POV
250px
Genre	Documentary
Created by	Marc Weiss
Developed by	Marc Weiss
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	24
No. of episodes	300+
Production
Producer(s)	American Documentary, Inc.
Broadcast
Original channel	PBS
Original run	July 5, 1988 – present
External links
Website
Production website

POV (aka P.O.V.) is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television series which features independent nonfiction films. POV is a cinema term for "point of view".

POV is the longest-running showcase on television for independent documentary films.^[1] PBS presents 14-16 POV programs each year, and the series has premiered over 300 films to U.S. television audiences since 1988.^[2] POV's films have a strong first-person, social-issue focus. Many established directors, including Michael Moore, Jonathan Demme, Terry Zwigoff, Errol Morris, Albert and David Maysles, Michael Apted, Frederick Wiseman, Marlon Riggs, and Ross McElwee have had work screened as part of the POV series.

The series has garnered both critical and industry acclaim over its 20-plus years on television. POV programs have also won major industry awards including three Oscars, 27 Emmys, 36 Cine Golden Eagles, 13 Peabody Awards, 10 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, the Prix Italia and the Webby Award.^[2]

Filmography[link]

1988[link]

• American Tongues by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker
• Acting Our Age by Michal Aviad
• Fire From the Mountain by Deborah Shaffer
• Knocking on Armageddon's Door by Torv Carlsen, John Magnus
• Rate It X by Lucy Winer, Paula de Koenigsberg
• Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo by Susana Munoz, Lourdes Portillo
• The Good Fight by Noel Buckner, Mary Dore, Sam Sills
• Metropolitan Avenue by Christine Noschese
• Louie Bluie by Terry Zwigoff
• Gates of Heaven by Errol Morris
• Best Boy by Ira Wohl

1989[link]

• Who Killed Vincent Chin? by Christine Choy, Renee Tajima
• Coming Out by Ted Reed
• The Family Album by Alan Berliner
• Dark Circle by Christopher Beaver, Judy Irving, Ruth Landy
• Jack Levine: Feast Of Pure Reason by David Sutherland
• No Applause, Just Throw Money by Karen Goodman
• Partisans Of Vilna by Aviva Kempner
• The Fighting Ministers by Bill Jersey, Richard Wormser
• Binge by Lynn Hershman
• Lost Angeles by Tom Seidman

1990[link]

• Through the Wire by Nina Rosenblum
• Metamorphosis: Man Into Woman by Lisa Leeman
• Larry Wright by Ari Marcopoulos, Maja Zrnic
• Letter To The Next Generation by Jim Klein
• Salesman by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
• Police Chiefs by Alan Raymond, Susan Raymond
• Kamala And Raji by Michael Camerini
• Golub by Jerry Blumenthal, Gordon Quinn
• Days of Waiting by Steven Okazaki
• Going Up by Gary Pollard
• Motel by Christian Blackwood
• Ossian: American Boy, Tibetan Monk by Thomas Anderson^{[disambiguation needed ]}
• People Power by Ilan Ziv

1991[link]

• Absolutely Positive by Peter Adair
• Marc and Ann by Les Blank, Maureen Gosling, Chris Simon
• Honorable Nations by Chana Gazit, David Steward
• Chemical Valley by Mimi Pickering, Anne Lewis Johnson
• Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs
• Berkeley in the Sixties by Mark Kitchell
• A Little Vicious by Immy Humes
• The Big Band by James Toback
• Maria's Story by Pamela Cohen, Monona Wali, and Catherine M. Ryan
• Homes Apart: The Two Koreas by Christine Choy, JT Takagi
• Casting The First Stone by Julie Gustafson
• Sa-I-Gu by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, Christine Choy and Elaine Kim^{[disambiguation needed ]}

1992[link]

• Color Adjustment by Marlon Riggs
• Intimate Stranger by Alan Berliner
• Finding Christa by Camille Billops, James Hatch
• Last Images of War by Stephen Olsson, Scott Andrews^{[disambiguation needed ]}
• A Season in Hell by Walter Brock, Stephen Roszell
• Promise Not to Tell by Rhea Gavry
• Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance Vs. Judas Priest by David Van Taylor
• Fast Food Women by Anne Lewis Johnson
• Faith Even to the Fire by Sylvia Morales, Jean Victor, about three nuns who signed A Catholic Statement on Pluralism and Abortion
• Pets or Meat by Michael Moore
• Louisiana Boys -- Raised on Politics by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker and Paul Stekler

1993[link]

• Silverlake Life: The View From Here by Tom Joslin, Peter Friedman
• Who's Going To Pay For These Donuts, Anyway? by Janice Tanaka
• When Your Head's Not A Head, It's A Nut by Garth Stein
• Compassion In Exile by Mickey Lemie
• For Better Or For Worse (documentary film) For Better Or For Worse by David Collier
• Money Man by Philip Haas
• Building Bombs: The Legacy by Mark Mori, Susan Robinson
• Miami-Havana by Estela Bravo
• Cousin Bobby by Jonathan Demme

1994[link]

• Time Indefinite by Ross McElwee
• One Nation Under God by Teodoro Maniaci, Francine Rzeznik
• Memories of Tata by Sheldon Schiffer
• The End of the Nightstick by Peter Kuttner, Cyndi Moran, Eric Scholl
• The Heart of the Matter by Gini Retickler, Amber Hollibaugh
• Passin' It On by Peter Miller, John Valadez
• Escape From China by Iris F. Kung
• Hearts of Darkness by Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper
• Dialogues with Madwomen by Allie Light
• The Times of a Sign: A Folk History of the Iran-Contra Scandal by David Goldsmith, Steven Day

1995[link]

• Leona's Sister Gerri by Jane Gilooly
• Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter by Deborah Hoffmann
• No Place Like Home by Kathryn Hunt
• Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy by Ellen Bruno
• The Uprising of '34 by George Stoney, Judith Helfand, Susanne Rostock
• Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics by Paul Stekler, Andrew Kolker, Louis Alvarez
• Twitch and Shout by Laurel Chiten
• Home Economics: A Documentary of Suburbia by Jenny Cool
• Out of Sight by David Sutherland
• Dealers Among Dealers by Gaylen Ross

1996[link]

• Taking On The Kennedys by Joshua Seftel
• Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision by Freida Lee Mock
• Personal Belongings by Steven Bognar
• A Litany For Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde by Ada Gay Griffin, Michele Parkerson
• a.k.a. Don Bonus by Spencer Nakasako, Sokly Don Bonus Ny
• No Loans Today by Lisanne Skyler
• The Transformation by Susana Aiken, Carlos Aparicio
• The Women Outside by J.T.Orinne Takagi, Hye Jung Park
• Just For The Ride by Amanda Micheli
• Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself by Yvonne Welbon
• Taken for a Ride by Jim Klein, Martha Olson

1997[link]

• Nobody's Business by Alan Berliner
• Battle for the Minds by Steven Lipscomb
• A Healthy Baby Girl by Judith Helfand
• Jesse's Gone by Michael Smith
• Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary by Laura Simon
• Who is Henry Jaglom? by Alex Rubin, Jeremy Workman
• In Whose Honor? by Jay Rosenstein
• Girls Like Us by Jane C. Wagner, Tina DiFeliciantonio
• Blacks and Jews by Deborah Kaufman, Bari Scott, Alan Snitow
• A Perfect Candidate by R.J. Cutler, David Van Taylor

1998[link]

• Baby, It's You by Ann Makepeace
• Tobacco Blues by Eren McGinnis and Christine Fugate
• The Band by David Zeiger
• Licensed to Kill by Arthur Dong
• Kelly Loves Tony by Spencer Nakasako
• If I Can't Do It by Walter Brock
• Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour by Susan Stern
• The Vanishing Line by Maren Monsen
• Sacrifice by Ellen Bruno
• Cuba 15 by Elizabeth Schub
• Family Name by Macky Alston

1999[link]

• Rabbit In The Moon by Emiko Omori
• Golden Threads by Lucy Winer and Karen Eaton
• In My Corner by Ricki Stern
• The Green Monster by David Finn, David Hess and A.C. Weary
• Corpus: A Home Movie for Selena by Lourdes Portillo
• School Prayer: A Community At War by Ben Crane and Slawomir Grünberg
• The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez by Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg

2000[link]

• Regret To Inform by Barbara Sonneborn and Janet Cole
• Well-Founded Fear by Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini
• Butterfly by Doug Wolens
• La Boda by Hannah Weyer
• Stranger with a Camera by Elizabeth Barret
• Blink by Elizabeth Thompson
• Our House in Havana by Stephen Olsson
• Dreamland by Lisanne Skyler
• American Gypsy: A Stranger in Everybody's Land by Jasmine Dellal
• KPFA On the Air by Veronica Selver and Sharon Wood
• Live Free or Die by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt
• First Person Plural by Deann Borshay Liem

2001[link]

• The Sweetest Sound by Alan Berliner
• Scout's Honor by Tom Shepard
• My American Girls: A Dominican Story by Aaron Matthews
• Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story by Eric Paul Fournier
• True-Hearted Vixens by Mylène Moreno
• Take It From Me by Emily Abt
• In the Light of Reverence by Christopher McLeod
• Life and Debt by Stephanie Black
• High School by Frederick Wiseman
• 5 Girls by Maria Finitzo
• Promises by B. Z. Goldberg and Justine Shapiro

2002[link]

• The Smith Family by Tasha Oldham
• Boomtown by Bryan Gunnar Cole
• Hybrid by Monteith McCollum
• Refrigerator Mothers by David E. Simpson, J.J. Hanley & Gordon Quinn
• Fenceline: A Company Town Divided by Slawomir Grunberg with Jane Greenberg
• Señorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo
• Mai's America by Marlo Poras
• Sweet Old Song by Leah Mahan
• Escuela by Hannah Weyer
• Afghanistan Year 1380 by Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Alberto Vendemmiati and Giuseppe Pettito
• Escuela by Hannah Weyer

2003[link]

• Flag Wars by Linda Goode Bryant and Linda Poitras
• Georgie Girl by Annie Goldson and Peter Wells
• Larry v. Lockney by Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck
• Discovering Dominga by Patricia Flynn with Mary Jo McConahay
• The Flute Player by Jocelyn Glatzer
• 90 Miles by Juan Carlos Zaldívar
• American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i by Lisette Marie Flanary and Evann Siebens
• West 47th Street by Bill Lichtenstein and June Peoples
• Family Fundamentals by Arthur Dong
• Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam by Charley Trujillo and Sonya Rhee
• The Sixth Section by Alex Rivera
• State of Denial by Elaine Epstein
• What I Want My Words To Do To You by Madeleine Gavin, Judith Katz, and Gary Sunshine
• Love & Diane by Jennifer Dworkin

2004[link]

• Farmingville by Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini
• Bill's Run: A Political Journey in Rural Kansas by Richard Kassebaum
• War Feels Like War by Esteban Uyarra
• Thirst by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman
• Last Man Standing: Politics, Texas Style by Paul Stekler
• A Family Undertaking by Elizabeth Westrate
• Every Mother's Son by Tami Gold and Kelly Anderson
• Speedo: A Demolition Derby Love Story by Jesse Moss
• Wattstax by Mel Stuart
• Freedom Machines by Jamie Stobie and Janet Cole
• A Panther in Africa by Aaron Matthews
• Lost Boys of Sudan by Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk
• Chisholm 72 by Shola Lynch

2005[link]

• The Education of Shelby Knox by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt
• Big Enough by Jan Krawitz
• Street Fight by Marshall Curry
• The Fire Next Time by Patrice O'Neill
• The Brooklyn Connection by Klaartje Quirijns
• The Self Made Man by Susan Stern
• In the Realms of the Unreal by Jessica Yu
• Hardwood by Hubert Davis
• I Used to Be a Filmmaker by Jay Rosenblatt
• A Thousand Words by Melba Williams
• A Song for Daniel by Jason DaSilva
• Bright Leaves by Ross McElwee
• Hiding and Seeking by Oren Rudavsky and Menachem Daum
• The Hobart Shakespeareans by Mel Stuart
• Omar & Pete by Tod Lending

2006[link]

• No More Tears Sister by Helene Klodawsky
• Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball by Kenneth Eng
• Tintin and I by Anders Ostergaard
• Lawn by Monteith McCollum
• The Fall of Fujimori by Ellen Perry
• The Tailenders by Adele Horne
• Al Otro Lado (To the Other Side) by Natalia Almada
• Lomax the Songhunter by Rogier Kappers
• Waging a Living by Roger Weisberg
• The Boys of Baraka by Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady
• Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela by Thomas Allen Harris
• No Bigger Than a Minute by Steve Delano
• Maquilapolis: City of Factories by Vicky Funari & Sergio De La Torre
• My Country, My Country by Laura Poitras

2007[link]

• Rain in a Dry Land by Anne Makepeace
• Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars by Zach Niles & Banker White
• Massacre at Murambi by Sam Kauffmann
• Standing Silent Nation by Suree Towfighnia & Courtney Hermann
• Revolution '67 by Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno
• The Chances of the World Changing by Eric Daniel Metzgar & Nell Carden Grey
• Prison Town, USA by Katie Galloway & Po Kutchins
• No Angels in the Outfield by Larry Warner
• Following Sean by Ralph Arlyck
• Arctic Son by Andrew Walton
• Alice See the Light by Ariana Gerstein
• Libby, Montana by Drury Gunn Carr & Doug Hawes-Davis
• Made in L.A. by Almudena Carracedo & Robert Bahar
• Keeping House by May Lin Au Yong
• The Camden 28 by Anthony Giacchino
• Lumo by Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt Nelson Walker III Louis Abelman & Lynn True
• 49 Up by Michael Apted
• Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner by Freida Lee Mock

2008[link]

• Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North by Katrina Browne
• Ars Magna by Kory Kelley
• Election Day by Katy Chevigny
• The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez by Kieran Fitzgerald
• The Last Conquistador by John Valadez & Cristina Ibarra
• 9 Star Hotel by Ido Haar
• Campaign by Kazuhiro Soda
• Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music by Robert Elfstrom
• Belarusian Waltz by Andrzej Fidyk
• The Judge and the General by Elizabeth Farnsworth & Patricio Lanfranco
• Calavera Highway by Renee Tajima-Pena & Evangeline Griego
• Critical Condition by Roger Weisberg
• In the Family by Joanna Rudnick
• Up the Yangtze by Yung Chang
• Soldiers of Conscience by Catherine Ryan & Gary Weimberg
• Inheritance by James Moll
• City of Cranes by Eva Weber

2009[link]

• New Muslim Cool by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor
• Beyond Hatred by Olivier Meyrou
• Life.Support.Music by Eric Daniel Metzgar
• The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court by Paco de Onis, Peter Kinoy and Pamela Yates
• The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) by Ellen Kuras & Thavisouk Phrasavath
• Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go by Kim Longinotto
• Nutkin's Last Stand by Nicholas Berger
• 34 x 25 x 36 by Jesse Epstein
• Utopia Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall by Sam Green & Carrie Lozano
• This Way Up by Georgi Lazarevski
• Ella Es el Matador - She is the Matador by Gemma Cubero & Celeste Carrasco
• The English Surgeon by Geoffrey Smith
• The Principal Story by Tod Lending
• Bronx Princess by Yoni Brook & Musa Syeed
• Jennifer by Stewart Copeland
• The Way We Get By by Aron Gaudet & Gita Pullapilly
• Patti Smith: Dream of Life by Steven Sebring

2010[link]

• Food, Inc. by Robert Kenner
• Notes on Milk by Monteith McCollum & Ariana Gerstein
• William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe by Emily Kunstler & Sarah Kunstler
• The Beaches of Agnès by Agnès Varda
• Promised Land by Yoruba Richen
• Good Fortune by Jeremy Levine & Landon Van Soest
• El General by Natalia Almada
• Presumed Guilty by Roberto Hernández & Geoffrey Smith
• Salt by Michael Angus & Murray Fredericks
• A Healing Art by Ellen Frick
• The Edge of Dreaming by Amy Hardie
• Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy by Stephanie Wang-Breal^[3]
• Off and Running by Nicole Opper
• In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee by Deann Borshay Liem
• The Oath by Laura Poitras
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers by Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith

2011[link]

• Kings of Pastry by Chris Hegedus & D. A. Pennebaker
• My Perestroika by Robin Hessman
• Sweetgrass by Ilisa Barbash & Lucien Castaing-Taylor
• Enemies of the People by Rob Lemkin & Thet Sambath
• Biblioburro: The Donkey Library by Carlos Rendón Zipagauta
• Mugabe and the White African by Lucy Bailey & Andrew Thompson
• Steam of Life by Joonas Berghäll & Mika Hotakainen
• Armadillo by Janus Metz
• Better This World by Kelly Duane de la Vega & Katie Galloway
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front by Marshall Curry
• The Learning by Ramona Diaz
• Last Train Home by Lixin Fan
• Where Soldiers Come From by Heather Courtney
• Racing Dreams by Marshall Curry

2012[link]

• My Reincarnation by Jennifer Fox
• Granito: How to Nail a Dictator by Peter Kinoy, Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís
• The City Dark by Ian Cheney
• Guilty Pleasures by Julie Moggan
• The Light in Her Eyes by Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix
• Up Heartbreak Hill by Erica Scharf
• Nostalgia for the Light by Patricio Guzmán
• The Barber of Birmingham by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday
• Sin País by Theo Rigby
• I'm Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful by Jonathan Demme
• El Velador (The Night Watchman) by Natalia Almada
• Give Up Tomorrow by Michael Collins and Marty Syjuco
• Sun Kissed by Maya Stark and Adi Lavy
• Reportero by Bernardo Ruiz
• Girl Model by A. Sabin and David Redmon

See also[link]

• Independent Lens (PBS series)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official POV official site
• POV at the Internet Movie Database

Look up point of view or POV in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

POV may refer to:

• Parliament of Victoria, Australia
• Persistence of vision, a theory addressing the visual phenomenon of image retention
  • POV toy or device, a device that displays an image to a viewer by displaying one piece at a time in rapid succession and in varied locations
• Point of view (disambiguation)
  • POV, the PBS television program, showing independent, non-fiction film
  • POV, Point of View; in the analysis of fictional literature, a synonym for protagonist, especially when a work has multiple protagonists.
  • P.O.V. (album), an album by Utopia (1985)
  • "P.O.V.", a track on the album Radio:Active by McFly (2008)
  • POV shot, a technique in motion photography
  • POV Videography and VholdR, another description of the filming technique
  • "POV" (Batman: The Animated Series), an episode in Batman fiction
  • POV (Point of View), a two part series that ran on Anglia Television (UK) in December 2004
  • POV gun, a fictional device in the movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  • POV hat, a control on some videogame joysticks
  • Point of view pornography
  • Point of View magazine, published by the Documentary Organization of Canada
  • PoV, a live concert video album by Peter Gabriel
  • POV, means partiality, not neutral
• POV-Ray, the Persistence of Vision Raytracer, a ray tracing computer graphics program
• Power of Veto (disambiguation)
• Privately Owned Vehicle or Privately Operated Vehicle, as opposed to an ambulance or other emergency vehicle. The mode of arrival of a sick patient to the hospital, especially the emergency room.
• Pyramid of vision, a 3D computer graphics term describing what the viewer sees

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2011)

A television program (usually television programme outside North America), also called television show, is a segment of content intended for broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode.

A television series that is intended to comprise a limited number of episodes is usually called a miniseries or serial. Series without a fixed length are usually divided into seasons or series, yearly or biannual installments of new episodes. While there is no defined length, US industry practice tends to favor longer seasons than those of some other countries.

A one-time broadcast may be called a "special", or particularly in the UK a "special episode". A television movie ("made-for-TV movie" or television film), is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in cinemas or direct-to-video, although many successful TV movies are later released on DVD.

A program can be either recorded—as on video tape or other various electronic media forms—or considered live television.

Program content[link]

Television programming may be fictional (as in comedies and dramas), or non-fictional (as in documentary, news, and reality television). It may be topical (as in the case of a local newscast and some made-for-television movies), or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy and game shows.

A drama program usually features a set of actors in a somewhat familiar setting. The program follows their lives and their adventures. With the exception of soap operas, many shows especially before the 1980s, remained static without story arcs, the main characters and the premise changed little. If some change happened to the characters lives during the episode, it was usually undone by the end. (Because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order.) Since the 1980s, there are many series that feature progressive change to the plot, the characters, or both.

Common television program periods include regular broadcasts (like news), series (usually seasonal and ongoing with a duration of only a few episodes to many seasons), or miniseries, which is an extended film, usually with a small predetermined number of episodes and a set plot and timeline. Miniseries usually range from about 3 to 10 hours in length. In the UK, the term "miniseries" is only usually used in reference to imported programmes, and such short-run series are usually called "serials".

Older American television shows began with a title sequence showing opening credits at the bottom lower third of the screen during the beginning, and included closing credits at the end of the show. However, beginning in the 1990s some shows began with a "cold open", followed by a title sequence and a commercial break. Many serial-type shows begin with a "Previously on..." (such as the series 24) introduction before the new episode. And, to save time, some shows omit the title sequence altogether, folding the names normally featured there into the opening credits. The title sequence has not been completely eliminated, however, as many major television series still use them.

While television series appearing on TV networks are usually commissioned by the networks themselves, their producers earn greater revenue when the program is sold into syndication. With the rise of the DVD home video format, box sets containing entire seasons or the complete run of a program have become a significant revenue source as well. Many of the prime-time comedy shows and Saturday morning cartoons were digitally remastered for United States television around mid-May 2008, as there are more original and reissued DVD sets of television programs containing either entire seasons or complete series to come. Typically, a DVD of a series or TV movie may contain extended or additional scenes not shown during the broadcast, scenes not allowed for broadcast (due to censorship rule), or additional background information/documentaries.

Television has changed throughout the years, from wholesome family sitcoms and dramas of years ago, to the reality shows of today. When watching television became popular in the mid-20th century, the whole family watched one set together. Also, many channels have deviated from their original programming focus throughout the years because of channel drift.

Most television networks throughout the world are 'commercial', dependent on selling advertising time or acquiring sponsors, broadcasting executives' main concern over their programming is on audience size or eyeballs. Once the number of 'free to air' stations was restricted by the availability of channel frequencies, but cable TV (outside the USA, satellite television) technology has allowed an expansion in the number of channels available to viewers (sometimes at premium rates) in a much more competitive environment.

Genres[link]

Scripted entertainment[link]

• Animated
• Award shows (partially scripted)
• Drama—which includes:
  • Action-adventure or Thriller
  • Comedy-drama
  • Family drama
  • Legal drama
  • Medical drama
  • Police procedural
  • Political drama
  • Science-fiction / Fantasy / Horror / Supernatural drama
  • Serial drama
  • Soap opera
  • Teen drama
• Miniseries and Television movies
• Comedy
  • Mockumentary
  • Satire
  • Sitcom
  • Sketch comedy

Unscripted entertainment[link]

• Game shows
• Reality
• Talk shows

Informational[link]

• Infomercials—paid advertising spots that are up to an hour long
• News programs
• Documentaries
• News magazines—dealing with current affairs

Development[link]

United States[link]

When a person or company decides to create a new series, they develop the show's elements, consisting of the concept, the characters, the crew, and cast. Then they offer ("pitch") it to the various networks in an attempt to find one interested enough to order a prototype first episode of the series, known as a pilot.

To create the pilot, the structure and team of the whole series must be put together. If the network likes the pilot, they pick up the show to air it the next season (usually Fall). Sometimes they save it for mid-season, or request rewrites and further review (known in the industry as Development hell). Other times, they pass entirely, forcing the show's creator to "shop it around" to other networks. Many shows never make it past the pilot stage.

If the show is picked up, the network orders a "run" of episodes—usually only 13 episodes at first, though a season typically consists of at least 22 episodes. (The last nine episodes are sometimes called the "back nine"—borrowing the colloquial golf term).

The show hires a stable of writers, who usually work in parallel: the first writer works on the first episode, the second on the second episode, etc. When all the writers have been used, episode assignment starts again with the first writer. On other shows, however, the writers work as a team. Sometimes they develop story ideas individually, and pitch them to the show's creator, who folds them together into a script and rewrites them.

United Kingdom[link]

In contrast to the US model illustrated above, the UK procedure is operated on a sometimes similar, but much smaller scale.

The method of "team writing" is employed on some longer dramatic series (usually running up to a maximum of around 13 episodes). The idea for such a programme may be generated "in-house" by one of the networks; it could originate from an independent production company; it sometimes is a product of both. For example, the BBC's long-running soap opera EastEnders is wholly a BBC production, whereas its popular drama Life on Mars was developed by Kudos in association with the broadcaster.

However, there are still a significant number of programmes (usually sitcoms) that are built around just one or two writers and a small, close-knit production team. These are "pitched" in the traditional way, but since the creator(s) handle all the writing requirements, there is a run of six or seven episodes per series once approval has been given. Many of the most popular British comedies have been made this way, including Monty Python's Flying Circus (albeit with an exclusive team of six writer-performers), Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and The Office.

Production[link]

The executive producer, often the show's creator, is in charge of running the show. They pick the crew and help cast the actors, approve and sometimes write series plots (some even write or direct major episodes). Various other producers help to ensure that the show runs smoothly.

As with filmmaking or other electronic media production, production of an individual episode can be divided into three parts. These are:

Pre-production[link]

Pre-production begins when a script is approved. A director is chosen to plan the episode's final look.

Pre-production tasks include storyboarding, construction of sets, props, and costumes, casting guest stars, budgeting, acquiring resources like lighting, special effects, stunts, etc. Once the show is planned, it must then be scheduled; scenes are often filmed out of sequence, guest actors or even regulars may only be available at certain times. Sometimes the principal photography of different episodes must be done at the same time, complicating the schedule (a guest star might shoot scenes from two episodes on the same afternoon). Complex scenes are translated from storyboard to animatics to further clarify the action. Scripts are adjusted to meet altering requirements.

Some shows have a small stable of directors, but also usually rely on outside directors. Given the time constraints of broadcasting, a single show might have two or three episodes in pre-production, one or two episodes in principal photography, and a few more in various stages of post-production. The task of directing is complex enough that a single director can usually not work on more than one episode or show at a time, hence the need for multiple directors.

Principal photography[link]

Principal photography is the actual filming of the episode. Director, actors and crew gather at a television studio or on location for filming or videoing a scene. A scene is further divided into shots, which should be planned during pre-production. Depending on scheduling, a scene may be shot in non-sequential order of the story. Conversations may be filmed twice from different camera angles, often using stand-ins, so one actor might perform all their lines in one set of shots, and then the other side of the conversation is filmed from the opposite perspective. To complete a production on time, a second unit may be filming a different scene on another set or location at the same time, using a different set of actors, an assistant director, and a second unit crew. A director of photography supervises the lighting of each shot to ensure consistency.

Post production[link]

Once principal photography is complete, producers coordinate tasks to begin the video editing. Visual and digital video effects are added to the film; this is often outsourced to companies specializing in these areas. Often music is performed with the conductor using the film as a time reference (other musical elements may be previously recorded). An editor cuts the various pieces of film together, adds the musical score and effects, determines scene transitions, and assembles the completed show.

Budgets and revenues[link]

In the United States, the average broadcast network drama costs $3 million an episode to produce, while cable dramas cost $2 million on average.^[1] The pilot episode may be more expensive than a regular episode. In 2004, Lost's two-hour pilot cost $10–$14 million, in 2008 Fringe's two-hour pilot cost $10 million, and in 2010, Boardwalk Empire was $18 million for the first episode. In 2011, Game of Thrones was $5–$10 million, Pan Am cost an estimated $10 million, while Terra Nova's two-hour pilot was between $10 to $20 million.^[2][3]

Deficit financing is the term used to describe how many scripted network television shows in the Unites States are financed. A studio finances the production cost of a show and a network pays a license fee to the studio for the right to air the show. This license fee does not cover the show's production costs, leading to the deficit. Although the studio does not make its money back in the original airing of the show, it retains ownership of the show. This ownership retention allows the studio to make its money back and earn a profit through syndication and DVD and Blu-ray disc sales. This system places most of the financial risk on the studios, however a show that is a hit in the syndication and home video markets can more than make up for the misses. Although the deficit financing system places minimal financial risk on the networks, they lose out on the future profits of big hits, since they are only licensing the shows.^[4]

Costs are recouped mainly by advertising revenues for broadcast networks and some cable channels, while other cable channels depend on subscription revenues. In general, advertisers, and consequently networks that depend on advertising revenues, are more interested in the number of viewers within the 18–49 age range than the total number of viewers.^[5][6] Advertisers are willing to pay more to advertise on shows successful with young adults because they watch less television and are harder to reach than older adults.^[7] According to Advertising Age, during the 2007–08 season, Grey's Anatomy was able to charge $419,000 per commercial, compared to only $248,000 for a commercial during CSI, despite CSI having almost five million more viewers on average.^[8] Due to its strength in young demos, Friends was able to charge almost three times as much for a commercial as Murder, She Wrote, even though the two series had similar total viewer numbers during the seasons they were on the air together.^[5] Glee and The Office drew fewer total viewers than NCIS during the 2009–10 season, but earned an average of $272,694 and $213,617 respectively, compared to $150,708 for NCIS.^[9]

Distribution[link]

After production, the show is turned over to the television network, which sends it out to its affiliate stations, which broadcast it in the specified broadcast programming time slot. If the Nielsen ratings are good, the show is kept alive as long as possible. If not, the show is usually canceled. The show's creators are then left to shop around remaining episodes, and the possibility of future episodes, to other networks. On especially successful series, the producers sometimes call a halt to a series on their own like Seinfeld, The Cosby Show, Corner Gas, and M*A*S*H and end it with a concluding episode, which sometimes is a big series finale.

On rare occasions, a series that has not attracted particularly high ratings and has been canceled can be given a reprieve if DVD sales have been particularly strong. This has happened in the cases of Family Guy in the US and Peep Show in the UK.

If the show is popular or lucrative, and a number of episodes (usually 100 episodes or more) are made, it goes into broadcast syndication (in the USA) where broadcast to the program rights are then resold.

[edit] Seasons/series

The terminology used to define a set of episodes produced by a television series varies from country to country.

North American usage[link]

The term "series", in North American usage, refers to a connected set of television program episodes that run under the same title, possibly spanning many seasons. A new series is often ordered (funded) for just the first 10 to 13 episodes, to gauge the audience interest. If it is "picked up", the season is completed to the regular 20 to 26 episodes. The term "midseason replacement" usually refers to an inexpensive short-run (10–13 episode) show designed to take the place of an original series that failed to garner an audience and has not been picked up. The term "series finale" can lead to confusion outside of North America. A series finale is the last show of the series before the show is no longer produced. (In the UK, it means the end of a season.)

In North America the term "television season" is used inconsistently. A "full season" typically runs from September through May, with a hiatus between December and February. This broadcast programming schedule typically includes 20 to 26 episodes. A full season is sometimes split into two separate units (confusingly also termed seasons) with one before and one after the hiatus. These smaller "seasons" usually contain half the number of episodes (10–13).^{[citation needed]}

Since the 2000s, these shorter seasons have been referred to as ".5" or half seasons, where the run of shows between September and December is labeled "Season N", and the second run between February and May labeled "Season N.5". This is typically done to increase DVD sales of the show.^{[citation needed]} Distributors release the first half of the season in stores just before the second half first airs to increase interest in the season's second half.^{[citation needed]} Examples of this include the 2004 incarnation of Battlestar Galactica, ABC's FlashForward, and ABC Family's Make It or Break It.

UK and Australia usage[link]

In the United Kingdom and other countries, these sets of episodes are referred to as a "series". In Australia, the broadcasting may be different to North American usage, however, the terms "series" and "season" are the same. For example, Battlestar Galactica has an original series as well as a remake, both are considered different series with their own number of individual seasons. It helps to avoid much confusion when talking about a TV Series.

Australian television does not follow "seasons" in the way that US television does. So there is no "Fall Season" or "Fall schedule", for example. For many years popular night time dramas in Australia would run much of the year, and would only go into recess over the summer period (December–February) where ratings are not taken. Therefore popular dramas would usually run February–November each year. This schedule was used in the 1970s for popular dramas including Number 96. Neighbours and other dramas continue this routine as of 2011. Australian situation comedy series usually have seasons of about 13 episodes, and might premiere at any month between February and November.

British shows have tended toward shorter series in recent years. For example, the first series of long-running science fiction show Doctor Who in 1963 featured forty-two 25-minute episodes, which had been reduced gradually to fourteen 25-minute episodes in 1989. The revival of Doctor Who has comprised thirteen 45-minute installments. However, there are some series in the UK that have a larger number of episodes, for example Waterloo Road started with 8–12 episodes but from series three onward, it increased to 20 episodes, and season seven will contain 30 episodes. Recently, American non-cable networks have also begun to experiment with shorter seasons for some programs, particularly reality shows such as Survivor. However, they often air two seasons per year, resulting in roughly the same number of episodes per year as a drama.

This is a reduction from the 1950s, in which many American shows (e.g., The Twilight Zone) had between 29 and 39 episodes per season. Actual storytelling time within a commercial television hour has also gradually reduced over the years, from 50 minutes out of every 60 to the current 44 (and even less on some networks), beginning in the early 21st century.

Japanese usage[link]

The Japanese have sometimes subdivided television series and dramas into kūru (クール^?), from the French term cours for course, which is a three-month period usually of 13 episodes. Each kūru generally has its own opening and ending image sequence and song, recordings of which are often sold. The number of episodes permitted per season ranges from three to 65. (See also Japanese television programs.)

[edit] Running time

In the United States, in general, dramas usually last 44 minutes (an hour with advertisements), while sitcoms last 22 (30 with advertisements). However, with the rise of cable networks, especially pay ones, series and episode lengths have been changing, with 55–60 minutes per episode, and shorter seasons overall.

See also[link]

• Category:Television schedules (by country and year)
• List of animated television series
• List of television programs by name in alphabetical order
• Lists of television programs
• Network programming (television)
• Radio programming
• Television advertisement

References[link]