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In Television in the United States: The late 1960s and early ’70s: the relevance movement
After the introduction of television to the public in the 1940s, a distinct dichotomy emerged between entertainment programming (which made up the bulk of the most popular shows) and news, documentary, and other less-common nonfiction shows. Throughout the 1950s, for example, stories concerning…
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In Television in the United States: All in the Family
…soon be known as “relevance TV.” It took as its subject matter issues that were pertinent to American life in the 1970s, featuring stories about agnosticism, rape, radical politics, racism, impotence, and a host of other previously forbidden topics. Although the show featured a typical sitcom setting (a living…
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In Television in the United States: The late 1970s: the new escapism
…critical and commercial success of relevance programming opened television to entirely new areas of content. Whereas much of entertainment TV before 1970 had shied from the subjects covered on the evening news, from this point forward many programs would use timely topics as a principal source of story ideas. Although…
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