America and the world drew a line in the sand.
As w*r rages overseas, another w*r is declared at home.
Fox comes along, and says,
"We want to get some of that action."
Don't have a cow, Dad.
There's new rules, now, and we're making them.
Jason Priestly: I was America's most famous teenager,
but I was 24 years old.
But like in any w*r...
"Don't touch him, Gabrielle."
Stefania Marghitu: What will the conservative advertisers,
the regular folk in the Midwest, think?
there will be casualties.
I said, "You don't understand. I will lose my job."
I'll lose my job.
**
**
Jan Brady: All I hear all day long at school
is how great Marcia is at this,
or how wonderful Marcia did that.
"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia."
Now, sweetheart...
Mark McGrath: For decades, TV's portrayal
of a typical American family
was like staring at a snow globe...
Life in a bubble frozen in time.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
By the '80's, hit shows like "Full House" and "Growing Pains"
depict teenagers as mostly deferential underlings
to their wise and benevolent parents.
Mike Seaver: Dad. Jason Seaver: Mike.
It is Mike, isn't it?
No, it couldn't be.
My mike was supposed to be home at 1:00 a.m.
A lot of television history
begins with this very White suburban nuclear family.
Father knows best.
You know, maybe cheeky, to some extent,
but for the most part, obedient children
who listen to their parents.
Jason Priestley: I came up as an actor in the '80's.
In shows that were about real angsty teens,
the heroic leads of the show
were trying to help and save from whatever troubles
these angsty teens had gotten themselves into.
Cut and dry stories. Cut and dry characters.
Nothing felt too challenging, you know?
It felt like, "We're gonna have the good guy.
We're gonna have the bad kid."
They were sort of just products of their parents.
And similarly, the parents, if they had flaws,
it was in that kind of, like, "Oh, Dad"...
Like, eye-rolly kind of "parents just don't get us"
kind of way.
But it never really dug beneath the surface of anyone.
Elyse Keaton: Alex, do you want to take a break an join us?
I'm really busy, Mom.
We're playing Monopoly.
Mark McGrath: And it was happening on every channel,
which, at the time, pretty much added up to three.
Charles Rosin: There was the American Broadcasting Company,
the National Broadcasting Company,
and the Columbia Broadcasting System.
And they all were very fully developed.
They had news divisions. They had sports divisions.
They were very successful public companies.
Mark McGrath: Network TV was a license to print money.
And in the late '80's, media magnate
Rupert Murdoch decided to belly-up to the trough.
Owning TV channels in a few big cities,
Murdoch cobbled together a nationwide group
of small independent stations,
and launches the Fox Network to go to w*r with the Big Three.
Fox comes along, and says,
"We want to get some of that action."
Mark McGrath: Fox hits the airwaves on April 5, 1987,
with three shows... "The Late Show with Joan Rivers,"
"Married... with Children," and "The Tracey Ullman Show."
Stefania Marghitu: Who is this Tracey Ullman, anyway?
Ratings lag, but Tracey's show
features a cartoon about an unusual family.
It's so popular that Fox tries
something not seen on prime-time television
since "The Flintstones"... A half hour animated TV show.
* The Simpsons *
Homer Simpson: Doh!
Don't have a cow, dad.
A hilarious satirical take on the family sitcom,
"The Simpsons" and Bart-mania
infiltrates high schools and colleges.
And teens everywhere start quoting the 2-D boy
they love to watch.
Bart Simpson: I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?
Fox was only programing one or two nights a week
and they decided, "Okay, we're gonna move our entire network
to be the young programing."
I can jam with you. Lisa Simpson: Okay.
Mark McGrath: Fox takes a gamble, and moves "The Simpsons"
to Thursday nights, pitting its groundbreaking comedy
directly against the most successful family sitcom
in television history.
Mrs. Huxtable and I love to live dangerously.
Bart, could you get me another beer, please?
In a second, Homer.
Lisa had some good news.
He doesn't care, Mom.
Sure, I do.
I just want to have a beer while I'm caring.
Mark McGrath: The underdog wins the first Bart vs. Bill battle
with an estimated 33.6 million viewers.
We're proud of you, boy,
Thanks, Dad.
making it the highest watched show that week.
And as the country enters a new decade...
Ronald Reagan: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
television enters a new era
Stefania Marghitu: Once we get into the '90's, right,
we're in post-1989, post-Cold w*r.
Television is shifting in a lot of ways.
Between the grunge rock movement,
and things that were happening sort of politically
and socially, this younger part of our population
was demanding that their voice be heard,
saying, "We're not gonna play by these old rules
that you say we have to play by.
There's new rules, now, and we're making them."
Once that teenage audience became viable,
and frankly, had some money in their pockets to spend,
and became a target, the next sort of logical step was
"How do they want to be told stories?"
With a couple of solid comedic hits on their schedule,
Fox decides to go where the Big Three hadn't...
Dramas aimed at young people.
In an effort to go young,
Fox hires perhaps the least likely person
to spearhead a campaign to attract teens to prime time.
Aaron Spelling was television gold, as far as a producer went.
Everything he helped produce became a success...
"The Love Boat," "Charlie's Angels."
Every decade, he was able to have a success.
But Spelling made his career mostly telling tales
of the rich and famous with first-world problems...
not exactly the resume of a guy hired to bring The Simpsons edge
to teen dramas.
Now 67, living in the largest house
in L.A.'s nicest neighborhood,
Spelling seems an odd choice for the upstart Fox network.
Stefania Marghitu: Usually, that's when producers retire,
but Aaron Spelling chose not to, and wanted to keep going.
So, you look towards his daughter, Tori Spelling.
Inspired by his daughter, Spelling's first show for Fox
is originally titled "The Class of Beverly Hills."
He sends the pilot script to an up-and-coming producer.
I was interested in meeting a legend... Aaron Spelling.
I took the meeting because I wanted to meet Aaron Spelling.
He had gone an entire year without a show on the air,
and he only had really one show that went to pilot.
And it was this, this "Class of Beverly Hills."
Nobody knows me here.
I could be anybody.
I could be somebody.
My name is Charles Rosin.
My friends often call me "Chuck."
And I was the executive producer of "Beverly Hills, 90210."
from 1990 to 1995.
Mark McGrath: Early in "90210" 's first season,
it looks like Fox's swing on a new kind of show
for teens is a miss.
"Beverly Hills, 90210"
debuted on October 4, 1990.
It was, ratings-wise, like a ski run.
It just went downhill.
And our ratings got lower and lower.
And we would have been replaced,
except Fox had no replacement for us.
So, at that point, they had to just say,
"Okay, well, let's just let them
finish out the 12 that we've ordered."
But on January 17, 1991...
Operation Desert Storm
dramatically changes the television landscape.
America and the world drew a line in the sand.
Charles Rosin: What the three big networks did is, they said,
"Alright. We're at w*r now, It's w*r time.
We're going to suspend all of our commercial ratings,
at that point, and just focus on
what's going on in the Middle East.
The Gulf w*r makes history by becoming the first w*r
televised 24 hours a day live.
Fox can't compete.
Fox had no news department.
Hard to believe, I know, but they had no news department.
And they decided, "We'll just run what we have on those days."
And so, "90210" ran some of those episodes.
A couple of weeks go by, the w*r ends,
and they resume service,
and all of a sudden, "Beverly Hills, 90210"
is not on the bottom five anymore.
And we're gaining three quarters of a million
to a million viewers every episode.
We don't want your stupid w*r!
As troops raced towards Baghdad,
"90210" marches up the ratings chart,
becoming a home for teenagers, who, for the first time,
see people on network TV who look and sound like them.
Every character was relatable in a very specific way
without having these shallow archetypes.
That's really what Gen X was looking for.
Hi. How are you?
Stefania Marghitu: My name is Dr. Stefania Marghitu
and I'm a media studies scholar with an expertise in television
and the intersections of youth culture.
Perfect.
You're no better than Kelly.
Hey. Don't overreact, here.
All I'm saying is, it doesn't matter to me
whether you slept with him or not.
You're still my sister.
You have the outsiders, Brenda and Brandon,
from Minnesota, coming into this unknown space
of Beverly Hills, 90210.
So, the typical American audience,
the suburban Midwestern audience, can relate to them.
Jason Priestley: I think that our show was the first show
that sort of depicted a far more realistic version
of American life.
My name is Jason Priestley,
and I played Brandon Walsh on "Beverly Hills, 90210."
You know what, man?
You obviously got some kind of problem with me, don't you? Huh?
Right now's your chance. Make your move. Come on.
I'm not gonna hit you, man.
You're like a brother to me. I'm not gonna do it.
Young Man: You have to. Brandon Walsh: No, I don't have to.
But if you feel like you want to hit me,
why don't you go ahead.
Jason Priestley: Our show allowed for young people
to watch other young people
struggle with what they were struggling with,
and it allowed them to to feel like they weren't alone.
Our mandate was pretty clear, at that point...
To find ways to entertain, to be romantic,
and once in a while even try to be funny,
but at the same time, really deal with character-based
stories that deal with the social issues of our time.
Andrea...
what's the matter. Why didn't you go with them?
Andrea Zuckerman: Couldn't be that much of a hypocrite.
Gabrielle Carteris: It was one of the first shows at that time
that talked about the real issues,
and the confusion, and the betrayals, and the pain,
and the love, having sex, drugs, real things that were going on.
And I think young people felt respected.
I'm Gabrielle Carteris.
I played Andrea Zuckerman on "90210" many years ago.
Andrea Zuckerman: Who am I to try to educate people
about safer sex when I've never...
They used to say "Kids are to be seen, and not heard."
This was the transitional period where,
"No, actually. They're young people.
They have stories, and they have real situations.
And now, we're gonna talk about that."
Jason Priestley: Young people just latched on to it,
and went, "This is prime-time TV for me.
And it's not my parents' TV anymore.
This is my TV, that's on at night, made for me."
When you've got something that's that white-hot,
what are you gonna do to capitalize it?
Mark McGrath: At a time when the three networks
spent the summer airing reruns, reruns, and more reruns,
Fox switches things up,
and "90210" keeps going with all-new episodes.
Jason Priestley: That was gonna be the coolest thing.
All the kids are gonna be home for the summer,
and we're gonna give them original programing.
Is gonna be super exciting, right?
We were still in production when that first summer episode hit.
I think we were number 14 that week.
To, all of a sudden, be launched up to number 14 was unheard of.
Everything is serendipitous, when you think about it.
But the idea that the show happened on Fox
when FOX was not yet a network,
so they didn't have money to go and change shows in and out.
They didn't have as much fear of failure,
because they had so little out there.
It was an amazing opportunity.
Mark McGrath: But an opportunity that comes with danger,
both personal and professional.
Gabrielle Carteris: I remember calling my family, and I said,
"I think my life is about to change."
**
As the new decade begins, Fox launches "In Living Color,"
a "Saturday Night Live" -ish show,
but one that's updated with a '90's sensibility.
It instantly hits with young viewers.
Let's start with a stretch.
And down.
Okay. Now, you try.
Fox is also innovating with brand new formats,
including what will become known as "reality TV"...
A reaction to a TV writers' strike
that requires replacements for scripted content.
* Bad boys *
Oh, my God.
"Cops" is a raw look inside police forces across America.
You can't make this sh*t up.
* Bad boys, bad boys *
Mark McGrath: While audiences are experiencing reality TV,
The cast of "Beverly Hills, 90210"
are experiencing their new reality.
Luke Perry: You cannot prepare for something like this.
I had no idea how many people would come.
Jason Priestley: If Luke Perry and I were out together,
all we heard was screaming.
They thought I was, you know, 16 or 17,
and they thought I was still in high school, like they were.
Although the characters in "Beverly Hills, 90210"
when they were all written as 16,
the actors playing them are between 17 and 29.
Jason Priestley: I was America's most famous teenager,
but I was, you know, 24 years old,
so, it was strange.
While most of the cast enjoyed their newfound spotlight,
some worry about the extra attention.
Gabrielle Carteris: There is a real age discriminatory
kind of aspect to our industry,
because it's about young, beautiful people.
And when you're playing a teenager on a hit show,
age is definitely more than just a number.
It can mean your career.
Gabrielle Carteris: I always had to lie about my age.
There was a very, very well-known casting director.
He did all, like, the big commercials.
He'd bring me in, and I'd work,
and he'd "I love you, Gabrielle."
And one day, on camera, he said, "How old are you?
How old are you really?"
And I thought, "Oh. Okay."
I told him.
Never was called in again.
"She's an old hag. Don't even present her.
I don't want to know."
We are living in an ageist culture.
But I can't change the way I look.
I mean, you know, what are you gonna do, right?
So, during "90210," when I when I did...
I was 29 doing the role of a 16-year-old.
And I already knew the stigma attached to my age.
So, I lied about my age
when I auditioned for "90210."
And then, I was on set.
People Magazine, they had ask me a question,
"By the way, Gabrielle, how old are you?"
And I said, "I don't play age. I play character."
Well, a couple of days later,
that's when the writer called, and said,
"I want you to know we know your real age."
And I said, "You can't... You can't share that.
I'll lose my job."
And "Well, I'm sorry. I'm gonna be posting it."
I said, "You don't understand.
I will lose my job."
**
I was crying. I was hysterical.
I called my publicist. I called my lawyer.
I called my agent. I called everybody.
I said, "Please, you have to call them,
and tell them not to post the story."
But People Magazine felt it was very important
to go and put my age out.
And I always say that I'm lucky, because, in that moment,
the show was actually becoming a hit.
So they did not take me off.
But it shaded the way they wrote for me.
It really affected the way that they dealt with me.
It became crippling to creative storytelling.
Mark McGrath: Gabrielle's role in the show gets reduced.
But even up against hit shows like "Cheers,"
"90210" 's ratings continue to grow on Fox.
Stefania Marghitu: On the '90's, there was no on demand.
There was no streaming. There was no direct access.
So, appointment viewing was so important at the time.
If you wanted to watch a show,
you had to watch it at 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. that Thursday,
or whenever, to be able to watch it.
Gabrielle Carteris: We were very much driven, as a society,
by the way in what was shown on television, right?
"Did you see...?"
But doing that with everything.
There were no other options.
So, there was... everybody was talking about the same thing.
Jason Priestley: It was a great co-viewing opportunity.
And I've had a lot of young people,
they've said to me that they were struggling with something
that we addressed on our show,
and that they were watching with their parents,
and that watching it on the show, you know,
gave them the right entree to start talking to their parents.
Gabrielle Carteris: How mind-blowing is that, right?
For the first time, being open to have a conversation
with your child about issues that,
you know, you suspected were happening,
but how do you broach it?
And now, you have a platform.
Mark McGrath: Fox's willingness to confront real-world issues
resonates with its teen audience.
Brenda Walsh: Dylan, this is so beautiful.
Yeah, I thought you'd like it.
But some parents object to the show's story lines.
Stefania Marghitu: Brenda losing her virginity to Dylan
was completely unprecedented.
There were maybe hints towards it,
but you would never actually go through with it,
much less getting pregnant,
You know, were huge issues
that were either going to be completely avoided,
or only the bad girls would get it.
How many girls get to have sex for the first time
with someone they love?
I don't know.
I didn't really take an opinion poll
Charles Rosin: In the episode called "Spring Dance,"
there was love all around.
And they did indeed go into a hotel room.
Dylan McKay: I'm sorry. I just can't control myself.
Charles Rosin: Parents were calling up the network.
"How could you do this?
There's gonna be such backlash to this."
All of these things were happening in our society.
And I turned to the network people, and said,
"What are you protecting your viewers from?
What are you protecting these kids at 8:00 from
that they can't know about on the news at 6:30?"
Woman And I was yelling, "No!"
And "Stop!"
While parents are objecting to discussions of consensual sex
depicted on the show, evening news anchors
are discussing r*pe charges against JFK's nephew,
William Kennedy Smith...
A story made all the more disturbing by his connection
to America's royal family.
And I thought he was gonna k*ll me.
Then, only months later, Anita Hill accuses her boss,
Judge Clarence Thomas, of sexual harassment
while in the middle of his confirmation hearing
for a coveted seat on the Supreme Court.
On several occasions,
Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess.
On other occasions, he referred to the size of his own p*nis.
The sexualization in the news was gonna somehow
be influencing other forms of media.
If you're seeing it on the cover of your popular newspapers,
it's fair game.
It's against this backdrop that Fox approves a script
with a story line about condoms in schools.
I hereby propose that the West Beverly Hills
Board of Education move to consider adopting a plan
to make condoms available to the students
on the campus of West Beverly High.
Mark McGrath: When the episode airs, it starts a debate
in a real life high school in Beverly Hills.
One of the feathers in our cap was that, a week later,
the Los Angeles Board of Education
considered the matter.
And one woman changed her mind... Roberta Weintraub.
And when she was asked,
she started quoting some of the lines in "90210."
Mark McGrath: Fox quickly capitalizes on "90210" 's success
by launching "Melrose Place" and "The Heights,"
two similar prime-time soap operas
designed to keep bringing in the ever-elusive young audience.
None of this goes unnoticed by the Big Three,
who quickly launched a search for their own teen dramas.
ABC tries to steal away the Fox audience in 1994
with a show titled "My So-called Life."
Not to be outfoxed by ABC,
Fox counters by green-lighting "Party of Five,"
a series the network originally envisioned
as a feel-good drama about the resilience of children.
So, tomorrow, we go to Mr. Gray, and we ask him for an advance.
Bailey Salinger: No.
Julia Salinger: Why not? It's an emergency.
Bailey Salinger: Because we've got to seem in charge.
We've got to seem like we can handle everything ourselves,
like a normal family,
or else they have an excuse to split us up.
Scott Wolf: I'm Scott Wolf, and I played Bailey Salinger
on "Party of Five."
The original pitch was very different.
The first pitch was this kind of, like, "Party of five."
Like, "Parents are gone," like "not sure how."
But "The kids are on their own, and like, what happens."
And then, they got the "Party of Five" script,
which was, like, kind of what they asked for.
But the parents were k*lled in an automobile accident
by a drunk driver, and they're gonna get split up
and put into foster care.
And so, it was very not the kind of good-timey
kids-on-their-own show I think the network envisioned.
To their credit, they didn't go,
"What are you guys doing?
Kids can't be watching this kind of thing,"
or "They're not ready for it."
They stepped up, and said,
"There's something really special about this."
And they did it.
Mark McGrath: As the other networks joined the battle
over this young adult audience, Fox decides to see how honest
and raw they can go before someone makes them stop.
An inside joke was,
before we started every scene, they would walk over,
and they would say, "Tears are not inappropriate."
You know, you earn yourself a lot of leg room with emotion
when the premise of your story is a group of orphans
who have lost their parents in an automobile crash.
But early on, it looks like Fox executives are the ones
who will be shedding tears over a failed show.
We would come to work the day after our show aired,
and just kind of, like, flick the light switch,
like, "Do they still work?"
"Okay. power's on. We can keep making the show."
It was that kind of sketchy for a while.
* How do you talk to an angel? *
Mark McGrath: During the first season of "The Heights,
the theme song hits number one on the Billboard charts.
But while teens love the song, it seems to be all they love.
Fox soon drops the show.
Over at ABC, despite rave reviews,
"My So-called Life" is canceled,
leaving a season-one cliffhanger forever unresolved.
All of this has the cast of "Party of Five"
wondering if they'll survive to the end of season one.
Scott Wolf: Really, throughout the course of our first season,
there was no, "Take a deep breath. We're okay."
You know, we were, you know,
TV Guide's "Best Shows You're Not watching."
That's, like, a weird backhanded award to win.
Charlie Salinger: I'm responsible for this family,
and I'm gonna take that responsibility seriously.
Oh, give me a break, Charlie.
You're the one who lost the money, not me.
Mark McGrath: For Scott Wolf, the opportunity to play
Bailey Salinger is the role of a lifetime.
I really was ready.
I was so hungry to find myself in the middle of a story
where I could actually be a full human being.
But were audiences ready?
Early ratings for "Party of Five"
suggested they were not.
This wouldn't have happened if mom and dad were here.
Scott Wolf: In this day and age, frankly,
if that show premiered last fall,
we'd have gotten canceled after a couple of episodes.
And so, knowing how easy it would have been
for the network to either cancel us,
or make wholesale changes, and give up on the faith
that this was the right show at the right time,
they stuck with it, and they let us keep telling our story,
and the audience came to us.
And once they did, they never left.
Matthew Fox and I got sent to New York to do some publicity.
We went out there, and they went bananas.
And they were, like, tearing our clothes off.
It was very much, like, our, you know,
Beatles "Hard Day's Night" moment.
I remember looking across them.
Like, I was being pulled in one direction,
he was being pulled in the other.
And we were like, "What is happening?"
And that was the first dawning of,
"Oh, people do know who we are, and what we're doing.
And it matters to them enough to, like, rip my jacket off."
Heading into our second season,
we got nominated for a Golden Globe Award,
which really kind of lended a credibility
to what we were up to.
At the Golden Globes,
"Party of Five" is up against heavyweight dramas
like CBS's "Chicago Hope,"
ABC's "m*rder One" and "NYPD Blue,"
as well as NBC's mega hit "ER."
Scott Wolf: We were sitting, basically, in the parking lot.
We were, like, by the bathrooms.
And our category came up, and it was like,
"well, we'll get that over with, and enjoy our meal."
And then, we kind of shocked the world,
and won the thing, which nobody expected.
And the winner is...
"Party of Five."
Mark McGrath: The success of "Party of Five"
has critics asking whether Fox is irresponsibly
portraying teen problems simply as a ratings grab.
Scott Wolf: To the point where other writer-producers
were contacting our writer producers,
as the show is airing, saying, "I hope, please tell me,
there's a design around what you're doing
with Bailey's character,
because it's, like, wildly irresponsible
if he's just drinking, and he's underage."
And they're like, "Wait for it. Wait for it.
Wait for it."
Claudia Salinger: Bailey. Julia Salinger: What's going on?
He's ripped.
By the mid-90s,
underage drinking is on the rise,
and drunk drivers are k*lling
more than 300 Americans every week.
In the past, TV often normalized excessive drinking.
Yo, Uncle Ned, are you okay?
Uncle Ned: I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine.
Let's see.
There ought to be some alcohol in here somewhere.
Mark McGrath: Or straight out played it for laughs.
Phone call for Al... Al Coholic.
Is there an Al Coholic here?
Everything will be OK.
I just need one of these.
Pills?
"Saved by the Bell," the famous episode
where there's a pill addiction.
And that is solved within the course
of less than 30 minutes.
Mark McGrath: Fox shows deal more honestly with addiction.
But will it prove too much for audiences?
Charlie Salinger: This is it. This is your last chance.
You're checking yourself in. Bailey Salinger: Or what?
What are you gonna do, Charlie?
Send me to bed without dessert?
Cut off my allowance?
Charlie Salinger: Do you want me to cut you off financially?
Fine. It's done. Bailey Salinger: Fine.
Who cares? I don't need your money.
I could go get a job
And I already got my own place to live.
All I need is for you to get the hell out of my way.
I mean it, Charlie. Charlie Salinger: No.
Get out of my way.
Come on.
You son of a b*tch.
Claudia Salinger: Oh, my God. Julia Salinger: Bailey.
This is drugs.
This is your brain on drugs.
Any questions?
During the mid '90's, drugs, alcohol, and teenagers
are mixing in even more dangerous ways.
The heavy-handed "just say no" approach of the '80's
no longer holds weight with their intended audience.
Traditionally, family shows that would feature
predominantly teen characters, like "Growing Pains,"
You would have a kind of public service announcement at the end.
So, these would be "a very special episode," right?
Young Man: Everybody's not doing drugs,
and you don't have to try and be cool.
"Don't do drugs.
Call this number."
And you would see "This is your brain on drugs,"
that edu-tainment, right?
Who taught you how to do this stuff?
You, alright?
I learned it by watching you.
While they meant well,
it kind of like was, then, the equivalent, I say,
looking at a Lifetime TV movie.
It kind of, yes, it has all the moves,
but it's really not moving you, the audience.
We made the move with the shows to entertain people,
and have them think.
Bailey's got a problem,
and he's too afraid to deal with it.
Claudia?
the alcoholism story line on "Party of Five is,
to this day, one of the things
I'm most proud of having been part of.
I don't have a problem.
Scott Wolf: We were telling Bailey's alcoholism story line
before anyone knew it was a story,
where he would just have a beer, and nothing else would happen.
As if someone in your life had a beer, and you go,
"Should I... Well, I guess they're not
having a beer all the time, so they're fine."
Bailey Salinger: And yeah, yeah, way too much partying.
So, I'm gonna pull myself together, not drink for a while.
Hey, what did you expect? I've never done this before.
You expect a first-time clown not to make any mistakes?
- Huh?
- I want my mom!
Oh, God. Don't cry. He's crying.
Come on. Let's get out of here.
Bailey Salinger: I'm teaching him how to be a man.
Scott Wolf: The fact that there was purpose
in putting this story into the hands of our young audience
says everything you need to know
about what "Party of Five" was trying to do.
Jason Priestley: We tackled subjects that were difficult,
and that were painful.
This is Kelly.
Jason Priestley: Watching the roller coaster ride
that was Dylan McKay, you know,
dealing with his addiction, and falling off the wagon,
and then getting back on the wagon,
and you know... It was craziness, right?
Where's the coke, Kelly?
Kelly Taylor: I don't know. Check the box.
And then, Kelly Taylor's whole cocaine addiction.
As a society, we can't just pretend
all these things aren't happening.
And I think, the more that we do talk about these things,
the less people will try to hide from the truth.
I think we we really tried to make a difference,
and hopefully we did.
Julia Salinger: You're a thief, and a liar, and a drunk.
Scott Wolf: I heard from people. We got letters from people.
People came up to me at the time, and come up to me since,
saying, "My brother was an alcoholic.
I was an alcoholic.
My best friend was a drug addict.
And seeing that story helped us.
It helped me understand what the disease is.
It helped me understand how to deal with it.
It helped us through it."
Or, "It went badly for us,
but at least seeing the show helped me feel connected,
and like I wasn't alone in it."
There's no overstating how much that means.
Mark McGrath: Fox successfully pushes boundaries
with their fearless approach to youth programing.
But there is a limit to how far the network will go.
People say that our industry is really liberal,
but our industry is just a thing,
and the people in it are diverse.
Some are liberal, and some are not.
What I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of prejudice
that's also imposed on the performer.
Young Man: Listen, about yesterday, I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
Gabrielle Carteris: "90210" was very forward-thinking.
On the other side of that, it actually was not.
I mean, it was television at that time.
Andrea Zuckerman: You know, it was bad enough being reminded
how inexperienced I am,
but hearing you apologize for it,
it's even worse.
A lot of things that we're asked
to actually mirror the very prejudice
that the people who are sometimes
creating projects carry.
I'm Jewish, and I wear Jewish star,
you know, and my character was Jewish.
And I get a call from the studio,
and they said, "You know, Gabrielle,
you really can't wear the Jewish star."
And I said, "But why? My character is Jewish."
You know, and they said,
"Well, middle America doesn't want to see it."
And I said, "Really? Because then nobody can wear crosses,
because Middle America does want to see that, either."
And then, she makes a demand that could mean her job.
"Everybody can take off their religious stuff, or I'm not."
After being asked to remove her Star of David necklace,
actor Gabrielle Carteris objects.
In response, the Fox network
bans all religious symbols on any actor.
Gabrielle Carteris: And only now, I have to tell you,
I say that with pride.
I really do, because I think that was a scary time
to be able to speak out on it.
Scott Wolf: You know, in these big machines, you know,
the... The entertainment industry,
it can be sort of fleet of foot, and it can be dexterous
but can also be a dinosaur.
It can be very slow to react.
Stefania Marghitu: Television is still a supply and demand.
So, it's a medium that has to evolve with its audiences.
And if its audiences are changing their ideas
about not only marginalized groups
but even the way people talk,
that you can start adding that one swear word
or that one sexual contact,
you see these lines being pushed.
And, of course, on the creative, on the writers' side,
they're gonna push it as far as possible.
But the nature of commercial art
is that there always is gonna be a push-back to
what will the conservative advertisers think?
What will the conservative regular folk
in the Midwest think?
At the end of the day, we are part of a giant network,
and there's branding, and there's a lot of money at stake.
And so, you know, things have to kind of work
for everyone along that food chain.
Ladies and gentlemen...
Dixie Carter: The "Circus of the Stars" high-wire team.
Mark McGrath: While Fox's shows try to be current,
other networks keep pumping out
good old-fashioned entertainment,
like "Circus of the Stars" on CBS.
Gabrielle Carteris is brought on as a trapeze artist,
but when she's paired with another young star
from "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,"
she performs a high-wire act CBS isn't expecting.
Gabrielle Carteris: I walked the high wire with Alfonso Ribeiro,
and it's death-defying because you have a net down there,
but I-I carry weight, and it's very dangerous.
We had been training for months and months,
and for the dress rehearsal, the network came to watch us.
This is really fun, but it's also, um,
the scariest thing I've ever done.
Alfonso, because he had done such a great job
in making me feel safe,
I gave him a big hug, and the producers said,
"That was unbelievable, Gabrielle.
Tomorrow when we, you know, do it live,
the only thing we're gonna ask is please don't hug Alfonso."
And I said, "But why?"
And they said, "Well, you know, he's Black, and you're white."
And middle America... I got to tell you,
middle America is blamed for everything... everything.
They said, "They don't want to see, uh...
You know, they can't accept that."
And so, I was so pissed that I said, "Oh, of course.
And so I told Alfonso, and I said,
"So tomorrow when we do the show, I'm gonna kiss you."
And so, when we did the show, I did.
Even the once edgy "90210" falls prey to the idea
that America isn't always ready to see change.
Aaron... God bless him, right...
He wanted to be hip and happening
and yet still was kind of locked in the constraints of the time.
For instance, my character at one point dates a Black man.
"But don't touch him, Gabrielle."
Literally I put my arm around him. We were walking.
"Oh, no, no. You're not supposed to touch him."
"Why?"
"Well, because middle America, they can't, you know?"
"Well, I'm sorry. Because, like, this isn't real?"
And I was just talking to Chuck Rosin
the other day about this and how they really wanted so much
to be able to be open and how many things stopped them
from really being able to tell the real story.
The most important thing I learned from Aaron Spelling,
and I think it's the other reason why
you're talking to me today, 30 years after the fact,
is you make a TV show for its audience.
To try to reach some people
and make us make some statements,
I think, is what made our show work
and what made our show stand out and last for as long as it did.
Charles Rosin: We win a Critics', darling.
So many people started making TV shows to win awards
or to get a nice review in "The New York Times."
But I liked what Spelling's idea was.
Mark McGrath: Well, "90210" and "Party of Five" remain popular.
As the decade wears on,
Fox is no longer the new flashy network.
Once a destination for teens,
their loyalties are about to shift.
Claudia Salinger: You're just upset or something.
I'm not upset.
I just don't want to hear your stupid, whiny voice.
Now, get the hell out.
Mark McGrath: Fox wins the initial w*r for teenage viewers
in its infancy as a network,
forever changing how young people are represented on TV.
Stefania Marghitu: If you have a history of baby boomer teen TV
and a history of millennial teen TV,
not including '90s teen TV or Gen X TV,
is like not having the bridge in between
that is necessary to take you from the '50s
to what the new millennium was about.
It was about an age of transition
and an age of defiance of baby boomers,
which is still going on.
Andrea Zuckerman: Definitely.
Definitely.
Donna Martin: Definitely.
Brenda Walsh: Definitely.
Mark McGrath: But in the second half of the decade,
with the birth of new networks like UPN and WB
stealing away millions of young viewers from Fox,
it's what's happening on cable that truly displaces Fox's role
as TV's most innovative home.
Channels like HBO and FX are getting a reputation
for constantly putting out critically-acclaimed series,
including "The Larry Sanders Show,"
"The Sopranos," and "Sex in the City."
Carrie Bradshaw: Do you think I can get away with
a "hang in there, baby," halter top?
Miranda Hobbes: I don't think anybody can get away with
a "hang in there, baby" halter top.
Mark McGrath: Fox is still able to come up
with youth-focused hits like "That '70s Show,
"The O.C." and, later in 2009, break another mold with "Glee."
* Oh-oh *
* Open your heart with a key *
Mark McGrath: The competition in our current so-called
golden age of television
has drastically changed what it means to have a hit.
And many viewers still long for those '90 shows
and a time when we were all watching TV together.
Charles Rosin: Every show now is having reboots
because the people who develop television
don't have that much of an imagination.
So they take titles that they knew and do that
rather than try to break new ground.
Some work out really great,
you know, an exciting show like "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.
But that's the exception, not the rule.
It was a moment in time that has come and gone in a lot of ways.
Look!
I've always felt like the stories we were telling,
the interactions between characters
weren't bound by that period of time or to that period of time.
You know, they're human.
Julia Salinger: Bailey!
Claudia Salinger: Bailey!
**
The music would be different. The hair would be different.
Definitely the clothes would be different.
But you could plop those story lines into 2021,
and this audience wouldn't be insulted by any of it.
And that says a lot.
In the last few years,
we realize how important the show has remained
to a real core of... Of super-fans around the world.
When we asked them why, they talked about the fact
that the show had a big heart. I think we cared.
We cared, and we wanted the audience to care.
We wanted the audience to feel good about themselves.
Andrea Zuckerman: Thank you.
It's not about "90210," right?
That just becomes the vehicle to tell the story.
And if the story is relatable and the story's real
and it's about real issues, it will always do well.
I think audiences in general, especially younger audiences,
now, uh, have an expectation
that you are going to meet them where they are.
And I think you can draw a line directly back to the...
those shows from the '90s that began to honor that.
And I'm proud to have been around
for... for the beginnings of that.
**
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