A highly anticipated examination of the cultural impact of a reimagined fan-favorite P.I. series.This popular television show centering the cynical, fallible, and likeable private investigator Jim Rockford finally receives its due attention in this book. Combining social analysis with close televisual analysis, scholar Amanda Keeler illustrates how this 1970s series reimagined the P.I. genre through its novel characters, diverse creative team, and attention to cont...

Prestige Television explores how a growing array of 21st century US programming is produced and received in ways that elevate select series above the competition in a saturated market. Contributing authors demonstrate that these shows are positioned and understood as comprising an increasingly recognizable genre characterized by familiar markers of distinction. In contrast to most accounts of elite categorizations of contemporary US television programming that center on HBO and it...