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The American people of today are facing a previously unheard of dilemma: there are
more quality television shows airing than there is time to watch all of them. We have come to a
point where we can reasonably dub this era the “Second Golden Age of Television.” The first
golden age spanned from the late 1940’s to the early 1960’s due to the introduction of a
television in homes all across America. Now we are witnessing an entirely different revolution for
in-home entertainment. In the last ten years, the talent, budget, resources, and writing for
television has seen a tremendous improvement across all genres of the small-screen.!
! What do Kevin Bacon, Dame Maggie Smith, Greg Kinnear, and Robin Williams all have
in common? They are movie stars turned television actors. It used to be that movie stars and
television stars were separate entities that did not intermix or overlap. The “A-list” celebrities
were those who graced the silver screen and small-screen actors were considered inferior.
Times have changed since the 50’s, however, and television has recently seen a huge increase
in star power. This is partly due to the fact that writing for television has made great progress in
recent years and some of the best stories are currently being told in the living room. These
days, more people are content to stay home and turn on the box rather than go out for a movie
night. In order to stay relevant, stars have to appear where the audiences are accumulating and
right now, that’s on the comfort of their couch. At the end of the day, TV is making film stroner.
The quality of TV actors has allowed filmmakers to cast from a much deeper talent pool than
ever before which results in better entertainment all around.!
! Though actors will say the appeal of a movie or television show is in the story, money is
always part of the equation. In 2006, Warner Brothers shot 22 feature films on their lot in
Burbank; in 2011, they only shot ten. However, they still spent $4 billion that year in Los Angles
County because production costs for television shows on the lot had shot up. Budget pays for
everything from talent expenses to props to craft service. In the 1960’s the budget on Star Trek
was less than $200,000 per episode. Due to its popularity, Friends was billing $11 million per
episode by its final season. Mad Men and Breaking Bad both spent about $3 million per episode
last year. The point is more money has shifted away from blockbuster films towards in-home
entertainment. The cost of a show varies greatly depending on the value of the actors and the
complexity of the set. The whole point of television is to create an intimate escape for viewers in
their own home and the greater the budget a show has, the more realistic an escape they are
able to create. Audience demand in recent years has allowed spending to skyrocket which in
turn creates a more captivating experience from the comfort of ones own home.!
! Having a bigger budget means having more money for better resources. Especially with
shows like Game of Thrones in which costumes and locations are of the utmost importance, it
pays to have great resources. The resources a television show uses lend themselves to the
authenticity of the story. Game of Thrones is a prime example because of the massive scale it is
shot on. Locations on the show range from the United Kingdom to Iceland to Morocco
depending on which character is being focused on at any given time. The sets for all of the
locations are also huge and require an equally large prop department to furnish them. On top of
that, extras upon extras must be brought in to fill wide city shots at King’s Landing or civilians in
the slave city of Astapor. The extras must also be given proper costumes to blend in with the
setting. All of these things must be set before the actual talent is brought in and filming a scene
can commence. It takes an army to produce every single episode of the mega-hit TV show but
the result is a mind-blowing epic tale of violent power struggles and family drama. More shows
have the ability to increase their scale as they go on because the resources available to TV
have expanded enough to meet those needs.!
! Having money, talent, and resources are all well and good, but in order to have a
successful TV show, the writing has to be fantastic. Writing for television has become one of the
most competitive positions to get in Hollywood. A great premise for a show can only go as far as
the writing will carry it and countless shows have premiered with high expectations only to be
cut before the sixth week due to inadequate audiences. It can not be stressed enough that the
cornerstone to visual entertainment, whether it be film or television, is writing. Shows which
excel in this category include Modern Family, Mad Men, and The Sopranos. Because television
shows are such a personal experience for viewers, the way characters react to situations or
interact with other characters has to be painfully honest. Where in movies there is room for an
overdramatic reaction or misplaced comment, television episodes do not have the time to waste
on a mediocre moment. Viewers have to be able to connect to the stories and characters
presented or the appeal will be lost and the audiences will dwindle. It is a talent not many
possess but it yields some of the best portrayals of the human experience ever to be captured
on a screen. Audiences invite characters into their homes week after week and come to know
them and empathize with them as if they were real people. The writers of these shows deserve
far more credit than is given to them for this unparalleled moment in entertainment history.!
! When it all adds up-between the acting, the words, the experience, and, of course, the
money that funds it all-it is truly an amazing time to be alive in the entertainment world. As the
world around us is continually being chewed up by violence and devastation, television remains
one of our last reliable escapes. It can provide a common thread that unites us wherever we are
when we sit down to watch primetime at night. It makes us laugh at how absurd life can be at
times. It makes us cry when we see our own failures and heartbreak played out in front of us. It
can even give us the kick in the backside we need at times to make a change. There can be no
question that this is the Second Golden Age of Television and if trends are any indication, it’s
here to stay.