Quality TV
Quality TV , often spelled out as Quality Television , is a term that is primarily used in English-speaking countries to describe a high-quality type of television series . Although it has been in use for a long time, it was only since the mid-1990s that the term has been increasingly defined as a generic identifier.
With the success of the corresponding series and their increasing attention, especially in cultural studies , the term was also adopted internationally.
history
The term first appeared, albeit only sporadically, in television reviews in the 1970s. He then experienced a boom in 1981 with the broadcast of the Hill Street Police Station series . In a book title it even led to the synonymisation of the studio producing the series MTM with the term: In 1985 the British Film Institute published the title "MTM 'Quality Television" ".
In 1984, a lobby group of viewers called Viewers for Quality Television was formed in the United States for the receipt of television programs that were considered high quality. Up to this point in time, the term Quality TV had never been defined in more detail, only the VQT provided an initial such definition, although it was not objectively applicable:
“A quality series clarifies, enriches, challenges, involves and confronts. It dares to take risks, is sincere and illuminating, appeals to the intellect and touches the feeling. It requires concentration and attention and provokes thinking. The characters of the figures are explored. "
In his basic work Television's Second Golden Age , the American cultural scientist Robert J. Thompson took a look back at the origin of the quality TV phenomenon and limited it using examples such as St. Elsewhere , Cagney & Lacey , The Model and the Snoop , LA Law , The best years , China Beach , Twin Peaks , Alaska , of all things, and Picket Fences for the first time. He noted that Quality TV is perceived as “better, more sophisticated and more artistic than the usual fare on networks ” and stated “Quality TV is best defined by what it is not. It is not a "normal" television.