 By Karen Sharpe
Since the late 1940s, Americans have been captivated and mesmerized by the thin blue light of the television screen and what it reveals and reflects about life in this country.
There have been variety shows, talk shows and game shows; news hours, news briefs and 24-hour news. Soap operas have morphed into nighttime serial dramas and dating shows have spawned actual weddings. As for the string of reality-TV shows that has dominated the last decade, it appears to be nearing its end, according to Gary Edgerton ’74, chairman of communication and theatre arts at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, Va. A media historian, Edgerton is the author of the recently published Columbia History of American Television.
Edgerton has spent his career exploring how television programming has influenced and infiltrated daily life—from the way we communicate and understand each other to how we envision ourselves. His History, a two-volume, 512-page edition, tells the story of television from its earliest technology to network prominence, to the advent of cable, to the present digital age. Though comprehensive, the work is nowhere near definitive, Edgerton says.
“Each one of the chapters could easily be a book,” he explains. “Columbia wanted a narrative history that would work for the scholarly community and, also, for the general educated reader. Then it was narrowed to being the history of American television. I took representative examples to illustrate larger trends and tried to bring it to life more, with seminal personalities, biographical information and a narrative.”
The book is Edgerton’s seventh publication—he was approached by Columbia University to do the writing—and, in many ways, it pulls together much of his work through the years.
“This was a project that came to me—usually you pick something you want to work on—but it really was a book that was needed,” he says. “Television is a phenomenon that has been around since late 1940s and is now global, 24-hours a day. I’ve been building on this for a long time, writing about media and culture.”
Edgerton traces his interest in media to an early film class at Holy Cross. From that starting point, he immersed himself in anything that explored the cultural relevance and literacy of film, television and media. With a master’s degree and Ph.D. in communications from the University of Massachusetts, Edgerton has been an avid and critical media consumer—teaching, studying and publishing his review and analysis of the subject in mainstream magazines and newspapers such as Newsweek and The Washington Post, as well as scholarly journals, edited collections and his own books.
Being a historian and scholar of contemporary media has not always been a fully respected position, Edgerton admits. But the scholarly study of television was a natural leap from film study and, according to Edgerton—given the profound influence of television in contemporary culture—it is important to understand the medium’s language, history and potential.
Edgerton believes, for example, that television has been the vehicle for the mixing of cultural tastes—and that this may have some positive benefits.
“There has been a blending of high and low and that happens in fine visual art and music as well,” he explains. “Television certainly has to be seen as one of the reasons why Americans are so eclectic in their cultural tastes. I don’t think television has lowered our taste cultures. America has certainly changed, but it’s not as stratified culturally. You can flip from Public TV to Jerry Springer, and you can be the filter of what you watch. And, you can be conversant in the best and the worst of culture. The majority of people forget that most of what’s out there is in the middle.”
The middle is still the situation comedy, according to Edgerton—the bread and butter of American TV. And, while people are watching more TV—the average person spends four hours a day in front of the set—he asserts that people are also reading more.
“The average American reads 11 books a year,” Edgerton says. “If you’re a media person, you consume all sorts of media. There’s a little bit of a skew if you’re younger and not in school—or your education level is low—but it’s minor. Even if you have a Ph.D., you’re still averaging three and a half hours a day. Everybody thinks they watch about half the amount they do.”
Today’s public currently has a wide array of viewing options—gone is the heyday of must-see, water-cooler hits like The Cosby Show and Dallas. Television production is now aimed primarily at niche cable markets—from shows for women on Lifetime, to sports on ESPN, to ethnic programming on Black Entertainment Television. Edgerton sees this splintering of markets getting wider in the years ahead. And, the increasing popularity of satellite services will only add to the variety of choices.
This environment requires an even greater understanding among television consumers, Edgerton believes.
“There is a need for media literacy and television literacy,” he asserts. “At Holy Cross I learned a lot of critical thinking and gained understanding of presentation—but most schools don’t deal with media literacy—and, to me, we need to teach our children early on what these images are. It doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of consuming media. In fact, you become more in control of it when you understand it.”
Edgerton and his family have only one television in their home—and his two daughters are what he calls “moderate but proactive” viewers. On his own list of favorite shows are several HBO series, including The Sopranos and The Wire. Ken Burns’ documentaries are also among his favorites, which is only appropriate: the filmmaker glowingly calls Edgerton’s History, “an accessible and compelling narrative of the complicated forces that went into creating our most enigmatic of mediums.”
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