Canonical network television: critical aesthetics and cultural history, 1960-1999

"Canonical Network Television examines the philosophical and aesthetic questions involved in establishing a television canon by analysing key programs from 1960-1999 and comparing television's canonical development to literary and cinematic traditions. Focusing on the last forty years of the twentieth century, this study defines canonical television as works with an enduring afterlife that reward multiple viewings. The book traces television's controversial canonical status by comparing it to established literary and cinema canons, particularly the influential auteur theory developed by Cahiers du Cinéma theorists in the 1960s. Through analysis of diverse genres - comedy, documentary, drama, serials, and television work by cinema directors - the study proposes a distinctive shape for the twentieth-century television canon, drawing primarily from American and British examples while incorporating Australian and European cases.