Copyright © 2015 Bert N. Langford (Images may be subject to copyright. Please send feedback)
Welcome to Our Generation USA!

Covers the various forms of Television programs beginning with the 1950s when TV became the dominant form on entertainment for all ages.

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Television in the United States including the History of Television
YouTube Video: Top 10 Decade Defining TV Shows Of All Time by WatchMojo
Pictured: The United States Of Television: More TV Sets Than People

Television in the United States
Television is one of the major mass media of the United States. As of 2011, household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, with approximately 114,200,000 American households owning at least one television set as of August 2013. 

The majority of households have more than one set. The peak ownership percentage of households with at least one television set occurred during the 1996–97 season, with 98.4% ownership.

As a whole, the television networks that broadcast in the United States are the largest and most distributed in the world, and programs produced specifically for U.S.-based networks are the most widely syndicated internationally. 

Due to a recent surge in the number and popularity of critically acclaimed television series during the 2000s and the 2010s to date, many critics have said that American television is currently undergoing a modern golden age.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Television in the United States:

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The History of Television

The invention of the television was the work of many individuals in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Individuals and corporations competed in various parts of the world to deliver a device that superseded previous technology. Many were compelled to capitalize on the invention and make profit, while some wanted to change the world through visual and audio communication technology.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the History of Television:






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Emmy Award, including a List of Primetime Winners
​YouTube Video of Michael J. Fox in his Emmy awarded role in Spin City
Pictured: The Casts of "The Defenders" TV Show (1961-5) and "Mission: Impossible Television Series" (1966-1973)

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, or simply Emmy, recognizes excellence in the television industry, and corresponds to the Academy Award (for film), the Tony Award (for theater), and the Grammy Award (for music).
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Because Emmy Awards are given in various sectors of the American television industry, they are presented in different annual ceremonies held throughout the year. The two events that receive the most media coverage are the Primetime Emmys and the Daytime Emmys, which recognize outstanding work in American primetime and daytime entertainment programming, respectively.

Other notable Emmy Award ceremonies are those honoring the following: 
Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times through the year, recognizing excellence in local and statewide television.

In addition, International Emmys are awarded for excellence in TV programming produced and initially aired outside the United States.
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Three related but separate organizations present the Emmy Awards: the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (IATAS). Each is responsible for administering a particular set of Emmy ceremonies.

Click on any of the following for amplification:






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American TV Talk Show Hosts
YouTube Video of Johnny Carson Jumping into Ed McMahans arms
​Pictured: Johnny Carson and Joan Rivers on the "Tonight Show" and Ellen DeGeneres hugging her mom on the "Ellen DeGeneres Show".

American TV Talk Show Hosts
Listed Alphabetically, and include daytime and nighttime talk show hosts.







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Best Primetime TV comedy series of all time based on Emmy Awards
YouTube of the episode of Friends in which Monica wears a Turkey over her head
Pictured: Lucy Stomping Grapes on "I Love Lucy" and Monica wearing a Turkey over her head from "Friends"

Best Primetime TV comedy shows of all time based on Emmy awards
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series is an annual award given to the best television comedy series of the year.

The list is displayed by decade and year.







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Highest Rated Sitcoms in the United States according to Nielsen Ratings
YouTube of best Kramer moment from the "Seinfeld" TV show
Pictured: Casts of the "Seinfeld" (NBC) and "Cheers" (NBC) TV Shows

HIghest Rated Sitcoms in the US
A situation comedy, or sitcom, is a genre of comedy centered on characters who share a common environment, such as a home or workplace, with often-humorous dialogue.

A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track.

Click here for a listing by decade of the highest rated sitcoms according to Nielsen Ratings*

*- Nielsen Corporation







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Police Drama TV Series
YouTube Video of Top 10 American Crime Shows
​Pictured: LEFT: NYPD Blue (ABC: 1993-2005); RIGHT: Criminal Minds (CBS: 2005-Present)

Police Drama TV Series



Dramas involving police procedural work, and private detectives, secret agents, and the justice system have been a mainstay of broadcast television since the early days of broadcasting.

Shows that are not dramatic programming are indicated (e.g. reality television, comedy or comedy-drama).







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Documentary Television Shows
YouTube Video from Animal Planet: Extremely FunnyTalking Animals
Pictured: From LEFT: National Geographic Channel; RIGHT: Discovery Channel

Documentary Television Shows



A documentary television series is a television series that consists of documentary episodes; while a documentary television film is made specially for television stations or for specialty documentary channels, or in case of political and historical documentary subjects in news channels, without the intention of showing it in movie theaters.

A good example of television documentaries are the travel documentaries that are featured in specialized geographical or tourism television channels like the National Geographic Channel. The films might end up showing though in film societies or in theaters that specialize in showing documentaries.

However, in rare occasions, the television documentaries become so popular that they are launched for wider release in movie theaters.







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Daytime Television in the United States
YouTube Video of ALL MY CHILDREN - Diana Berry, Susan Lucci
Pictured: Four Popular Daytime Soaps

Daytime Television in the United States
Daytime television is the general term for television shows produced for airing during the daytime hours on weekdays.

The hours and days for daytime television in the United States usually run from 6:00am to 6:00pm EST/EDT, Monday through Friday; although it may vary depending on time zone/region, networks, and/or local stations. This article is only about American daytime television.

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Firefighting Television Series
YouTube Action Scene from Chicago Fire
Pictured: Firefighting TV Series LEFT: Third Watch (NBC: 1999-2005 ); RIGHT: Rescue Me (FX: 2004-2011)

Firefighting Television Series



Alphabetical Listing of TV Series about Firefighters.







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United States Science Fiction Television Shows
YouTube Video of the Twilight Zone TV Series best episodes. 
Pictured: LEFT: Star Trek (The Original Series on NBC from 1966 to 1969); RIGHT: Stargate SG-1 (Showtime: 1997-2001; Sci-Fi Channel: 2002-2007)

United States Science Fiction Television Shows

U.S. television science fiction is a popular genre of television in the United States that has produced many of the best-known and most popular science fiction shows in the world.

Most famous of all, and one of the most influential science-fiction series in history, is the iconic Star Trek and its various spin-off shows, which comprise the Star Trek franchise.

Other hugely influential programs have included the 1960s anthology series The Twilight Zone, the internationally successful The X-Files, and a wide variety of television movies and continuing series for more than half a century.

Click here for further amplification.







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TV Guide's 50 Greatest Shows of All Time
YouTube Video from The Sopranos - Take your hat off
Pictured: LEFT: Seinfeld (NBC, July 5, 1989 - May 14, 1998); RIGHT: The Honeymooners (CBS, October 1, 1955 – September 22, 1956)

TV Guide's Greatest Shows of All Time


TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time is TV Guide's list of the 50 most entertaining or influential television series in American pop culture. It appeared in the May 4–10, 2002 issue of the magazine, which was the second in a series of special issues commemorating TV Guide's 50th year (the others were:
The list was also counted down in an ABC television special, TV Guide's 50 Best Shows of All Time, on May 13, 2002.

The 50 entries, chosen and ranked by the editors of TV Guide, consist of regularly scheduled series spanning more than half a century of television. TV movies, miniseries and specials were not eligible.

The special aired at 10:00 pm and was viewed by 8.9 million people, giving it a 6 rating and a 10 share. Considering the cover story for this special issue of TV Guide, it was the only one of the six to be presented on television.


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Horror TV Series
YouTube Video: BUFFY*: Season One TRAILER
* - Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (1997 on the WB and through 2003 on UPN)
Pictured: LEFT: The X-Files (Fox: 1993-2002); RIGHT: The Walking Dead (AMC: 2010-Present)

Horror TV Series



The distinction between horror and terror is a standard literary and psychological concept applied especially to Gothic literature and film.

Terror is usually described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience.

By contrast, horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply unpleasant occurrence.

In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified), while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful. Horror has also been defined as a combination of terror and revulsion.

Click here to see an alphabetical listing of Fictional Horror Television Shows
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Longest running TV shows in the United States
YouTube Video from "Sesame Street"
​Pictured: LEFT: Meet the Press (NBC: 1947 – Present); RIGHT: Sesame Street (PBS: 1969-2016)

Longest running TV shows in the United States



This is a list of the longest-running United States television series, ordered by number of years the show has been aired. This list includes only first-run series originating in North America and available throughout the U.S. via national broadcast networks, U.S. cable networks, or syndication. Series continuations (with name changes and/or changes in network) are noted, but series' revivals are treated as separate from the originals (see The People's Court and Jeopardy!).







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American Medical TV Series
YouTube Video from Trapper John, M.D.
​Pictured: LEFT: Grey’s Anatomy (ABC: 2005-Present); RIGHT: Code Black (CBS: 2015-Present)

American Medical TV Series



An alphabetical listing of medical TV shows.







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Military TV Series
YouTube Video from "Jag" the TV Series
​Pictured: LEFT: China Beach (ABC: 1988-1991); RIGHT: Homeland (Showtime: 2011-Present)

Military TV Shows


A listing of Military Drama Television Series in alphabetical order.


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TV Westerns
YouTube Video from "Rawhide" starring Clint Eastwood
Pictured: LEFT: Gunsmoke (CBS: 1955-1975); RIGHT: Maverick (ABC: 1957-1962)

TV Westerns

Television Westerns are a subgenre of the Western, a genre of film, fiction, drama, television programming, etc., in which stories are set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in the American Old West, Western Canada and Mexico during the period from about 1860 to the end of the so-called "Indian Wars."

More recent entries in the Western genre have placed events in the modern day but still draw inspiration from the outlaw attitudes prevalent in traditional Western productions.

When television became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s, TV westerns quickly became an audience favorite. The peak year for television westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during prime-time.

Traditional Westerns faded in popularity in the late 1960s, while new shows fused Western elements with other types of shows, such as family drama, mystery thrillers, and crime drama. In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long westerns and slickly packaged made-for-TV movie westerns were introduced.

1940s through the early 1960s:

When the popularity of television exploded in the late 1940s and 1950s, westerns quickly became a staple of small-screen entertainment. The first, on June 24, 1949, was the Hopalong Cassidy show, at first edited from the 66 films made by William Boyd.

Many B-movie Westerns were aired on TV as time fillers, while a number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right. The earliest TV westerns were written primarily for a children's audience; it was not until the near-concurrent debuts of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and the TV version of Gunsmoke in 1955 that adult Westerns appeared on television.

Notable TV Westerns include: 
The peak year for television westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during prime-time. In one week in March 1959, eight of the top ten shows were westerns. Increasing costs of production (a horse cost up to $100 a day) led to most action half-hour series vanishing in the early 1960s to be replaced by hour long television shows, increasingly in color. 

Two unusual westerns series of this era are Zorro, set in early California under Spanish rule, and the British/Australian western Whiplash set in 1850/60's Australia with four scripts by Gene Roddenberry.

Examples:

  • The Lone Ranger was an American long-running early radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by writer Fran Striker. The titular character is a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, who gallops about righting injustices, usually with the aid of a clever and laconic Native American companion named Tonto, and his horse Silver.
  • The Roy Rogers Show was a black and white American television series that ran for six seasons from December 30, 1951, to June 9, 1957, on NBC, with a total of 100 episodes. The series starred Roy Rogers, Pat Brady, and Dale Evans. The show started airing in France on March 5, 1962. The series was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1955 for Best Western or Adventure Series
  • Rawhide was a television western series which aired on the American network CBS from 1959 to 1966. It starred Eric Fleming and launched the career of Clint Eastwood. Its premiere episode reached the top 20 in the Nielsen ratings. Rawhide was the fourth longest-running American TV western, beaten only by nine years of The Virginian and Wagon Train, 14 years of Bonanza, and 20 years of Gunsmoke. The typical Rawhide story involved drovers who would meet people on the trail and get drawn into solving whatever problem they presented or were confronting.

Late 1960s through 1980s:
Traditional Westerns began to disappear from television in the late 1960s and early 1970s as color television became ubiquitous. 1968 was the last season any new traditional Westerns debuted on television; by 1969, after pressure from parental advocacy groups who claimed Westerns were too violent for television, all three of the major networks ceased airing new Western series.

Demographic pressures and overall burnout from the format may have also been a factor as viewers became bored and disinterested with the glut of Westerns on the air at the time.

The two last traditional Westerns, Death Valley Days and Gunsmoke, ended their runs in 1975. This may have been the result of an ongoing trend toward more urban-oriented programming that occurred in the early 1970s known as the "rural purge", though only two Westerns (NBC's The Virginian and The High Chaparral) were canceled in the peak season of the purge in 1971. Bonanza ended its run in 1973.

While the traditional Westerns mostly died out in the late 1960s, more modernized Westerns, incorporating story concepts from outside the traditional genre, began appearing on television shortly thereafter.

A number of the new shows downplayed the traditional violent elements of Westerns, for example by having the main characters go unarmed and/or seek to avoid conflicts, or by emphasizing fantasy, comedy or family themes. The Wild Wild West, which ran from 1965 to 1969, combined Westerns with heavy use of steampunk and an espionage-thriller format in the spirit of the recently popularized James Bond franchise. 

F Troop was a satirical sitcom that made fun of the genre.

The limited-run McCloud, which premiered in 1970, was essentially a fusion of the sheriff-oriented western with the modern big-city crime drama. Its companion series Hec Ramsey was a western who-dunnit mystery series, implied to be a lighthearted sequel to the more serious traditional western Have Gun Will Travel, even starring the earlier show's star Richard Boone. 

Cimarron Strip, a lavish 90-minute 1967 series starring Stuart Whitman as a U.S. Marshal, was canceled after a single season primarily because of its unprecedented expense. Nichols featured former Maverick star James Garner as a motorcycle-riding, unarmed peacemaker in a modern western setting. The low-budget sitcom Dusty's Trail was an Old West adaptation of Gilligan's Island, complete with the star of the earlier show, Bob Denver. 

Little House on the Prairie was set on the frontier in the time period of the western, but was essentially a family drama. Kung Fu was in the tradition of the itinerant gunfighter westerns, but the main character was a Shaolin monk, the son of an American father and a Chinese mother, who fought only with his formidable martial art skill. The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams was a family adventure show about a gentle mountain man with an uncanny connection to wildlife who helps others who visit his wilderness refuge. 

Dallas took the soap opera genre and put it into a Western setting.

Examples:
  • Alias Smith and Jones, which aired on the ABC network from January 1971 to January 1973, was inspired by the success of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The main characters are two wanted bank robbers on the run under false identities, who now wish to reform, and have been secretly promised a pardon by the governor on the condition that they stay out of trouble until some unspecified future time. They must deal with people and situations they encounter while on the run, without giving away their true identities or committing any further criminal acts. Like Butch Cassidy, the series is a Western with buddy film and comedy-drama elements.
  • Little House on the Prairie (retitled Little House: A New Beginning in 1982) was an American television drama that aired on the NBC network from September 11, 1974, to March 21, 1983, based on the "Little House" series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The long-running series told the story of a farm family settling on the frontier in Minnesota during the 1870s and 1880s.
  • The Young Riders premiered in the fall of 1989 and ran for 3 seasons. The show followed a group of riders for the fabled Pony Express which operated 1860–1861.

​1990s and 2000s:

The 1990s saw the networks filming Western movies on their own. These include:
Louis L'Amour's Conagher starring Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross, Tony Hillerman's The Dark Wind, The Last Outlaw, The Jack Bull, The Cisco Kid, The Cherokee Kid, and the TV series Lonesome Dove.

​Zorro was remade with Duncan Regehr for The Family Channel filmed in Madrid, Spain.
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was an American western/dramatic television series created by Beth Sullivan. It ran on CBS for six seasons, from January 1, 1993, to May 16, 1998, and won multiple Emmy awards.

Walker, Texas Ranger was a long-running western/crime drama series, set in the modern era, in the United States, that starred and later was produced by Chuck Norris. It ran on CBS for nine seasons, from April 21, 1993, to May 19, 2001. For most of their time on air, Dr. Quinn and Walker aired on the same Saturday night lineup.

Western TV shows from the 2000s included:
DVDs offer a second life to TV series like Peacemakers, and HBO's Deadwood.

In 2002, a show called Firefly (created by Joss Whedon) mixed the Western genre with science fiction. Breaking Bad, a Neo-Western about crystal methamphetamine cooks in Albuquerque, NM, debuted in 2008 on AMC.

​2010s:

Series with Western themes that debuted in the 2010s include:
  • Justified, about a Western-style vigilante U.S. Marshal based in modern rural Kentucky, which debuted in 2010 on FX; 
  • Hell on Wheels, about the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States, which debuted in 2011 on AMC;
  • and Longmire, about a modern-day Wyoming sheriff, which debuted in 2012 on A&E.

With the growth of cable television and direct broadcast satellites, reruns of Westerns have become more common. Upon its launch in 1996, TV Land carried a block of Westerns on Sundays; the network still airs Bonanza and the color episodes of Gunsmoke as of 2011. Encore Westerns, part of the Encore slate of premium channels, airs blocks of Western series in the morning and in the afternoon, while the channel airs Western films the rest of the day. 

MeTV, a digital broadcast channel, includes Westerns in its regular schedule as well, as does sister network Heroes & Icons. The family oriented Inspiration Network and Grit, another digital broadcast channel, also carry Westerns on its daytime schedules.







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Most watched TV Series Finales of all Time (United States)
YouTube Video of the Final Episode of The Fugitive TV Series
​Pictured:  #1 and #2 most watched: "M*A*S*H and "Roots" Miniseries

Most watched TV Series Series Finales of all time in the United States
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Click here for the Table that lists the 15 most watched U.S. television series finales in history, effective as of the current season.

​Take note, however, that all the Nielsen ratings for U.S. television series finales broadcast starting 2003 were adjusted from the 2007-2008 season to incorporate both the standard live prime time and time-shifted or delayed DVR viewership figures (based on the telecast's final 5-minute standard run) in the United States only (from the dates of their original series finale runs).

The finale is not necessarily a show's most watched episode. Notable examples include the CBS' Dallas, viewed by about 90 million American viewers after the network's 21 November 1980 primetime telecast of the resolution episode of the internationally known 'Who Shot J.R.' cliffhanger (the second highest rated single television broadcast in U.S. history, watched by 53.3% of American households and more than 76% of the total U.S. television viewers for that year), almost thrice as many viewers as there were for the 1991 series finale (33.3 million viewers).

The highest-rated single television broadcast in U.S. history is the 150-minute-long final episode of M*A*S*H* (which remains the sole regular U.S. primetime television series to be watched by at least 100 million viewers in the United States alone for an episode), transmitted on primetime by CBS on 28 February 1983, viewed at a peak conclusion by 125 million American viewers (or 60.2% of American households and at least 77% of the total U.S. television viewers).

​When TV miniseries are taken into the Nielsen tallies, ABC's Roots posted the second most watched series finale in U.S. history, watched on 30 January 1977, by 100 million viewers (51.1% of American households and more than 71% of the total U.S. television viewers that year), but attracted the largest viewership for any type of prime time television series in U.S. history – a record currently standing at between 130 million and 140 million American viewers for its 8-part installment in January 1977 (peaking up to 80% of the total U.S. television viewers in 1977).

CBS' Everybody Loves Raymond bumped the syndicated series Star Trek: The Next Generation out of the Top 15 Nielsen tally of the all-time most watched U.S. TV series finales in May 2005, but the latter remains the most watched of all syndicated programs in U.S. history. 

NBC aired 2 of the top 5 all-time most watched overall U.S. television series finales to date (both of sitcom genre, behind the 1983 M.A.S.H. and 1977 Roots respective final episodes, and also sandwiching the peak rating record of the August 1967, final broadcast of ABC's The Fugitive) – the 21 May 1993, broadcast of the series finale of Cheers (the most watched overall U.S. television series finale in the advent of cable television starting the mid-1990s, covering almost 93.5 million American viewers and 46% of all American households that year), and the prime time telecast of the final episode of Seinfeld on 14 May 1998.

Take note that the gap of the viewerships between these and each of the series finales (on 6 and 13 May 2004) of fellow NBC sitcoms Friends and Frasier (which became part of the long highly regarded 'Must See TV' tagline for Thursday primetime schedule of NBC from 1982 to 2004) fall between 20 million and 30 million viewers.







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Nielsen Ratings used by Networks to determine TV Show Popularity and for setting commercial (ad) rates.
YouTube Video of the episode of "Dallas" when J.R. Gets Shot
​Pictured: LEFT: The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS: 1962-1971); RIGHT: Friends (NBC: 1994-2004)

Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Robert F. Elder and Louis F. Woodruff and sold to Nielsen Company, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States. 

Nielsen Media Research was founded by Arthur C. Nielsen, a market analyst whose career had begun in the 1920s with brand advertising analysis and had expanded into radio market analysis during the 1930s, culminating in Nielsen ratings of radio programming, which was meant to provide statistics as to the markets of radio shows.

The first Nielsen ratings for radio programs were released the first week of December 1947. They measured the top 20 programs in four areas: total audience, average audience, cumulative audience and homes per dollar spent for time and talent.

In 1950, Nielsen moved to television, developing a ratings system using the methods he and his company had developed for radio. That method has since become the primary source of audience measurement information in the television industry around the world.

Measuring ratings:

Nielsen television ratings are gathered in one of two ways:
  1. Viewer "diaries", in which a target audience self-records its viewing or listening habits. By targeting various demographics, the assembled statistical models provide a rendering of the audiences of any given show, network, and programming hour.
  2. A more technologically sophisticated system uses Set Meters, which are small devices connected to televisions in selected homes. These devices gather the viewing habits of the home and transmit the information nightly to Nielsen through a "Home Unit" connected to a phone line. The technology-based home unit system is meant to allow market researchers to study television viewing habits on a minute to minute basis, seeing the exact moment viewers change channels or turn off their television set. In addition to set meters, individual viewer reporting devices, such as people meters, have allowed the company to separate household viewing information into various demographic groups, but so far Nielsen has refused to change its distribution of data of ethnic groups into subgroups, which could give more targeted information to networks and advertisers.

Changing systems of viewing have impacted Nielsen's methods of market research. In 2005, Nielsen began measuring the usage of digital video recording devices such as TiVo. Initial results indicated that time-shifted viewing will have a significant impact on television ratings.

A year later, the networks were not yet figuring these new results into their ad rates because of the resistance of advertisers.

Ratings/share and total viewers:

The most commonly cited Nielsen results are reported in two measurements: ratings points and share, usually reported as: "ratings points/share". As of 2013, there were an estimated 115.6 million television households in the United States, up 1.2% from the previous year because of the inclusion of televisions that receive content over the Internet.

A single national ratings point represents 1% of the total number, or 1,156,000 households for the 2013–14 season. Nielsen re-estimates the number of television-equipped households each August for the upcoming television season.

Share is the percentage of television sets in use that are tuned to the program. For example, Nielsen may report a show as receiving a 9.2/15 during its broadcast; this would mean that out of all television-equipped households, 9.2% were tuned in to that program, and out of all television-equipped households with a television currently in use, 15% were tuned in to that program.
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Because ratings are based on samples, it is possible for shows to get a 0.0 rating, despite having an audience; the CNBC talk show McEnroe was one notable example. Another example is The CW show, CW Now, which received two 0.0 ratings in the same season.

In 2014, Nielsen reported that American viewership of live-television (totaling on average four hours and 32 minutes per day) had dropped 12 minutes per day compared to the year before. Nielsen reported several reasons for the shift away from live-television: increased viewership of time-shifted television (mainly through DVRs) and viewership of internet video (clips from video sharing websites and streams of full-length television shows).

Demographics:

Nielsen Media Research also provides statistics on specific demographics as advertising rates are influenced by such factors as age, gender, race, economic class, and area. Younger viewers are considered more attractive for many products, whereas in some cases older and wealthier audiences are desired, or female audiences are desired over males.

In general, the number of viewers within the 18–49 age range is more important than the total number of viewers.

According to Advertising Age, during the 2007–08 season, ABC was able to charge $419,000 per commercial sold during its medical drama Grey's Anatomy, compared to only $248,000 for a commercial during CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, despite CSI having almost five million more viewers on average.

Because of its strength in young "demos" (demographic groups), NBC was able to charge almost three times as much for a commercial during Friends as CBS charged for Murder, She Wrote, even though the two series had a similar amount of total viewership during the two seasons they were on the air concurrently.

Glee (on Fox) and The Office (on NBC) drew fewer total viewers than NCIS (on CBS) during the 2009–10 season, but earned an average of $272,694 and $213,617 respectively, compared to $150,708 for NCIS.

Commercial ratings:

Nielsen also provides viewership data calculated as the average viewership for only the commercial time within the program. These "Commercial Ratings" first became available on May 31, 2007. Additionally, Nielsen provides different "streams" of this data in order to take into consideration delayed viewing (DVR) data, at any interval up to seven days.

C3 was the metric launched in 2007, and refers to the ratings for average commercial minutes in live programming plus total playback by digital video recorder out to three days after. By the end of 2012, some television executives wanted to see C7, ratings for live plus seven days, with CBS Corporation chief executive officer Les Moonves making the claim C7 made ratings increase by 30%.

"Sweeps":

Electronic metering technology is the heart of the Nielsen ratings process. Two types of meters are used: set meters capture what channel is being tuned, while People Meters go a step further and gather information about who is watching the channel at that time.

Diaries are also used to collect viewing information from sample homes in many television markets in the United States, and smaller markets are measured by paper diaries only. Each year, Nielsen processes approximately two million paper diaries from households across the country, for the months of November, February, May and July—also known as the "sweeps" rating periods. 

The term "sweeps" dates from 1954, when Nielsen collected diaries from households in the Eastern United States first; from there they would "sweep" west.

Seven-day diaries (or eight-day diaries in homes with DVRs) are mailed to homes to keep a tally of what is watched on each television set and by whom. Over the course of a sweeps period, diaries are mailed to a new panel of homes each week. At the end of the month, all of the viewing data from the individual weeks is aggregated.

This local viewing information provides a basis for program scheduling and advertising decisions for local television stations, cable systems, and advertisers. Typically, the November, February and May sweeps are considered more important; nevertheless, the July sweeps can have local impact in regard to personnel.

In some of the mid-size markets, diaries provide viewer information for up to two additional “sweeps” months (October and January).

​​Criticism of ratings systems:

There is some public critique regarding accuracy and potential bias within Nielsen's rating system, including some concerns that the Nielsen ratings system is rapidly becoming outdated because of new technology like smartphones, DVRs, tablet computers and Internet streaming services as preferred or alternative methods for television viewing.

In June 2006, however, Nielsen announced a plan to revamp its entire methodology to include all types of media viewing in its sample.

Since viewers are aware of being part of the Nielsen sample, it can lead to response bias in recording and viewing habits. Audience counts gathered by the self-reporting diary methodology are sometimes higher than those gathered by the electronic meters which eliminate any response bias. This trend seems to be more common for news programming and popular prime time programs. In addition, daytime and late night viewing tends to be under-reported by the diary.

Another criticism of the measuring system itself is that it fails the most important criterion of a sample: it is not random in the statistical sense of the word. A small fraction of the population is selected and only those that actually accept are used as the sample size. In many local areas during the 1990s, the difference between a rating that kept a show on the air and one that would cancel it was so small as to be statistically insignificant, and yet the show that just happened to get the higher rating would survive.

In addition, the Nielsen ratings encouraged a strong push for demographic measurements. This caused problems with households that had multiple television sets or households where viewers would enter the simpler codes (usually their child's) raising serious questions to the quality of the demographic data.

The situation further deteriorated as the popularity of cable television expanded the number of viewable networks to the point that the margin of error has increased, because the sampling sizes are too small.

​Compounding matters is the fact that of the sample data that is collected, advertisers will not pay for time shifted programs (those that are recorded for replay at a different time), rendering the "raw" numbers useless from a statistical point of view. Even in 2013, it was noted that Internet streams of television programs were still not counted because they had either no ads (such as Netflix) or totally different advertising (such as Hulu) than their television counterparts, effectively skewing the raw data on how popular a show really is.

A related criticism of the Nielsen ratings system is its lack of a system for measuring television audiences in environments outside the home, such as college dormitories, transport terminals, bars, jails and other public places where television is frequently viewed, often by large numbers of people in a common setting.

In 2005, Nielsen announced plans to incorporate viewing by away-from-home college students into its sample. Internet television viewing is another rapidly growing market for which Nielsen ratings fail to account for viewers. iTunes, Hulu, YouTube, and some of the networks' own websites (such as ABC.com and CBS.com) provide full-length web-based programming, either subscription-based or ad-supported.

Though web sites can already track popularity of a site and the referring page, they cannot track viewer demographics. To both track this and expand their market research offerings, Nielsen purchased NetRatings in 2007. 

However, as noted in a February 2012 New York Times article, the computer and mobile streams of a program are counted separately from the standard television broadcasts, further degrading the overall quality of the sampling data. As a result, there was no way for NBC to tell if there was any overlap between the roughly 111.3 million traditional television viewers and 2.1 million live stream viewers of Super Bowl XLVII.

Responding to the criticism regarding accusations by several media executives (including Viacom CEO Phillippe Dauman and former Fox Entertainment Group chief operating officer Chase Carey) that it failed to count viewers watching television programs on digital platforms, Nielsen executive vice president of global product leadership Megan Clarken stated in an April 2015 summit by the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement that the company is able to count digital viewers in audience and demographic reports, but are unable to do so under the current set of rules devised by networks and advertising industries last revised in 2006.

As such, Nielsen can only count viewership for television-originated broadcasts, and must exclude viewers who watch programs on digital platforms if the program does not have an identical advertising load or a linear watermark.

After Nielsen took over the contract for producing data on Irish advertising in 2009, agencies said that they were "disastrous" and claimed that the information produced by them is too inaccurate to be trusted by them or their clients.

In 2004, News Corporation retained the services of public relations firm Glover Park to launch a campaign aimed at delaying Nielsen's plan to replace its aging household electronic data collection methodology in larger local markets with its newer electronic People Meter system.

The advocates in the public relations campaign charged that data derived from the newer People Meter system represented a bias toward under-reporting minority viewing, which could lead to a de facto discrimination in employment against minority actors and writers.

However, Nielsen countered the campaign by revealing its sample composition counts. According to Nielsen Media Research's sample composition counts, as of November 2004, nationwide, African American households using People Meters represented 6.7% of the Nielsen sample, compared to 6.0% in the general population. Latino households represent 5.7% of the Nielsen sample, compared to 5.0% in the general population.

By October 2006, News Corporation and Nielsen settled, with Nielsen agreeing to spend an additional $50 million to ensure that minority viewing was not being underreported by the new electronic people meter system.

In 2011, CBS and Nielsen proposed a model consisting of six viewer segments which according to their empirical research are more relevant for advertisers than older models based on gender and age. The segments are based on user behavior, motivations, and psychographics. It is argued that the model can increase reaching the desired audience as well as message recall and advertisement likeability.

Click here for the List of Most Watched Television Broadcasts in the United States according to Nielsen Ratings.







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Popular American TV Game Shows Including a List
YouTube Video of 13-Time Jeopardy! Champ Matt Jackson Ends Streak, Ranks Fourth All Time in Winnings
​Pictured: TOP PHOTO: “Wheel of Fortune” (1975-Present); BOTTOM PHOTO: “Family Feud” (1976-Present)

Popular American TV Game Shows Including a List
A game show is a type of radio, television, or internet programming genre in which contestants, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes.

Contestants compete against other players or another team, while other shows involve contestants playing alone for a reward or a high score.

Game shows often reward players with prizes such as cash, trips and goods and services provided by the show's sponsor prize suppliers, who in turn usually do so for the purposes of product placement. One of the reasons that television broadcasters make game shows is because they are substantially less costly than producing scripted drama shows.

Some TV game shows fall under the category of reality television.

Click here for a Listing of American Game Shows.
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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series by Year.
YouTube Video of The Streets of San Francisco
​Pictured: LEFT: Police Story (NBS: 1973-1978); RIGHT: E/R (NBC: 1994-2009)

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series by year


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This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, since its institution in 1951.

The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys ceremonies, and has changed names many times in its history.

It was first called Best Dramatic Show from 1951 to 1954, then Best Dramatic Series in 1955 and 1956.

In 1957, no specific award for drama was given, but in 1958 its name was changed again and this time it was two separate categories Best Dramatic Anthology Series, and Best Dramatic Series with Continuing Characters with a winner selected from each category.

The name was changed again in 1959 to Best Dramatic Series – Less Than One Hour. In 1960, the name was changed yet again to Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Drama; this name was kept from 1960 to 1964.

In 1966, it had its sixth name change to Outstanding Dramatic Series or Outstanding Series-Drama; this was used from 1966 until recently, when it became Outstanding Drama Series.

Since 2000, every single winner has been a serial drama: 
Since the advent of Hill Street Blues in 1981, every winner has had some serialized arcs with the exception of Law & Order.

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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series
YouTube Video from the Sonny and Cher Show
​Pictured: "Daily Show featuring Jon Stewart" and "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In"

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series



The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series was a category in the Primetime Emmy Awards. It was awarded annually to the best variety show or similarly formatted program of the year. The award was sometimes known by other names, such as “Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Program” and “Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Series”.

From 1979 to 1988, all of the award winners were single programs, although series were nominated for the award in some of those years. Since 1994, all of the winners in this category have been late-night talk shows.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart won the award for ten years consecutively (2003–2012), the longest winning streak for a television show in Primetime Emmy Award history. In 2015, this category was separated into two categories – Outstanding Variety Sketch Series and Outstanding Variety Talk Series.







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Reality TV including a List of Reality Television Programs
YouTube Video: Kelly Clarkson winning on "American Idol"
​Pictured: LEFT: Dancing With The Stars (ABC: 2005-Present); RIGHT: Survivor (CBS: 2000-Present)

Reality TV including a List of Reality Television Programs
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents supposedly unscripted real-life situations, and often features an otherwise unknown cast of individuals who are typically not professional actors, although in some shows celebrities may participate.

​It differs from documentary television in that the focus tends to be on drama, personal conflict, and entertainment rather than educating viewers. Reality TV programs also often bring participants into situations and environments that they would otherwise never be a part of.

The genre has various standard tropes, including "confessionals" used by cast members to express their thoughts, which often double as the shows' narration. Reality TV shows often have a host who asks questions of the participants and comments on the proceedings. In competition-based reality shows, a notable subset, there are other common elements such as one participant being eliminated per episode, a panel of judges, and the concept of "immunity from elimination."

Reality TV exploded as a phenomenon in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the global success of the series Survivor, Idols, and Big Brother. These shows and a number of others (usually also competition-based) became global franchises, spawning local versions in dozens of countries.

Reality television as a whole has become a fixture of television programming. In the United States, various channels have retooled themselves to focus on reality programs, most famously MTV, which began in 1981 as a music video pioneer, before switching to a nearly all-reality format in the early 2000s.

There are grey areas around what is classified as reality television. Documentaries, television news, sports television, talk shows, and traditional game shows are not classified as reality television, even though they contain elements of the genre, such as unscripted situations and sometimes unknown participants.

Other genres that predate the reality television boom have sometimes been retroactively grouped into reality TV, including:
Reality television has faced significant criticism since its rise in popularity. Much of the criticism has centered on the use of the word "reality", and such shows' attempt to present themselves as a straightforward recounting of events that have occurred.

​Critics have argued that reality television shows do not accurately reflect reality, in ways both implicit (participants being placed in artificial situations), and deceptive or even fraudulent, such as misleading editing, participants being coached in what to say or how to behave, storylines generated ahead of time, and scenes being staged or re-staged for the cameras.

Other criticisms of reality television shows include that they are intended to humiliate or exploit participants (particularly on competition shows); that they make stars out of either untalented people unworthy of fame, infamous personalities, or both; and that they glamorize vulgarity and materialism.

Professional screenwriters have expressed concern about the popularity of a genre which does not require scriptwriting.

Click here for a listing of Reality Television Programs.







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Romantic Comedy Television Series
YouTube Video from Desperate Housewives - Gaby FUNNIEST clips
​Pictured: LEFT: The Love Boat (ABC: 1977-1986): RIGHT: The Nanny (CBS: 1993-1999)

Romantic Comedy TV Series
This is a list of romantic comedy television series in chronological order.







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TV Sitcoms Including a List of American Sitcoms​
YouTube Video of Dharma and Greg TV Show
​Pictured: "Three's Company" and "The Jeffersons"

TV Sitcoms Including a List of American Sitcoms


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A situation comedy, or sitcom, is a genre of comedy centered on characters who share a common environment, such as a home or workplace, with often-humorous dialogue. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. This form can also include mockumentaries.

A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track.

Click here for a listing of American Situation Comedies.







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Supernatural TV Shows
YouTube Video from the Vampire Diaries: Damon helps Elena after she vomits up blood
Pictured: LEFT: True Blood (HBO: 2008-2014); RIGHT: Salem (WGN America: 2014-Present)

Supernatural TV Shows
Top Supernatural-related Television Shows according to the International Movie Database (IMDb)


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Talk Shows including a List of American Talk Shows
YouTube Video: Joan Rivers is Hilarious on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show FULL INTERVIEW, 1986
​Pictured: LEFT: Oprah Winfrey interviewing the President and First Lady Obama on The Oprah Winfrey Show (Syndicated: 1986-2011); RIGHT: Kathie Lee and Hoda with Dolly Parton on the Today Show (NBC: 1952 to Present)

Talk Shows including a List of American Talk Shows



A talk show or chat show is a television programming in which one person (or group of people) discusses various topics put forth by a talk show host.

Usually, guests consist of a group of people who are learned or who have great experience in relation to whatever issue is being discussed on the show for that episode. Other times, a single guest discusses their work or area of expertise with a host or co-hosts. A call-in show takes live phone calls from callers listening at home, in their cars, etc. Sometimes, guests are already seated but are often introduced and enter from backstage. 

Notable Talk Show hosts have included:
Click on any of the following for amplification:
Click here for a listing of American television talk shows







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Daytime Soap Operas by Ratings as Compiled by Nielsen Media Research.
YouTube Video of  The best couples of daytime soaps
Pictured: LEFT: General Hospital (ABC: 1963-Present); RIGHT: “The Young and the Restless” (CBS: 1973-Present)

Daytime Soap Operas by Ratings as Compiled by Nielsen Media Research
The following is a list of television Nielsen ratings and rankings for American daytime soap operas from 1950 to the present, as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. 

The numbers provided represent the percentage of TV households in the United States watching that particular show in a year.

Before 1996, the season average included only ratings from late September through mid-April. Since 1996, the numbers represent full-year ratings, from September through September.







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TV Shows Adapted From Movies
YouTube Video from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pictured: ​Stargate as LEFT: TV Series “SG-1” (Syndicated: 1997-2007); based on RIGHT: “Stargate” Movie: (1994)

TV Shows Adapted From Movies
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This is a list of television series that have been adapted from movies, either as a straight adaptation (i.e. a "remake"), or as a sequel or prequel.
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Click on any of the following hyperlinks for amplification:​






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TV Variety Shows including a list of American Variety Shows
YouTube Video from the Sunny and Cher Comedy Hour: The Vamps - Jerry Lewis
Pictured: LEFT: “The Carol Burnett Show” (CBS: 1967-1978); RIGHT: “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (NBC: 2009-2014)

TV Variety Shows including a list of American Variety Shows
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts (hence the name), especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and is normally introduced by a host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism.

While still widespread in some parts of the world, the proliferation of multi-channel television and evolving viewer tastes affected the popularity of variety shows in the United States.

Despite this, their influence has still had a major effect on late night television whose late night talk shows and NBC's comedy series Saturday Night Live (which originally premiered in 1975) have remained popular fixtures of North American television.
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Click here for a listing of American Variety Shows.







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TV Shows Inspired by Real Events
YouTube Video ROOTS Season 1 TRAILER (2016) History Channel Slavery Drama Mini-Series
Pictured: LEFT: “The Untouchables” (ABC: 1959-1963); RIGHT: “Code Black” (CBS: 2015-Present)

TV Shows Inspired by Real Events


Television Shows inspired by actual events, and presented alphanumerically.







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A Listing of TV Show Franchises
YouTube Video from Law & Order SVU: "I'm Her Mother"
Pictured: LEFT: Law & Order (NBC: 1990-2010); RIGHT: CSI: Crime Scene Investigations (CBS: 2005-2015)

A Listing of TV Show Franchises
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This is a list of television series franchises. Some of these franchises are formats that are adapted internationally; others are a series of connected programs set within the same fictional universe.







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TV Show Creators
YouTube Video of Two and a Half Men: Alan Harper's Funny Moments
Pictured: Stephen J. Cannell ( "Ironside", "Columbo" and others) and Chuck Lorre ( "Two and a Half Men", "The Big Bang Theory", "Mom", and others)

TV Show Creators



A television program creator is typically the person who pitches a new TV show idea and sees it through. There are numerous notable television program creators; this article includes a list of many of them.

Often, the creator is the writer of the pilot episode, or a director, or a producer. Sometimes it is a writer of the series' "bible", or writers' guidelines. 

In the United States, a Writers Guild of America (WGA) screenwriting credit system governs credits. For example, the Writers Guild of America, West provides specifications for creator credits that govern its members. The Producers Guild of America's corresponding code for producers defines "Executive Producer" and similar roles but not an explicit "Creator" role.

Creator is a specific credit given explicitly in many shows. However, it has not always been a prominent, explicit credit. For example, Sydney Newman, the accepted creator of The Avengers (1961–69), was never given an explicit credit as creator; Newman never thought to ask for one.

The creator of a television show may retain rights to participate in profits, often to be paid by the production company as a percentage of fees that it receives from networks and distributors.

In 2014, for prime-time network TV shows, the WGA-required royalty to be paid to a writer with "created by" credit is approximately $1,000 per episode or higher. Who merits creator credit is sometimes a matter of contention. In a 2013 legal case, a director sued a former writing partner for co-creator credit.

Click here for a listing of notable Television Show Creators







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TV Actors and Actresses Who Became Movie Stars
​YouTube Video of Robin Williams in "Mork and Mindy" (ABC: 1978-1982)
Pictured: LEFT: Tom Hanks in Bosom Buddies (NBC: 1980-1982); RIGHT: John Travolta in Welcome Back, Kotter (ABC: 1975-1979)

Actors and Actresses who Started Out on Television and Ended Up as Movie Stars
Leaving the Laugh Track Behind:

Respect. If you wanted it -- as a TV actor -- you had to prove yourself on the big screen, and shed the "TV" label. (The bigger paydays didn't hurt, either.)

At least, that was the conventional wisdom for much of the history of television, leading to an endless stream of TV actors leaving the small screen for the cinema. These days, of course, much of the stigma associated with television is gone, and the process is frequently reversed, with film stars opting for the challenge of television work.
Respect.

If you wanted it -- as a TV actor -- you had to prove yourself on the big screen, and shed the "TV" label. (The bigger paydays didn't hurt, either.) At least, that was the conventional wisdom for much of the history of television, leading to an endless stream of TV actors leaving the small screen for the cinema. These days, of course, much of the stigma associated with television is gone, and the process is frequently reversed, with film stars opting for the challenge of television work.

Click Here for Amplification.
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A Listing of Television Production Companies Providing Content for TV Shows in the United States.
YouTube Video ​from the TV Series “Las Vegas” (NBC: 2003-2008)
​Pictured: Logos for 20th Century Fox (News Corporation) and Paramount Studios (a Viacom company)

A Listing of Television Production Companies Providing Content for TV Shows in the United States
This category contains articles about American television production companies.







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Television Miniseries, including a List of American Miniseries
YouTube Video of Episode 1 of the Kennedy Miniseries (NBC: 1983)
​Pictured: Lonesome Dove (CBS: 1989) starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Frank: The Whole Story (ABC: 2001) starring  Ben Kingsley, Brenda Blethyn, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, and Lili Taylor.

Television Miniseries, including a List of American Miniseries
A miniseries is distinguished from an ongoing television series, which do not usually have a predetermined number of episodes and may continue for several years.

Before the term was coined in the USA in the early 1970s, the ongoing episodic form was always called a "serial", just as a novel appearing in episodes in successive editions of magazines or newspapers is called a serial. In Britain, miniseries are often still referred to as serials.

Click here for a list of American mini series.







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List of Cable and Satellite TV Networks in the United States
YouTube Video: Miley Cyrus Stuns at MTV Video Music Awards
Pictured: Sampling of Network Logos

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of broadcast networks. Many early television networks (such as the BBC, NBC or CBC) evolved from earlier radio networks.

Click Here for  a list of cable and satellite television networks broadcasting or receivable in the United States, organized by genre. Some cable systems use one or more cable channels for video on demand.






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Television Programs and their various formats including A Listing of American Television Series
​YouTube Video: "Lonesome Dove" TV Mini-series
Pictured: Long-running Television Shows still on the air L-R: Wheel of Fortune, General Hospital, and Law and Order SVU.

A television program is a segment of content intended for broadcast on over-the-air, cable television, or Internet television, other than a commercial, trailer, or any other segment of content not serving as attraction for viewership. It may be a single production, or more commonly, a series of related productions (also called a television series or a television show).
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A limited number of episodes of a television drama may be called a miniseries or a serial or limited series. Series without a fixed length are usually divided into seasons (U.S.), yearly or semiannual sets of new episodes. While there is no defined length, U.S. industry practice has traditionally favored longer television seasons than those of other countries.

A one-time broadcast may be called a "special", or particularly in the UK a "special episode".

A television film ("made-for-TV movie" or "television movie") is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video.

A program can be either recorded, as on video tape, other various electronic media forms, played with an on-demand player or viewed on live television.

Click on any of the following for amplification:

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Jumping the Shark
YouTube Video: Fonzie Jumps the Shark on Happy Days (Episode 5.3) 1977
Pictured: Fonzie (Henry Winkler) on water skis, in a scene from the Happy Days episode "Hollywood, Part 3", after jumping over a shark (Courtesy of Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2840084)

[Web Host Notes: I created this topic as I can think of two great television shows that saw the end of their TV series due to running out of good ideas for continuing.

One is "The Mentalist" (CBS: 2008-2015), which ended its run shortly after the lead former "psychic" Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) killed his arch nemesis and serial killer known as Red John, who was responsible for the brutal murders of his wife, Angela Ruskin Jane, and his daughter, Charlotte Anne Jane"Red John". After that, viewers lost interest in the show, which was canceled shortly thereafter.

The second is "Castle", (ABC: 2009-2016). Once Castle had married Beckett, the show took a weird turn with the disappearance of Castle (presumably thought dead when his car crashed and burned shortly just after marrying Beckett).]

"Jumping the shark" is a pejorative idiom used to describe a moment of television in which there is a gimmick or unlikely occurrence that is seen as a desperate attempt to keep viewers' interest.

Therefore, moments labeled as "jumping the shark" are often considered indications that the writers have run out of ideas; that the show has strayed irretrievably from an older and better formula; and/or even that the series as a whole is declining in quality. Popularized by radio personality Jon Hein in the 1980s, the phrase is based on a scene from a fifth-season episode of the sitcom Happy Days in which the character Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water-skis.

The usage of "jump the shark" has subsequently broadened beyond television, indicating the moment when a brand, design, franchise, or creative effort's evolution declines, or when it changes notably in style into something unwelcome.

The phrase jump the shark is based on a scene in the fifth season premiere episode of the American TV series Happy Days titled "Hollywood: Part 3," written by Fred Fox, Jr., which aired on September 20, 1977.

In the episode, the central characters visit Los Angeles, where a water-skiing Fonzie (Henry Winkler) answers a challenge to his bravery by wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, and jumping over a confined shark. The stunt was created as a way to showcase Winkler's real-life water ski skills. However, the scene also was criticized as betraying Fonzie's character development, since in an earlier landmark-episode, Fonzie jumped his motorcycle over fourteen barrels in a televised stunt; the stunt left him seriously injured, and he confessed that he was stupid to have taken such a dangerous risk just to prove his courage.

For a show that in its early seasons depicted universally relateable adolescent and family experiences against a backdrop of 1950s nostalgia, this incident marked an audacious turn. The lionization of an increasingly superhuman Fonzie, who was initially a supporting character in the series, became the focus of Happy Days.

The series continued for seven years after Fonzie's shark-jumping stunt, with a number of changes in cast and situations.








Television Courtroom Judge Shows including a List.
YouTube Video: Judge Judy Lets Dog Find Its REAL Owner Inside Court
* -- The People's Court
Pictured: LEFT: Judge Judy (Syndicated: 1996 – Present); RIGHT: Judge Joe Brown (Syndicated: 1998-2013)

A court show (also known as a judge show, legal/courtroom program, courtroom show, or judicial show) is a television programming subgenre of either legal dramas or reality legal programming.

Court shows present content mainly in the form of legal hearings between plaintiffs and defendants presided over by a pseudo-judge. At present, these shows typically portray small claims court cases, produced in a simulation of a small claims courtroom inside of a television studio.

Widely used techniques in court shows have been dramatizations and arbitration-based realities. The genre began with dramatizations and remained the technique of choice for roughly six decades.

By the late 1990s, however, arbitration-based realities had overwhelmingly taken over as the technique of choice within the genre, the trend continuing into the present. Dramatizations were either fictional cases (often inspired from factual details in actual cases) or reenactments of actual trials.

The role of the judge was often taken by a retired real-life judge, a law school professor or an actor. Arbitration-based realities, on the other hand, have typically involved litigants who have agreed to have their disputes aired on national television so as to be adjudicated by a television show "judge."

Due to the forum merely being a simulated courtroom constructed within a television studio as opposed to a legitimate court of law, the shows' "judges" are actually arbitrators and what is depicted is a form of binding arbitration. The arbitrators presiding in modern court programs have had at least some legal experience, which is often listed as requirement by these programs.
These television programs tend to air once or twice for every weekday as part of daytime television and often cost little to create (under $200,000 a week, where entertainment magazines cost five times that).

Like talk shows, the procedure of court shows varies based upon the titular host. In most cases, they are first-run syndication programs.

In 2001, the genre began to beat out soap operas in daytime television ratings. While all syndicated shows are steadily losing audiences, court shows have the slowest rate of viewer erosion. Accordingly, by the end of the 2000s, the number of court shows in syndication had, for the first time, equaled the number of talk shows.

As reported in late 2012, court programming is the second highest-rated genre on daytime television. The genre's most formidable competitors in syndication have been the sitcom and game show genres.

Click here for a List of Courtroom Television Shows.







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TV Parental Guidelines (Television Content Rating System used in the United States)

The TV Parental Guidelines are a television content rating system in the United States that was first proposed on December 19, 1996, by the United States Congress, the television industry and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and went into effect by January 1, 1997, on most major broadcast and cable networks in response to public concerns about increasingly explicit sexual content, graphic violence and strong profanity in television programs.

It was established as a voluntary-participation system, with ratings to be determined by the individually participating broadcast and cable networks.

The ratings are generally applied to most television series, television films and edited broadcast or basic cable versions of theatrically-released films; premium channels also assign ratings from the TV Parental Guidelines on broadcasts of some films that have been released theatrically or on home video, either if the Motion Picture Association of America did not assign a rating for the film or if the channel airs the unrated version of the film.

It was specifically designed to be used with the V-chip, which was mandated to be built into all television sets manufactured since 2000, but the guidelines themselves have no legal force, and are not used on sports or news programs or during commercial advertisements.

Many online television services, such as Hulu, Amazon Video and Netflix also use the Guidelines system, along with digital video vendors such as the iTunes Store and Google Play.







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Soap Operas including a List of Daytime Soap Operas in the United States as well as their Respective Nielsen Ratings (presented by Decade)
YouTube Video: Top 10 Actors Who Got Their Start on Daytime Soaps
Pictured: "The Young and the Restless", the dominant Daytime Soap Opera over the years according to  Nielsen

A soap opera, soap, or soapie, is a serial drama on television that examines the lives of many characters, usually focusing on emotional relationships to the point of melodrama. The term soap opera originated from such dramas being typically sponsored by soap manufacturers in the past.

In the name, "soap" refers to the soap and detergent commercials originally broadcast during the shows, which were aimed at women who were cleaning their houses at the time of listening or viewing, and "opera" refers to the melodramatic character of the shows.

A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Albert Moran, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative.

Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode". In 2012, Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas:

"Although melodramatically eventful, soap operas such as this also have a luxury of space that makes them seem more naturalistic; indeed, the economics of the form demand long scenes, and conversations that a 22-episodes-per-season weekly series might dispense with in half a dozen lines of dialogue may be drawn out, as here, for pages.

You spend more time even with the minor characters; the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous."

Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally switch between several different concurrent narrative threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent of each other. Each episode may feature some of the show's current storylines, but not always all of them.

Especially in daytime serials and those that are broadcast each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of a week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely bring all the current storylines to a conclusion at the same time. When one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger, and the season finale (if a soap incorporates a break between seasons) ends in the same way, only to be resolved when the show returns for the start of a new yearly broadcast.

In 1976, Time magazine described American daytime television as "TV's richest market," noting the loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series into hour-long broadcasts in order to maximize ad revenues. The article explained that at that time, many prime time series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs. 

The issue's cover notably featured its first daytime soap stars, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives, a married couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press at large.

Plots and storylines: The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations".

Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place, or focus on a large extended family. The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters.

​"Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what Steve Neale has described as 'chance happenings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations, deus ex machina endings.'" These elements may be found across the gamut of soap operas, from EastEnders to Dallas.

In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, the characters are frequently attractive, seductive, glamorous and wealthy.

Both UK and Australian soap operas feature comedic elements, often affectionate comic stereotypes such as the gossip or the grumpy old man, presented as a comic foil to the emotional turmoil that surrounds them. This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare.

In US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and the most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novels.

​Soap opera storylines sometimes weave intricate, convoluted and sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, and who commit adultery, all of which keeps audiences hooked on the unfolding story. Crimes such as kidnapping, rape, and even murder may go unpunished if the perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story.






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Television News in the United States
YouTube Video Tom Brokaw Says Farewell to NBC Nightly News
News Anchors for Three Major Networks:
TOP ROW: NBC Nightly News: (L) Tom Brokaw: 1982-2004); and Lester Holt (2015-Present)
CENTER ROW: CBS Evening News: with Dan Rather (1981-2005); and Scott Pelley (2011-Present)
BOTTOM ROW:  ABC World News Tonight: Diane Sawyer (2009-2014); and David Muir (2014–present)

Television news in the United States has evolved over many years. It has gone from a simple 10- to 15-minute format in the evenings, to a variety of programs and channels. Today, viewers can watch local, regional and national news programming, in many different ways, any time of the day.


For more about Television News in the United States, click on any of the following blue hyperlinks:
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​Television in the United States: from 1950 to Today
YouTube Video from the TV Series Home Improvement*: Al's Funniest Moments
* -- Home Improvement (ABC: 1991-1999)
Pictured: LEFT: “The Jack Benny Show” (CBS: 1950-1964; NBC: 1964-1965); RIGHT: “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC: 2005-Present)

​Click on any of the following decades for a listing of television shows first appearing in that decade: ​






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List of American Television Actors and Actresses
YouTube Video from the Jack Benny Show: Classic Routine with Mel Blanc
(Jack Benny Show)
Pictured: Clockwise from upper Left: Sidney Caeser, Lucille Ball, Kaley Cuoco, Larry Hagman

Click here for an alphabetical listing of American Male Actors.

Click here for an alphabetical listing of American Actresses.







The Golden Age of Television
YouTube Video: The Golden Age of Television Comedy (1952)
Pictured: sampling of popular TV shows from the Golden Age of Television

The "Golden Age of Television" refers to the era of live television production in the United States, roughly from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. According to The Television Industry: A Historical Dictionary, "the Golden Age opened with Kraft Television Theatre on May 7, 1947 and ended with the last live show in the Playhouse 90 series ten years later.

This first golden age was about the availability of high-quality cultural offerings in an era of limited channels, made possible because early television receivers were expensive and could be afforded mostly by the more educated and cultured class of viewers.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the Golden Age of Television:









Television in the United States including a List of Broadcast Networks as well as Cable and Satellite TV Networks
​YouTube Video: Is it Smart to Buy a Smart TV?
​Pictured: Broadcast Network Logos, Clockwise from Upper Left: NBC, CBS, ABC, The CW, and FOX

​A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's surface to a receiver on earth. Most often the term refers to a station which broadcasts structured content to an audience or it refers to the organization that operates the station.

A terrestrial television transmission can occur via analog television signals or, more recently, via digital television signals. Television stations are differentiated from cable television or other video providers in that their content is broadcast via terrestrial radio waves. A group of television stations with common ownership or affiliation are known as a TV network and an individual station within the network is referred to as O&O or affiliate, respectively.

Because television station signals use the s, which in the past has been a common, scarce resource, governments often claim authority to regulate them. Broadcast television systems standards vary around the world.

Television stations broadcasting over an analog system were typically limited to one television channel, but digital television enables broadcasting via subchannels as well.

Television stations usually require a broadcast license from a government agency which sets the requirements and limitations on the station.

In the United States, for example, a television license defines the broadcast range, or geographic area, that the station is limited to, allocates the broadcast frequency of the radio spectrum for that station's transmissions, sets limits on what types of television programs can be programmed for broadcast and requires a station to broadcast a minimum amount of certain programs types, such as public affairs messages.

Another form a television station may take is non-commercial educational (NCE) and considered public broadcasting. To avoid concentration of media ownership of television stations, government regulations in most countries generally limit the ownership of television stations by television networks or other media operators, but these regulations vary considerably.

Some countries have set up nationwide television networks, in which individual television stations act as mere repeaters of nationwide programs. In those countries, the local television station has no station identification and, from a consumer's point of view, there is no practical distinction between a network and a station, with only small regional changes in programming, such as local television news.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Television Station:

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List of United States Broadcast Television Networks

In the United States, for most of the history of broadcasting, there were only three or four major commercial national broadcast networks. ​
Today, more than fifty national broadcasting networks exist. Other than the non-commercial educational (NCE) PBS, which is composed of member stations, the largest broadcast television networks are the traditional Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC).

Many other large networks exist, however, notably Fox and The CW which air original programming for two hours each night instead of three like the original "Big Three" do, as well as syndication services like MyNetworkTV and Ion Television which feature reruns of recent popular shows with little to no original programming.

Fox has just about the same household reach percentage as the Big Three, and is therefore often considered a peer to ABC, NBC, and CBS since it has also achieved equal or better ratings since the late 1990s. Most media outlets now include Fox in what they refer to as the "Big Four" TV networks.

​The transition to digital broadcasting in 2009 has allowed for television stations to offer additional programming options through digital subchannels, one or more supplementary programming streams to the station's primary channel that are achieved through multiplexing of a station's signal.

​A number of new commercial networks airing specialty programming such as movies, reruns of classic series and lifestyle programs have been created from companies like Weigel Broadcasting, Luken Communications and even owners of the major networks such as The Walt Disney Company (through the Disney–ABC Television Group subsidiary) and Comcast (through the NBCUniversal subsidiary). Through the use of multi-casting, there have also been a number of new Spanish-language and non-commercial public TV networks that have launched.
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Broadcast networks in the U.S. can be divided into four categories:
  • Commercial broadcast networks – which air English-language programming to a general audience (for example, CBS);
  • Spanish-language broadcasting networks – fully programmed networks which air Spanish-language programming to a primarily Hispanic and Latino audience (for example, Telemundo and Univision);
  • Educational and other non-commercial broadcast networks – which air English- and some foreign-language television programming, intended to be educational in nature or otherwise of a sort not found on commercial television (for example, PBS);
  • Religious broadcast networks – which air religious study and other faith-based programs, and in some cases, family-oriented secular programs (for example, Daystar).

Each network sends its signal to many local affiliate television stations across the country. These local stations then air the "network feed," with programs broadcast by each network being viewed by up to tens of millions of households across the country. In the case of the largest networks, the signal is sent to over 200 stations. In the case of the smallest networks, the signal may be sent to just a dozen or fewer stations.

As of the 2016–17 television season, there are an estimated 118.4 million households in the U.S. with at least one TV set.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Broadcast Television:
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The following is a list of cable and satellite television networks broadcasting or receivable in the United States, organized by genre. Some cable systems use one or more cable channels for video on demand:







Classic Movie TV Channels as a List, featuring Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
YouTube Video: Ben Mankiewicz - TCM - Dr. Strangelove Intro & Outro - 2005
Pictured: Clockwise from Upper Left: TCM, AMC, EPIX, and CineMax

The following list are movie channels broadcast on television in the United States:
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Cooking Shows, including Lists of Cooking Shows and Television Chefs
Video of Rachel Ray cooking 30 Minute Meals
Pictured: "The Chew" (ABC) TV Talk Show about Cooking

Click here for a List of Cooking Shows.

Click here for a List of Television Chefs.

A cooking show or cooking program is a television genre that presents food preparation in a kitchen, located in a restaurant or a studio set.

Typically the show's host, often a celebrity chef, prepares one or more dishes over the course of an episode, taking the viewing audience through the food's inspiration, preparation, and stages of cooking.

There are different types of cooking shows. Some portray an educational component, with the host teaching the viewers how to prepare different meals. Others are talk shows, with the host and guest celebrities enjoying the meal while talking. Also there are cooking competitions, such as Chopped, Iron Chef or MasterChef, where cookers must prepare the best food according to judges.

While rarely achieving top ratings, cooking shows have been a popular staple of daytime TV programming since the earliest days of television. They are generally very inexpensive to produce, making them an economically easy way for a TV station to fill a half-hour (or sometimes 60-minute) time slot.

A number of cooking shows have run for many seasons, especially when they are sponsored by local TV stations or by public broadcasting. Many of the more popular cooking shows have had flamboyant hosts whose unique personalities have made them into celebrities.

The cable TV channel Food Network has showcased many cooking shows.








​Aaron Spelling
​YouTube Video of Aaron Spelling's Dynasty TV Series: Alexis wants it all
​Pictured: LEFT: The Love Boat (1977-1990); and RIGHT: Charlie’s Angels (1976-1981)

Aaron Spelling (April 22, 1923 – June 23, 2006) was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling, through his eponymous production company Spelling Television, holds the record as the most prolific television writer and producer in US television history, with 218 producer and executive producer credits.

Forbes ranked him the 11th top-earning deceased celebrity in 2009. Spelling began to achieve considerable experience as a producer and additional credits as a script writer working on the CBS television series Zane Grey Theater, which aired between 1956 and 1961. Of the 149 episodes in that series, he wrote no fewer than twenty of the teleplays and produced a significant number of others.

Beginning in 1968, Spelling began producing successful television shows including The Mod Squad (1968-1973), The Rookies (1972-1976), Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Dynasty (1981-1989), Beverly Hills 90210 (1990-2000, and which starred his daughter Tori Spelling), 7th Heaven (1996-2007), Charmed (1998-2006), Jane's House (1994 TV Movie) and Sunset Beach (1997-1999). Spelling founded Spelling Entertainment in 1972.

​In 2004, Spelling was portrayed in two television movies: Dan Castellaneta portrayed Spelling in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels, and Nicholas Hammond portrayed Spelling in television movie Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure. On September 15, 1978, Spelling was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6667 Hollywood Blvd. In 1996, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.







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​Chuck Lorre
YouTube Video from Two and a Half Men: Funny Scenes
Pictured: LEFT: The Original Cast of "Two and a Half Men" with Lorre the top figure; RIGHT: one of the cards Lorre writes for the closing credits.

Chuck Lorre born Charles Michael Levine; October 18, 1952) is an American television writer, director, producer, composer, and production manager. He has created a number of successful sitcoms such as Grace Under Fire, Cybill, Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Mom. He also served as an executive producer of Roseanne and Mike & Molly

Lorre's Grace Under Fire premiered on ABC in 1993, and was nominated at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Lorre's next show was Cybill, starring Cybill Shepherd. The show aired for four seasons on CBS and received critical acclaim, winning a Primetime Emmy Award in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for co-star Christine Baranski. The show also won two Golden Globe Awards in 1996 for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy for Cybill Shepherd.

Lorre's next show as Dharma & Greg, in partnership with Dottie Zicklin (credited as Dottie Dartland), which premiered one year before the end of Cybill in 1997. (Lorre had left Cybill in season two.) The show starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as the title characters, whose personalities were complete opposites: Dharma's world view being more spiritual, 'free spirit' type instilled by "hippie" parents, contrasted with Greg's world view of structure, social status requirements, and "white collar duty" instilled by his generations of affluent parents/ancestors.

Dharma & Gregg earned eight Golden Globe nominations, six Emmy Award nominations, and six Satellite Awards nominations. The show earned Elfman a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1999.

Following that, Lorre created his fifth show, Two and a Half Men with co-creator Lee Aronsohn. The show focuses on two Harper brothers, Charlie and Alan (Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer). Charlie is a rich, successful Hollywood composer/producer and womanizer who owns a beach house in Malibu. When Alan gets a divorce, he is forced to move into Charlie's house. Alan also has a growing son, Jake (Angus T. Jones), the "half" who comes to visit Charlie and Alan on weekends. Two and a Half Men premiered on CBS in 2003 and has become the highest-rated sitcom in America. 

However, CBS put the show on hiatus in 2011 following several incidents of production shutdowns allegedly due to Sheen's serious problems related to drug and alcohol abuse, which culminated in his insulting verbal attacks directed at Lorre during a radio interview. Sheen was officially fired from the show, and later filed a $100 million lawsuit against Lorre and Warner Bros. Television for wrongful termination. 

Afterwards, CBS and Warner Bros. hired Ashton Kutcher as Sheen's replacement, and the show later continued for four more seasons up until its finale in 2015.

Lorre's next show was The Big Bang Theory with co-creator Bill Prady. The show follows two physicists with genius IQs and very low social skills who befriend their neighbor, an attractive, outgoing young woman with an average IQ and no college education. Each episode usually focuses on the daily lives of the men and two of their equally socially challenged yet highly brilliant friends, with a dose of absurdity from the relationship with their uneducated, but socially brilliant, neighbor. The two main protagonists, Sheldon and Leonard, are named after the actor and television producer Sheldon Leonard. The show premiered on CBS in 2007 and is the highest rated comedy series in the United States.

Lorre is executive producer of Mike & Molly, created by Mark Roberts, which premiered on CBS in September 2010.

His seventh show, created with Gemma Baker and Eddie Gorodetsky, Mom, premiered on CBS on September 23, 2013. On March 13, 2014, CBS announced the second season renewal of Mom.

Click here for more about Chuck Lorre.








Dick Wolf
YouTube Video of Interview with Law & Order Franchise creator Dick Wolf
Pictured: Below in 2010

​Richard Anthony "Dick" Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American television producer, best known as the creator and executive producer of the Law & Order franchise of police dramas. He has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Wolf has also authored four books. The first, nonfiction Law & Order: Crime Scenes, is a companion to the Law & Order television series.[2] The Intercept, The Execution and The Ultimatum are volumes in a thriller series with N.Y.P.D. Detective Jeremy Fisk.

Wolf's Law & Order, which ran from 1990 to 2010, tied Gunsmoke for the longest-running dramatic show in television history, making it one of television's most successful franchises. It has been nominated for the most consecutive Emmy Awards of any primetime drama series.

Wolf serves as creator and executive producer of the two current Law & Order drama series from Wolf Films and NBC Universal Television – Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: UK – and did so for the three that have been cancelled – Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Trial by Jury and Law & Order: Los Angeles.

Along with Kevin Arkadie, he co-created the police drama, New York Undercover which ran on the Fox Broadcasting Company Network from 1994 to 1998. He also served as Executive Producer to the series.

He was the creator and executive producer of NBC's courtroom reality series Crime & Punishment, which chronicled real-life cases prosecuted by the San Diego District Attorney’s office.

Many of Wolf's series have intersected with the Law & Order franchise in some fashion, and Law & Order itself has been adapted into several foreign versions.

Wolf's company also produced Twin Towers, the 2003 Academy Award-winning Short Documentary about two brothers, one a policeman and the other a fireman, who lost their lives in the line of duty on September 11, 2001. Wolf was also involved with the production of a theatrical documentary about the popular rock group The Doors, titled When You're Strange.

Wolf developed Chicago Fire, a drama about a group of men and women working at the Chicago Fire Department. The series was picked up by NBC in May 2012, and premiered on October 10, 2012, with meek numbers in the ratings and minimal reviews in the first few weeks before spiking to NBC's #2 scripted drama series, under Revolution. 

In March 2013, NBC announced intentions for a spin-off of Chicago Fire, revolving around the Chicago Police Department. Derek Haas, Michael W. Brandt, and Matt Olmstead are executive producers under Wolf. Afterwards, Wolf developed the unscripted show Cold Justice, a documentary drama, for TNT.

Wolf's personal honors include the Award of Excellence from the Banff Television Festival, the 2002 Creative Achievement Award from NATPE; the Anti-Defamation League's Distinguished Entertainment Industry Award, the Leadership and Inspiration Award from the Entertainment Industries Council, the Governor's Award by the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the 1997 achievement award from the Caucus for Producers, Writers, and Directors, the 1998 Television Showman of the Year Award from the Publicists Guild of America, the 2002 Tribute from the Museum of Television and Radio, and a 2003 Special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

On March 29, 2007, Wolf received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7040 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2013 Wolf was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. Wolf is also an Honorary Consul general of Monaco and is actively involved in the principality’s prestigious annual Television Festival, and is its primary liaison with the entertainment community.

Wolf's future projects for NBC are an American adaption of the United Kingdom psychological legal drama series Injustice, as well as a drama series revolving around a satanic cult, tentatively titled The Church. Wolf is writing the latter project with Howard Franklin. Wolf also has an untitled pilot about an insurance investigator on USA Network.

With Wolf pursuing projects other than Law & Order, he and current Law & Order: Special Victims Unit show runner/executive producer Warren Leight sometimes discuss the future of the Law & Order franchise and revitalizing it; Leight commenting "(Dick Wolf and I) sometimes talk in general terms of where (the franchise) could go. I'm curious to see if there's another iteration somewhere down the line."

Click here for more about Dick Wolf.







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​James Burrows -- Featured Television Director
YouTube Video of James Burrows Discussing "Friends"
Pictured: LEFT: Mr. Burrows being interviewed by Lisa Kudrow (who played "Phoebe" on the "Friends" that he occasionally directed). RIGHT: Mr. Burrows on the set of "Cheers" with Ted Danson and Shelley Long.

James Edward Burrows (born December 30, 1940), sometimes known as Jim Burrows, is an American television director who has been working in television since the 1970s.

Burrows has directed over 50 television pilots and co-created the long-running television series Cheers.

Click on any of the  following blue hyperlinks to learn more about James Burrows:






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Susan Harris
YouTube Video: Robert Guillaume* on Susan Harris - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG
*-Robert Guillaume

Susan Harris (née Spivak; born October 28, 1940) is an American television comedy writer and producer.

Harris created numerous TV series including: 
Harris also wrote or co-wrote all of the episodes of Soap. Her most successful show was The Golden Girls. Harris married television producer Paul Junger Witt on September 18, 1983; he co-produced all the shows she created.

Later, Harris was married from 1965 to 1969 to actor Berkeley Harris, and is the mother of author Sam Harris. The first script Harris sold was Then Came Bronson. She then wrote for Love, American Style, All in the Family, The Partridge Family and the TV adaptation of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.

Harris' abortion episode for the Bea Arthur-starring series Maude in the 1970s won Harris the Humanitas Prize. She would later work with Arthur again in the 1980s when Arthur took one of the lead roles in The Golden Girls.

Harris had the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, which affected her ability to participate in the production of The Golden Girls. In an episode of that show titled "Sick and Tired" (1989), Harris wrote some of her struggles into the storyline where Arthur's character Dorothy was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. It later turned out Harris had an adrenal issue, but she wrote the episode as "my revenge script for all the people out there who had a disease like that." 

Harris formed the production company Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions with Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. She was honored with the Writers' Guild's Paddy Chayefsky Award in 2005 and inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011.

See also:







Television Production Companies, including a List of Production Companies in the United States
YouTube Video: Top 10 Decade Defining TV Shows: 1950s - WatchMojo
YouTube Video: Top 10 Decade Defining TV Shows: 1960s - WatchMojo
Pictured below: Logos for Television Product Companies: Clockwise from upper left corner: 20th Century Fox, ABC, Warner Brothers Television and CBS Television Studios.

[Your Webhost: I've taken some liberty with this broader topic, to more narrowly focus on television production companies, the subject of this web page.]

A production company or a production house provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.

The Major Television Production Studios with television production studios in this country are,
The production company may be directly responsible for fundraising for the production or may accomplish this through a parent company, partner, or private investor. It handles budgeting, scheduling, scripting, the supply with talent and resources, the organization of staff, the production itself, post-production, distribution, and marketing.

Production companies are often either owned or under contract with a media conglomerate, film studio, entertainment company, or Motion Picture Company, who act as the production company's partner or parent company. This has become known as the "studio system". They can also be mainstream, independent (see Lucasfilm), or completely independent (see Lionsgate). In the case of television, a production company would serve under a television network. Production companies can work together in co-productions.

Entertainment companies operate as mini conglomerates, operating many divisions or subsidiaries in many different industries. Warner Bros. Entertainment and Lionsgate Entertainment are two companies with this corporate structure. It allows for a single company to maintain control over seemingly unrelated companies that fall within the ranges of entertainment, which increases and centralizes the revenue into one company (example: a film production company, TV production company, video game company, and comic book company are all owned by a single entertainment company).

A motion picture company, such as Paramount Pictures, specializing "only" in motion pictures is only connected with its other counterpart industries through its parent company.

Instead of performing a corporate reorganization, many motion picture companies often have sister companies they collaborate with in other industries that are subsidiaries owned by their parent company and is often not involved in the making of products that are not motion picture related.

​A production company can either operate as an affiliate (under a contract) or as a subsidiary for an entertainment company, motion picture company, television network, or all, and are generally smaller than the company they are partnered with.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Television Production Companies:







​Listing of American Game Show Hosts
YouTube Video: Alex Trebek Sets Record as Host of 'Jeopardy!'
Pictured: Pat Sajak & Vanna White in "Wheel of Fortune" and Steve Harvey in "Family Feud" and "The Steve Harvey Show".

A game show host is an individual who manages a game show, introduces contestants, and asks quiz questions to test the knowledge of said contestants. 

Click here for an alphabetical listing of American game show hosts.







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