Behind some of the biggest cultural movements, there’s a television moment that sparked it all. TV ON THE EDGE: MOMENTS THAT SHAPED OUR CULTURE explores and revisits the TV moments that took culture over the edge through the direct lens of the writers and producers behind it all. From Ellen DeGeneres coming out on her sitcom to Kanye’s shocking Katrina outburst, this CNN Original Series unpacks these explosive moments and showcases the power of television, the legacy of these fleeting events and the impact they continue to have on our lives.
DAN QUAYLE VS. MURPHY BROWN
In the midst of the heated 1992 presidential campaign, Vice President Dan Quayle attacks the television show Murphy Brown for its portrayal of single motherhood. Instantly the Bush campaign is catapulted into a national conversation around family values, while the “culture war” playbook is officially born.
OPRAH’S WAGON OF FAT
In 1988, Oprah walks on stage wearing slim size 10 Calvin Klein blue jeans, a black turtleneck and… wheeling 67 pounds of animal fat piled into a Radio Flyer red wagon. The stunt not only reveals how much weight she lost but shines a light on our country’s obsession with fatness proving that diet culture spares no one.
ELLEN COMES OUT
It’s April 30, 1997, and Ellen DeGeneres is about to do something that hasn’t been done before, when the title character of her hit sitcom Ellen comes out on primetime television, right after she comes out in real life. More than 40 million viewers tune in for the big reveal that broke barriers and lit the spark for true gay representation on television for decades to come.
HURRICANE KANYE
After Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans in 2005, Kanye West goes on NBC’s telethon Concert for Hurricane Relief and famously says, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” to a live national audience. This becomes one of the very first viral moments, but more importantly, a spark that galvanized a generation laying the groundwork for the Black Lives Matter movement.
