From Reverential to ‘Radical’ Adaptation: Reframing John le Carré as ‘Quality’ Television Brand from A Perfect Spy (BBC 2, 1987) to The Night Manager (BBC 1, 2016)

Oldham, Joseph

doi:10.1093/adaptation/apx005

Adaptation

2017

DOI: 10.1093/adaptation/apx005

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From Reverential to ‘Radical’ Adaptation: Reframing John le Carré as ‘Quality’ Television Brand from A Perfect Spy (BBC 2, 1987) to The Night Manager (BBC 1, 2016)

Joseph Oldham¹

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“…In other words, existing television canons are not termed as such by audiences, critics, and scholars; rather, they look like “Best Of” lists, opulent DVD sets, or (increasingly) “Classic Television” categorizations on SVOD platforms. Rather than talk about television canons, however, popular and academic critics alike talk about quality and complexity, classic or prestige television (Mittell; Oldham). These discussions are integral components in the canon formation process, but they do not speak to the process itself.…”

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Reproducing Television Canons: Streaming Services and the Legacy of Linear TV

Esler¹

2020

The J of Popular Culture

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Rosenbaum describes his experience defending Citizen Kane (1942) as an important cinematic work while a film student at New York University in the early 1960s, noting the pushback he received from a professor (xi). Today, most film programs touch on the historical and artistic importance of Citizen Kane at some point in introductory or film history courses. However, as Rosenbaum's anecdote indicates, which media texts are valued as "important" is highly fluid, and oftentimes works previously judged as unremarkable will be rediscovered and reevaluated by contemporary audiences (e.g., many science fiction B-films of the 1950s). Moreover, Rosenbaum remembers how film criticism publications were much more "consequential" (xii) in cultivating his taste in film than were his courses within the academy. Rosenbaum writes about film canons in order to counteract the marketing campaigns of film studios, which he believes set the agenda for which films are considered "canonical" in contemporary culture (xvii). Writing in 2010, Rosenbaum's perspective comes from a time when streaming services like Netflix and Hulu were in their infancies and neither had begun creating original content. For Rosenbaum, media canonization was dominated by traditional marketing campaigns from studios and the writings of film and television critics. Lucas Hilderbrand nuances this view, suggesting video-ondemand (VOD) services, each of which is supported by a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD), are central components of distribution strategies for major and independent film studios, as

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confidence: 99%

Reproducing Television Canons: Streaming Services and the Legacy of Linear TV

Esler¹

2020

The J of Popular Culture

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Translating Stephen King’s The Stand to Quality TV

Lynch

2022

Adaptation

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Released in 1978 and updated in 1990, the post-apocalyptic epic fantasy novel The Stand remains one of author Stephen King’s most significant works. The Stand tells a quasi-religious story of good and evil after the USA is devastated by a potent strain of influenza known as ‘Captain Trips’. Two camps of survivors emerge, one under the benevolent direction of an old woman named Mother Abigail, and the other lorded over by a devilish Tyrant named Randall Flagg. Like so much of King’s writing, it has been adapted to screen. It was first adapted into a four-part broadcast television miniseries event for broadcast network ABC in 1994. The Stand was adapted to television once again in 2020, this time as a limited series (nine episodes) for subscription video on demand (SVOD) service Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access). This article uses these two adaptations of The Stand to examine the similarities and differences between two eras of US ‘quality’ television. ‘Quality TV’ describes a broad range of TV series, linked by their intention to be received as prestigious and therefore culturally valuable. By comparing two adaptations of the same original story, we can better understand how these series adapted from Stephen King’s work served and were shaped by the commercial and cultural imperatives of the broadcast and post-broadcast eras of US TV.

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Corporate crime and conspiracy in contemporary television: Power, profits and paranoia

Bennett,

Giannini

2024

Journal of Popular Television, The

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Television’s status as a medium that is firmly regulated and at times derided as a ‘vast wasteland’ suggests that it is not necessarily the place in which to find cultural critiques. Yet, such a viewpoint is ahistorical; whether operating on a public service or commercial model, both UK and US television share a significant history of series – both sitcoms and dramas – which offered both occasional and sustained criticisms of the products and results of a corporate culture that only grew stronger throughout the twentieth century. In this article, we not only introduce the Special Issue ‘Corporate Crime and Conspiracy in Contemporary Television’, but offer an overview of both UK and US television, from their earliest forays to contemporary shows, that have addressed corporations’ bad behaviour across decades and genres.

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From Reverential to ‘Radical’ Adaptation: Reframing John le Carré as ‘Quality’ Television Brand from A Perfect Spy (BBC 2, 1987) to The Night Manager (BBC 1, 2016)

Cited by 3 publications

References 4 publications

Reproducing Television Canons: Streaming Services and the Legacy of Linear TV

Reproducing Television Canons: Streaming Services and the Legacy of Linear TV

Translating Stephen King’s The Stand to Quality TV

Corporate crime and conspiracy in contemporary television: Power, profits and paranoia

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