On 9/16/09 8:02 PM, "Jason Mittell" <jmittell@middlebury.edu> wrote:
At the level of programming, there's no doubt that the full-family hit is a rare exception today (*American Idol* is often pointed to as a hold-out, but even that's fading), and advertisers are less interested in mass appeal across broad audiences than dense homogeneous segments that can be more easily sold specific goods.
FWIW, I understand that ABC Family is trying to expand its audience, with some success, into adult demographics. A few months ago NPR's "All Things Considered" did a story about how ABC Family and Nickelodeon have been positioning themselves as the homes for family sitcoms that would have once been on the networks; and that, in fact, many writers who used to write for network sitcoms are now writing for shows like "iCarly" and "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." Although I've only watched bits and pieces of the latter, I gather that it tackles some fairly serious material. I know that several of these shows, like "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody," do not feature traditional "intact" families, however; but as I recall they feature use of cell phones, etc. And, on a meta level, they are available for viewing online. Holly ----- Holly Kruse Faculty of Communication The University of Tulsa 800 S. Tucker Drive Tulsa, OK 74104 918-631-3845 holly-kruse@utulsa.edu or holly.kruse@gmail.com http://personal.utulsa.edu/~holly-kruse