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Bonus! The time Danny DeVito blew up ABC headquarters (Patreon)

Published:
2026-08-16 16:00:16
Imported:
2026-08
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Content

In the early 1980s, a young actor named Danny DeVito had a grudge against the network ABC, and he settled it the way any reasonable person would: By blowing up ABC headquarters. That started some dominoes falling that would eventually change the face of television, with shows like Cheers, Seinfeld, Frasier, Will & Grace many, many more finding a home on ABC's rival, NBC. For this week's bonus video, the David-and-Goliath story of Danny DeVito versus ABC, and why a pivotal moment in TV history was scrubbed from reruns and streaming platforms.

Backup link to the bonus video: https://youtu.be/dsI61aBMIIE

Files

Bonus! The time Danny DeVito blew up ABC headquarters

In the early 1980s, a young actor named Danny DeVito had a grudge against the network ABC, and he settled it the way any reasonable person would: By blowing up ABC headquarters. That started some dominoes falling that would eventually change the face of television, with shows like Cheers, Seinfeld, Frasier, Will & Grace many, many more. For this week's bonus video, the story of Danny DeVito vs ABC, and why a pivotal moment in TV history was scrubbed from reruns and streaming platforms.

Comments

Leotha Boyd

I liked the Barney Miller episode you did about the two reoccurring gay characters but in season one episode 9 the vigilante you overlooked a bit of tv history. It was a mostly realistic view of a crossdresser in 1970'sNewYork. It was something that has yet to be duplicated or surpassed on any mainstream TV show to this day. The show Barney Miller broke alot of ground in its 8 years on tv but the episode with the crossdresser was a step above. Because it showed the guys in the squad room treating this character like most people would have in the early 70's. But the show didn't make fun of him, or try to turn him into a joke , it was just a straight cider gender man who crossdressed simply because he liked looking pretty. That's an idea that even many of today's shows are having trouble coming to terms with. Especially with everything that's been going on with the transgender community, It's also an important issue the queer community has been trying to deal with going back as far as the early 1920's. It most likely wasn't done on purpose but it was a ground breaking show that took an unblinking view at a part of the queer community that we are still having trouble dealing with, and that's the fact that the queer community dose indeed have straight members. Sorry about the rant but it needed to be said

Patrick R.

2:05 Great Dolly shoutout, Matt!

Trevor MacIsaac

When you look at the legendary cast of Taxi, I do count it as a shame that I wasn't able to watch it in its heyday. It must have really been something. A show I did get to watch as a little kid though, is a show that I think cuts against that conservative wave happening in the early to mid 80s. It was the next big series that Tony Danza starred in and right back on ABC to boot: Who's the Boss. It's about a single mother businesswomen who hires a male single father nanny to care for her son, in a house they share with her sexually liberated mother. It's pretty much tailor-made to rile up conservatives, all you would need is one of the kids to come out and/or Angela (or Tony) to have a Black boyfriend and you would have them in full blown conniption fits. Given the conservatism of the era, I'm surprised that not only did this show make it to air, but that it became as successful as it was, while also still being seen as a family friendly show by my family and so many others. It's actually doubly suprising given the constant sexual tension between Angela and Tony that permeated most episodes as well as grandma Mona vamping it up across the series - neither of which I really understood as a 6 year old, but that I still recognized as some degree of naughtiness.

Delenn Irving

That's so Danny DeVito. "Oh, you're gonna fuck with me and mine? Well, guess what? Kablooey! Hah hahaha! How do you like it, smartass?"

Chris Weakley

I do think SNL's "hipness" hit a major speed bump with the 1980 season that featured an all new cast. Which was pulled just a few months later. Gawd, that thing was a challenge to watch. 2 episodes was all I could take. Luckily, they got SCTV to fill the time slot.

Jim

Thanks. This piece reminds me of the show, Nightcourt. I never really watched Nightcourt, but always caught bits and pieces of it while flipping about. I think it would have helped to be a little stoned in order to appreciate it more.

mattbaume

Yes, all part of the Silverman chaos of the time. What a mess! I can see why Fridays thought they could eat SNL's lunch.

mattbaume

Oh that's interesting -- I'll have to take a closer look at that episode.

Leotha Boyd

A quick note. This is just me ranting about tv shows from my childhood and how they effected me. Who's the boss was a fun show, but it wasn't anything that uncommon. Remember Ginger Roger's did a movie about an unwed. mother, and single parent households were a big thing in the sixty and early 70's, like the courtship of Eddie's father, family affair, my three sons ,banana and the rifteman( which really did break new ground as a tv western) were all shows about single parent homes. Family was a very ground breaking show that came several years before who's the boss, and full house. Ever show that I talked about were big hits at one point in time. If you want to watch shows that would have gotten conservative really upset you'd have to go across the pond to England and shows like keeping up appearances or are you being served. Can you imagine a show in America where a middle aged man could very easily pass as an openly gay man even without saying the words and a middle aged woman constantly talking about her pussy, or a mother talking about her obviously gay son with no idea whatsoever that's he's gay but it being quiet obvious to everyone else that he is. What upsets conservative about tv shows wasn't single family homes vs two parents homes, it's the values the shows promoted. Shows could be liberal they just couldn't be too liberal. Remember Barney Miller had openly queer characters on tv and they got away with it. With American TV it's never about what you do, it's how you do it. Will and Grace was a ground breaking show, but only as long as people thought that will and Grace could possibly get together and will never had an onscreen boyfriend. But like everything it's never has been about what's on the screen it how the viewers connect to it. The same story can and dose convey different meanings to different people. Thanks, because it's always fun seeing how the same show effected different people in quiet different ways and it's always fun talking about tv shows to people who love tv shows.

Tim Meyers

Matt, I think that ‘80s conservative turn would make for a fascinating deep dive (heck maybe even a book 😉). It wasn’t until this video did I realize it was a backlash to “The Rural Purge” a decade earlier.

Trevor Gumbel

I remember seeing this episode on NBC when they used to air classic episodes at like 1 am. And this skit was still in it. It was where I was introduced to the greatness that is Sparks