your head about nothing,
go on and do it.
We got $32 in the shoe box and I got
another $6 right here in my pocket.
You worked all night
and all they paid you was $6?
There were a lot of folks
who were not happy with the show.
The Black Panthers were very upset.
When Huey Newton came to see me,
the big complaint was
"why can't we see a black man
that's doing better than that?"
The Jeffersons had started as
neighbors of Archie Bunker.
Don't call me "honky"!
Why're you so sensitive
of of a sudden?
How would you like it
if I called you "nigger"?
He called me "nigger"!
- That's no worse than "honky."
- You're right.
Nothing's worse than "honky"
except being married to one.
Norman Lear set the stage
for other shows in the '70s
that just brought gravitas
to television.
What're you staring at?
I was just thinking I ought to bring
my neighbor's kids over here.
This place is better than the zoo.
On Saturday nights,
the CBS lineup in the early '70s was amazing.
8:00, All in the Family.
8:30, M*A*S*H.
9:00, The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
You had The Bob Newhart Show...
And it ended with
The Carol Burnett Variety Show at 10:00
They used to call it murderer's row.
People had no DVRs, they had no VHS,
they had nothing with initials,
so people would stay home
on Saturday nights.
They wouldn't go to the movie.
They wouldn't go to restaurants.
That may be the best night of
television in all of television history.
Mary Tyler Moore was
a single woman
working as an associate producer
on a nightly TV show.
You know what?
You've got spunk.
- Yeah.
- I hate spunk!
There were a lot of young women
entering the workplace then.
And for some of them,
Mary Tyler Moore was like a port of entry.
- I'm doing as good a job as he did.
- Better!
Better.
- And I'm being paid less than he was because...?
- You're a woman.
The television female
could be a hero.
She could be the main event.
Read it?
All right.
Out loud!
The first script written by
Allan Burns and Jim Brooks
had Mary coming to Minneapolis divorced.
And well, very quickly CBS said,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
At the beginning of the decade,
divorce was considered somewhat scandalous.
Uh...
She went on dates
with a lot of guys.
But the guys
weren't really important.
We seem to be hitting it off,
and I just thought...
You just thought!
She's not obsessed with
finding a husband.
- Don't forget to take your pill.
- I won't.
This was about people
coping with one another,
and the workplace
was like a family.
I told Ted to close
with the copy for Sue Ann.
Oh my God!
- What's wrong?
- I told the projectionist
it was the other way around!
Oh my God!
Local pig farmers served notice today
that rising corn prices
are forcing them to find other means
to feed their stock.
Here's one pig.
Just look at her gobble up that slop.
Starting tomorrow,
we'll be presenting a new feature on WJM.
Dining Out with Sue Ann Nivens.
Once Jim Brooks said to me,
"I know there's a world of comedy
in my wife's purse.
"I just can't access it.
We've got to find some female writers
for this show."
- Did you crash the men's room?
- Of course not.
I went as somebody's guest.
Why do you think it's such a winner?
I think because of the casting.
And I think because of the writing.
They've don't sacrifice the character
for the sake of a good joke.
That effort to keep
the female sensibility
is what made it
authentic and good.
People would say
"you're just like me and my girlfriends."
How can you gorge yourself like that
and stay so skinny?
I'm going crazy with hunger.
- Well eat something.
- I can't.
I've got to lose 10 pounds by 8:30.
Freddy Silverman,
head of the network at the time, said
"Valerie, listen.
I'm going to spin you off."
And I thought,
"oh my God, I'm fired."
Because "spinoff" is a term
that was originated in the '70s.
If we're going to start living together,
we've got to tell each other everything.
Okay, Joe, I want to be married.
Rhoda and Joe's wedding
became a huge national event.
52 million people
tuned in to see that.
Suddenly Rhoda is in a happy relationship
and they didn't know what to do with that.
And then they had to have her
get divorced to try to reboot the show.
Why did you marry me?
Just answer me that. Why did you marry me?
- You made me marry you.
- I feel so funny.
- Oh, come on.
- It's just a matter of trust.
Oh, she's not going to do it.
Doctor, where does that leave us,
and where do we go from here?
That we'll have to discuss
in future sessions.
The '70s also had this
therapeutic overlay.
- Hi, Bob.
- Oh, hi, Bob.
- Hi, Bob.
- Hello.
We decided to make him
a psychologist.
We seem to have
run out of things to say.
- Why don't we pray?
- Yeah, let's pray for the end of this session.
I didn't know anything
about therapy prior to that.
I'm from the planet Blothar.
It's in the Galoo galaxy.
How long are you going to
be in town?
I didn't want to do a show
where we had children.
I didn't want to be the dumb dad.
Sit, boy.
Howard, I don't care where we go.
I just don't want to make any more decisions.
People'd say, "gee,
my dad and I used to watch the show."
And it was great.
And you realize
you're part of people's lives.
The '70s was the era
where a certain artistry developed.
M*A*S*H really changed many people's
perception of what a sitcom can be.
A sitcom could be cinematic.
M*A*S*H was shot like a movie.
And M*A*S*H was maybe the single
most unique situation comedy ever.
I have a headache.
A tremendous headache.
It goes all the way
down to my waist.
The television series M*A*S*H
had one thing the movie,
in my estimation, did not,
which was heart.
There are certain rules
about a war.
And rule #1 is young men die.
Rule #2 is
doctors can't change rule #1.
It was about Korea,
but we were talking about it
doing things that had to do with Vietnam,
and everybody knew it.
Rolling. Action.
War isn't hell.
War is war and hell is hell.
And of the two,
war is a lot worse.
We had 30 million people a week
watching M*A*S*H.
Have you ever really
considered the foot?
Yeah, but I prefer girls.
Better not bump into Henry
and that general.
I intend only to bump into Nurse Baker.
Repeatedly, if possible.
Programming practices. These were
the people who'd go through the scripts
and say, "you can't use this word."
We felt like we were
in the midst of a battle.
This is freedom of speech.
At the Senate hearings on
television violence today,
strong charges were leveled at
the commercial television networks.
The broadcasting industry
now stands charged
with having molested the minds
of our nation's children
to serve the cause of corporate profit.
The family hour was established
by the three networks
and the Federal Communications Commission
in response to complaints of too much
sex and violence on early evening television.
The family hour.
The two hours from 7:00 to 9:00 PM,
during which parents and children
are supposed to be able to watch television
without being made
to feel uncomfortable.
It's complicated.
So it just seemed altogether unfair.
And we sued.
Family hour is under attack
from some producers,
unions and others
in the television industry.
They have filed a lawsuit
to have it abolished.
As those scheduled to testify arrive,
like Grant Tinker and Allan Burns
of Mary Tyler Moore enterprises,
they pass through a picket line
protesting the hearing.
Congress has no right whatsoever
to interfere in
the content of the media.
If you can censor a joke today,
then tomorrow you can censor
the expression of any thought,
If you can censor a joke,
it just becomes easier
the next day.
A federal judge
in Los Angeles ruled
the so-called family hour
on television from 7:00 to 9:00
was unconstitutional.
A violation of the first amendment
guarantee of free speech.
The first amendment was upheld
in a most important decision.
And it's really,
truly a victory for everybody.
The Rookies
will not be seen tonight
so that we may bring you
the following special program.
Tonight,
television takes a look at itself.
We are looking at
what you watch most of the time.
Entertainment programming
on the three commercial networks.
What are you looking at?
And is it good for you?
Somewhere around
the middle or late '70s,
it's like people got tired of
talking about real stuff.
Well, if the good Lord
provided us with berries,
then I think
we ought to eat them.
There was a longing for
a simpler time,
when it didn't seem like there was
so much anger and contentiousness.
When people weren't
so mad at each other.
During last season,
the Waltons caught on.
- Good night, John boy.
- Good night.
This year there'll be more nostalgia
and wholesome family drama.
Now that dinner's over,
let's try out the piano.
- Good.
- I am taking requests.
♪ Sunday, Monday,
happy days... ♪
I created Happy Days
not where where a family really was.
I thought it would be good
if there were some families
that didn't get divorced.
You guys are really...
Wow!
It wasn't by accident everybody
on Happy Days hugged each other.
It wasn't by accident
everybody in the family
ate at the same time
at the same table.
It was a sweet tender show
in the vein of American graffiti.
Looking back on the era of the
'50s with a certain affection.
Eh!
ABC wanted Fonzie's "eh!"
to compete directly with
Jimmie J. J. Walker's "dynomite!"
'Cause I'm the Fonz!
Eh!
Catch phrases would be...
- Sit on it, Marvin!
- Sit on it, Howard.
Does anyone say,
"thank you, Arnold"? No.
- You know what they say?
- Sit on it, Arnold.
That's what they say.
You watch Fonzie
and you just want to be Fonzie.
Hey, girls, knock yourselves out.
I'm really sorry.
It was a slip of the fingers.
It's a fantasy
of what teen life could be.
Hey, De Fazio! They're here.
- All right.
- Mwah!
Laverne! This is Laverne De Fazio.
She's mine.
And this is Shirley Feeney.
She's yours, as you can see.
- Nice to meet you, Richie.
- My pleasure.
When Laverne and Shirley
made a guest appearance,
one of the cameramen said,
"look at this two-shot. That's a series."
Schlemiel! Schlimazel!
Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!
Tuesday night between 8:00 and 9:00
is called "the death spot."
death to any program that dares
to go head-on against
against ABC's Happy Days
and Laverne and Shirley.
Laverne and Shirley is one of
the few sitcoms that ever debuted as #1.
The absolute top #1 show
this season is Laverne and Shirley.
A seemingly harmless but essentially
brainless exercise in adolescent silliness.
You have to go all the way
back to I Love Lucy
to get the same sort of
slapstick and physical comedy.
I mean, we never
thought about its importance
except that, you know,
it was two girls trying,
and the value of friendship.
It must have
something going for it.
I don't vo-dee-o-dodo.
You vo-dee-o-dodo!
I don't vo-dee-o-dodo!
They couldn't say "sex,"
so they said "vo-dee-o-do."
You vo-dee-o.
Everybody knew
what we were talking about.
Once!
My son didn't watch Laverne and Shirley
or Happy Days.
I said, "you don't like?"
He said, "I like it."
"But what's missing?"
"Space men."
Because we were getting into space.
And so that's when I created...
A space man.
- Wait a minute, who are you?
- I am Mork from Ork.
The writers all rolled their eyes.
"An alien, he wants an alien."
I had to make up a story.
"Fonzie's running out of adversaries."
That's right.
Fonzie's never lost a Holo-tacker yet.
And we've got
the home planet advantage.
Then we got him on his own show
and Mork and Mindy
was the hip show of the '70s.
Shazbah!
Ah!
The audience... Talk about
a willing suspension of disbelief...
is willing to buy the premise...
Mind if I do?
Just so they can
watch Robin Williams.
Nanu, nanu!
Well excuse me!
That was an interesting part
of the balance, I think,
of the television diet.
There was an attempt to explore deeper
into the psyche of what makes us tick,
but there was also, you know,
a need to escape.
I'm going to a beach barbecue.
Uh-huh. I can see
what's going to heat up the coals.
If there's any single phenomenon
that has tilted the rating books
in CBS's direction,
it's T and A.
Herb Jacobs, at the CBS affiliates
meeting, he explained to us
how these T and A shows are concocted.
Now they take their clothes off
three times, they get ideas.
And then they want them to run
two or three times, and they jiggle.
And all are well endowed, of course.
And then they say,
"now let's get three undressed scenes,
and three jiggles,
and write a script around it."
Well, there are some
who'll tell you that
T and A has peaked
and it's on its way out.
But ABC has shows like The Love Boat
and Three's Company.
"Jiggle TV" referred to the fact that
these were women who were,
you know, who were...
You know.
- Good morning, angels.
- Good morning, Charlie.
Charlie's Angels became a very
enduring trademark out of the '70s.
I've already made arrangements
for you three to go to prison.
- Open your towel.
- I'll be standing as erect as ever.
Good luck, angels.
Battle of the Network Stars.
Oh, God. I did Battle of the Network Stars
a couple of times.
And I hated it.
I think I made up some
pretty good time on Billy Crystal.
Networks would loan out
their TV stars
to compete in a series
of quasi-Olympic-type events.
She's leaning so far over the boat,
it seems to be wobbling a great deal.
Erin Gray with that lithe,
supple body.
She's got a great set of legs.
What the heck.
I think that we have a lot to apologize for,
with the worst of television.
My only defense was,
"it was the '70's."
Did I jiggle much?
Uh. Live and learn.
Public television has been
expected to do a great deal.
Almost half of noncommercial
program hours are aimed at children.
And it has come to be so many things
to so many people.
The PBS children's programming
in the '70s
became the platinum standard
on the planet
for how you use this medium
to educate kids.
♪ Would you be my,
could you be my, ♪
♪ won't you be my neighbor? ♪
It was Fred Rogers
who made it okay
to speak to an audience of kids
like they were human beings.
There are some things that are
very difficult to understand
in a newspaper.
Every now and then
I think back to Mister Rogers
I think he would say, "don't be scared.
Life is good. Life is special."
Well, everybody is so special
because everybody is different.
Just go and do the thing that you love.
And that always stuck with me.
See you tomorrow.
♪ Can you tell me how to get,
how to get to Sesame Street. ♪
Sesame Street
introduced my children to
interaction with people
of different backgrounds.
♪ It's not that easy being green. ♪
- Count this penny.
- Count that penny?
- Yeah, count it.
- Okay.
- Count
- One.
Sesame Street was aggressive
in terms of learning not only
concepts of reading,
but concepts of interacting.
- I may be small...
- I may be small...
- But I am...
- But I am...
- Somebody.
- Somebody.
Sesame Street was as big
as it got in terms of celebrity.
Everybody wanted to hang
with the Muppets.
- Aren't you Johnny Trash?
- Cash.
Cash, Cash.
Educational children's television
really matured in the '70s.
- I'm leaving.
- I love you.
- I love you too.
- Oh, thanks.
An now for something
completely different.
When I was 13,
this show from England came on PBS,
which before that,
was only the realm of my parents.
- Bleh!
- What do you mean, "bleh"?
I don't like spam!
And suddenly they're doing
the most outlandish,
racy, non-sequitur
type of humor,
and killing me,
the 13-year-old.
It's extraordinary what you can't do
on American television.
I think you can do it on PBS,
that's why I hope you all watch it.
Come at me with that lower angle.
- Attack me with it.
- Ah!
Once you have this generation
of comedy nerds
who don't even know that
they're comedy nerds.
This parrot is no more!
It has ceased to be.
Monty Python turned out to
break so many rules.
I mean, it changes everything.
Just like with the Beatles you can say,
"oh, they came after the Beatles."
You look at Saturday Night Live,
you look at SCTV,
"oh, after Monty Python."
Beginning October 11,
Saturday Night will open up a whole new
live venture from New York City.
We just happen to have
the producer of the program,
members of his company.
- What should we look for on the program?
- Anxiety.
Lorne Michaels,
this Canadian comedy producer,
was given free rein.
Hi, I'm Lorne Michaels,
producer of Saturday Night.
And he ultimately winds up hiring
a bunch of improv comics.
Rehearsal warm-up...
Do 20 face-slaps.
Come on. Slappa-dappa.
Come on. Make it hurt.
George Carlin was the first host,
and wanted to be a permanent host.
Nice to see you.
Welcome and thanks for joining us live.
There were a lot of names
bandied about
in terms of permanent hosts.
That's one of those TV rules
that you must break,
until you do
and then you realize
why don't you have
a different host every week?
But it was the cast
that finally won people's hearts.
Come on, who is this?
- Candy-gram.
- Oh no!
You cut your own steaks.
We give you the sauce.
I'm Barbara Wawa.
Thank you, thank you very much.
You're beautiful. Thank you.
You were drawn to the TV set because
you knew something insane might happen.
- Live...
- Live from New York.
Partly because it was live,
partly because you knew
television was now in the hands
of the television generation.
♪ NBC's smart as a peacock! ♪
And these were "kids"
who just might do anything.
Yes, having sex with women!
The president! Within these very walls!
That never happened when Dick Nixon
was in the White House!
It was counter-television.
That's partly what made it attractive.
No problem.
Every one of their episodes
became worthy
of Talmudic study,
if that's the word.
When I hosted,
Lorne called me into his office and said,
"you realize that
the kids are the stars."
The host wasn't nearly
as impactful.
That's not quite it.
Because the thing was all the rage.
They called themselves the
"Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players."
Not because they felt
they weren't good enough,
but because they felt
they were too good.
Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase,
and you're not.
Chevy Chase became an instant star.
- Our top story tonight...
- Our top story tonight.
_
- Boy are his arms tired.
- And boy are his arms tired!
Chevy Chase was on the show
for one year.
Are you sorry you left
Saturday Night Live?
I'm deeply, deeply sorry.
Chevy decided that he was too big
for the show, and so he left.
In some ways, Chevy leaving
after the first year was a blessing,
because it showed that Saturday Night Live
was going to do much more than survive.
♪ There are some things that just
aren't explainable... ♪
Hello, I'm Bill Murray.
You can call me Billy,
but around here everybody just calls me
"the new guy."
When Chevy Chase leaves,
Bill Murray comes in.
Come on, Pop!
Cut, cut!
Makeup, can we get in here, please?
Sorry, fellas.
And that just opened up other doors,
and Saturday Night Live
was just kind of taking off.
Two wild and crazy guys!
Super Vas-o-matic 76!
You'll never hade to steal, cut, or gut again!
Beat it, Roseanne, Roseanne-Dan.
Cheeseburger, cheeseburger here!
- Where do we come from?
- France.
It was the show for us,
it was the show about us.
You wanted to be a part of it.
It was inextricably linked
with the times.
Good afternoon.
- Good night.
- Good night. Pleasant tomorrow.
Monday, Monday,
Monday's the greatest day of the week!
Throughout high school there was one show
that was religious broadcasting,
that you had to watch,
'cause if you didn't see it,
you wouldn't have anything
to talk about
for all of Tuesday and
most of Wednesday
and a big part of Thursday.
Why? Because Monday night
is NFL football night.
That's why!
Monday Night Football got its start
on September 21st, 1970,
with the Cleveland Browns
hosting the New York Jets.
Welcome to ABC's Monday night primetime
National Football League television series.
And this game is underway on ABC.
Frank was there
to do play-by-play.
Don was there to do replays
and provide some humor to the telecast.
And Howard was there to be
the straw that stirred the drink.
Let's handle it, come on!
Let's go!
Let's go!
The pairing of Howard Cosell
with Don Meredith
is a classic sitcom odd couple
kind of pairing.
You couldn't help but be swept up
by what those guys were saying.
The booth itself was
almost like a variety show.
We have our extra
here with us this evening.
I've called it a traveling freak show
and it really was.
The head freak was Howard,
there ain't no question about that.
The tension
between the two of them
made for the kind of thing
you just wanted to see every week.
Professional football is rapidly
growing into a very big business.
You understand football here...
Our football,
- not the football in Europe.
- I like to watch, but I don't understand too much.
Would you like to learn more about it?
We were on a mission that took us
very close to saying
"screw the football fan,
'cause he's going to come anyway."
What we needed to do was
appeal to women.
We needed to appeal to
the casual football fan.
That's why we started telling stories
that humanized the players.
Joe Namath,
one of the greatest of all time.
Unfortunately his legs
do not go with that arm.
The things that people
associate with.
Recognize this fellow?
What's been your view of this
American professional football season?
It's an amazing event and sight.
It makes rock concerts
look like tea parties.
I'd like to have your job.
You know, be a sportscaster.
That show became,
week after week,
one of the most
highly-rated shows in America.
♪ Nothing like a party! ♪
It showed football was
an entertainment experience
on par with any primetime show
you could imagine.
Maybe it was better because
you didn't know how it was going to end.
60 Minutes decided to peer
into the electronic future
to take a look at
what may be in store
for television viewers
in the decade of the '70s.
It is television by cable,
a communications revolution that could
radically alter our way of life.
Cable, for a quarter of a century,
there's nothing distinctive about it.
Just a way for you to get
what everybody else can already get.
And that's the way it is
up until...
Welcome to Home Box Office
subscription television.
HBO debuts November 8, 1972,
and it is not an overnight success.
Presenting the Pennsylvania Polka Festival.
And the oft-repeated saying was,
"getting people to pay for TV
would be like getting them to pay for air."
Saturday mornings they would
play band music
and you'd see slides of...
Nothing, I'd call it.
Nobody knew what you could do.
Nobody knew what you couldn't do.
But you were desperately trying
not to be commercial television.
- How much time have we got?
- Ladies and gentlemen, Robert Klein.
The beauty of it was you didn't
have to pack everything quickly.
You could warm up and get to know
and take the stage, so to speak.
The talk shows are okay, you know.
I do The Tonight Show.
Come in, I have to be funny in a hurry.
I get so little time.
Six minutes and boom,
boom, boom, boom!
It wasn't as contrived.
It was a full-throated performance.
This is not regular television!
It's subscription.
They can say any shit.
Because you're not using public airwaves,
the FCC can't regulate your content.
I understand you had
two orgasms yesterday.
Can you tell us about them?
HBO gave cable something to sell.
You were getting movies uncut
in your home.
All the naughty bits intact.
And then September 1975,
we debut coast-to-coast
with the "Thrilla in Manila."
One of the all-time classic
heavyweight fights. Frazier/Ali.
And that's when HBO explodes.
It's all over. And Muhammad Ali
at the end of the 40th round...
Before that,
you're counting growth
in tens of thousands of subscribers.
After that, you're counting in millions.
That's really day 1 for both businesses,
HBO and the cable industry.
If you're a fan, what you'll see
in the next minutes to follow
may convince you
you've gone to sports heaven.
In the mid '70s in the sports world,
there were just these three giants...
CBS, ABC, NBC.
And then in Connecticut,
somebody got ahold of a transponder.
The picture you're watching right now
has been taken by a camera,
sent through some sophisticated equipment
to this earth transmitting station.
This guy, Bill Rasmussen,
who had been fired from his job,
and just trying to figure out a way
to deliver local cable sports.
Then when they found out
about the satellite, they said,
"so can we cover the whole state?"
And the guy looked at him and said,
"no, you don't understand."
For another 25 cents or whatever,
you can send this all over the country.
And they went, "oh, gee,
why would anyone want to do that?"
They didn't quite know
what they had.
And he wound up
revolutionizing television sports.
Welcome, everyone,
to the ESPN SportsCenter.
From this very desk
in the coming weeks and months,
we'll be filling you in on the pulse of sporting activity
not only around the country,
but around the world as well.
They didn't have the money
to go out and buy
baseball games or NFL games.
What they did do was
they took all the leftovers out there.
I'm Joe Boyle,
and I'll be handling the play-by-play
for tonight's game between
the Badgers and the Blue Demons.
That gave birth to arguably
the greatest media success story of all time.
At its best, cable television
could provide a refreshing relief
from the trend toward bigness,
toward centralization.
At its worst,
cable TV could invade our privacy,
tranquilize our children,
remove us electronically
from the flesh-and-blood world.
And we'd have to pay
for the privilege.
The question is, indeed,
will the miracle be managed?
The best thing PBS did for adults
in the '70s was the mini-series,
the idea of novels for television.
Good evening.
I'm Alistair Cooke,
here with the ninth episode
of I, Claudius.
We ought to put up a sign.
Discretion is advised.
I was not allowed to watch it
because it had nudity in it.
I very much wanted to.
Rather than try to come up with
a show that would run for years and years,
it was this idea that
here is a limited story.
We're going to tell it in
X number of episodes,
and let's just do this one
self-contained thing.
We all did things during
the reign of my mad brother
that we might not
otherwise have done.
It looks cheap. It was the script
and the performances that mattered.
In other words, it could be good for you
but it was fun at the same time.
The mini-series was such a huge success
for public television,
ABC was the network that hit gold
with Rich Man, Poor Man.
How are you going to tell a story
that isn't controlled by the clock?
Characters can grow
and change and differ.
Hey, listen.
I want to talk to you.
- About what?
- About making an honest man of me.
It's a subject I rarely
discuss in the nude.
What we saw in the '70s
was that the big event television,
if it was done right
and if it was compelling,
the audience kept on
coming back and back.
Here you have topics
that start to get serious
and important and groundbreaking
for television.
There's no life left here and I don't
want harm to come to you because of it.
I won't...
I won't listen to this.
Though majority reaction to the
Holocaust program has been positive,
it has not been without debate.
With Holocaust, the heat was
"you shouldn't even touch this subject.
It's disrespectful."
But finally the thinking was,
"no, to not talk about it
would be disrespectful."
To not perpetuate the memory
for another generation.
So if you're too young to know,
here's a depiction.
Not since the war have emotions
been so high in Germany.
The Holocaust telecast
caused heated discussion.
Its most tangible
political effect was shown
when the German legislature
debated the search for Nazi war criminals.
Holocaust made it easier for
lawmakers to vote
to continue the hunt for Nazis.
Holocaust brought it home.
It made it real,
even though it was a Hollywood creation.
Sunday night,
Roots begins in eight parts on ABC.
If it sounds like I'm plugging it,
I am.
Basically, television
will never be the same again.
There was really
no bigger television event than Roots.
It was based on
the 1976 book by Alex Haley
about his family in Africa
and coming to America as slaves,
and what happens to them
as the centuries go on.
I will go to my grave believing that
Roots is America's story.
Not just black America's story.
We might have come over
in the bottom of the ship,
but we all came over in ships.
Your name means "stay put."
But it don't mean "stay a slave."
As a 19-year-old kid, you know,
Roots was my first job.
We're not children.
We're very close to being men, Nyo Boto.
- What's your name?
- Kunta. Kunta Kinte.
The character that I got to
portray in Roots,
Kunta Kinte the adult,
was a dream role.
It was really genius to cast
all of America's favorite television dads
in the roles of the white slave owners
and the villains.
I'll be by to fetch you in the morning,
Captain. Sleep well.
It is difficult to explain
in today’s culture
how unprecedented Roots was.
No one had ever seen
the story of slavery before
told from the point of view
of the Africans.
It may be the first time that television
allowed an embracing of black pride.
Then we's free.
We's free, honey.
One of the reasons that Roots
was so incredibly popular
is not because ABC
had so much faith in it,
but because ABC didn't.
Earlier mini-series were broadcast
in weekly installments,
and the ABC executives determined
that if Roots were to fail,
they could just be done with it
in seven or eight nights.
It was high risk, high reward.
If it didn't work, you were out a lot of TV time
and not many of people watching.
The television premiere
on eight consecutive nights
attracted the largest audience
in the history of the medium.
There's something about it
that seems to touch all human beings.
It transcends age and race.
Entertainment was meeting humanity,
and I think that's the primary value...
Is to lead humanity forward.
If there's a legacy of
television in the '70s
it's that you matter.
While there's a lot going on in the world,
television was a reminder
of how much little things mean to us.
The smallest of situations.
No matter what the subject matter was,
it wanted to include you.
You're in the family.
Don't make fun of the outsider, include them.
Its legacy is look how long it's lasted.
Those shows, they were about people
who were kind and nice.
They were not mean-spirited shows.
There was a certain elegance to that.
I kind of miss it.
Oh, it was so delicious.
Five different flavors.
And Archie was sitting at another table
with that fellow Jefferson Pratt.
Remember him?
Anyway,
Archie was trying to get my attention.
So first he put two straws up his nose,
like a walrus.
And then he shot...
Tonight, television takes a
look at its own.