num_pages: 220
description: Fans of 'quality TV drama series' will have a field day with Syracuse University professor Thompson's multidisciplinary examination of 'the return of the seri-ous, 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 &amp; 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 &amp; 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."-Booklist
language: English
title: Television's Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER
titlecomplete: Television's Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER
genres: Nonfiction, History, Pop Culture, Tv
ratings_count: 48
series: Television and Popular Culture
publisher: Syracuse University Press