This book brings together the most important writing on television published in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, from classic essays by Nick Browne and Beverle Houston to the latest cutting-edge historical and critical research. It considers television's economics, technologies, forms, and audiences from a cultural perspective that links history, theory, and criticism. The authors are leaders in the field, and they address several key issues: the formative period in American television history; the relation between television's political economy and its cultural forms; gender and melodrama; and new technologies such as video games and camcorders. This breadth of coverage brings basic and defining scholarship to the field of television studies.. This volume should appeal to scholars, students, and laypeople interested in television, communications, critical theory, and cultural studies. Libraries at research and teaching institutions will find it indispensable.