1989: Pop Goes the Madonna Pepsi Commercial

Premiering at the worst time imaginable, the Kiefer Sutherland drama series 24 re-invents the TV thriller in 2001, against all odds.

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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."

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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.

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In the 1970s, Dick Clark re-invented an annual New Years Eve tradition and owned the holiday for the next 40 years.

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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.

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The end of the late-night Letterman era actually begins 35 years earlier on morning TV.

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It wasn't the first animated holiday special to air on television, but it did become the most enduring and most popular.

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The Top Ten TV Turkeys Ever

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When a satirical (and controversial) 1970 off-Broadway play about the meaning of life comes to TV in 1973, god help PBS.

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