MA 260 / Week Four Discussion: How has the commercial nature of television influenced the content of television programming?
How has television content been greatly influenced by Nielsen ratings? How have program formats changed because of the mandate of advertising dollars?
I recently ran across a very old interview with Rod Sterling (creator of the Twilight Zone). The interview takes place months before the pilot is aired. Rod mentioned a great deal about advertisers and how he needed to coordinate with them. He refused to make any changes to the show, but some of the advertisers wanted him to make a few changes. They finally were able to come to an agreement. But it was very interesting to see, from the writer and creator, of a show, just how much power and influence the advertisers had. Rod constantly had to keep them in his thoughts while writing the show. Which has definitely influenced what we see. This (sadly) continues today. Where advertising has to take precedence in story telling. This, in my opinion has dumbed and watered down our culture.
ReplyDeleteLink to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpKkHCVbSyw
The commercial nature of television greatly influenced early tv programming. Many companies essentially owned shows. They could dictate almost, if not everything that was broadcasted in the show. This was a great marketing technique, but would probably get annoying after awhile. The desire for more money in advertising still greatly dictates the way things are done today.
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