Week 9

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Blog week 9

Nine characteristics of quality TV

I applied these characteristics to the series Twin Peaks (1990-1), which I recently watched on DVD.
One: Quality pedigree. The creator already has a record of quality production. David Lynch had already directed Eraserhead (1976), The Elephant Man (1980) and Blue Velvet (1986), all of which were quite unique from other films and from each other. Co-creator Mark Frost had made the night-time soap Hill Street Blues.

Two: the show has had to struggle against resistance from the broadcast company. Before the show went into production it had to prove itself with a successful pilot TV movie. Even after the pilot scored high ratings, ABC would only commit to an initial series of six episodes.

Three: a large ensemble cast. Kyle MacLachlan had already been in two of Lynch’s movies, Dune (1983) and Blue Velvet. He has appeared in many other movies since the 1990s as well as the big shows Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives. Grace Zabriske, Lara Flynn-Boyle, Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee and Madgen Amik have also gone on to many movie and TV roles. Heather Graham and David Duchovny got some of their early exposure in Twin Peaks.

Four: Memory – characters remember things and viewers can see consistency and development of characters. Agent Cooper’s unorthodox methods originally create puzzlement, but as the show progresses even cynics like Agent Rosenfeld urge Cooper to follow his instincts.

Five: It creates a new genre by mixing old ones. There are elements of elements of the supernatural mixed in with the detective genre (this probably influenced the X-files). There are also the small-town gossip soap and comedy genre elements.

Six: Literary and writer-based. There is great attention given to the writing of the show. Twin Peaks is probably a negative example. The second season lost its way because the narrative was not held on track, especially when the two co-creators were absent for a time.

Seven: Self-conscious of itself and other texts. The characters in Twin Peaks watch a fictional TV soap called ‘Invitation to Love’ which mirrors the action in the main story.

Eight: Controversial topics. The show includes incest, and teenage prostitution and drug dealing.

Nine: Aspires towards realism – emotional realism at least. Some incest survivors have pointed out that Laura Palmer’s split-personality and rich fantasy world mirrors their own emotional experiences (Karen Legerman 1992).


What role do fans play in constructing cult TV? How is new media central to this?


Fans of TV shows can change the perceived genre of a show into that of ‘cult’ (Hills 2004). How?
One: inter-textuality – they compare a TV show with other shows or media productions and find similarities which the producers might not have intended.
Two: fans explicitly refer to their favoured show as ‘cult’, thus defining its genre.
Three: fans create a public ‘image’ or identity for the fan group. Fans can organise themselves into associations and hold annual conventions. These are highly visible and can be covered by the media. The image or identity of the group is further reinforced by the publication of magazines and books.
Four: fans create a market for merchandise (Hills 2004).
The new media of the internet changes fan groups in a number of ways.
One: it makes it technically easier for fans to get in touch and correspond with each other.
Two: it makes fandom seem less ‘anti-mainstream’ (Hills 2004). Nowadays the internet is used by all sorts of people to discuss or spread ‘trivial’ information (such as the facebook groups dedicated to trivial things).
I would add some other points about the internet. It allows for more focussed and more quality analysis of a particular series by international fans. Hills pointed out that some commercial ‘cult’ TV magazines kept their subject matter vague and broad, no doubt to keep the customer base broad, and relied on pretty-girl covers. Economic considerations might also encourage fan clubs to focus on sensationalism (such as costumes) in their conventions, to the detriment of analysis. Internet sites are so much cheaper that fans have the ability to concentrate on analysis. Sensationalism might well continue, but one can choose between different online sites or groups, regardless of where one lives.