should be an original, research-based work that presents your candidate for the most significant “Quality TV” program on American television, past or present. Your argument should be based on the criteria established in the Robert J. Thompson essay covered in this class and on the cultural importance and impact of your candidate program. Your goal is to analyze the cultural role of television through the lens of the selected “Quality TV” program. Your paper should present an assessment, defend a position, or construct an argument about your chosen program. Plot summary and simple assembly of facts are not the goals of the assignment; they should be used only as needed to document your views.
Here are a few questions that you might wish to consider:
Which character in a dramatic series has most challenged viewer assumptions?
What series has most transformed the television landscape, and how?
What program has most changed the way we experience narrative?
Please note that these are not suggested topics; they are just questions that might help you get started on thinking critically about television programming.
Your paper also should draw on at least five (5) additional secondary sources, all of them cited within the main body of your paper.
MLA style
