Citation

Cantor PA. Acad. Quest. 2010; 23(4): 435-449.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, National Association of Scholars, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12129-010-9197-4

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

With television having matured as a creative medium in the past few decades, it has taken its rightful place among the subjects scholars study seriously. Professors are now analyzing the meaning and significance of classic shows like Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and The Sopranos with the care and intellectual respect traditionally accorded to literary masterpieces. But some academics still resist the idea that anything of genuine and lasting artistic value can be found on television. This resistance seldom results from empirical study, that is, from actually watching the TV programs other scholars are writing about. Rather, it usually takes the form of a blanket condemnation of television as a medium, a dismissal in principle that relieves the critic of any need to bother with studying individual programs.There is supposedly something different about television as a medium that forever condemns it to mediocrity. Great books may be written; great plays may be staged; I would suppose that eve...

Language: en