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Description: |
Despite its relatively short history, television already has many golden ages. While the first “Golden Age” of television took the form of live teleplays and other forms of television theater in the late 1940s and 50s, the second iteration of Golden Age television is often considered as the emergence of innovative television writing and a turn towards social relevance, seen in the sitcoms and prime-time dramas of the 1970s and 80s. Currently, many television critics consider the early 2000s and into the present as TV’s latest “Golden Age,” characterized by visual and narrative complexity, the rise of the showrunner, and the shift from the network era to cable television, and ultimately to digital streaming. This course traces TV history through the study of these television eras. What did television look like in each of these periods, and what types of stories were popularly told? Why are certain forms of television historically considered “golden,” while other types of programming are considered part of TV’s “the vast wasteland”—potential threats to the medium’s cultural status? By asking such questions, this course will introduce students to television as an industry, as a visual and narrative medium, and as an object of mass culture with social, political, and economic implications. |