Television's Second Golden Age

A gracefully written grabber overflowing with affection and canny detail. Fans of ‘quality TV drama series’ will have a field day with Syracuse University professor Thompson’s multidisciplinary examination of ‘the return of the seri­ous, literary, writer-based 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 writer-based 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 junk-food television; and readers monitoring media transmogrifications will find Thompson’s analysis of TV’s institutionalization of quality drama fascinating.