Get behind the scenes stories and a unique historical perspective of the most influential television shows in history from media professor and former CBS executive Jim McKairnes.
Premiering at the worst time imaginable, the Kiefer Sutherland drama series 24 re-invents the TV thriller in 2001, against all odds.
After 30 years of basically black-and-white storytelling about the (usually) boys in blue, the TV cop drama is re-thought in 1981 as the hard-charging and provocative and messy and multi-threaded "Hill Street Blues."
The facts are sad and the story is tragic. But the tale of Kathy Fiscus is a watershed moment in the history of broadcast journalism.
In the 1970s, Dick Clark re-invented an annual New Years Eve tradition and owned the holiday for the next 40 years.
A class full of 10th graders coming together to write an episode of a TV show? In 1970, it was a holiday treat, with a timely lesson.
The end of the late-night Letterman era actually begins 35 years earlier on morning TV.
It wasn't the first animated holiday special to air on television, but it did become the most enduring and most popular.
The Top Ten TV Turkeys Ever
When a satirical (and controversial) 1970 off-Broadway play about the meaning of life comes to TV in 1973, god help PBS.
Philo Farnsworth makes history when he invents TV, but it takes history for him to see it years later.
That night in April 2013 when the cast of the "Mary Tyler Moore" show stopped in to "Hot In Cleveland" for a hello and final goodbye.
In celebration of "Northern Exposure" on CBS, the one-hour drama that elevated quirkiness to Emmy-winning legacy-creating heights.
After 11 people are killed and 26 injured in a rock-concert stampede, an episode of TV tackles the tragic tale.
When long running hit "The Big Bang Theory" leaves the air in 2019, does it mark the end of the line for the big mass-appeal live-audience TV comedy.
20 years before "Dawson's Creek" and "Party of Five" and "My So-Called Life" a teen-oriented drama dares to present the reality of adolescence. It's a prime-time first.
At the height of a revolution called women's liberation in 1973, a man and a woman met on the tennis court and made TV and social history.
Pop quiz: What happened in the late 1950s that changed TV game-shows forever?
A small dance-show idea in 1960s Chicago yields a national celebration of black music and culture, thanks to Don Cornelius, the man behind "Soul Train."
When the Material Girl Comes to TV in a Soft-Drink Commercial, It Ends Up Being Hard News for the Sponsor to Swallow
When is a football game more than a football game? When its thrilling and historic deciding 65 seconds are cut off for a children's movie.
It was rescued from the ashes of a failed summer pilot; it became one of TV's longest-running most respected sitcoms. A salute to "Barney Miller" and to New York City's finest.
A certain TV movie that airs during a certain time in history makes a certain impact on a certain social issue. "That Certain Summer" raises the bar as it raises awareness.
After nine years and two incarnations, and following two decades of a turbulent marriage for its stars, the curtain comes down forever on Lucy & Desi & Fred & Ethel. The 1950s are over, and a new era begins.
From Bal'more with love and a slightly jaundiced eye comes David Simon's "The Wire" -- considered by many to be the best TV show ever. Here's a looks at how it came about, 18 years ago this summer.
A leading voice of the 1970s women's movement and at the height of her TV fame, Marlo Thomas shrank the powerful and divisive social issue of gender equality to kid-size by starring in and producing "Free to Be ... You and Me." The result was a prime-time success and a landmark media moment.
Against significant odds and following a stumble right out of the gate, FOX TV came out of the 1980s with a plan to become a real and formidable competitor to the three prime-time industry kingpins ABC, CBS. and NBC. It succeeded. This is the story of how.
Eleven seasons, five Best Comedy Emmys, scores of awards for its writing. But one of Modern Family's biggest achievements was its that it presented a longtime gay partnership -- and then marriage -- as just another branch connected to a family tree (albeit one rooted in dysfunction).
It was no surprise to see that director David Fincher, star Kevin Spacey, and Netflix had an ace up their sleeves when they came together to develop "House of Cards" nearly ten years ago. But who foresaw that it would be broadcast TV that would topple as a result?
Once the NFL came to prime-time in the 1970s, the game (and Monday nights) were never the same.
When television realized in the 1970s that black lives matter, it gave us tons of so-called black sitcoms. But it gave us only one classic -- "The Jeffersons," which ended up being much much more.
When ABC unveiled the new drama "Lost" in the Fall of 2004, it introduced a new kind of TV drama, based on an experience rather than a job or a person or a city. And it used the new space known as social media for it to live in. It became a huge hit for the network, with scores of viewers getting lost in it with each week's new mysteries and explorations.
Fred Silverman was likely the first TV programmer who became a TV star as a result. Here's how the man behind every show you watched in the 70s -- and many of the ones you watched in the decades since -- changed television.
An accident of fate leads to the creation of one of themes successful ad campaigns in media history, leading to and playing a role in a generational movement.
NBC set about fixing a problem it had with Jay Leno not too long ago by making it much much worse -- and not just for itself or for Leno. The result is a costly mistake and one of the network's darker, sadder, sillier chapters.
In the early 90s, producer Steven Bochco was determined that the slowly evolving TV industry hurry up with its plans to *grow* up. He finally forced its hand with broadcast television's first adults-only drama.
Big cities and young people were where it was at in early 1970s TV, dig? Both on screen and off. So CBS, for one, dug up all its hits shows and got rid of them, because they were attracting the wrong audience. Fifty years later, it's still known as The Rural Purge.
In 1977, NBC had an idea to make Richard Pryor a weekly TV star. Then ... re-thought it. (So did Pryor.)
In April of 1999, the news about the Columbine massacre spread throughout Hollywood and changed TV in the process, if only for a bit. One executive didn't get the memo.
It takes a special kind of bad luck, bad fortune, or bad idea for a TV series to be cancelled after just one airing. Here's a look at a handful who make the DisHonor Roll.
The object of imagination and experimentation and litigation for decades before its public presentation at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, television becomes official in July of 1941 when it airs the first official TV commercial.
In the world of television, there are good shows, there are bad shows, and there are fiascos. "Pink Lady and Jeff" is a 1980 variety series that stands out as one of the worst things ever put on the air. (Spoiler Alert: When staring in an American TV series, it usually helps to speak English.)
Discovered at 19, a rising and wild popular primetime sitcom lead over the next three years, Freddie Prinze was apparently a celebrity conflicted by success. The conflict lead to a dark night of depression -- and a gun -- in January 1977.
A long time ago in a TV galaxy far away, the reigning host of NBC's Tonight Show (Jack Parr) told a joke about a toilet that got network censors so nervous they deleted it without telling the host. The next night, he quit on the air.
When HBO's The Sopranos aired its final episode, it left fans scrambling for answers about what. just. happened. And 13 years later they still are. How have other TV shows made their own farewells through the years?
In the fall of 1975, NBC took a chance on an unproven producer, an unproven cast, and an unproven idea. Live comedy in late-night would never been the same. Especially after Richard Pryor came by.
The 2004 Super Bowl led to a super mess for the TV biz when a flash of breast was milked for a decade's worth of controversy.
As the explosive 1960s came to an end, there was only one way up for TV: Grown up.
Can a movie-of-the-week change the television industry and shake Capitol Hill in the process? This one did. And the effects are still being felt. It's part of a 60-year discussion about the effects of TV violence.
Where there’s a Will & Grace, there’s a way for every possible old TV series to get a dusting off and revival. But remaking old cancelled shows with the same cast isn’t necessarily a new thing. The question might be: Is it a thing that anyone is really looking for?
Back in the mid-to-late 1970s, two things in particular got TV shows on the air — and, more important TV viewers to it.
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