The Story
Fans of quality TV drama series will have a field day with Syracuse University professor Thompsons multidisciplinary examination of the return of the serious, literary, writerbased 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 writerbased 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 junkfood television; and readers monitoring media transmogrifications will find Thompsons analysis of TVs institutionalization of quality drama fascinating.Booklist
Description
Fans of quality TV drama series will have a field day with Syracuse University professor Thompsons multidisciplinary examination of the return of the serious, literary, writerbased 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 writerbased 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 junkfood television; and readers monitoring media transmogrifications will find Thompsons analysis of TVs institutionalization of quality drama fascinating.Booklist
