FOX Turns 25

"Class of '96" was a good one-season show, but maybe just because I was leaving college at the time and getting nostalgic.

Also liked Parker Lewis -- very odd TV at a time when nothing else was odd.

Did they do anything about when they snagged the NFL and how that put Fox on the map?

 

They actually did quite a bit on Fox Sports and had a pretty cool segment on all of the great sporting events that happened on Fox. It was very well done.

 

I remember watching the first night Fox was on the air ... I think it was Married With Children and the Tracey Ulman Show, and they aired the first episodes of both two or three times, if I recall correctly. Sort of a precursor to the way cable TV repeats everything.

I've always found it odd that Fox is so conservative, but yet it airs so much non-family-friendly stuff and trashy reality programming, none of which I've ever watched. For a while early on they had a news magazine show called The Reporters, but even that was a lot of trashy, tabloid stuff. Hard to believe a network that has aired so much garbage is still alive.

 

Really? Every network has aired a ton of garbage. And Fox has aired some pretty quality stuff, too. Just like ABC, NBC and CBS. I have no idea what you call the CW these days. Half a network? C? or W?

 

Loved that show.

 

Yeah, I don't think any of the networks are in a position today to claim that their network is on higher ground than any of the others... All have more than their share of shit.

 

It's Garry Shandling's Show and Get a Life were two hilarious shows that were way ahead of their time.

 

Taped this but did not watch it yet. How old school did they go? Fox season one was made up of shows like The Adventures of Beans Baxter, Werewolf, Mr. President, Second Chance, etc. Any love for any of those last night?

 

What they did do for "Cops"? That's the acknowledged father of the modern-age of reality TV. It's interesting story, because it was developed not because Fox had some inkling reality TV would be huge, but because they were trying to find something that didn't require writers and could kill time during a writers' strike.

 

Joe Millionaire was awesome. Hummer in the woods.

 

Any mention of Woops!?

 

It was only two hours long. They tended to make fun of the bigger train wrecks (Chevy Chase Show) and some of the more awful reality stuff (Temptation Island, Joe Millionaire, Good Pets Gone Bad etc...) and Cops is definitely mentioned...

The shows talked about the most were the obvious ones: Simpsons, Family Guy, Married with Children, That 70's Show, Tracy Ullman, X-Files, House, In Living Color, 90210, Ally McBeal, Melrose Place...

Living Single got a lot more attention than I would have expected, but granted, that was on when I was in college and didn't watch much TV, so maybe it was a more popular show than I remember.

I don't think Martin was mentioned, and I remember that being a pretty big hit.