Cynthia Nixon

Why Sex and The City is Still in Style

Sex and the City was on television from 1998-2004, and still holds cultural cachet today. But does the actual programming still hold up?
Ellen DeGeneres

How Ellen DeGeneres Changed TV

In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres publicly came out on her show, Ellen. It was a cultural turning point for many.
Twilight Zone spiral

Why We Still Love The Twilight Zone

Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone stood out in the "vast wasteland" of television in the early 1960s and still resonates today.
Queer Eye cast

Why Queer Eye Still Matters

Underneath the home and personal makeovers, is "Queer Eye" political?
Photgraph: Fred Rogers lacing up his iconic sneakers

Source: Grand Communications/The Fred Rogers Company

Long Live Mister Rogers’ Quiet Revolution

Fred Rogers argued by example and in his quiet, firm way that television’s power could be harnessed to shape future generations for good.
Candice Bergen Murphy Brown

Murphy Brown, Motherhood, and “Family Values”

Murphy Brown represented a threat to “family values”—a position that inherently placed her on the side of the families of color whose single family structures supposedly threatened the white, middle-class status quo of the 1990s.
Iran hostage crisis TV

How the Iran Hostage Crisis Changed International Journalism

On November 4th, 1979, Iranian militants took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. They seized 63 Americans, a number later ...
Star Trek: Discovery

What Star Trek: Discovery Can Tell Us About Tech and Social Progress

What makes Star Trek essential for any contemporary tech user is its role in helping us understand our relationship to technology.
Old movie theater

Weirdly Enough, Movies about TV Prepared America for TV

Ironically, it was movies that helped accustom American viewers to television in the first place, writes Richard Koszarski.
Roloff Family

Little People on TV: Educational or Exploitative?

Little people have been used for entertainment purposes in royal courts from ancient Egypt to medieval Europe. But can this be more than exploitative?