A Brief History of Television

My somewhat crytic personal summary of Robt J.Thompson's Television's Second Golden Age

Continuum NY 1996 PN 1992.3 U5 T49

Golden age of TV often thot to be 50's but most of the shows were not good. RT claims that "quality TV" started in the 80's. Hard to define, but can be defined by what it is not. It tends to break rules or stake out new territory to tell stories about (13). Quality TV is often made by artists of other media, esp. indep filmmakers. In any case, QTV is made by people w/ artistic freedom. QTV tends to attract better educated more affluent viewers. QTV often has a rocky start, surviving by luck. It tends to have ensemble cast for more complexity, and chars develop over time. QTV tends to mix genres, esp comedy and tragedy. The writing is literary, more complex than other shows. QTV is self conscious (TV about TV?), takes on controversial subjects and aspires to "realism". They get critical acclaim, but not always popular support (esp at 1st) 15.

First Golden Age RT claims there may have been 3 golden ages. Early TV borrowed from radio (comedy-variety show) and theater (anthology drama; some of which were published as books). Theater was natural choice, b/c NY based (as was TV at first). In mid-50's Westerns and adventures began to be made in H'wd, and live TV plummeted. Theater also big at first when only wealthy had TV. In '54 the majority of US had TV and golden age ended (23). Theater also held on for a while b/c big co's willing to sponsor them for prestige (but also had some control over content; eg American Gas Assoc wdn't allow the term "gas chamber" in Nazi trial play). In '61 FCC chair declared TV "vast wasteland," but 90% of home had one on for over 5 hrs/day (25). This speech caused a short period of improvement: New Frontier character dramas and medical shows. Also shows with liberal social themes. Dick van Dyke Show had Kennedy spirit, style and was financed by Kennedy money. Another theme, the rural sitcom (Andy Griffth, Bev Hill etc) also started at this time. LBJ owned media properties, so not big on regulation.

Second Golden Age: some see mid-70's as another renaissance w/ mature made-for-TV movies, miniseries, and documentaries. Rural sitcoms were dumped in an effort to attract younger viewers. All in the Family (aggressive style, videotape, explored new territory like VN war; actually spoke to ctr-culture before it faded; led to several spinoffs and a trend to socially conscious pgms) and Mary Tyler Moore & MASH were critical and popular hits (29). Often these controversial shows were launched by the #3 network, and were controversial at first. CBS and NBC were forced to imitate F Silverman's strategies at ABC, where Garry Marshall and Aaron Spelling created the most commercially successful and critically abhorred shows in history (30).

3rd Age: prime time drama worn out, but soaps showed that 48 min no longer a barrier (one soap opera actor played the same role on radio and TV for over 50 years). So soaps had the luxury of time like a novel, thus we cd care who killed JR.(cf Taster's Choice commercials?). Some filmmakers even went to TV b/c of this (35).

Techol. change also forced TV to change: cable, indep stations, VCR and remote. At 1st response was to play safe, but then networks went for niche mkting, esp the groups advertisers wanted: young, affluent and educated 38. Least Objectionable Pgming died b/c there were always better choices on cable etc. Similar to film: go for less mainstream product. 1966 Hays Code (movie self-censorship) scrapped, so Bonnie and Clyde, MASH, Clockwork Orange, Midnight Cowboy won Best Picture ('65 was Sound of Music). 41. Similarly, TV also dumped self-imposed TV code, and sex and violence became more prominent in both (but sex also in "jiggle shows" and some of the highest rated shows/movies has little sex/violence). If not for Mary Tyler Moore Co, no 3rd golden age. Her husband, Grant Tinker (lit degree from Dartmouth , wrote on Sheridan) got great writers and left them alone (see below) . 4 phases: 1) MTM and other sitcoms 2) Lou Grant 3) Hill St and St Elsewhere 4) MTM bought by Brits and then Pat Robertson 49. MTM style had workplace family (ensemble), self-reflexivity (TV about TV, or newspaper or radio), and competent characters in chaotic environment . MTM shows dealt w/ issues more than talked about them, so less controversial than All in the F. MASH another breakthrough series, arguably the 1st dramedy, but oddly not imitated. MTM co blended sitcom with new content that Lear opened up w/ All in F 57. Tinker became an exec at NBC, and often fostered shows that wd ordinarily never have made it (but also A-Team).

Joyce Carol Oates called Hill Street Blues Dickensian. The staff was incredibly well educated and talented: Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Mamet wrote an episode. Kozoll studied linguistics at the Sorbonne and taught writing in Bay Area, Lewis wrote poetry at Yale and taught writing at Harvard. Milch studied at Iowa and taught writing at Yale (?), and Director has lit degree from Columbia (60). Bochco himself a drama mjr at Carnegie Tech; neither he or Kozoll had any interest in doing a cop show (they'd done them and considered the genre worn out). But thus capable of revolutionizing the genre (plus Bochco was out to get the "censors"). Early episodes of HSt look tame now, but were daring then, and had low ratings at start. Stole from documentary and sitcom and soaps, though dense (70).

St Elsewhere much more controversial in terms of content, but more subtle ( the 2 shows competed to get stuff past censors, but crafty enough to get the outrageous through).82. Also many media in-jokes/allusions eg autopsy reports on Spelling, Nielsen and a hostile NBC exec).