In the early 1950s, television—like cable in the early 1980s—served a more elite and wealthier audience. Anthology dramas brought live dramatic theater to that television audience. Influenced by stage plays, anthologies offered new, artistically significant teleplays (scripts written for television), casts, directors, writers, and sets from one week to the next. In the 1952–53 season alone, there were eighteen anthology dramas, including Studio One (1948–1958), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1965), the Twilight Zone (1959–1964), and Kraft Television Theater (1947–1958), which was created to introduce Kraft’s Cheez Whiz.

The anthology’s brief run as a dramatic staple on television ended for both economic and political reasons. First, advertisers disliked anthologies because they often presented stories containing complex human problems that were not easily resolved. The commercials that interrupted the drama, however, told upbeat stories in which problems were easily solved by purchasing a product; by contrast, anthologies made the simplicity of the commercial pitch ring false. A second reason for the demise of anthology dramas was a change in audience. The people who could afford TV sets in the early 1950s could also afford tickets to a play. For these viewers, the anthology drama was a welcome addition given their cultural tastes. By 1956, however, working- and middle-class families were increasingly able to afford television, and the prices of sets dropped. Anthology dramas were not as popular in this newly expanded market.

Third, anthology dramas were expensive to produce—double the cost of most other TV genres in the 1950s. Each week meant a completely new story line, as well as new writers, casts, and expensive sets. (Many anthology dramas also took more than a week to produce and had to alternate biweekly with other programs.) Sponsors and networks came to realize that it would be less expensive and easier to build audience allegiance with an ongoing program featuring the same cast and set.

Finally, anthologies that dealt seriously with the changing social landscape were sometimes labeled “politically controversial.” This was especially true during the attempts by Senator Joseph McCarthy and his followers to rid media industries and government agencies of left-leaning political influences (see Chapter 16 on blacklisting). By the early 1960s, this dramatic form had virtually disappeared from network television, although its legacy continues on public television with the imported British program Masterpiece Theatre (1971– ), now known as either Masterpiece Classic or Masterpiece Mystery!—the longest-running prime-time drama series on U.S. television.

In fact, these British shows resemble U.S. TV miniseries—serialized TV shows that run over a two-day to two-week period, usually on consecutive evenings. A cross between an extended anthology drama and a network serial, the most famous U.S. miniseries were probably the twelve-hour Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), based on the 1970 Irwin Shaw novel, and Roots (1977), based on Alex Haley’s novelized version of his family’s slave history. The final episode of Roots, which ran on eight consecutive nights, drew an audience of more than 100 million viewers. Contemporary British series like Downton Abbey (2010– ), Inspector Lewis (2005– ), and Sherlock (2011– ) last three to eight episodes over a few weeks, making them more like miniseries than traditional network dramas, even though they have multiple seasons. The miniseries has also experienced a recent resurgence in the United States with quality and popular miniseries on cable like John Adams (HBO), American Horror Story (FX), and Hatfields and McCoys (History Channel).