Classicism, televisuality and post-modernity: Star Trek and the narrative structures of television

Abstract

From the late 1940s until the early 1980s the TV industry in the USA was dominated by a small number of monolithic organisations. The three major networks — ABC, NBC and CBS — had complete control over programming, and there was little differentiation between demographic segments of the audience. Like Hollywood in the heyday of its ‘studio system’ in the 1930s and 1940s, 1960s TV series production was led by a ‘mass family audience’ strategy that resulted in many bland or ‘wholesome’ dramas hidebound by the perceived necessity of avoiding ‘offence’. Just as the Hollywood studios had done in earlier years, the TV networks operated a system of self-censorship which not only excluded sexual and overtly violent incidents but also made producers very wary of any material that might cause any kind of controversy. As a result the majority of TV series concentrated on action rather than ideas and tended to avoid any overt or even covert social or political comment. A great many were formulaic westerns (such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza or The Rifleman), cop shows (such as Dragnet or The Untouchables), fast-paced comedies (such as I Love Lucy or The Dick Van Dyke Show) or sentimentalised soap operas (such as The Waltons or Peyton Place).