Quality television
Encyclopedia
Quality television is a term used by television scholars
, television critics
, and broadcasting advocacy groups to describe a genre
or style of television program
ming that they argue is of higher quality, due to its subject matter, style, or content. For several decades after World War II
, television that was deemed to be "quality television" was mostly associated with government-funded public television networks ; however, with the development of cable TV network specialty channel
s in the 1980s and 1990s, US cable channels such as HBO made a number of television shows that some television critics argued were "quality television", such as The Sopranos
.
Claims that some television programs are of higher quality include a number of subjective evaluations and value judgements. For example, Kristin Thompson's claim that "quality television" programs include "...a quality pedigree
, a large ensemble cast
, a series memory, creation of a new genre
through recombination of older ones, self-consciousness, and pronounced tendencies toward the controversial and the realistic" includes a number of subjective evaluations. The criteria for "quality television" set out by the US group Viewers For Quality Television ("A quality show is something we anticipate...[it] focuses more on relationships...[and] explores character, it enlightens, challenges, involves and confronts the viewer; it provokes thought...") also require a number of subjective evaluations.
and The Sopranos
. Kristin Thompson argues that some of these television series exhibit traits also found in art film
s, such as psychological realism, narrative complexity, and ambiguous plotlines. Nonfiction television programs that some television scholars and broadcasting advocacy groups argue are "quality television" include a range of serious, noncommercial programming aimed at a niche audience, such as documentaries
and public affairs shows.
in the 1950s, there had been complex dramas in the form of live anthology series each week such as Playhouse 90
, Kraft Television Theater, Studio One, Goodyear Television Playhouse
, and other such shows featuring talented writers along the lines of Rod Serling
and Paddy Chayefsky
who wrote stories about the human condition often through a dark eye and cynical and ironic outlook on life and social issues. These were live dramas broadcast for New York City
52 weeks with no hiatus, and such shows faded out of existence more and more with television dramas now being filmed in Los Angeles, California
. However the essence and format of these dramas continued in the form of filmed anthology dramas such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents
, The Twilight Zone
, and the Walt Disney anthology television series. With anthology series now being filmed in Los Angeles, these shows were broadcast for 39 weeks with a hiatus in the summer.
The 1960s and 1970s gave rise to two complex narrative formats which would come to dominate the American television landscape decades later. The primetime serial (radio and television)
with Peyton Place
based on the Grace Metalious novel and the hit movie of the same name starring Lana Turner. It was the first American television series to feature a frank discussion of sexuality in dramatic storylines. And also was the first primetime series to adopt a more serialized character driven approach to storytelling more often seen on daytime soap opera
s as opposed to the typical primetime series of the era which had a more episodic plot driven nature.
The Fugitive
was the first to introduce the concept of story arc
and character arc
, in spite of the show's episodic nature, with David Janssen
playing Dr. Richard Kimball, a man on the run to prove his innocence and to reveal the one armed was in fact his wife's killer. This led to a huge showdown in the final episode which resulted the broadcast being one the most watched television programs of all time and the concept of a series finale
becoming popular ratings grabbers instead of the previous method of using a clip show
as a final episode. The Fugive also spawned a feature film starring Harrison Ford
and Tommy Lee Jones
along with a short remake of the series starring Timothy Daly
.
Battlestar Galactica
was perhaps one of the first dramatic series on American television to delve into a show mythology, long before Twin Peaks
, Babylon 5
, The X-Files
, or Lost
which involved mixing both serialized and episodic narratives in a regular television series. The premise involved a rag tag fleet of survivors from the now destroyed Twelve Colonies of Man fleeing an attack from a destructive cybernetic race called The Cylons, hoping for a utopian thirteenth colony called Earth
. The series starred Lorne Greene
of Bonanza
fame. The series was cancelled after one season due to rising budget costs yet spawned Galactica 1980
a year later, and a reimagined version of the series on The Sci Fi Channel
which garnered more recognition, critical acclaim, and a longer run than the original series or Galactica 1980 put together. By this time, television series were 26 weeks a season with hiatuses now in both the summer and winter.
In the 1980s, both serials and story arcs made a comeback with hit primetime soaps Dallas
, its spinoff Knots Landing
, and their sister show Falcon Crest
(all three series were produced at Lorimar) along with the Aaron Spelling
produced Dynasty
in spite of their mass appeal, campy nature, and sensationalism, these shows prompted more and more primetime dramas to use the serial format. Among these were dramas such as the Steven Bochco
produced shows Hill Street Blues
, St. Elsewhere
, L.A. Law
, and later NYPD Blue
among other 1990s dramas. These latter dramas were known for their deep characterization and multiple narrative threads. These serialized dramas without the melodramatic trappings of a soap opera, helped popularize the term story arc.
In the 1990s and 2000s, a new model of television storytelling began being used in some US television programs such as Oz
and The Sopranos
, and later on with shows such as The Wire
and Six Feet Under for HBO which adopted a business model of producing 13 week dramas over the course of five years or so. This was a marked departure from traditional network dramas which would start with thirteen episodes at the beginning of the season with another back nine episodes to finish the season, and allowed these cable dramas to have a shot at succeeding by not cancelling them within a year and cancelling before they lasted a decade, moving past their prime. These shows were darker and occasionally more graphic than the typical network drama, establishing dramatic television on cable as a solid alternative to network television.
, says quality television has the following characteristics: It must break the established rules of television and be like nothing that has come before. Is is produced by people of quality aesthetic ancestry, who have honed their skills in other areas, particularly film. It attracts a quality audience. It succeeds against the odds, after initial struggles. It has large ensemble cast which allows for multiple plot lines. It has memory, referring back to previous episodes and seasons in the development of plot. It defies genre classification. It tends to be literary. It contains sharp social and cultural criticisms with cultural references and allusions to popular culture. It tends toward the controversial. It aspires toward realism. Finally, it is recognised and appreciated by critics, with awards and critical acclaim.
Paul Buhle
’s review of Quality Popular Television states that “high-culture critics almost uniformly considered films to be dreck until television—when they enshrined the cinema auteur
. At the next stage...some television... [programs were] accorded the status of "art."” Some British professors and television writers argue that US television programming includes a number of quality shows. In April 2004, Dr Janet McCabe (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Kim Akass (Manchester Metropolitan University) organized a conference on “American Quality Television” to examine the “particular strand of American television known as Quality TV” (e.g., St Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, thirtysomething, Twin Peaks, the X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ER, The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under).
The BBC
’s television listings magazine, Radio Times had an article in 2002 which asked ‘Why can’t Britain’s long-running dramas be more like America’s?’. David Gritten argued that the "...cream of American TV now stands for real quality", because US television dramas have "...the edge in portraying a broad gamut of human experience" and they are "...fast-paced, complex, smart and beautifully written."
Kristin Thompson
in Storytelling in Film and Television, argues that US television shows such as David Lynch
's Twin Peaks
series have "...a loosening of causality, a greater emphasis on psychological or anecdotal realism, violations of classical clarity of space and time, explicit authorial comment, and ambiguity." Thompson claims that series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos
, and The Simpsons
"...have altered long-standing notions of closure and single authorship", which means that "...television has wrought its own changes in traditional narrative form." Other television shows that have been called "art television," such as The Simpsons
, use a "...flurry of cultural references, intentionally inconsistent characterization, and considerable self-reflexivity about television conventions and the status of the programme as a television show." Kristin Thompson compares David Lynch
's film Blue Velvet and the television series Twin Peaks
and "...asks whether there can be an "art television" comparable to the more familiar "art cinema
." An art film is a typically a serious, noncommercial, independently made film that is aimed at a niche audience, rather than a mass audience. Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an “art film” using a “...canon of films and those formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films.” Jason Mittell
, an associate professor of American studies and film and media culture at Middlebury College
, notes that many of the innovative television programs of the past twenty years have come from creators who launched their careers in film, a medium with more traditional cultural cachet," such as David Lynch
, Barry Levinson
, Aaron Sorkin
, Joss Whedon
, Alan Ball
, and J. J. Abrams
.
was formed in the 1980s to encourage the production and broadcasting of shows that the group argued were "quality television". The group polls their membership and builds consensus through a monthly newsletter. The group's founder Dorothy Swanson argued that "A quality show is something we anticipate before and savor after. It focuses more on relationships than situations; it explores character, it enlightens, challenges, involves and confronts the viewer; it provokes thought and is remembered tomorrow. A quality show colors life in shades of grey."
The group supported comedy shows such as Frank's Place
, Designing Women
, or Brooklyn Bridge
, and dramas such as ER
, Murder One
or NYPD Blue
. The group's annual rankings were monitored by broadcast industry executives, as the rankings showed the preferences of the so-called "high demographic" programming that appeals to university-educated, higher-income television viewers, a niche audience
that is sought out by advertisers.
As television shows become increasingly popular as DVD rentals and purchases, media industries are trying to increase the “rewatchability” of programs. If a television program has a simple plot that can be understood in a single viewing, viewers will be less likely to want to purchase a DVD recordings of this television show. However, if a show as a complex narrative construction and richly detailed content, viewers will be more inclined to want to "rewatch episodes or segments to parse out complex moments."
As well, the "...rise of narrative complexity has also seen the rise in amateur television criticism, as sites like televisionwithoutpity.com have emerged to provide thoughtful and humorous commentaries on weekly episodes." According to Steven Johnson, narratively complex television shows provide viewers with a "cognitive workout" that can help to increase their "...problem-solving and observational" skills.
s from the 1950s and 1960s tackled a range of controversial subjects, yet still managed to garner large audiences. These televised plays were regarded as a benchmark of high-quality British television drama, part of what some television historians refer to as the "golden age" of British television. British television drama writer John Hopkins
has been noted for “...successful[ly] pioneering...the short series for serious drama,” which “...established an important precedent in Britain” and served as a model for subsequent television writers such as Dennis Potter
and Alan Bleasdale
.
The UK's National Film and Television School
(NFTS), which teaches creative and commercial skills, notes the "... tension which has given us popular cinema, serious as well as entertaining television, and allowed both media to become art forms in their own right." The UK public broadcaster-produced series' The Jewel in the Crown and Brideshead Revisited
"...came to represent the "acme of British quality" and the Jewel in the Crown was "...held up as the epitome of excellence" and described as the "title everyone reaches for when asked for a definition of 'quality television'".
The Arts Council of England's event Day of British Film states that the council's "top priority is to make strategic interventions in programme-making for network television broadcast... by co-producing "...programmes made by independent producers with television partners." The Art Film Festival examined television issues such as "Short-length programming: art in the age of satellite television", which examines "...ways in which contemporary, often aesthetically difficult work can be presented on network television in ways that are innovative but accessible." Kristin Thompson argues that a show from the British public broadcaster
, The Singing Detective
, has what she defines as "art television" aspects similar to those that she finds in Lynch's Twin Peaks
series
Dr. David Lavery, the Chair in Film and Television at Brunel University
(in London) has written a number of articles and book chapters on television that he argues is "quality television." He co-edited Twin Peaks in the Rearview Mirror: Appraisals and Reappraisals of the Show That Was Supposed to Change TV and wrote “Quirky Quality TV: Revisiting Northern Exposure.” (from Critical Studies in Television 1.2 (Autumn 2006): 34-38). In April 2004, Dr Janet McCabe and Kim Akass organized a conference on “American Quality Television” (described above in the section on the US) and have recently published a book 'Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond' (November 2007, I.B. Tauris). This collection is part of their Reading Contemporary Television series and, along with their contributors, they discuss various definitions of Quality TV.
Unlike the above-cited scholars, who discuss the contributions made by fictional television programs that they deem to be "quality television", Dieter Daniels argues that there "...is no form of high television culture that could be seen as a lasting cultural asset to be preserved for future generations", except for the "music clip." Daniels' article Television—Art or Anti-art? states the music clips (e.g., music video
s) that "have emerged since the 1980s" have "...attracted accolades in the context of art and become part of museum collections", and that they "...are often seen as a continuation of the 1920s avant-garde absolute films."
, are both modeled on the UK broadcasting system and its use of a government-funded public broadcaster. In addition, the Canadian broadcasting system is influenced by the US broadcasting system. Most Canadians receive a number of US channels, either through over-the-air broadcasting (e.g., in border cities such as Windsor) or in cable TV packages. As well, Canadian commercial broadcasters' schedules are dominated by popular US shows.
Shows deemed to be "quality television" in Canada are usually produced and broadcast by the public broadcaster (CBC) or by the provincial educational broadcasters, such as Ontario's TVO
, Saskatchewan's SCN
, the BC Knowledge, and Quebec's Télé-Québec
.
The ACT "statement of quality" provided the foundation for the Children’s Television Charter, which is currently being ratified by governments and broadcasters around the world. ACT argues that "quality television is television deemed excellent in both form and content, geared to the needs and expectations of its target viewers while meeting recognized industry standards." Furthermore, the organization claims that "the content of programs should be relevant and entertaining, stimulate the intellect and the imagination, and foster openness toward others. It should also be an accurate reflection of the world in which children grow up, respecting their dignity and promoting learning."
Television studies
Television studies is an academic discipline that deals with critical approaches to television. Usually, it is distinguished from mass-communication research, which tends to approach the topic from an empirical perspective...
, television critics
Television criticism
Television criticism is the act of writing or speaking about television programming with a view to evaluating its worth, meaning and other aspects....
, and broadcasting advocacy groups to describe a genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
or style of television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
ming that they argue is of higher quality, due to its subject matter, style, or content. For several decades after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, television that was deemed to be "quality television" was mostly associated with government-funded public television networks ; however, with the development of cable TV network specialty channel
Specialty channel
A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
s in the 1980s and 1990s, US cable channels such as HBO made a number of television shows that some television critics argued were "quality television", such as The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
.
Claims that some television programs are of higher quality include a number of subjective evaluations and value judgements. For example, Kristin Thompson's claim that "quality television" programs include "...a quality pedigree
Pedigree chart
A pedigree chart is a diagram that shows the occurrence and appearance or phenotypes of a particular gene or organism and its ancestors from one generation to the next, most commonly humans, show dogs, and race horses....
, a large ensemble cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
, a series memory, creation of a new genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
through recombination of older ones, self-consciousness, and pronounced tendencies toward the controversial and the realistic" includes a number of subjective evaluations. The criteria for "quality television" set out by the US group Viewers For Quality Television ("A quality show is something we anticipate...[it] focuses more on relationships...[and] explores character, it enlightens, challenges, involves and confronts the viewer; it provokes thought...") also require a number of subjective evaluations.
Fictional and non-fictional "quality television"
Fictional television programs that some television scholars and broadcasting advocacy groups argue are "quality television" include series such as Twin PeaksTwin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
and The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
. Kristin Thompson argues that some of these television series exhibit traits also found in art film
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
s, such as psychological realism, narrative complexity, and ambiguous plotlines. Nonfiction television programs that some television scholars and broadcasting advocacy groups argue are "quality television" include a range of serious, noncommercial programming aimed at a niche audience, such as documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
and public affairs shows.
Narrative complexity in American television drama
At the dawn of the medium and in the Golden Age of TelevisionGolden Age of Television
The Golden Age of Television in the United States began sometime in the late 1940s and extended to the late 1950s or early 1960s.-Evolutions of drama on television:...
in the 1950s, there had been complex dramas in the form of live anthology series each week such as Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
, Kraft Television Theater, Studio One, Goodyear Television Playhouse
Goodyear Television Playhouse
The Goodyear Television Playhouse produced live television dramas from 1951 to 1957 during the "Golden Age of Television".Sponsored by Goodyear, the hour-long anthology series was telecast Sundays at 9pm on NBC...
, and other such shows featuring talented writers along the lines of Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
and Paddy Chayefsky
Paddy Chayefsky
Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky , was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for Best Screenplay....
who wrote stories about the human condition often through a dark eye and cynical and ironic outlook on life and social issues. These were live dramas broadcast for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
52 weeks with no hiatus, and such shows faded out of existence more and more with television dramas now being filmed in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. However the essence and format of these dramas continued in the form of filmed anthology dramas such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
, The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
, and the Walt Disney anthology television series. With anthology series now being filmed in Los Angeles, these shows were broadcast for 39 weeks with a hiatus in the summer.
The 1960s and 1970s gave rise to two complex narrative formats which would come to dominate the American television landscape decades later. The primetime serial (radio and television)
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
with Peyton Place
Peyton Place (TV series)
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...
based on the Grace Metalious novel and the hit movie of the same name starring Lana Turner. It was the first American television series to feature a frank discussion of sexuality in dramatic storylines. And also was the first primetime series to adopt a more serialized character driven approach to storytelling more often seen on daytime soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s as opposed to the typical primetime series of the era which had a more episodic plot driven nature.
The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
was the first to introduce the concept of story arc
Story arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
and character arc
Character arc
A character arc is the status of the character as it unfolds throughout the story, the storyline or series of episodes. Characters begin the story with a certain viewpoint and, through events in the story, that viewpoint changes. A character arc generally only affects the main character in a...
, in spite of the show's episodic nature, with David Janssen
David Janssen
David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...
playing Dr. Richard Kimball, a man on the run to prove his innocence and to reveal the one armed was in fact his wife's killer. This led to a huge showdown in the final episode which resulted the broadcast being one the most watched television programs of all time and the concept of a series finale
Series finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
becoming popular ratings grabbers instead of the previous method of using a clip show
Clip show
A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicted with a clip of the event presented as a flashback. ...
as a final episode. The Fugive also spawned a feature film starring Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
and Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
along with a short remake of the series starring Timothy Daly
Timothy Daly
James Timothy "Tim" Daly is an American stage, screen and voice actor, director and producer. He is best known for his television role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and for his voice role as Superman/Clark Kent in Superman: The Animated Series, as well as his recurring role of the...
.
Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica TV series in 1978, and was followed by a brief sequel TV series in 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games...
was perhaps one of the first dramatic series on American television to delve into a show mythology, long before Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
, Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
, The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
, or Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
which involved mixing both serialized and episodic narratives in a regular television series. The premise involved a rag tag fleet of survivors from the now destroyed Twelve Colonies of Man fleeing an attack from a destructive cybernetic race called The Cylons, hoping for a utopian thirteenth colony called Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. The series starred Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green, OC, a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction movie and subsequent TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
of Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
fame. The series was cancelled after one season due to rising budget costs yet spawned Galactica 1980
Galactica 1980
Galactica 1980 is a science fiction television series, and a spin-off from the 1978–1979 series Battlestar Galactica. It was first broadcast on the ABC network in the United States from January 27 to May 4, 1980.-Development:...
a year later, and a reimagined version of the series on The Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
which garnered more recognition, critical acclaim, and a longer run than the original series or Galactica 1980 put together. By this time, television series were 26 weeks a season with hiatuses now in both the summer and winter.
In the 1980s, both serials and story arcs made a comeback with hit primetime soaps Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
, its spinoff Knots Landing
Knots Landing
Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle...
, and their sister show Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced....
(all three series were produced at Lorimar) along with the Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
produced Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
in spite of their mass appeal, campy nature, and sensationalism, these shows prompted more and more primetime dramas to use the serial format. Among these were dramas such as the Steven Bochco
Steven Bochco
Steven Ronald Bochco is a US television producer and writer. He has developed a number of popular television hits including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, as well as some notable flops such as Cop Rock....
produced shows Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
, St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
, L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
, and later NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
among other 1990s dramas. These latter dramas were known for their deep characterization and multiple narrative threads. These serialized dramas without the melodramatic trappings of a soap opera, helped popularize the term story arc.
In the 1990s and 2000s, a new model of television storytelling began being used in some US television programs such as Oz
Oz (TV series)
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...
and The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, and later on with shows such as The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
and Six Feet Under for HBO which adopted a business model of producing 13 week dramas over the course of five years or so. This was a marked departure from traditional network dramas which would start with thirteen episodes at the beginning of the season with another back nine episodes to finish the season, and allowed these cable dramas to have a shot at succeeding by not cancelling them within a year and cancelling before they lasted a decade, moving past their prime. These shows were darker and occasionally more graphic than the typical network drama, establishing dramatic television on cable as a solid alternative to network television.
Scholars and Authors on Quality Television in the United States
Robert Thompson (professor)Robert Thompson (professor)
Robert J. Thompson is an American educator and media scholar.Thompson is the Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the S.I...
, says quality television has the following characteristics: It must break the established rules of television and be like nothing that has come before. Is is produced by people of quality aesthetic ancestry, who have honed their skills in other areas, particularly film. It attracts a quality audience. It succeeds against the odds, after initial struggles. It has large ensemble cast which allows for multiple plot lines. It has memory, referring back to previous episodes and seasons in the development of plot. It defies genre classification. It tends to be literary. It contains sharp social and cultural criticisms with cultural references and allusions to popular culture. It tends toward the controversial. It aspires toward realism. Finally, it is recognised and appreciated by critics, with awards and critical acclaim.
Paul Buhle
Paul Buhle
Paul Merlyn Buhle is a Senior Lecturer at Brown University, author or editor of 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series of nonfiction comic art volumes. He is the authorized biographer of C. L. R...
’s review of Quality Popular Television states that “high-culture critics almost uniformly considered films to be dreck until television—when they enshrined the cinema auteur
Auteur theory
In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur"...
. At the next stage...some television... [programs were] accorded the status of "art."” Some British professors and television writers argue that US television programming includes a number of quality shows. In April 2004, Dr Janet McCabe (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Kim Akass (Manchester Metropolitan University) organized a conference on “American Quality Television” to examine the “particular strand of American television known as Quality TV” (e.g., St Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, thirtysomething, Twin Peaks, the X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ER, The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under).
The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
’s television listings magazine, Radio Times had an article in 2002 which asked ‘Why can’t Britain’s long-running dramas be more like America’s?’. David Gritten argued that the "...cream of American TV now stands for real quality", because US television dramas have "...the edge in portraying a broad gamut of human experience" and they are "...fast-paced, complex, smart and beautifully written."
Kristin Thompson
Kristin Thompson
Kristin Thompson is an American film theorist and author whose research interests include the close formal analysis of films, the history of film styles, and "quality television", a genre akin to art film. She wrote two scholarly books in the 1980s which used an analytical technique called...
in Storytelling in Film and Television, argues that US television shows such as David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
series have "...a loosening of causality, a greater emphasis on psychological or anecdotal realism, violations of classical clarity of space and time, explicit authorial comment, and ambiguity." Thompson claims that series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, and The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
"...have altered long-standing notions of closure and single authorship", which means that "...television has wrought its own changes in traditional narrative form." Other television shows that have been called "art television," such as The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, use a "...flurry of cultural references, intentionally inconsistent characterization, and considerable self-reflexivity about television conventions and the status of the programme as a television show." Kristin Thompson compares David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's film Blue Velvet and the television series Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
and "...asks whether there can be an "art television" comparable to the more familiar "art cinema
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
." An art film is a typically a serious, noncommercial, independently made film that is aimed at a niche audience, rather than a mass audience. Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an “art film” using a “...canon of films and those formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films.” Jason Mittell
Jason Mittell
Jason Mittell is an associate professor of American studies and film and media culture at Middlebury College whose research interests include the history of television, media, culture, and new media. He is author of two books, Genre and Television and Television and American Culture...
, an associate professor of American studies and film and media culture at Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
, notes that many of the innovative television programs of the past twenty years have come from creators who launched their careers in film, a medium with more traditional cultural cachet," such as David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
, Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
, Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
, Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
, Alan Ball
Alan Ball (screenwriter)
Alan E. Ball is an American writer, director, actor and producer for film, theatre and television.-Early life:Ball was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Frank and Mary Ball, an aircraft inspector and a homemaker...
, and J. J. Abrams
J. J. Abrams
Jeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams is an American film and television producer, screenwriter, director, actor, and composer. He wrote and produced feature films before co-creating the television series Felicity...
.
Viewers for Quality Television
In the US, an organization called Viewers For Quality TelevisionViewers For Quality Television
Viewers for Quality Television was an American nonprofit organization founded in 1984 to advocate network television series that members of the organization voted to be of the "highest quality." The group's goal was to rescue "...critically acclaimed programs from cancellation despite their...
was formed in the 1980s to encourage the production and broadcasting of shows that the group argued were "quality television". The group polls their membership and builds consensus through a monthly newsletter. The group's founder Dorothy Swanson argued that "A quality show is something we anticipate before and savor after. It focuses more on relationships than situations; it explores character, it enlightens, challenges, involves and confronts the viewer; it provokes thought and is remembered tomorrow. A quality show colors life in shades of grey."
The group supported comedy shows such as Frank's Place
Frank's Place
Frank's Place is an American comedy-drama series which aired on CBS for 22 episodes during the 1987-1988 television schedule. The series was created by Hugh Wilson and executive produced by Wilson and series star Tim Reid.-Plot:Set in New Orleans, Frank's Place chronicles the life of Frank Parrish...
, Designing Women
Designing Women
Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...
, or Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...
, and dramas such as ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, Murder One
Murder One (TV series)
Murder One is an American legal drama series that first aired on the ABC network in the United States in 1995. The series was created by Steven Bochco, Charles H. Eglee, and Channing Gibson.-Premise:...
or NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
. The group's annual rankings were monitored by broadcast industry executives, as the rankings showed the preferences of the so-called "high demographic" programming that appeals to university-educated, higher-income television viewers, a niche audience
Niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact...
that is sought out by advertisers.
As television shows become increasingly popular as DVD rentals and purchases, media industries are trying to increase the “rewatchability” of programs. If a television program has a simple plot that can be understood in a single viewing, viewers will be less likely to want to purchase a DVD recordings of this television show. However, if a show as a complex narrative construction and richly detailed content, viewers will be more inclined to want to "rewatch episodes or segments to parse out complex moments."
As well, the "...rise of narrative complexity has also seen the rise in amateur television criticism, as sites like televisionwithoutpity.com have emerged to provide thoughtful and humorous commentaries on weekly episodes." According to Steven Johnson, narratively complex television shows provide viewers with a "cognitive workout" that can help to increase their "...problem-solving and observational" skills.
UK "quality television"
In the UK, television playTelevision play
From the 1950s until the early 1980s, the television play was a popular television programming genre in the United Kingdom, with a shorter span in the United States. The genre was often associated with the social realist-influenced British drama style known as "kitchen sink realism", which depicted...
s from the 1950s and 1960s tackled a range of controversial subjects, yet still managed to garner large audiences. These televised plays were regarded as a benchmark of high-quality British television drama, part of what some television historians refer to as the "golden age" of British television. British television drama writer John Hopkins
John Hopkins (writer)
John Richard Hopkins was an English film, stage, and television writer.Born in southwest London, he graduated from St Catharine's College, Cambridge...
has been noted for “...successful[ly] pioneering...the short series for serious drama,” which “...established an important precedent in Britain” and served as a model for subsequent television writers such as Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
and Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...
.
The UK's National Film and Television School
National Film and Television School
The National Film and Television School was established in 1971 and is based at Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and it is located close to Pinewood Studios.-History:...
(NFTS), which teaches creative and commercial skills, notes the "... tension which has given us popular cinema, serious as well as entertaining television, and allowed both media to become art forms in their own right." The UK public broadcaster-produced series' The Jewel in the Crown and Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...
"...came to represent the "acme of British quality" and the Jewel in the Crown was "...held up as the epitome of excellence" and described as the "title everyone reaches for when asked for a definition of 'quality television'".
The Arts Council of England's event Day of British Film states that the council's "top priority is to make strategic interventions in programme-making for network television broadcast... by co-producing "...programmes made by independent producers with television partners." The Art Film Festival examined television issues such as "Short-length programming: art in the age of satellite television", which examines "...ways in which contemporary, often aesthetically difficult work can be presented on network television in ways that are innovative but accessible." Kristin Thompson argues that a show from the British public broadcaster
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective is a BBC television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, which stars Michael Gambon, and was directed by Jon Amiel. The six episodes were "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It"....
, has what she defines as "art television" aspects similar to those that she finds in Lynch's Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
series
Dr. David Lavery, the Chair in Film and Television at Brunel University
Brunel University
Brunel University is a public research university located in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom. The university is named after the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel....
(in London) has written a number of articles and book chapters on television that he argues is "quality television." He co-edited Twin Peaks in the Rearview Mirror: Appraisals and Reappraisals of the Show That Was Supposed to Change TV and wrote “Quirky Quality TV: Revisiting Northern Exposure.” (from Critical Studies in Television 1.2 (Autumn 2006): 34-38). In April 2004, Dr Janet McCabe and Kim Akass organized a conference on “American Quality Television” (described above in the section on the US) and have recently published a book 'Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond' (November 2007, I.B. Tauris). This collection is part of their Reading Contemporary Television series and, along with their contributors, they discuss various definitions of Quality TV.
Unlike the above-cited scholars, who discuss the contributions made by fictional television programs that they deem to be "quality television", Dieter Daniels argues that there "...is no form of high television culture that could be seen as a lasting cultural asset to be preserved for future generations", except for the "music clip." Daniels' article Television—Art or Anti-art? states the music clips (e.g., music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s) that "have emerged since the 1980s" have "...attracted accolades in the context of art and become part of museum collections", and that they "...are often seen as a continuation of the 1920s avant-garde absolute films."
Campaign for Quality Television
In the UK, the Campaign for Quality Television Ltd. was set up in 1988. The Campaign aims to promote public service television, choice and quality for all viewers in the UK, and promote television programming which informs and educates people from all sectors of society. They call for a "true breadth of quality" and advocate for adequate funding for public service television. In 1998, the Campaign published two reports: Serious Documentaries on ITV, and The Purposes of Broadcasting. In 1999, the Campaign published A Shrinking Iceberg Slowly Travelling South, which examined the pressures of broadcasting and the impact on programmes.Canadian "quality television"
Television broadcasting in Canada is strongly influenced by the UK and US broadcasting systems. The Canadian broadcasting system's legislative foundation, the Broadcasting Act, and its public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting CorporationCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
, are both modeled on the UK broadcasting system and its use of a government-funded public broadcaster. In addition, the Canadian broadcasting system is influenced by the US broadcasting system. Most Canadians receive a number of US channels, either through over-the-air broadcasting (e.g., in border cities such as Windsor) or in cable TV packages. As well, Canadian commercial broadcasters' schedules are dominated by popular US shows.
Shows deemed to be "quality television" in Canada are usually produced and broadcast by the public broadcaster (CBC) or by the provincial educational broadcasters, such as Ontario's TVO
TVOntario
TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...
, Saskatchewan's SCN
Saskatchewan Communications Network
SCN is a Canadian English language cable television entertainment, information, and educational channel in the province of Saskatchewan...
, the BC Knowledge, and Quebec's Télé-Québec
Télé-Québec
Télé-Québec is a French language public educational television network in the Canadian province of Quebec. Known legally as Société de télédiffusion du Québec , it is a provincial crown corporation owned by the Government of Quebec...
.
The Alliance for Children and Television
The Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) is a Canadian non-profit organization that uses advocacy, awards ceremonies and other recognition, and professional training to promote Canadian children’s media. ACT lobbies governments about the issue of children’s screen-based entertainment. ACT encourages the production of high-quality programs and advocates the production and airing of the largest possible number high-quality programs for Canadian children and youth.The ACT "statement of quality" provided the foundation for the Children’s Television Charter, which is currently being ratified by governments and broadcasters around the world. ACT argues that "quality television is television deemed excellent in both form and content, geared to the needs and expectations of its target viewers while meeting recognized industry standards." Furthermore, the organization claims that "the content of programs should be relevant and entertaining, stimulate the intellect and the imagination, and foster openness toward others. It should also be an accurate reflection of the world in which children grow up, respecting their dignity and promoting learning."
Further reading
- Janet McCabe and Kim Akass. Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond. Nov 2007. ISBN 1845115104
- Quality Popular Television. Edited by Professor Mark Jancovich (Senior lecturer in film and television at the University of East Anglia) and James LyonsJames LyonsJames Lyons may refer to:*James J. Lyons , American politician*James J. Lyons, Jr., Massachusetts Politician*James K. Lyons , American film editor and actor*James L. Lyons , founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival...
(lecturer in film at the University of Exeter). Published April 2003. Paperback ISBN 0851709419; Hardback ISBN 0851709400. This book discusses "quality popular television" shows such as Ally McBeal, Martial Law, Buffy, Lois and Clark, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Ellen. - Ava Collins. "Intellectuals, power and quality television" in the Journal Cultural Studies. Issue Volume 7, Number 1/January 1993.
- Lealand, G. "Searching for quality television in New Zealand: Hunting the moa?" in the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURAL STUDIES. 2001, VOL 4; NUMB 4, pages 448-455. Published by SAGE PUBLICATIONS in Great Britain. ISBN ISSN 1367-8779