Claims that television programs are of higher quality include a number of subjective evaluations and value judgements.
For example, Robert J. Thompson's claim that "quality television" programs include "...a quality pedigree, a large ensemble cast, a series memory, creation of a new genre through recombination of older ones, self-consciousness, and pronounced tendencies toward the controversial and the realistic"[10] includes a number of subjective evaluations.
Kristin Thompson argues that some of these television series exhibit traits also found in art films, such as psychological realism, narrative complexity, and ambiguous plotlines.
Common characteristics of prestige drama include a more sophisticated approach to cinematography than other generes, high production values, and a complex storyline.
[16] These streaming services vie for viewer attention and spend large amounts to produce shows they hope will encourage customers to subscribe to their platform.
The primetime serial (radio and television) with Peyton Place based on the Grace Metalious novel and the successful movie of the same name starring Lana Turner.
In the 1980s, both serials and story arcs made a comeback with hit primetime soaps Dallas, its spinoff Knots Landing, and their sister show Falcon Crest (all three series were produced at Lorimar) along with the Aaron Spelling–produced Dynasty; in spite of their mass appeal, campy nature, and sensationalism, these shows prompted more primetime dramas to use the serial format.
In April 2004, Janet McCabe (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Kim Akass (Manchester Metropolitan University) organized a conference on "American Quality Television" to examine the "particular strand of American television known as Quality TV" (e.g., St Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, thirtysomething, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ER, The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under).
The BBC’s television listings magazine, Radio Times had an article in 2002 which asked, "Why can't Britain's long-running dramas be more like America's?".
Kristin Thompson, in Storytelling in Film and Television,[21] argues that American television shows such as David Lynch's Twin Peaks series have "...a loosening of causality, a greater emphasis on psychological or anecdotal realism, violations of classical clarity of space and time, explicit authorial comment, and ambiguity."
Thompson claims that series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos, and The Simpsons "...have altered long-standing notions of closure and single authorship", which means that "...television has wrought its own changes in traditional narrative form."
Jason Mittell, an associate professor of American studies and film and media culture at Middlebury College, notes that many of the innovative television programs of the past twenty years have come from creators who launched their careers in film, a medium with more traditional cultural cachet, such as David Lynch, Barry Levinson, Aaron Sorkin, Joss Whedon, Alan Ball, and J. J.
It focuses more on relationships than situations; it explores character, it enlightens, challenges, involves and confronts the viewer; it provokes thought and is remembered tomorrow.
For the group-supported comedy shows such as Frank's Place, Designing Women, or Brooklyn Bridge, and dramas such as ER, Murder One or NYPD Blue, the group's annual rankings were monitored by broadcast industry executives, as the rankings showed the preferences of the so-called "high demographic" programming that appeals to university-educated, higher-income television viewers, a niche audience that is sought out by advertisers.
According to Steven Johnson, narratively complex television shows provide viewers with a "cognitive workout" that can help to increase their "...problem-solving and observational" skills.
In the United Kingdom, television plays from the 1950s and 1960s tackled a range of controversial subjects yet still managed to garner large audiences.
Kristin Thompson argues that a show from the British public broadcaster, The Singing Detective, has what she defines as "art television" aspects similar to those that she finds in Lynch's Twin Peaks series.
Most Canadians receive a number of American channels, either through over-the-air broadcasting (e.g., in border cities such as Windsor) or in cable TV packages.
The YMAMJ "statement of quality" provided the foundation for the Children's Television Charter, which is currently being ratified by governments and broadcasters around the world.