Prestige Television: Cultural and Artistic Value in Twenty-First-Century America (Paperback)
Prestige Television explores how a growing array of 21st century US programming is produced and received in ways that elevate select series above the competition in a saturated market. Contributing authors demonstrate that these shows are positioned and understood as comprising an increasingly recognizable genre characterized by familiar markers of distinction. In contrast to most accounts of elite categorizations of contemporary US television programming that center on HBO and its primary streaming rivals, these essays examine how efforts to imbue series with prestigious or elevated status now permeate the rest of the medium, including network as well as basic and undervalued premium cable channels. Case study chapters focusing on diverse series, ranging from widely recognized examples such as The Americans (2013-2018) and The Knick (2014-15) to contested examples like Queen of the South (2016-2021) and How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014), highlight how contributing authors extend conceptions of the genre beyond expected parameters.
SETH FRIEDMAN is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre at DePauw University. He is the author of Are You Watching Closely?: Cultural Paranoia, New Technologies, and the Contemporary Hollywood Misdirection Film.
AMANDA KEELER is an associate professor of Digital Media in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University.
AMANDA KEELER is an associate professor of Digital Media in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University.
“Seth Friedman and Amanda Keeler prompt us to rethink conventional wisdom about 'Quality TV' and explore a rich terrain that combines TV industry strategies and textual expressions. The book makes a wonderful contribution to the study of recent and contemporary television and its shifting cultural status.”
— Michael Z. Newman
“Closely examining the ways in which industrial, textual, paratextual, and contextual factors have shaped the category of prestige television programming in the 21st century, Seth Friedman and Amanda Keeler invite us to ponder if prestige television should perhaps be recognized as a new genre. This rich and timely volume is a must read for scholars, students, and TV fans alike.”
— Yeidy Rivero
— Michael Z. Newman
“Closely examining the ways in which industrial, textual, paratextual, and contextual factors have shaped the category of prestige television programming in the 21st century, Seth Friedman and Amanda Keeler invite us to ponder if prestige television should perhaps be recognized as a new genre. This rich and timely volume is a must read for scholars, students, and TV fans alike.”
— Yeidy Rivero