Quality/Cult Television: The X-Files and Television History
Quality/Cult Television: The X-Files and Television History
The X-Files (Fox, 1993–2002) appeared on our screens at a crucial moment in the history of American television, as the industry gradually adjusted to the increased market fragmentation brought about by the expansion of new services (satellite, cable, pay TV) and the deregulation of the communications sector. This chapter focuses on The X-Files and its place within the historical development of U.S. television. The X-Files has been linked with the development of ‘quality’ television in the United States. However, there has been little attempt to combine historical analysis of the series as quality television with a consideration of its cult status. This chapter argues that The X-Files can be understood as a new kind of quality television that emerged in the early 1990s — ‘quality/cult’ television. While academic analyses of the series tended to read it as either subversive/progressive, or reactionary, this chapter insists that the construction of a text able to sustain such divergent interpretations is actually a characteristic of quality/cult television.
Keywords: The X-Files, quality/cult television, cult, quality television, United States, television series, history
Edinburgh Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
