Overview
Telefantasy is the first book-length study to consider the place of fantasy, science fiction, and horror dramas in the history of British and U.S. television. Looking at two periods--the 1950s and 1960s, and the 1990s and 2000s--when telefantasy was particularly prevalent on television, this book provides detailed historical accounts of the production of key telefantasy programs: the Quatermass serials, The Prisoner, Star Trek, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Randall and Hopkirk.
Telefantasy engages with current debates about television history, genre, narrative, and spectator theory while providing case studies that will be of interest to students of television and fans of telefantasy. Each case study is situated in relation to the development of the British and U.S. television industries and the regulatory and critical discourses surrounding them, offering a new understanding of the individual programs and the historical development of television as a medium. Telefantasy argues that these tales of alien invasion, futuristic space travel, and vampire slaying challenge the dominant notion that television is an intimate medium unsuited to the display of visual style.
Synopsis
Telefantasy is the first book-length study to consider the place of fantasy, science fiction, and horror dramas in the history of British and U.S. television. Looking at two periods--the 1950s and 1960s, and the 1990s and 2000s--when telefantasy was particularly prevalent on television, this book provides detailed historical accounts of the production of key telefantasy programs: the Quatermass serials, The Prisoner, Star Trek, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Randall and Hopkirk.
Telefantasy engages with current debates about television history, genre, narrative, and spectator theory while providing case studies that will be of interest to students of television and fans of telefantasy. Each case study is situated in relation to the development of the British and U.S. television industries and the regulatory and critical discourses surrounding them, offering a new understanding of the individual programs and the historical development of television as a medium. Telefantasy argues that these tales of alien invasion, futuristic space travel, and vampire slaying challenge the dominant notion that television is an intimate medium unsuited to the display of visual style.