Kenneth Longden

This latest offering to CST has partly been inspired by my recent
research and planning for a module on American Contemporary Television
Drama, and partly inspired by a long fascination with the television
anthology series -- its place and status in the television landscape.
The module, devised by Anthony N Smith at University of Salford, has
been handed into my care whilst he undertakes some serious research of
his own -- and good luck to him. His (temporary) loss has been my gain,
because whilst creating a lecture on the evolution of American network
television drama, I found an excuse to introduce a brief discussion on
the American television anthology series. Further, with the recent
critical acclaim of Charlie Brooker's *Black Mirror*, and Channel 4's
recent offering of *Electric Dreams* (not so critically acclaimed), a
brief look at the format seems timely and topical.

Another reason for writing on the TV Anthology series is that although
the form itself has been a constant if uneven presence throughout all
the television periods -- from the era of scarcity to the
'post-television' era -- there has been very little written on the form;
certainly, no dedicated study of any note.

This seems odd when you consider that its early American incarnation
offered what seemed to be a bold intervention in the normal television
schedules, and to conventional television drama at the time. They can
also be seen as a prototype for the industry in that they offered
something similar to the later advent of HBO and other like-cable dramas
that promoted the idea of 'Quality TV'. They offered something
different, challenging, unhitched from standard fare. As Barnouw (1990)
observes, starting in 1953 and gathering strength over the next few
years, the anthology series offered something different to the then
standard formula-bound episodic series in America. Whilst the episodic
series and much of television in general had its origins in radio, the
anthology series had roots in the theatre. The anthology series was, to
many involved, a writer's medium, and not only did it launch the careers
of many writers, but actors too (Rod Steiger in *Marty*, Goodyear
Theatre Playhouse, 1953) and in some special cases served to present
dramas as unofficial pilots for what would become full-blown drama
series. The anthology series also offered what to some was controversial
content. They could be experimental in nature -- either in style,
script-length, or content. As Barnouw states, writers loved them
especially because the anthology series offered a certain amount of
creative freedom -- "There were no specifications as to mood,
characters, plot, style, or locale -- at least, not at first." (1990:
154). Such was the popularity of the anthology series on American
television that within a couple of years all three of the big networks
were producing them in big numbers. The list of anthology series
produced in this period is telling: *Philco Television Playhouse,
Goodyear Television Playhouse, Kraft Television Theatre, General
Electric Theatre* (hosted by Ronald Reagan), *NBC Matinee Theatre*, and
many more. A peculiarity of the American versions in particular, were
that they were often introduced or 'hosted' by various film stars and
celebrities, aimed at giving them a certain amount of kudos or star
quality.

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:::

And although they offered a different stand-alone drama each week,
featuring different casts, writers, and directors, they could also be
thematic, lending themselves to particular genres such as science
fiction.

Charlie Brooker's *Black Mirror*, a science fiction anthology series,
first broadcast on Britain's Channel 4, but since removed to the higher
monetary echelons of Netflix, has attracted lots of critical attention
in most of these respects. This attention has largely been around
Brooker himself, a popular satirist and media critic. But the series has
also been praised for the quality of its writing, its controversial and
often topical content, its ambitious scope, and more latterly, with its
move to Netflix, for its production values and its willingness to play
with the television drama form (episode duration times). In all these
respects, *Black Mirror* more than most other anthology series harks
back to the beginnings of the anthology series and the form's impact on
early American television in particular. In fact, *Black Mirror* has
been likened to what some critics and fans regard as the benchmark and
model for all anthology series, *The Twilight Zone* (1959-1964).

There are some reasonable comparisons to be made between Rod Serling's
*The Twilight Zone* and Charlie Brooker's *Black Mirror*, not least
between the two creators/writers/producers themselves. Like Brooker, Rod
Serling was a controversial figure in television. Serling, a writer,
often found himself at odds with television executives who, under
pressure from advertising sponsors, felt Serling's scripts were overly
political, subversive, and controversial. In fact, these elements were
initially another feature of the television anthology series and
arguably an expectation of all or most anthology series still today.
Whilst Brooker's dark, often satirical, and disturbing speculations and
probing on contemporary and future society lend themselves perfectly to
an experimental and progressive Channel 4 brand, and to the freedoms of
a streaming service such as Netflix, such controversial content in early
American anthology series, although not in breach of FCC regulation,
caused unease in certain influential quarters. Again, Barnouw draws
attention to the potentially subversive element of early American
anthology series and how this contributed both to their initial
popularity, but ultimately to a loss of creative freedom and subsequent
relative conformity.

Whilst writers, audiences, actors and directors loved them, one group
hated them; the advertisers and sponsors. Due to the economic model of
American network television, these advertisers held the purse strings
and consequently a lot of power. Unlike the formula-bound episodic drama
series of normal television, the anthology series promoted diversity,
something that put them at odds with advertisers. This economic model is
something that Brooker's *Black Mirror* has not had to contend with, but
the legacy of non-conformity still remains.

Barnouw states that television advertisers were selling magic, dreams,
and the American ideal. "In the commercials there was always a solution
as clear as a snap of a finger: the problem could be solved by a new
pill, deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo... The solution always had a
finality." (1990: 163). However, anthology writers took a different
stance on American society. Unlike Hollywood and popular television
programming, they populated their dramas with non-beautiful heroes and
heroines, low settings and locales. They took the same problems posed by
commercials and made them complicated. Anthology dramas "made
commercials seem fraudulent." (1990: 163). Such was the ire and
influence of the ad agencies that by 1955, sponsors and ad agencies
began demanding revisions to scripts and greater control over content.
In was in these circumstances that Rod Serling worked and which
influenced his later work and approach on *The Twilight Zone*. The
demands of sponsors and ad agencies forced Serling to be clever. He used
the science fiction genre for his anthology series as a means of
distancing the often subversive, political, and disturbing content from
the real-life of everyday America, knowing that the genre had been
considered up until then largely a children's genre, and therefore not
taken seriously. Yet even though the audience for *The Twilight Zone*
still had a large youth demographic, it also attracted large numbers of
adult viewers too. In attracting both young and adult viewers alike,
this anthology series did something that few television programmes had
done before -- or since.

*The Twilight Zone* showed the potential of the anthology series for
producing original, challenging, and quality television drama, and in
ways that seem to mirror strategies in more contemporary 'quality TV'
drama. Television drama style and aesthetics (a recent concern of
academics), also complex narratives, arguably show an influence of the
anthology series at its best. Some techniques such as the close up and
the lingering shot that have since become markers of contemporary
'quality TV' and their use of narrative spectacle came almost directly
from the anthology series where initially live production was not seen
so much as a limiting factor, but as an influence on the kind of drama
to be explored. The anthology series found its niche in the short form,
preferring compact, psychological dramas. In these respects, the
close-ups and the lingering shots became all-important as "a sign of
human drama\]." (Barnouw, 1990: 160).

Brooker's *Black Mirror*, of course, has not had to deal with the
economic and moral system encountered by these early American anthology
series'. Similarly, more sophisticated advances in media technology
offers a range options not available to early anthology series producers
and writers. But it is interesting to note how *Black Mirror* embraces
the spirit of the anthology series in its challenging of the very media
institutions it exists in. The same cannot be said for Channel 4's
*Electric Dreams* and its adaptations of the Philip K Dick short stories
oeuvre. As Philips (2017: 2) observes in relation to *Black Mirror*, by
constructing narratives about "the corruption of traditional media
institutions and the destruction of traditional media in the face of new
technologies and storytelling forms", Black Mirror not only draws
attention to the narrative "Netflix constructs about itself", but
positions itself within discursive contexts. It could be argued that in
its stronger moments the anthology series has a tendency to exist as a
discursive and disruptive context.

My study here has largely been on American developments of the anthology
series, and this approach has deliberately left out the British
experience of the television anthology series. It could be argued that
the British anthology series, largely as a result of differing economic
models of television, is a slightly different animal to the American
experience. But with examples such as the BBC's *Play for Today* series
(1970-1984), and others, the themes of quality, even political and
experimental content, short-form, and of it being a writer's medium, are
compatible and could serve to make up a poetics of the form.

Although the anthology series has waxed and waned over the decades of
television broadcasting, there have also been some interesting
developments of the form. *American Horror Story* (FX 2011 -), for
instance, and *Fargo* (FX 2014) provides not so much stand-alone
episodes, but stand-alone seasons or self-contained mini-series. Both
show a development of the form that embraces the changes in contemporary
television and the viewing experience. For Joseph Adalian of the
*Vulture* (2017), the anthology series and short-form storytelling is
making a come-back and the reason is that streaming services have made
them economically viable again and they are more esasily digestible and
accessible piecemeal for audiences not willing to follow long story
arcs. The short-form is back.

##### Works cited:

Barnouw, E., 1990. *Tube of plenty: The evolution of American
television*. Oxford University Press. (149)

Boddy, W., 1993. *Fifties television: The industry and its critics*
(Vol. 7). University of Illinois Press. (85)

Philips, J. and Brookey-Instructor, D.R., 2017. TV in a coma... I know
it's serious: Black Mirror and the struggle between traditional media
and digital media. Accessed at:
[http://thejasonverse.com/blackmirror.pdf](http://thejasonverse.com/blackmirror.pdf){target="_blank"}
(2017/11/03)

Presnell, D. and McGee, M., 2008. *A Critical History of Television's
The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964*. McFarland.

Wheatley, H. ed., 2007. *Re-viewing Television History: Critical Issues
in Television History*. IB Tauris.

 

 

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**Kenneth A Longden** has lectured as part of the academic staff at
Liverpool John Moores University in Media, Critical, and Creative Arts,
and studied for a MPhil/PhD in Transnational Narratives at The
University of Winchester. He is a Fellow HEA, and a Peer-Reviewer for
various academic journals. He has been published by Intellect Books and
Palgrave MacMillan, and writes on Popular Narrative, Film, Television,
Fandom, and Popular Culture. He is currently lecturing at Salford
University.

 

 


This latest offering to CST has partly been inspired by my recent research and planning for a module on American Contemporary Television Drama, and partly inspired by a long fascination with the television anthology series – its place and status in the television landscape. The module, devised by Anthony N Smith at University of Salford, has been handed into my care whilst he undertakes some serious research of his own – and good luck to him.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

OF BLACK MIRRORS AND ELECTRIC DREAMS: THE TWILIGHT ZONE OF THE TELEVISION ANTHOLOGY SERIES