Golden Age of Television (2000s–present)
In the United States, the current Golden Age of Television (also known as Peak TV or Prestige TV)[1][2] is a period widely regarded as being marked by a large number of "high quality", internationally acclaimed television programs.[3][4][5]
History of television in the United States | |
Prewar and wartime broadcasting (1928–1947) | |
First Golden Age (1947–1960) | |
Network era (1950s–1980s) | |
Multi-channel transition (1980s–1990s) | |
Second Golden Age and post-network era (1999–present) | |
Streaming wars (2019–present) | |
History by decade | |
History of: | |
· Sports broadcasting | |
· Public broadcasting | |
· Children's television | |
· TV animation (Network era · Modern era) |
Named in reference to the original Golden Age of Television of the 1950s, the period has also been referred to as the "New", "Second", or "Third Golden Age of Television". The various names reflect disagreement over whether shows of the 1980s and early-mid 1990s belong to a since-concluded golden era or to the current one.[16] The contemporary period is generally identified as beginning in 1999 with The Sopranos,[17][18] with some dispute as to whether the age ended in the mid-late 2010s[17][19][20][21] or early 2020s (to the point of calling it "Trough TV"),[22][23] or remains ongoing.[24]
It is believed to have resulted from advances in media distribution technology,[6][10] digital TV technology (including HDTV, online video platforms, TV streaming, video-on-demand, and web TV),[25][6] and a large increase in the number of hours of available television, which has prompted a major wave of content creation.[26]
History
Origins and early era
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French scholar Alexis Pichard has argued that television enjoyed a Second Golden Age[27] starting in the 2000s which was a combination of three elements: first, an improvement in both visual aesthetics and storytelling; second, an overall homogeneity between cable series and networks series; and third, a tremendous popular success. Pichard contends that this Second Golden Age was the result of a revolution initiated by the traditional networks in the 1980s and carried on by the cable channels (especially HBO) in the 1990s.[28] Film director Francis Ford Coppola thinks that the second golden age of television comes from "kids" with their "little father's camcorder", who wanted to make films like he did in the 1970s but were not permitted to, so they did it for television.[29]
The new Golden Age brought creator-driven tragic dramas of the 2000s and 2010s, including 1999's The Sopranos[30][31] and The West Wing; 2001's Six Feet Under and 24;[32][30] 2002's The Wire[30] and The Shield;[30] 2004's Deadwood,[33][30] Lost[34] and Battlestar Galactica;[30] 2005's Grey's Anatomy and Avatar: The Last Airbender;[35] 2006's Friday Night Lights;[30] 2007's Mad Men;[30] 2008's Breaking Bad;[36][30] 2010's The Walking Dead;[37] 2011's Game of Thrones;[11][38][39] 2013's House of Cards[40] and Orange Is the New Black;[41] and 2015's Better Call Saul.[42] Others appear in the Writers Guild of America 2013 vote for 101 Best-Written TV Shows.[43] Production values got higher than ever before on shows such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Homeland to the point of rivaling cinema, while anti-heroic series like The Sopranos and The Wire were cited as improving television content thus earning critical praise.[44]
Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice has argued that the current golden age began earlier with over-the-air broadcast shows like Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (both of which premiered in 1993), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).[14] TV critic Alan Sepinwall cites shows such as Buffy and Oz (which both first aired in 1997) as ushering in the golden age.[30] Will Gompertz of the BBC believes that Friends, which debuted in 1994, might stake a claim as the opening bookend show of the period.[15] Matt Zoller Seitz argues that it began in the 1980s with Hill Street Blues (1981) and St. Elsewhere (1982).[12] Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku has said that Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) should be considered a part of the golden age of television, and recommended "the sophisticated kids show" to others.[45] With the rise of instant access to content on Netflix, creator-driven television shows like Breaking Bad, The Shield (2002), Friday Night Lights (2006) and Mad Men gained loyal followings that grew to become widely popular. The success of instant access to television shows was presaged by the popularity of DVDs, and continues to increase with the rise of digital platforms and online companies.
The Golden Age of television is believed to have resulted from advances in media distribution technology,[6][10] digital TV technology (including HDTV, online video platforms, TV streaming, video-on-demand, and web TV),[25][6] and a large increase in the number of hours of available television, which has prompted a major wave of content creation.[26] The increase in the number of shows is also cited as evidence of a Golden Age, or "peak TV". In the five years between 2011 and 2016, the number of scripted television shows, on broadcast, cable and digital platforms increased by 71%. In 2002, 182 television shows aired, while 2016 had 455 original scripted television shows and 495 in 2018. The number of shows are rising largely due to companies like Netflix, Amazon Video and Hulu investing heavily in original content. The number of shows aired by online service increased from only one in 2009 to over 93 in 2016.[46][47][48][49][50][51]
Late era and potential end
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An increasing reliance on rebooting and reviving existing franchises led to widespread belief that the Golden Age of Television was ending in the late 2010s,[19] with the caveat that some of these reboots (such as DuckTales,[52] Girl Meets World[53] and One Day at a Time[54][55]) share the positive reception and mature character development of original shows of the era. Viewership patterns in 2020 shifted rapidly toward reruns.[56] To address burnout from binge watching and concerns that the practice makes television more disposable and forgettable, streaming providers reduced their reliance on the practice in the early 2020s by returning to a more traditional model of releasing one new episode a week.[20] A showrunner for an unnamed series on Netflix, a platform that has been especially aggressive toward releasing full seasons at once as a company policy, commented that the volume of existing content has made it more difficult to devote the time to binge watching.[20]
A 2021 interview of social media influencers noted that the teen sitcoms and teen dramas from the early Golden Age, driven by continued presence in reruns and video-on-demand platforms, have stronger followings among Generation Z than contemporary shows; they feel that the latter are more geared toward pre-teens or adults instead of teenagers, try too hard to appeal to current trends, and lack a sense of familiarity compared to shows that have been around since they were born. This is attributed as a cause for the increasing number of reboots and revivals of shows from early in the era.[21]
Ed Power of the Irish Examiner opines that "the sun began to set" on the golden age between 2013 and 2015, with the finales of Breaking Bad and Mad Men, and "Since then, television has reverted to its older tradition of quantity over quality."[17] Siobhan Lyons of The Conversation believes the 2022 finale of Better Call Saul marks the end of "the last of those defining, golden age shows," in a time increasingly oversaturated with streaming content and viewing options.[22] NPR noted in May 2022 that although television executives had predicted a peak in television series since the mid-2010s, the number of series continued to grow into the early 2020s, from 400 original productions across broadcast, cable and major streaming outlets in 2015 to 559 in 2021. The network noted that the major streamers, with the exception of Disney+ (which NPR attributed to the company's strong brand recognition), were seeing diminishing quality and, particularly in the case of Netflix, declining popularity.[57] HBO Max made a substantial cut to its library in August 2022, mostly to its children's television series, out of concerns that the quantity of content on the service (especially with its pending merger with Discovery+) was becoming overwhelming and difficult to find, and that the children's programming was not driving subscriptions or views on the service.[58] A May 2023 essay in Harper's Bazaar declared the era of the time to be the "Age of Mid Television," noting that mediocre programs were gaining popularity due to the escapism they provide in an age where the real world brings greater anxiety.[59]
Around 2019, a period of intense competition began for market share among streaming services, a period known as the streaming wars. This competition was increased during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic as more people stayed home and watched TV. Many services attempted to compete on quality. The streaming wars, combined with the decline of the popularity of mainstream films (along with said mainstream films increasingly relying on franchises that are less likely to garner awards), and the rise of independent films winning major film awards within the last six years, resulted in a historical first — the first film from a streaming service to produce an Academy Award winner for Best Picture: Apple TV's CODA (a Sundance-winning film about the only hearing member of a deaf family struggling for fame) over Netflix's contender the Jane Campion-directed Western The Power of the Dog at the 94th Academy Awards.[60] The streaming wars were largely recognized to have ended in 2022, as the major streamers lost subscribers and shifted their focus to profit over market share by raising subscription fees, cutting production budgets, cracking down on password sharing, and introducing ad-supported tiers.[61]
Characteristics and criticism



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Characteristics of this golden age are complicated characters who may be morally ambiguous or antiheroes, questionable behavior, complex plots, positive diverse perspectives, and often forays into R-rated territory.[62][63][64]
Genres of television associated with this golden age include dramas (especially ones originating on cable and digital platforms; some being called "peak bleak" due to the extremely pessimistic nature of shows like Succession and Game of Thrones[65]); sitcoms (especially ones that use comedy-drama which some critics would call "sadcoms"),[66] single-camera setup, or adult animation; sketch comedy (especially series linked to alternative comedy); and late-night talk shows (especially ones that emphasize news satire).
A key characteristic of the golden age is serialization, where a continuous story arc stretches over multiple episodes or seasons. Traditional American television had an episodic format, with each episode typically consisting of a self-contained story. During the golden age, there has been a transition to a serialization format, with a continuous story arc stretching over multiple episodes or seasons. John R. Ziegler and Leah Richards note that the serialization format was previously already a key defining characteristic of Japanese anime shows, notably the popular Dragon Ball Z (1989), which distinguished them from American television shows at the time. Serialization later also became a key defining characteristic of American live-action television shows during the golden age.[67]
The era is not without criticism: alongside the limited audience appeal of shows featuring unlikeable characters and too many showrunners embracing the "12-hour movie" structure of stories,[68][69] the number of original shows being produced has some, like FX CEO John Landgraf[70][71][72] and Time's TV critic Judy Berman,[1] worried about overwhelming the viewing audience to the point of what the latter called "peak redundancy".[1][73] Author Daniel Kelley claimed that this was also the Golden Age of bad TV with shows such as Zoo, Under the Dome and The I-Land.[74] Derek Thompson of The Atlantic stated that TV replaced movies as "elite entertainment".[75]
Notable and important people associated with Peak TV
- Showrunners
- J. J. Abrams[76]
- Judd Apatow[77]
- Fred Armisen[78][79][80]
- Alan Ball[81]
- Rachel Bloom[82]
- Steven Bochco[83]
- Charlie Brooker[76]
- Bo Burnham[84]
- Ken Burns[85]
- David Chase[81]
- Lena Dunham[86]
- Sam Esmail[87]
- David Fincher[88]
- Vince Gilligan[89]
- Matt Groening[90]
- Bill Hader[91][78][80]
- Noah Hawley[92]
- Mike Judge[93]
- Chuck Lorre[89]
- Seth MacFarlane[94]
- Seth Meyers[78]
- David Milch[95]
- Ryan Murphy[12][96][86]
- Shonda Rhimes[97]
- Shawn Ryan[98]
- David Simon[99]
- Aaron Sorkin[100]
- Rebecca Sugar[90]
- Kurt Sutter[101]
- Genndy Tartakovsky[90]
- Matthew Weiner[83]
- Joss Whedon[102]
- Actors
- Aziz Ansari[86]
- Jason Bateman[103][104]
- Zach Braff[105]
- Louis C.K.[12]
- Dave Chappelle[83]
- Glenn Close[106]
- Bryan Cranston[81]
- Claire Danes[83][86]
- Peter Dinklage[81]
- Tina Fey[100][80]
- James Gandolfini[36]
- Donald Glover[12]
- Tony Hale[86]
- Jon Hamm[81]
- Keegan-Michael Key[107][86]
- John Krasinski[105]
- Katherine Langford[108]
- Jane Lynch[109]
- Elisabeth Moss[110]
- Bob Odenkirk[111][86]
- Sandra Oh[96][86]
- Aaron Paul[81][86]
- Sarah Paulson[100]
- Jordan Peele[107][86]
- Jesse Plemons[112]
- Amy Poehler[107][80]
- Jason Sudeikis[80]
- Jeffrey Tambor[81]
- Kerry Washington[86]
- Hosts
Notable outlets
Cable/satellite channels
International networks
Selected notable and important shows
- 13 Reasons Why[133][134]
- 1923[130]
- 24[32][135]
- 30 for 30[119][120]
- 30 Rock[32][136][80][132]
- Abbott Elementary[137][138][68][118]
- Action[13]
- Adventure Time[35][139][140]
- Agent Carter[141]
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.[141]
- Altered Carbon[76][138]
- American Crime Story[32][135]
- American Dad[142]
- American Gods[77]
- American Horror Story[32][135]
- American Idol[13]
- American Murder: The Family Next Door[121]
- Amphibia[143][90]
- Angel[13]
- Andor[118]
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force[142]
- Archer[142]
- Arrested Development[81][144][132]
- Atlanta[12][145][146][136][23]
- Avatar: The Last Airbender[35][140]
- Babylon Berlin[147]
- Barry[145][68][118][80]
- Battlestar Galactica[81]
- Better Call Saul[148][134][23][118][86]
- Better Things[12][118]
- Big City Greens[90]
- Big Little Lies[148][96][72]
- Big Mouth[142]
- Billions[134]
- Black-ish[12][86]
- Black Mirror[76]
- Bluey[118]
- Boardwalk Empire[81][135]
- Bob's Burgers[149][90][142]
- BoJack Horseman[100][150][149][142]
- The Boondocks[142]
- Bosch[151]
- Breaking Bad[36][135][23][144][132]
- Broadchurch[116]
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine[152][80]
- Burn Notice[117]
- Call the Midwife[153]
- Channel Zero[76]
- Chappelle's Show[83]
- Chernobyl[154]
- Cobra Kai[155]
- Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee[156]
- Community[100]
- Counterpart[76]
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend[12]
- Craig of the Creek[90]
- Criminal Minds[130]
- Curb Your Enthusiasm[32]
- Damages[157]
- Damnation[158]
- Dancing with the Stars[159]
- Daredevil[117][160]
- Dark[76]
- Deadwood[117][116][23]
- Derry Girls[161][138]
- Desperate Housewives[117]
- Dexter[36]
- Documentary Now![78][162][163][80]
- Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer[85]
- Dopesick[164]
- Downton Abbey[32][86]
- Electric Dreams[76]
- Emily in Paris[138]
- Empire[134][130]
- Entourage[165]
- Episodes[68]
- Euphoria[164]
- Extras[117]
- Family Guy[94][142]
- Fargo[148]
- Firefly[166]
- Fleabag[154][136][86]
- Flight of the Conchords[12]
- Freaks and Geeks[32][167]
- Fresh Off the Boat[12][86]
- Friday Night Lights[32]
- Futurama[94][90]
- Game of Thrones[152][65][68][23][86][144][132]
- Gilmore Girls[117]
- Girls[32][168][86][132]
- Glee[117][136]
- Glow[117]
- Gotham[141]
- Gravity Falls[35][140][90]
- Grey's Anatomy[169]
- Halt and Catch Fire[170]
- Hannibal[76][171]
- Happy Endings[100][171][172]
- Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law[142]
- Heroes[141][100]
- Homeland[36][86]
- Home Movies[13]
- House[173]
- House of Cards[36][138][174][122][23][132]
- House of the Dragon[138][65][174]
- How I Met Your Mother[172]
- iCarly[172]
- Insecure[86]
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia[100][171]
- Jane the Virgin[175][86]
- Jimmy Kimmel Live![114]
- Justified[176]
- Key & Peele[86]
- Killing Eve[177][174][96][86]
- La Casa de Papel[178]
- Last Tango in Halifax[116]
- Longmire[179]
- Lost[81][180]
- Louie[32][136]
- Luther[116]
- Mad Men[36][135][23][144][132]
- Master of None[72][86]
- Mindhunter[155]
- Merlin[116]
- Modern Family[12][136][86][132]
- Mozart in the Jungle[131]
- Mr. Robot[170][181][86]
- Mr Selfridge[116]
- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic[139]
- Narcos[182]
- Nathan for You[183]
- NCIS[105][134]
- New Girl[172][136]
- Nip/Tuck[117]
- Now and Again[13]
- Nurse Jackie[117][136]
- Orange Is the New Black[131][134][122][86]
- Once Upon a Time[32]
- Only Murders in the Building[65][96]
- Outlander[76]
- Over the Garden Wall[140][90]
- Ozark[32][72]
- Pachinko[118]
- Parks and Recreation[117][105][80]
- Paw Patrol[130]
- Peaky Blinders[184]
- Pen15[145]
- Penny Dreadful[117][171]
- Phineas and Ferb[140]
- Popular[13]
- Portlandia[80]
- Pose[145][86]
- Primal[90]
- Prison Break[185]
- Pushing Daisies[76][167]
- Queer as Folk (US)[186]
- Rake[187][188][189]
- Regular Show[90][190]
- Reservation Dogs[191][118]
- Rick and Morty[192][142]
- Rings of Power[193][65][122][23]
- Ripper Street[194]
- Rita[178]
- Riverdale[174]
- Robot Chicken[142]
- Rome[195]
- Scandal[86][144]
- Schitt's Creek[196][171]
- Scrubs[105]
- Sense8[76]
- Severance[96][118]
- Sex and the City[32]
- Shameless (UK)[68] &
- Shameless (US)[68]
- Shark Tank[159]
- Sharp Objects[178]
- Sherlock[116]
- Six Feet Under[81][144][132]
- Small Axe[138]
- Smallville[141]
- Sons of Anarchy[197]
- SpongeBob SquarePants[35]
- Squid Game[198][199][138][164]
- Star vs. The Forces of Evil[140]
- Steven Universe[139][140][35]
- Stranger Things[178][138][135][164][72]
- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip[100][86]
- Succession[178][65][68][164][130][23]
- Supernatural[32]
- Survivor[159]
- Ted Lasso[200][138][65][164][23][80]
- The Amazing Race[159]
- The Amazing World of Gumball[90]
- The Americans[197][86]
- The Apprentice[201]
- The Bachelor[159]
- The Bear[202][118]
- The Big Bang Theory[148][136]
- The Carmichael Show[12]
- The Closer[117]
- The Colbert Report[32]
- The Crown[178][138][135][122][86]
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart[32]
- The Expanse[76]
- The Fall[203]
- The Good Place[204]
- The Good Wife[205]
- The Handmaid's Tale[206][174]
- The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst[85]
- The Killing (US)[207]
- The Knick[12]
- The L Word[208]
- The Last Dance[121]
- The Last of Us[209]
- The Late Late Show with James Corden[114]
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert[114]
- The Leftovers[210][171]
- The Legend of Korra[140][35]
- The Magicians[76]
- The Man in the High Castle[134][72]
- The Mandalorian[128]
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel[215]
- The Mindy Project[172]
- The Morning Show[138]
- The Musketeers[116]
- The Office (UK)[32][105][136] &
- The Office (US)[32][105][136][132]
- The Owl House[216][90]
- The Paradise[116]
- The Romanoffs[76]
- The Shield[117]
- The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness[85]
- The Sopranos[36][217][218][144][132]
- The Thick of It[219][220]
- The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon[114]
- The Tudors[221]
- The Underground Railroad[222][191]
- The Venture Bros[94]
- The Voice[201]
- The Walking Dead[197][86]
- The West Wing[32][144]
- The White Lotus[223][164][96]
- The Wire[36][224][144][132]
- Tiger King[105][121]
- Transparent[32]
- True Blood[225][144]
- True Detective[178]
- Tuca & Bertie[226][145][149][142]
- Ugly Betty[131]
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt[100]
- Veep[32][136][86]
- Veronica Mars[117]
- Vikings[155]
- Vinyl[227]
- WandaVision[228]
- Watchmen[229][96]
- We Are Lady Parts[138][191]
- We Bare Bears[90]
- We Need to Talk About Cosby[118]
- Weeds[230]
- Westworld[152][174][122][129][23]
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?[13]
- Yellowjackets[138][164][96][130]
- Yellowstone[124][68][130][122][129]
- You're the Worst[12][171]
Pre-1999 shows associated with the contemporary Golden Age
- Ally McBeal[13]
- Babylon 5[14]
- Bakersfield P.D.[13]
- Becker[13]
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer[30][117]
- Chicago Hope[13]
- Doctor Who[116]
- Everybody Loves Raymond[89]
- Exit 57[13]
- Frasier[231]
- Frank's Place[12]
- Friends[105]
- Homicide: Life on the Street[13][232]
- Jeopardy![122]
- King of the Hill[142]
- Murder One[13]
- Mystery Science Theater 3000[233]
- Nothing Sacred[13]
- Oz[30]
- The Practice[13]
- Prime Suspect[13]
- Relativity[13]
- Roc[13]
- Roseanne[13]
- Saturday Night Live[164][80]
- Seinfeld[234]
- South Park[32][142]
- Star Trek: The Next Generation[14]
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine[14]
- The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd[12]
- The Powerpuff Girls[139]
- The Simpsons[13][142]
- The X-Files[235]
- Twin Peaks[13]
- Wheel of Fortune[122]
- Will & Grace[13]
See also
- Golden Age of Television (1940s–60s)
- Network era
- Multi-channel transition
- Post-network era
- Multichannel television in the United States
- Streaming television
- 1990s in television
- 2000s in television
- 2010s in television
- 2020s in television
- Quality television
- Adult animation
- Binge-watching
- Documentary film
- Hate-watching
- Miniseries
- Telenovela
- New Hollywood
- Indiewood
- Cinephilia
- Soap opera
- Art film
- Nerd culture
- Marvel and DC Comics
- Postmodern television
- Game shows
- True crime
References
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My former Variety colleague Michael Schneider, executive editor of IndieWire, captured perfectly the jaded response many had to last month's reboot news: "Anyone else getting the sense that broadcast TV is embarking on its Farewell Tour by playing all the hits one last time?" he tweeted.
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- "The Revolution Was Televised, by Alan Sepinwall".
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