Description
Book SynopsisOffers an insider's tour, touching on the network's dizzying decision-making process, and the artists who have revolutionized the medium.
Trade ReviewA gracefully written grabber overflowing with affection and canny detail. Fans of ‘quality TV drama series’ will have a field day with Syracuse University professor Thompson’s multidisciplinary examination of ‘the return of the serious, literary, writer-based drama’ over the past 15 years. Allotting full chapters to breakthrough series
Hill Street Blues and
St. Elsewhere, Thompson reviews a bit more briefly the histories of 1980s classics
Cagney & Lacey, Moonlighting, L.A. Law, thirtysomething, and
China Beach and their ‘quirky’ 1990s successors
Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, and
Picket Fences. ‘The Future of Quality’ chapter describes the networks’ retreat from writer-based drama in the early 1990s and the return to it in series like
NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street, Chicago Hope, and the number one hit,
ER. This survey will appeal to several audiences: People readers will relish the gossip; Fortune readers will zero in on the economics of quality versus junk-food television; and readers monitoring media transmogrifications will find Thompson’s analysis of TV’s institutionalization of quality drama fascinating.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface: From "The Golden Age of Television" to "Quality TV"
- 1. The Golden Ages of Television
- 2. The Causes of Quality
- 3. The Quality Factory
- 4. Hill Street Blues: The Quality Revolution
- 5. Quality-The Next Generation: St. Elsewhere
- 6. The Second Golden Age of Television: Cagney & Lacey, Moonlighting, L.A. Law, thirtysomething, and China Beach
- 7. Quality Goes Quirky: Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, and Picket Fences
- 8. The Future of Quality
- Notes
- Select Book Bibliography
- Home Video Sources
- Index of Television Titles
- Index of Names
