TVSquad

The late eighties and early-to-mid nineties brought out some of the filthiest, bottom-feeding talk shows our country has ever seen. From Morton Downey Jr. and Sally Jesse Raphael to Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, it was the era when "trash TV" became a symbol of a country's swift spiral down one giant cultural toilet in opposition to people like Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, who effortlessly made interviews with, like, Fran Drescher come off looking like Masterpiece Theater.

Around the latter half of the "boom" came Ricki Lake, the formerly obese star of Hairspray (no, seriously, that was basically her résumé), with a show that combined the usual elements of trashy talk (read: "freaks") with something impossibly dumber yet: catchphrases. Unlike today, when it takes weeks to months for squawk-boxes to latch onto cultural buzzwords like "metrosexual" and "baby daddy," Ricki Lake was trotting out episode "subjects" like "You're not all that!" and "Dump that zero and get yourself a hero!"

Naturally, she was a smash.

Feel like reliving your childhood, but just can't find the time? Sony Pictures wants to help. The company is partnering with MySpace to create a Minisode Network that will show brief versions of classic television episodes.

Each minisode will run from 3.5 to five minutes in length. These won't be sets of random clips. Each minisode will tell a complete story. Which is to say, most 22 or 42 minute television episodes you watch probably have a whole lot of fat that could be trimmed without getting in the way of storytelling.

Programs will include Charlie's Angels, T.J. Hooker, and other content from Sony's television library. Interestingly, the project was already in the works when Sony executives saw the popular Seven-Minute Sopranos clip on YouTube.