"Cantor demonstrates how, during the 1960s, Gilligan's Island and Star Trek reflected America's faith in liberal democracy and our willingness to project it universally. Gilligan's Island, Cantor argues, is based on the premise that a representative group of Americans could literally be dumped in the middle of nowhere and still prevail under the worst of circumstances. Star Trek took American optimism even further by trying to make the entire galaxy safe for democracy. Despite the famous Prime Directive, Captain Kirk and his crew remade planet after planet in the image of an idealized 1960s America."--BOOK JACKET.

In the years since World War II, commercial television has become the most powerful force in American culture. It is also the quintessential example of postmodernist culture. This book studies how The Twilight Zone, The Prisoner, Twin Peaks, and The X-Files display many of the central characteristics that critics and theorists have associated with postmodernism, including fragmentation of narratives and characters, multiplicity in style and genre, and the collapse of traditional categorical boundaries of all kinds. The author labels these series strange TV since they challenge the conventions of television programming, thus producing a form of cognitive estrangement that potentially encourages audiences to question received ideas. Despite their challenges to the conventions of commercial television, however, these series pose no real threat to the capitalist order. In fact, the very characteristics that identify these series as postmodern are also central characteristics of capitalism itself, especially in its late consumerist phase. An examination of these series within the context of postmodernism thus confirms Fredric Jameson's thesis that postmodernism is a reflection of the cultural logic of late capitalism. At the same time, these series do point toward the potential of television as a genuinely innovative medium that promises to produce genuinely new forms of cultural expression in the future.

Science fiction series have remained a staple of American television from its inception: classic programs such as The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Star Trek, along with recent and current series including Babylon 5 and Stargate SG-1, have been some of the most enduring and influential of all television shows. In this chronological survey, author M. Keith Booker examines this phenomenon and provides in-depth studies of the most important of these series. Science Fiction Television traces the development of the genre as a distinct cultural phenomenon within the context of broader developments in American culture as a whole. In the process, it offers a unique and informative guide for television fans and science fiction fans alike, one whose coverage is unprecedented in its scope and breadth. A must-read for anyone interested in its subject or in American popular culture, Science Fiction Television is a perceptive and entertaining history of one of television's most lasting forms of entertainment.