PBS Kids

In the 60 years between 1929, when radio became the dominant conveyor of the prevailing mass culture in the United States (U.S.), and 1989, when cable television became a truly mature industry, broadcasting provided something that was unique in human history. During that period, nearly the entire country—young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated—was feeding, at least occasionally, from the same cultural trough. Radio and television provided a kind of cultural glue; their programs penetrated nearly every segment of the national population to a degree that even the church in medieval Europe had not achieved. The control of the television industry by only three companies had produced, among other things, a unified mass culture, the products of which were experienced by nearly everyone. That era ended, in effect, in the 1990s.

 

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The number of cable services aimed at specific audiences with specialized interests grew at its greatest pace ever during this period, dividing the audience into smaller and smaller segments. Inevitably, the share of that audience held by each of the major networks continued to decline, although each network was still attracting many more viewers than any of the cable channels. Besides the familiar cable services dedicated to news, sports, movies, shopping, and music, entire cable channels were devoted to cooking (Food Network), cartoons (Cartoon Network), old television (Nick at Nite, TV Land), old movies (American Movie Classics, Turner Classic Movies), home improvement and gardening (Home and Garden Television [HGTV]), comedy (Comedy Central), documentaries (Discovery Channel), animals (Animal Planet), and a host of other interests. The Golf Channel and the Game Show Network were perhaps the most emblematic of how far target programming could go during this era. By the end of the decade, almost 80 percent of American households had access to cable programming through cable hookups or direct delivery by satellite. Many had predicted that cable would reduce the number of broadcast networks or put them out of business entirely. On the contrary, broadcast networks proliferated as well during this period, doubling in number from three to six. The Fox network began operation in 1985 with a limited evening schedule, and the repeal of the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules in 1993 set the stage for other production companies to enter the market. Since their inception in 1971, the fin-syn rules had substantially limited the amount of programming that networks could produce or own and therefore sell to local stations for syndicated reruns. As a result, networks would license or “rent” programs from studios and production companies, paying for the right to air the episode twice during the season, after which all rights would revert to the production company, which would in turn sell reruns of the series to individual stations. Once this regulation was eliminated, networks began participating in the production and ownership of programs (as they had before 1971), and, in turn, production companies began forming their own networks. In 1995 two networks were formed that would remain in operation for a decade (ending in 2006, when they would merge into a single network, the CW): the WB, premiered by Warner Bros., and UPN (the United Paramount Network), premiered by Paramount.

 

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The programming of the 1990s is not easily categorized. Many complained about the increasing amount of violence, sex, and profane language on television during the decade. Few would argue the point, but there were also more documentaries, instructional shows, news, and religious programs on TV than ever before. In short, there was more of everything, including reruns of old shows from all eras of network TV history. The family sitcom provides a telling example. Traditional family comedies such as  The Cosby Show, Family Ties and Growing Pains remained on the air into the 1990s, while at the same time more “realistic” shows featuring lower-middle-class families such as Roseanne (ABC, 1988–97), The Simpsons (Fox, begun 1989), Married…with Children (Fox, 1987–97), and Grace Under Fire (ABC, 1993–98) introduced a completely different vision of the American family. The cultural consensus that had united so much of television during the network era had been obliterated. Audiences were no longer watching the same things at the same time, and the choices they had were the greatest ever and continuing to multiply. Many of the decade’s most innovative programs came from cable and the three new networks. Early in its history, the Fox network had established a distinct identity by airing programs that would probably not have found a place on the schedules of ABC, , CBS or NBC. The Simpsons (begun 1989), the first animated prime-time series since The Flintstones (ABC, 1960–66) to succeed in prime time, was Fox’s biggest and longest-running hit and became the longest-running animated program in television history. With its densely packed social satire and self-reflexive references to American popular culture, The Simpsons set a new standard for television comedy, and, by the end of the 1990s, many critics were calling it the best TV comedy in history. The Fox network focused on young audiences, as ABC had done in the late 1970s, with such teen-oriented series as 21 Jump Street (1987–91) and Beverly Hills 90210 (1990–2000), a prime-time soap opera set in the fictional West Beverly Hills High School the inspired the “teensploitation” genre. Among these WB teen series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), Dawson’s Creek (1998–2003), and Felicity (1998–2002) met with surprising critical acclaim. Professional wrestling, which had been a staple genre in the earliest days of television, made a major comeback in the 1990s in syndication and was later picked up by UPN as the first hit for that new network. All three of the newly formed broadcast networks—Fox, the WB, and UPN—depended on these signature shows to differentiate themselves for younger viewers from the old, established networks.

 

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Premiering in 1972, HBO, as its full name, Home Box Office, implied, originally presented uncut and commercial-free movies as its exclusive offering. In the 1980s, however, HBO began to experiment with the original series format. Some of these series, such as the suspense anthology The Hitchhiker (1983–91) and the  sitcom 1st & Ten (1984–90), were of little note save for their adult language and some nudity. Others, such as Tanner ’88 (1988), hinted at the high levels of quality that could be achieved on pay services. Created and produced by comic-strip artist Garry Trudeau and film director Robert Altman, Tanner ’88 satirically followed, documentary-style, a fictional candidate for president. Some of the show was shot on the campaign trail itself, and several real political figures made cameo appearances. HBO moved even farther into its own TV productions in the 1990s. The Larry Sanders Show (1992–98), starring comedian Garry Shandling, did to late-night talk shows what Tanner ’88 had done to political campaigns, to great critical acclaim. Throughout the decade and into the next, HBO presented a range of such adult-oriented, conceptually groundbreaking, and critically well-received series as Oz (1997–2003); The Sopranos (1999–2007); Sex and the City (1998–2004), Six Feet Under (2001–05) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (begun 2000). It is worth noting that HBO was not the only cable service to begin with a very specific product only to later diversify its offerings. This practice, in fact, became the norm for specialized cable channels. For example, as mentioned earlier, MTV, which started out as a 24-hour-a-day music video provider, would eventually introduce specials, documentary series, comedies, game shows, and a wide variety of other program types. Court TV, which was designed as a venue for coverage of significant trials, very early in its history added reruns of crime-oriented movies and old TV series to its schedule. By the end of the 1990s, very few cable channels were still based on the original notion of providing a single type of programming around the clock.

 

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In the arena of regulation, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed as the most comprehensive communications policy since 1934. Described as “deregulatory and re-regulatory,” it continued to encourage free-market competition by eliminating or weakening the industry restraints that were still intact, but it also instituted new rules covering children’s programming and programming with violent and sexually explicit material. The deregulatory aspects of the act included yet another extension of the term of a broadcast license, this time to eight years. Single owners, who had been restricted to 7 TV stations until 1980, 12 in 1985, and 20 in 1994, were now allowed to own an unlimited number of stations as long as the total coverage of those stations did not exceed 35 percent of the total U.S. population. The “duopoly rule,” which forbade any company to own more than one station of its kind (TV, AM radio, FM radio) per market until 1992, was eliminated and replaced by a formula based on the population of the market. The act also allowed networks to own cable companies, and telephone companies could own cable systems in their local service regions, neither of which had been permitted before 1996. The Prime Time Access Rule, which had limited networks to three hours of programming between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm Eastern StStandard Time., was also dropped. Increased sensitivity toward program content, however, resulted in some new regulations. One of Increased sensitivity toward program content, however, resulted in some new regulations. One of these required that stations air at least three hours of children’s educational programming per week. A heightened emphasis on “family values” and a widely held belief that social violence was to some degree being generated by violent content on TV were addressed by the new policy with the introduction of a program ratings code and a requirement that all new television sets be equipped with a violent-program-blocking device known as a V-chip. Ratings codes were required to appear on the screen for 15 seconds at the beginning of each show: TV-Y designated appropriateness for all children; TV-Y7 meant that the show was designed for children age 7 and older; TV-G indicated appropriateness for all audiences; TV-PG suggested parental guidance—that the program contained material that could be considered unsuitable for younger children; TV-14 suggested that many parents might find the program inappropriate for anyone under age 14; and TV-MA warned that the program was designed for adults over age 17.