0:00:03 > 0:00:07This programme contains some strong language
0:00:09 > 0:00:13It's a Thursday evening in the United States of Television.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17The soap stars and the news anchors have come and gone.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21The chat-show sofa-kings are coming up - but that's later.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Now, it's primetime in America.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31Even in this age of hash-tags and likes, primetime is still
0:00:31 > 0:00:36at the centre of small-screen life for nearly 300 million Americans.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40It can be drama or comedy, sitcom or serial,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43live action or cartoon.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Or even one of those live-action cartoons,
0:00:46 > 0:00:51known as reality shows. But whatever's on, primetime remains
0:00:51 > 0:00:54a vital piece of cultural real estate,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57as potent an idea as Hollywood,
0:00:57 > 0:01:03Broadway, The Billboard Hot 100 or the Great American Novel.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06We know the products of primetime as those
0:01:06 > 0:01:09US imports that, since the days of I Love Lucy,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12have added spice to our home-grown schedules.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Forged by the commercial priorities of sponsors and advertisers,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19moulded by the social attitudes of their times,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23crafted by the aspirations of their creators,
0:01:23 > 0:01:26and powered by the charisma of their stars,
0:01:26 > 0:01:28these shows have helped us to imagine
0:01:28 > 0:01:31the kind of place that America is.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37But before they reach our screens, these shows have had to prove
0:01:37 > 0:01:39themselves in the most competitive television
0:01:39 > 0:01:43marketplace in the world. A focus group the size
0:01:43 > 0:01:48of a continent, and not just for a year or two or a score of episodes.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50For a successful primetime show,
0:01:50 > 0:01:55episodes can number in the hundreds, played out over a decade or more,
0:01:55 > 0:01:59a scale of creativity unimaginable in any other country.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Over the next four weeks, we're going to be diving deep into
0:02:04 > 0:02:08the world of primetime, from the three channel, black and white 1950s
0:02:08 > 0:02:11to the more colourful choices on offer
0:02:11 > 0:02:13in today's multichannel universe.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16We're going to discover what makes primetime tick,
0:02:16 > 0:02:20and we're going to start with one of its most iconic figures.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23You know the one - he comes home every evening,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27goes through the front door, takes off his hat and says...
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Hi, honey, I'm home.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31I'll be right there!
0:02:34 > 0:02:36Television is most certainly here to stay.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02He doesn't need much more than his couch and his television
0:03:02 > 0:03:05and some potato chips and the ball game on.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08He's a man surrounded by children who just wants to take a nap.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10He's where the buck stops.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12He wants to be happy at work,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15and when he comes home he wants his wife to want to have sex with him.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19He goes out, every day, earns a living, comes home.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22He's struggling just to keep his head above water
0:03:22 > 0:03:24in the world of relevance.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30He's a rotten husband in every respect, except the occasional
0:03:30 > 0:03:33ability he has to follow simple commands.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39He just wishes he could get a little bit of quiet once in a while.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48They used to always have a guy on Ed Sullivan,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51he seemed like he was on every week, the guy that spun the plates.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56All that plate spinning and
0:03:56 > 0:04:01inevitably plates start dropping. Modern living is crazy like that.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05Ten more minutes on the meatloaf.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Or crazy like this.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11- Hello, there.- Ben, Sarah, dinner!
0:04:11 > 0:04:13- Taste.- Mmm.- Potato salad.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Meet Bill Hendrickson, husband of three,
0:04:15 > 0:04:20father of nine, a polygamist and a Mormon fundamentalist.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Just your regular primetime family guy, in other words.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30A guy trying to be married to three women and to try to
0:04:30 > 0:04:36satisfy their emotional and physical needs and raising
0:04:36 > 0:04:40children and trying to have a career and trying to support everybody.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43It starts getting kind of stressful.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48You know, coming in the door, and saying, "Honeys, I'm home,"
0:04:48 > 0:04:51It's a little bit like Father Knows Best on acid.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55It just becomes an endurance contest,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57trying to keep all this together.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03- HE SIGHS - It feels like
0:05:03 > 0:05:05everything is spinning out of control.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22I don't think anybody has an easy life these days, I really don't.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26I think we're longing kind of for a simpler, uncomplicated,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29more innocent time in this country.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31We've gone off the tracks.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Primetime masculinity used to be a lot simpler.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46I'm home!
0:05:53 > 0:05:54I'm home.
0:05:54 > 0:06:00'50s television, I think, made me feel good.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06Well, hello, dear!
0:06:06 > 0:06:09I think that depiction of American dads from the '50s, I think
0:06:09 > 0:06:12most of what was depicted on television in the '50s has
0:06:12 > 0:06:14- nothing to do with reality at all. - HE LAUGHS
0:06:14 > 0:06:18It may not have had a lot to do with what was happening
0:06:18 > 0:06:20really in homes around the United States.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23- Hi, honey. I'm home. - I'll be right there.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25Well, well, well.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29How are the most wonderful children in the whole world?
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Everybody knows nobody lives like that.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34Everybody knows there's no families like that.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37But no matter what was happening in homes around the United States,
0:06:37 > 0:06:39they were watching those shows.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41Literally they had a show called Father Knows Best.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44And the father was the be-all,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47end-all god of the household.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51And he was the one that you took your problems to
0:06:51 > 0:06:54and would always have this wise solution to a problem.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Kathy, remember yesterday when it rained all day
0:06:57 > 0:06:59and you wanted to go outside and play
0:06:59 > 0:07:03but you couldn't leave the house, remember how unhappy you were?
0:07:03 > 0:07:06Well imagine Mr Quigley being locked up like that,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09all the rest of his life, just like in prison.
0:07:11 > 0:07:12Daddy?
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Yes, kitten?
0:07:14 > 0:07:15Open the window.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32The great shows of the '50s defined the classic gender models.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37They were like the television bible of how your family was meant to be.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41But when people were in your living room, you thought,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45maybe that's the way all people are or should be.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48And I know I've had a lot of people who had the feeling that
0:07:48 > 0:07:51perhaps they were deprived.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54I didn't have the picket fence. Or, you know, for me
0:07:54 > 0:08:00it was being gay. I didn't fit into that perfect son mould.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Leave It To Beaver was situation comedy.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06There were no families like that.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10All families had traumas, they had problems dealing with each other.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13People say its candy coated, it's not real,
0:08:13 > 0:08:17but it speaks to something in human beings.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22The United States is taking initial steps tonight to neutralize Cuba...
0:08:22 > 0:08:26..risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even
0:08:26 > 0:08:29the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33But neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37You think about what this country was going through
0:08:37 > 0:08:40in terms of the Cold War, in terms of the Cuban missile crisis.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Tony knows that the bomb can explode any time of the year, day or night.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47He's ready for it. Duck and Cover!
0:08:47 > 0:08:53You can understand why TV would provide comfort food.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55All right, now just simmer down, now just take it easy.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00Reel her in nice and easy. Come on, that's a boy.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Hey! You got a nice one!
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Andy Griffith used to say, openly,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17even though the show was ostensibly set in the '60s,
0:09:17 > 0:09:23this was the small town southern America of his youth, the '40s.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27So it was already nostalgic when we were doing it.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31They did make me feel safe.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33The father did always know best.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35And the mom was always home.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42Bye, Mr Quigley, come back and visit.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45But alongside all the wise husbands
0:09:45 > 0:09:48and their impossibly perfect families, there were some
0:09:48 > 0:09:53more subversive hints about the true nature of homodomesticus.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Men run this world, Alice!
0:09:56 > 0:10:02Men! They're responsible for the shape the world's in. Men!
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Well, I'm sure glad to hear one of you admit it!
0:10:08 > 0:10:11Bus driver Ralph Kramden is primetime's original bad
0:10:11 > 0:10:15man-about-the-house. A bully. A blow-hard.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19A wife-baiter and a mother-in-law hater. The Honeymooners
0:10:19 > 0:10:23lasted for just one season 39 classic episodes.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28But it lives on and on in the after life of syndicated repeats.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31It also lives on in every small-screen shirker,
0:10:31 > 0:10:36tyrant and slob who came after. Archie Bunker, Homer Simpson,
0:10:36 > 0:10:41Tony Soprano, all of them carry the Kramden chromosome.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43When I was a kid,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47my family used to go to my grandmother's house in Newark.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51And my grandfather would hold forth in Italian.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53No-one knew what he was talking about.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55My grandmother was not allowed to speak.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00And when it was over, we would go upstairs to my Uncle Lenny's house.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05And we would watch The Honeymooners. And I just...
0:11:05 > 0:11:08The strange thing about it was, was that the Kramden apartment
0:11:08 > 0:11:11was kind of like my Uncle Lenny's apartment.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Now look, let's get something straight right now,
0:11:13 > 0:11:15right here and now.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17A man's home is just like a ship.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19And on this ship, I am the captain!
0:11:19 > 0:11:23And it was all, in a way, a continuation, because
0:11:23 > 0:11:27there's Ralph Kramden bellowing and carrying on and behaving like a
0:11:27 > 0:11:30big infant, just like my grandfather had been doing moments before.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32Bang, zoom.
0:11:47 > 0:11:48If you look at The Honeymooner's,
0:11:48 > 0:11:53we loved Ralph BECAUSE he was such a mope, a dope,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56you know, couldn't have screwed up more!
0:11:57 > 0:11:59There's an early episode where Ralph
0:11:59 > 0:12:01finds a suitcase full of counterfeit money
0:12:01 > 0:12:04and immediately goes on a spending spree.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07And that's exactly the kind of thing that Homer would do.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09Hamina, hamina, hamina!
0:12:09 > 0:12:11I can't understand a world you're saying, Ralph!
0:12:11 > 0:12:14- Hamina, hamina, hamina, ma, ma, ma! - What are you getting excited for?
0:12:14 > 0:12:17- Hamina, hamina, hamina, ma, ma, ma! - Hamina, ma, ma, ma!
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Ralph Kramden resonates through all TV husbands,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27only because he's the most raw form of that guy.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31It's so lasting and so memorable and there were only 39 episodes.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35A lot of people don't even realise that.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39You can watch that show with the sound off and you're laughing.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42You know, Ralph Kramden was always with the why me?
0:12:42 > 0:12:44Tell me, Norton, why me?
0:12:44 > 0:12:47How could you do such a terrible thing?!
0:12:47 > 0:12:53How could I?! How can you think so little of our relationship!
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Charting a course between the schmaltz of Father Knows Best
0:12:56 > 0:13:00and the angst of The Honeymooners, came a sitcom that verged on the
0:13:00 > 0:13:06autobiographical. The Dick Van Dyke Show could have been subtitled
0:13:06 > 0:13:08Confessions of a TV Writer.
0:13:08 > 0:13:13A lot of television at the time was battle of the sexes,
0:13:13 > 0:13:15and that bothered me.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17Husband against wife, always fighting.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20I mean Lucy, they had no relationship you would want
0:13:20 > 0:13:24to live in, and by the way, they didn't, those two people broke up.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Laura and Rob had the relationship my wife and I did,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30we agreed about most things.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34That, I think, came through. People realised he respected his wife,
0:13:34 > 0:13:36even though they argued about certain things.
0:13:46 > 0:13:47The situations were taken
0:13:47 > 0:13:51from real life, and from my father's real life,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54in his working, you know for Sid Caesar and working
0:13:54 > 0:13:55on a variety show.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57Rob Petrie was me.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00He would work on weekends, many times in his den.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04He wrote like 60 out of the first 90 episodes, by himself,
0:14:04 > 0:14:06sitting in that room, writing.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09On days when all of a sudden the typewriter would stop clacking,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11he would come into my room.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13And I was a young kid, and he would say,
0:14:13 > 0:14:17"Anything new in your life lately? Anything hap..."
0:14:17 > 0:14:21I knew he was trying to find anything to mine for the show.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24The only thing that felt unreal was the fact that we were
0:14:24 > 0:14:26sleeping in twin beds.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28- Good night.- Night.
0:14:28 > 0:14:34If you ARE in the same bed, at least one foot has to be on the floor!
0:14:34 > 0:14:40They gave me every reason in the world. "People don't make love.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43"People don't screw," they said, I think.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47Maybe they don't! Anyway, there was no winning that. I couldn't win that.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50We couldn't say pregnant! We actually, we got in the habit,
0:14:50 > 0:14:54of writing something really obnoxious into the script,
0:14:54 > 0:14:59a red herring, and then fight them to the death over it, and finally
0:14:59 > 0:15:02give in, and then whatever we wanted to slip through we got through.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05- Where is Rich? - He's in the bathtub, why?
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Well, I didn't want him popping in on us suddenly.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10Oh, what did you have in mind?
0:15:10 > 0:15:13I didn't do the show to push any boundaries or anything.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18I just did a show based on what I felt about situation comedy,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20about husbands and wives.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22And I was told later that I pushed boundaries.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34A lot of things changed in the 1960s.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41It's important to remember back, as we look at our culture today
0:15:41 > 0:15:45and we believe that our culture is fragmented and torn apart,
0:15:45 > 0:15:47and that we're in the midst of a culture war,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49that in 1968, there were a lot of people who thought
0:15:49 > 0:15:51we were going to have a civil war.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53And we were killing people, you know, like Bobby Kennedy
0:15:53 > 0:15:55and Martin Luther King.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Things were pretty bad by the end of the 1960s.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02And America was fractured in many ways, and going through
0:16:02 > 0:16:08a kind of a birth pang of a different consciousness, frankly.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12You saw marriages breaking up all over the place
0:16:12 > 0:16:15and people trying drugs and the whole sexual revolution
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and all kinds of things happening by the end of the 1960s.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22When we started seeing the rise of the counterculture
0:16:22 > 0:16:24or the rise of civil rights or the rise of feminism
0:16:24 > 0:16:28or the rise of these other points of view, the straight down,
0:16:28 > 0:16:34patriarchal, father knows best idea wasn't really holding water anymore.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36And when you have people getting assassinated
0:16:36 > 0:16:39and all of these things that are entering
0:16:39 > 0:16:45into the consciousness, you pave the way for kind of alternative views.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Maybe it was inevitable, but I give Norman Lear
0:16:48 > 0:16:52a lot of credit for sort of walking right in the middle of that.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Isn't anybody else interested in upholding standards?!
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Our world is coming crumbling down.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01The coons are coming.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06All In The Family, which premiered in 1971,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10was created by Norman Lear, but British audiences will have
0:17:10 > 0:17:15no difficulty in recognising where Archie Bunker comes from.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17You said he was born in Manchester,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19well he ain't a proper blackie then, is he?!
0:17:22 > 0:17:24The ones I'm talking about are your proper blacks! The ones
0:17:24 > 0:17:28that was born in the jungle, your natives.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30Don't tell me they're educated! Half of them
0:17:30 > 0:17:32are still eating each other!
0:17:32 > 0:17:36Alf Garnett had been giving offence on the BBC for more
0:17:36 > 0:17:40than five years, before producer Norman Lear persuaded CBS
0:17:40 > 0:17:43to grow their very own blue-collar bigot.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Compared with Alf, Archie was a bit of a pussy-cat,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50but his views on race, sex and politics were bracing
0:17:50 > 0:17:55compared to the warm-bath liberalism the networks liked to swim in.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59In fact Archie Bunker was deemed to be so shocking
0:17:59 > 0:18:03for American audiences he came with a health warning.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11The show came on on a Tuesday night with the big disclaimer,
0:18:11 > 0:18:13not just because of the sex, but also
0:18:13 > 0:18:16the political and racial overtones to the show.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19And there was a big disclaimer saying, basically,
0:18:19 > 0:18:20"Don't watch this show.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24"We know we're putting it on, but we'd really rather you didn't
0:18:24 > 0:18:27"watch it, so we don't want to have anything to do with it."
0:18:27 > 0:18:30- Mom!- Gloria, you married the laziest white man I ever seen.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32All right, all right.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35My father called me the laziest white kid he ever met
0:18:35 > 0:18:39and I would scream at him that he
0:18:39 > 0:18:42was putting down a race of people just to call me lazy.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44Implying that the blacks are even lazier!
0:18:44 > 0:18:48Oh, now, wait a minute, meathead. You said that, not me.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52I never said your black beauties was lazy.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56It's just their systems is geared a little slower than the rest of us.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58That's not what I'm doing, he would scream back,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01and you're the DUMBEST white kid I ever met.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04I never said a guy who wears glasses was a queer.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08A guy who wears glasses is a four eyes, a guy who's a fag is a queer!
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Archie Bunker, he was constantly losing control of his house.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24He thought he had it under control.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28But the rules kept changing every single day.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30And he could not accept that.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32And that was kinda the fun of seeing him
0:19:32 > 0:19:35insisting that he was the king of his castle, not realising
0:19:35 > 0:19:39it wasn't even a castle anymore, it had been rezoned as something else.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41Why didn't Lionel's father come over here?!
0:19:41 > 0:19:44- You don't want to know the answer to that.- Yes, I do!
0:19:44 > 0:19:48All right. He said he ain't never stepped into a honky's household
0:19:48 > 0:19:51and he ain't about to start at the bottom of the heap!
0:19:51 > 0:19:55He just was very suspicious. And everybody was out to work
0:19:55 > 0:19:57some kind of a scam, you know what I mean?
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Black people, white people, handicapped people,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02gay people, Jews, Muslims,
0:20:02 > 0:20:04everybody's workin' some angle.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07There were around 200 million people in America.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11And 45 million of them every week watched
0:20:11 > 0:20:14All in the Family. That's almost a fourth of the country.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19So, it created this kind of national dialogue that doesn't exist
0:20:19 > 0:20:22now from any television show.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24The fact that the show had been successful,
0:20:24 > 0:20:29freed us to let these people be themselves.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34You know, so we were able to write them from inside out not outside in.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Hold it. Hold it. Hold it! What are you doing here?
0:20:38 > 0:20:40- What? - What about the other foot?
0:20:42 > 0:20:45- There ain't no sock on it. - I'll get to it.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48He stopped me in rehearsal and said, "What are you doing?"
0:20:48 > 0:20:50I said, "What do you mean, what am I doing?"
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Don't you know that the whole world puts on a sock
0:20:52 > 0:20:54and a sock and a shoe and a shoe?!
0:20:54 > 0:20:57We got into this improvised discussion about it.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59I like to take care of one foot at a time!
0:20:59 > 0:21:02The directors and writers were writing it down and taking it.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05That's the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07I mean, that had nothing to do with anything that was
0:21:07 > 0:21:11going on in the time. That's just human, that's just human behaviour.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15It still holds up, because that's just rich character stuff.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18I'm a serious person, I take life seriously,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22I see the comedy in it, I see the foolishness of the human condition.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25I delight in it and I've used it.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29I don't think the audience missed the point that these people
0:21:29 > 0:21:31loved one another.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35First of all, Archie's reaction to Gloria having a miscarriage.
0:21:35 > 0:21:36Gloria lost the baby.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39What are you talking about, what do you mean by that?!
0:21:39 > 0:21:42But the doctor says she's going to be fine.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46When he found she lost it, that scene...
0:21:50 > 0:21:52Oh, gee.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56I could cry thinking about it now, all these years later.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00I think that's what was appealing about him,
0:22:00 > 0:22:04was that dichotomy of these terrible things
0:22:04 > 0:22:09he would say and this kind of sad, sweet person underneath
0:22:09 > 0:22:14who again was just trying to figure out what was going on in the world.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18The getting puffed up and getting the air sucked out of you, it's just
0:22:18 > 0:22:25so tragic and touching and funny and sad and it's just so human.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29It's difficult being a human being, and they showed that.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44The next important variation on the manhood theme was everything
0:22:44 > 0:22:48Archie Bunker was not - successful, middle-class,
0:22:48 > 0:22:50professional and black.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54But it wasn't just the colour of his skin that set
0:22:54 > 0:22:58Dr Heathcliff Huxtable apart from the other sitcom males of the '80s,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02it was an attitude that hadn't been heard in primetime
0:23:02 > 0:23:05since the glory days of the 1950s.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11Television comedy was born looking at nuclear families,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13and yet even in the early '80s,
0:23:13 > 0:23:18the few situation comedies that were about families, the dads were
0:23:18 > 0:23:25kind of weak and bumbling or fairly politically correct.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28And along comes Bill Cosby,
0:23:28 > 0:23:32with a get-outta-my-way,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35I-have-a-point-of-view attitude.
0:23:36 > 0:23:42Son, your mother asked me to come up here and kill you.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00There was something in the zeitgeist that allowed kids
0:24:00 > 0:24:07on television to be portrayed as being really quite strongly defiant.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10The night we taped the pilot for The Cosby Show I was
0:24:10 > 0:24:16sitting in the audience and there is a scene where Theo makes
0:24:16 > 0:24:20a speech about just being regular people.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24So what you are saying is, your mother and I shouldn't care if
0:24:24 > 0:24:28you get Ds because you don't need good grades to be regular people?
0:24:28 > 0:24:30Right!
0:24:30 > 0:24:35You're a doctor, she's a lawyer, it's not me, I'm just a regular guy.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Maybe you can just accept who I am and love me anyway...
0:24:40 > 0:24:42..because I'm your son.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46APPLAUSE
0:24:46 > 0:24:49The audience clapped because they were somewhat conditioned to
0:24:49 > 0:24:54clapping for a boy that stands up to his father.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59Theo. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03It's no wonder you get Ds in everything!
0:25:03 > 0:25:07I felt in the audience, rolling through the audience,
0:25:07 > 0:25:08this roar of approval.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13Now, I'm telling you, you are going to try as hard as you can.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17And you are going to do it because I said so!
0:25:17 > 0:25:21I am your father. I brought you in this world and I'll take you out!
0:25:21 > 0:25:24LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:25:24 > 0:25:26And it was thunder.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Oh, my God, the parents have taken back the house.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Finally, a dad who had some balls.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42I mean, The Cosby Show's an example of father knows best, you know?
0:25:42 > 0:25:44He knows best.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46Dad has spoken.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Bill Cosby made it seem effortless, but as the go-go '80s gave way
0:25:52 > 0:25:57to the uncertain '90s, vulnerability began to eclipse certainty.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01For the baby boomers who'd never had it so good,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04it turned out to be Dark Night Of The Soul time.
0:26:04 > 0:26:10The theme that cuts across all of American male life,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13is not living up to some standard.
0:26:15 > 0:26:21So much of the image of masculinity in our generation took place
0:26:21 > 0:26:23in the shadow of feminism.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29Well, we thought, what would happen if father didn't know best?
0:26:29 > 0:26:33What would happen if father actually was ambivalent?
0:26:33 > 0:26:35It's just...
0:26:36 > 0:26:39..that I have been so angry,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42and I don't know, embarrassed,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45because I feel like a two-year-old.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59There are a lot of people to this day,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02and I include members of my own family, who look upon that
0:27:02 > 0:27:05kind of introspection as absolutely pointless.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08It made a lot of people uncomfortable to see
0:27:08 > 0:27:10this in a public sphere, on television.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18They live in a house and they have food on the table and jobs,
0:27:18 > 0:27:20and just shut the fuck up and get on with it.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22We could have called the show Ambivalence
0:27:22 > 0:27:25because it was an exploration of the fact that you can have
0:27:25 > 0:27:28different feelings about the same thing.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32I don't see what it is that's wrong!
0:27:32 > 0:27:35What is it exactly that you're upset about?!
0:27:35 > 0:27:38You're upset because your business is doing well
0:27:38 > 0:27:40and you have to rent a space so you can film a commercial?!
0:27:40 > 0:27:43At the very beginning, the network was very concerned,
0:27:43 > 0:27:44and they would call and say,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48"Well, don't you think these storylines are too depressing?"
0:27:48 > 0:27:49And we would say, "Yes."
0:27:49 > 0:27:51It's not a lawyer. It's not a doctor.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55You mean the episodes are just going to be about their lives? What does that mean?!
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Mostly what they were upset about is that the shows were
0:27:58 > 0:28:00so difficult to promote.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Tonight on Thirtysomething, Michael and Hope try to get a babysitter.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06HE LAUGHS
0:28:06 > 0:28:10The notion that anybody watched, or that anybody paid attention,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13or that then, it began to be talked about in the way it was
0:28:13 > 0:28:16talked about was an utter shock to us.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24The truth was finally out. Men weren't just weak,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26they were pretty useless too...
0:28:38 > 0:28:40HE SCREAMS
0:28:41 > 0:28:45Being a man in today's society means having to defend yourself a lot.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48And you're sort of fair game.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51- But YOU, sir, are a baboon! - HE GASPS
0:28:51 > 0:28:55It's not really fashionable to be a man these days.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58And in some sense, there's the misconception
0:28:58 > 0:29:00that men run the world.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03And in reality, nobody runs the world.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05Lisa, tell your father.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07Mr Bergstrom left today.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09- Oh?- He's gone, forever.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11And?
0:29:11 > 0:29:14- I didn't think you'd understand. - Hey!
0:29:14 > 0:29:17Just because I don't CARE, doesn't mean I don't understand.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32If Ward Cleaver and Cliff Huxtable are the ideal fathers,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35I would call Homer a catastrophic father.
0:29:35 > 0:29:41It never occurs to him that his kids should come first in anything.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45Look, Homer, Lisa's taking her first steps.
0:29:45 > 0:29:46- Are you taping it?- Yes.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48I'll watch it later.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50Homer's maybe worse than my father was.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53I've always had this theory that people really want
0:29:53 > 0:29:57the mother in the family to be stable and not a buffoon.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01But the father, you can really get away with a lot.
0:30:06 > 0:30:12I think on some level, we like to be on a couch being
0:30:12 > 0:30:16selfish lugs, selfish, pleasure-seeking lugs.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18It's not a horrible credo.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21I mean, somebody should be able to start a cult with that.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Are you hungry senor navel? Si!
0:30:25 > 0:30:27All right, here you go, buddy.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33Ray Barone's an exaggerated version of me or any other guy.
0:30:33 > 0:30:34And Homer Simpson's a super
0:30:34 > 0:30:36exaggerated version of Ray Barone.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38Is Ray TOO stupid in this scene?
0:30:38 > 0:30:41Well he's not Homer Simpson, we would say.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44It doesn't matter if you laugh or not,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47I'm just happy to be out of the house, I'll be honest with you.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49It was finally when I got Letterman, I did my first Letterman.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52David Letterman said, there should be a show for this guy.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55They set about looking for writers to create a show for him.
0:30:55 > 0:30:56And I met Phil Rosenthal.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58And I said tell me about yourself.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00And he said, "well, I come from Queens."
0:31:00 > 0:31:04"I have twin boys, a daughter, a brother who was a cop."
0:31:04 > 0:31:07"My parents live close by, and they're always bothering me,
0:31:07 > 0:31:10"and my brother's a police sergeant, he's always jealous of me.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13"In fact he saw an award I won for stand-up and he said,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17"'it never ends for Raymond, he said, everybody loves Raymond.'
0:31:17 > 0:31:20"And I said, 'Well, there doesn't seem like
0:31:20 > 0:31:23"'there's anything there we can use.'"
0:31:30 > 0:31:32It's a pretty simple premise,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36a guy lives across the street with his family from his parents.
0:31:36 > 0:31:37What happened?
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Grandma and Grandpa stopped by.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56That tension of trying to get away from his family
0:31:56 > 0:31:59while at the same time loving his family, is something
0:31:59 > 0:32:03that I think a lot of men can relate to.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06Maybe if you were around a little more, Michael could cut paper.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12A-ha! I knew it was right there, under the surface.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14So I should go to work AND raise the kids.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17It should be all me! Yeah! And what do you do all day?
0:32:17 > 0:32:19I'm sorry!
0:32:23 > 0:32:26When I would get the scripts and read them,
0:32:26 > 0:32:30it was crazy the way they were immediately reflecting what
0:32:30 > 0:32:33was going on at that moment in my life and in my marriage.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Whenever we were stuck, I'd tell the writers, "Go home,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39"get in a fight with your wife and come back and tell me about it."
0:32:39 > 0:32:43And that's what they did. And one of our writers, Steve Skrovan,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46he said, his wife could tell in the middle of a fight.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48He'd get that look in his eyes like...
0:32:48 > 0:32:51And she'd go, "This is not for the show!"
0:32:53 > 0:32:56I wrote a show called Tissues which begins with him
0:32:56 > 0:33:00wanting more control over decision-making in the household,
0:33:00 > 0:33:02and ends with him lighting the kitchen on fire.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Last week I sent you for a simple garden hose,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08you came home with that tiny thing, it's totally useless!
0:33:08 > 0:33:09What?! That's a good hose!
0:33:09 > 0:33:13It's two feet long! The water doesn't even reach the plants!
0:33:13 > 0:33:17You squirt it over there, you use your thumb! That's what people do!
0:33:17 > 0:33:20He finally takes control and does the grocery shopping,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23and brings home these moisturised Kleenex,
0:33:23 > 0:33:25and everybody starts giving him grief about it.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27She can't help but point out "Well,
0:33:27 > 0:33:30"those aren't the ones that we normally buy, but it's fine!"
0:33:30 > 0:33:33He overreacts and starts to make dinner for himself
0:33:33 > 0:33:37while putting the tissues near the stove, which catch on fire.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51And Deborah comes in with the fire extinguisher,
0:33:51 > 0:33:55which is kind of like just this sort of phallic extension of her.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58She sprays the fire.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01I mean, she even like takes over this, you know,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05this man thing and saves the day.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09So, once again, he has no power.
0:34:09 > 0:34:14In this day and age, the man being in control of everything,
0:34:14 > 0:34:20and the decision maker and the rock, is really hard to come by.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22Life has changed.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29Family sitcoms bring up the best issues in life.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31Because they're issues you HAVE to deal with.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35You didn't CHOOSE your family. You GOT your family.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38Yeah, my sister's on drugs. That's OK.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40Some of your family members are messed up too.
0:34:40 > 0:34:41What am I supposed to do?
0:34:41 > 0:34:45Allow these three kids to go to the state, or some foster home,
0:34:45 > 0:34:46or some white couple?
0:34:46 > 0:34:49Now, hold on. This ain't about race. It's not about race.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53I just don't want to hear them talking all proper like that, you know what I'm saying?
0:34:53 > 0:34:57Hey, kids. It's your uncle Bernie!
0:34:57 > 0:35:00AHHHHH!
0:35:00 > 0:35:02What the hell was that?!
0:35:12 > 0:35:15The whole idea of the show. I said, "This is real simple.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19The show is Bernie Mac's taking care of these kids. He sees the kids as terrorists.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Bernie Mac says, "I do not negotiate with terrorists."
0:35:23 > 0:35:24No, boy. Don't flush it!
0:35:24 > 0:35:27HE FLUSHES AHHHH!
0:35:27 > 0:35:30The Bernie Mac Show was appealing because he was so frank
0:35:30 > 0:35:32and he was... His emotions were
0:35:32 > 0:35:36so nakedly laid out there, that your heart just kind of went out to him.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39You keep on talking to me with that attitude, little girl,
0:35:39 > 0:35:44I may not BE your daddy, but I'll whoop your ass just LIKE your daddy.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47And you'll go to jail like you was my daddy too!
0:35:47 > 0:35:49HE BANGS THE DOOR
0:35:49 > 0:35:50SHE BANGS BACK
0:35:50 > 0:35:54I always felt the theme of the show wasn't how hard it is to
0:35:54 > 0:35:56raise kids, but really, the heartache of raising kids.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02The emotional, simple taking care of kids
0:36:02 > 0:36:05was enough to just overwhelm Bernie
0:36:05 > 0:36:09and his world of freedom that he had to give up to do this thing.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15Something is lost for men.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18# They party's over... #
0:36:18 > 0:36:22It's reflected very interestingly on television a lot.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24# It's time to call it a day... #
0:36:24 > 0:36:26Not that I would change the way things have
0:36:26 > 0:36:30gone for women at all in this country, but something has been
0:36:30 > 0:36:33lost for men in terms of what they think their place is.
0:36:33 > 0:36:38It's very complicated to be a man today.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42You can't just come in and read the paper,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45because there's too much to do.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47Who's supposed to do what?
0:36:47 > 0:36:51It's shared responsibility. Everybody's working.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55I'm still expected to work very hard as a father and be a great provider.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57We're expected to participate in a completely
0:36:57 > 0:36:59different way than our fathers did.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04But at the same time, I'm expected to be there for every practice
0:37:04 > 0:37:06and every soccer game.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10And I'm expected to come home and clean up the kitchen.
0:37:10 > 0:37:16Everything is changing and we're on shaky ground, all of us.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20Not even an alternative lifestyle can deliver the contemporary
0:37:20 > 0:37:23primetime male from the uncertainties of his role.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25Oh, Cam!
0:37:25 > 0:37:28- Oh, my God, do you love it? - Yes!
0:37:28 > 0:37:30What the hell is that?
0:37:30 > 0:37:32I had Andre do it while we were gone.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34Is that us, with wings?
0:37:34 > 0:37:37We're floating above her, always there to protect her.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39Well THAT'S reassuring, right, Lily?
0:37:39 > 0:37:42We tore you away from everything you know but don't worry,
0:37:42 > 0:37:45things are normal here, your fathers are floating fairies!
0:37:55 > 0:37:59We wanted to have sort of a gay couple that would read to America
0:37:59 > 0:38:02as being like THEIR mom and dad.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05- In many ways, they're a very traditional couple...- I'm home!
0:38:05 > 0:38:07..Cam and Mitchell.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10Mitchell goes to work. Cam is a stay at home parent.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13But there are a lot of gay couples that are like that.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18I think maybe on the page you could say that Mitchell is the father
0:38:18 > 0:38:21and Cameron is the mother if you had to, like, classify them.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25But that is completely putting them in boxes that they don't deserve to be in.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29- Get in your car and drive away. - Is there a problem here?
0:38:29 > 0:38:30What the hell are you?
0:38:30 > 0:38:34I'm the ass-kicking clown that will twist you like a balloon animal.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37I will beat your head against this bumper until the airbags deploy.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40SO apologise to my boyfriend RIGHT NOW!
0:38:40 > 0:38:43- Apologise? Boyfriend?! - APOLOGISE!
0:38:43 > 0:38:45OK. I'm sorry.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47I'm sorry.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50Cameron will change a diaper just as quickly as he'll kick your butt,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53if he has to.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57When we went first in front of the press, there was
0:38:57 > 0:39:00almost nothing written about, "Oh, it's a gay couple."
0:39:00 > 0:39:03It was, "Oh, they're adopting this baby
0:39:03 > 0:39:05"and does the father accept the baby?"
0:39:05 > 0:39:09You never know if we're a product
0:39:09 > 0:39:13of tastes of the television audience
0:39:13 > 0:39:21or are we in someway shaping the tastes or direction of television.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24That's a tough one.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27Utility poles are used to carry the coaxial cable to the homes
0:39:27 > 0:39:29in the community,
0:39:29 > 0:39:33and connected to the antenna leads of the home owners television set.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38With a notional audience of 300 million to please,
0:39:38 > 0:39:40and with wary advertisers
0:39:40 > 0:39:43and their billion-dollar brands to keep sweet, American networks
0:39:43 > 0:39:48are in the super-tanker league when it comes to changing direction.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53But alongside these lumbering giants swim the small fry of cable TV.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Originally designed to deliver a clear TV signal to rural America,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01cable channels began to get into original programming
0:40:01 > 0:40:03in a big way in the 1990s.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Supported by subscription rather than advertising dollars, they were
0:40:07 > 0:40:12free to probe the darker side of the American male and never more so
0:40:12 > 0:40:15than in a drama that brought a whole new meaning
0:40:15 > 0:40:18to the phrase family values.
0:40:18 > 0:40:19- The Sopranos.- The Sopranos.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21- I loved the Sopranos. - The Sopranos.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23- Tony Soprano.- The Sopranos.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26- The Sopranos. - Yeah, I loved it. Loved it.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28I started watching The Sopranos at a time
0:40:28 > 0:40:32when a situation comedy I had done for ABC had been cancelled.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37When it got cancelled I thought, "I hate television, television sucks,
0:40:37 > 0:40:39"you can't do anything in television," and then I started
0:40:39 > 0:40:45watching The Sopranos, which sort of kind of changed my idea, along
0:40:45 > 0:40:49with a lot of people I believe, in terms of what television could be.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54The original conceptual joke of the Sopranos was...
0:40:54 > 0:40:58- Mr Soprano?- Yeah.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01..there was so much selfishness and me-firstism in America,
0:41:01 > 0:41:03it was making a mobster sick,
0:41:03 > 0:41:05the guy who actually invented me first.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07It was even too much for him.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Any thoughts at all on why you blacked out?
0:41:12 > 0:41:15I don't know. Stress, maybe.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32The Sopranos tells the story of an Italian American mob family.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35But when David Chase sat down to write it,
0:41:35 > 0:41:37he wasn't thinking Vito Corleone,
0:41:37 > 0:41:42he was thinking Ralph Kramden, the godfather of all
0:41:42 > 0:41:45dysfunctional primetime males.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47I knew when I was writing the pilot,
0:41:47 > 0:41:52and even later on, that there were Kramden-esque aspects to Tony.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54Striding around the table bellowing, you know.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56He was filled with self-pity.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58Everyone in that show was filled with self-pity.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01You think my life's a fucking picnic?!
0:42:01 > 0:42:02Oh, poor you.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04Oh, poor you!
0:42:04 > 0:42:06Sucks to be you.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13You could watch that show just as a family drama
0:42:13 > 0:42:17and take all the mob stuff out of it, and it would be as interesting.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20People would say, "So, you know, you're in this mob show," and
0:42:20 > 0:42:23I never thought of it as a mob show.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25I thought of it as, you know, about a family,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27or about a man and his family.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31But what the mob stuff does is it adds that element of urgency
0:42:31 > 0:42:32and life and death.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36And people always get caught up in the mob part of it.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41But the heart of Tony Soprano was your basic, you know,
0:42:41 > 0:42:44family man going through these problems.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55To me, it was about a guy going about his day.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59And his day was waking up, having breakfast with his family,
0:42:59 > 0:43:05going to work, eating, eating, more eating, some more eating
0:43:05 > 0:43:08- and then going to bed. - Remember the first time I came here,
0:43:08 > 0:43:12I said the kind of man I admire is Gary Cooper.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14The strong, silent type.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16And how all Americans, all they're doing is crying
0:43:16 > 0:43:19and confessing and complaining, a bunch of fucking pussies.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Fuck 'em. And now I'm one of 'em, a patient!
0:43:25 > 0:43:31I liked the characters, I liked the tension, the thing
0:43:31 > 0:43:34that at any moment everything can go wrong, and you worry.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37And it's a draw, it pulls you in.
0:43:37 > 0:43:43Those people were murderers, philanderers, cheaters and bores.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47And we loved them, we loved them all, we wanted to tune in each week,
0:43:47 > 0:43:52we watched biting our finger nails wondering what was going to happen.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56- HE GASPS Carm.- What?
0:44:00 > 0:44:02Ms Soprano, come on in.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07We'd done three episodes. And this is the truth, I was already bored.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09It had bothered me that he hadn't killed anybody.
0:44:09 > 0:44:15One of the first and only times that HBO got a little freaked out.
0:44:15 > 0:44:16Oh, my God!
0:44:16 > 0:44:19Tony and Meadow went to look at colleges,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22and Tony whacked that guy.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27- Tony?- Yeah, look, I'll call you back from the motel.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30And it was the first time that HBO said, "Wait a minute.
0:44:30 > 0:44:32"This might just be going too far."
0:44:32 > 0:44:35They said to me, you've created like the most dynamic,
0:44:35 > 0:44:40game-changing character, in the last 20 years of television
0:44:40 > 0:44:43and you're going to kill him right now.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56Good morning, rat.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59I said, "If he doesn't kill that guy, he's ruined."
0:45:03 > 0:45:05I still like him.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07How did they do that?
0:45:07 > 0:45:10You just look at it going, "My God, the things I assumed
0:45:10 > 0:45:12"about what television had to be,
0:45:12 > 0:45:15"maybe aren't necessarily true."
0:45:19 > 0:45:22It seemed to me that in an hour of dramatic television you
0:45:22 > 0:45:26didn't see human beings the way they appear in life.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28I couldn't stand that.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31People in TV, it seemed, always said exactly what was on their mind.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Especially in a family situation. But people don't.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37We all know that, we've all been to Thanksgiving dinner.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40I would say 98% of what Tony said or Christopher
0:45:40 > 0:45:43or Pauly or any of them, was not the truth.
0:45:43 > 0:45:47If Tony says yes, he means no. If he says no, he means yes.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50If Tony says, "No, I'm in a good mood," you know
0:45:50 > 0:45:53somebody's going to go down in about three or four seconds.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55All the stated emotions are fake.
0:45:55 > 0:46:00For a writer, for certain kinds of writers, I guess, that's fun.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06Tony was looking for something bigger. He was looking for meaning.
0:46:06 > 0:46:08And he wasn't finding it.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14Tony Soprano is not just feeling the loss of control of his home,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16and his family.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18He's representative of...
0:46:18 > 0:46:24us all feeling like we've lost control of the entire world.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27It's always what YOU think, isn't it? It's never how I feel.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33Oh, poor you.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43Into the territory opened up by Tony Soprano stepped a very
0:46:43 > 0:46:48different kind of role model. Suave, articulate, good looking
0:46:48 > 0:46:52and super-cool. An alpha-male from a different era
0:46:52 > 0:46:56when being a man was as simple as, "Honey, I'm home."
0:46:56 > 0:47:01But of course on primetime today, nothing's simple anymore.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05There's a shot of the ceiling with the fly trapped in the light.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09And that's been analysed as like, Don has this creative problem
0:47:09 > 0:47:10and he's like a fly trapped in a light.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12That's not what I wanted.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15I wanted to say was, "There's no period here.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18"We still live in those dropped ceilings, the lights look
0:47:18 > 0:47:22"exactly like that, and the fly is not from 1960, it's just a fly."
0:47:23 > 0:47:28Mad Men is about an advertising agency in the early 1960s
0:47:28 > 0:47:33and a kind of archetypical American hero, a person with
0:47:33 > 0:47:36a completely invented identity who was succeeding in this world.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43This man is in a panic inside and he is falling and scared
0:47:43 > 0:47:45and he is out of control.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48But he has the appearance of ultimate confidence.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51My first job, I was in-house at a fur company.
0:47:51 > 0:47:56With this old pro copyrighter, Greek, named Teddy.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01And Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is new.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17My original interest in this character of Don Draper was
0:48:17 > 0:48:22based on people like Lee Iacocca and Sam Walton and Bill Clinton.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24Dick, it's me.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26It's Adam,
0:48:26 > 0:48:28your little brother.
0:48:30 > 0:48:31It's Don.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35And their ability to start in one place, completely hide that
0:48:35 > 0:48:40childhood that was filled with shame, and invent a person.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42That's the American dream.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46He is, at his foundation, lying about who he is.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49And so that affects his day-to-day existence
0:48:49 > 0:48:53and yet he needs to, for his own wellbeing,
0:48:53 > 0:48:57not just personally, but professionally, represent this
0:48:57 > 0:49:03very confident, very forthright, very strong-willed person.
0:49:03 > 0:49:08But as we see, his actual self is very much the opposite of that.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13Teddy told me that in Greek,
0:49:13 > 0:49:17nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound.
0:49:22 > 0:49:28It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32It really for the first time explored that time period
0:49:32 > 0:49:34in a very honest way.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38And has shown it in a gritty way, in a sad way,
0:49:38 > 0:49:44and has really shown that it wasn't all perfect.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48One of the things I love about Don Draper is the tension that
0:49:48 > 0:49:52exists between what he knows he should be and his need to sort
0:49:52 > 0:49:58of, like, just really actively, you know, shit all over that.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Early in the first season, he's out there putting together
0:50:01 > 0:50:04the playhouse for his daughter's birthday.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06But he doesn't feel connected.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11He drinks a bunch of beers in the garage, he sits and smokes
0:50:11 > 0:50:15and drinks and then he goes to get the cake and doesn't come back.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17So it's a man who can't live in his own house,
0:50:17 > 0:50:19he can't be the man of his house.
0:50:25 > 0:50:30Happiness is a fundamental desire in human beings.
0:50:30 > 0:50:35But it has to be earned through a far deeper connection
0:50:35 > 0:50:38with your life and the people in your life.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40It's called a carousel.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48It lets us travel the way a child travels.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54Around and around and back home again...
0:50:59 > 0:51:02..to a place where we know we are loved.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29Good luck at your next meeting.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Pretty much everybody I talk to between the ages of 40 and 60,
0:51:42 > 0:51:44at some point in that area,
0:51:44 > 0:51:47gets into a mode where they just start thinking about everything.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50And where are they and where are they going?
0:51:50 > 0:51:54And did I achieve everything yet?
0:51:54 > 0:51:57And or maybe was that thing I did five years the best it's ever
0:51:57 > 0:51:59going to be for me?
0:52:01 > 0:52:05They don't call it the Y chromosome for nothing.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09But the answers coming from primetime about the dilemmas
0:52:09 > 0:52:13of masculinity have become increasingly extreme.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17For every desperate housewife out there, there's a rogue male
0:52:17 > 0:52:21who can more than match her in the desperation stakes.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30I think when we first meet Walt,
0:52:30 > 0:52:35he is a man who is working very hard to keep his dignity.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38He's living the life that he feels that we all should live.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40Molecules change their bonds.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45Elements, they combine and change into compounds.
0:52:45 > 0:52:51He's making his best effort to be that person, but is he really?
0:52:51 > 0:52:54He's struggling. He has to have two jobs to pay his bills.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58He's got a special needs son who needs expensive therapy
0:52:58 > 0:53:00that's not covered by insurance.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03His wife has an unexpected baby that's due.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07He's not the man of respect that he wishes to be.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09Hey, Mr White!
0:53:10 > 0:53:13Make those tyres shine!
0:53:13 > 0:53:14Oh, my God!
0:53:16 > 0:53:18Mr White.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21Mr White?
0:53:22 > 0:53:24Yes?
0:53:25 > 0:53:28You understand what I've just said to you?
0:53:28 > 0:53:32Yes. Lung cancer. Inoperable.
0:53:32 > 0:53:37After that comes resentment, and comes anger and outrage.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40Fuck you AND your eyebrows!
0:53:42 > 0:53:46That anger that bubbles up in him, leads to this decision.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Yes, yes, it's a stupid idea.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52You want to cook crystal meth?
0:53:53 > 0:53:58Walt decides to use his knowledge of chemistry to cook crystal meth.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01He made this decision, it was a rash decision, it was bold.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11The irony is that it requires bold action behind it.
0:54:11 > 0:54:17And that bold action developed a sense of empowerment for him.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22Adrenaline is pumping in his veins for the first time in two decades.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44Even fear is better than feeling nothing.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58Breaking Bad I love, because it is about a man who has nothing to lose,
0:54:58 > 0:55:02who is just trying to do something good and is digging himself deeper
0:55:02 > 0:55:07and deeper into a hole that seems to be leading straight to disaster.
0:55:12 > 0:55:18He's breathing oxygen, clearly, and he's feeling things.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24That mountain of emotions has been broken.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26That's right.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28Daddy did that.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31The irony is that he's more alive now
0:55:31 > 0:55:34since he received that death sentence than he was before.
0:55:37 > 0:55:38It's mesmerizing.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46The irony of our show is that the one thing that's most
0:55:46 > 0:55:49important to Walter White is family.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52It's what he is ostensibly doing what he does, for.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56He's trying to save his family and yet in the process, he's ruining it.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12- Anything you say, dear. - Atta girl.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15The real role of man of the house
0:56:15 > 0:56:18has changed in a lot of ways from the '50s.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22A lot of us are feeling levels of confusion that we didn't
0:56:22 > 0:56:24feel before.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27When you want TV to be an antidote for that, you still have
0:56:27 > 0:56:29to find ways to reflect it, otherwise,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31it feels like complete fantasy.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35So suddenly it's not relatable anymore if it's not complex.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39It must be very complicated to be a man today.
0:56:39 > 0:56:44Because you are expected to be very sensitive, and respectful,
0:56:44 > 0:56:48and nurturing, and parental.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51But at the same time, you're also still supposed to be,
0:56:51 > 0:56:54you know, the aggressor, in a lot of ways.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57Television now has taken on the role that movies had,
0:56:57 > 0:57:02of actually being more challenging, more psychologically astute.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05Because they're not trying to wrap stories up
0:57:05 > 0:57:08in the framework of 20 something minutes or 46 minutes
0:57:08 > 0:57:12if it's an hour show, instead they're serialising.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16That's what television does best,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20is to present itself in an elongated form.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22TV is becoming literature.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26It's a new page in sort of our sense of what we need from a show.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd