| This project is a cultural history of the midcentury television anthology series, with a particular focus on the ways the format intersects with notions of "Americanness". Anthologies like Playhouse 90 and The Twilight Zone, which consisted of individual self-contained teleplays under a single series title, constituted one of the most prominent formats in early American television. Often referred to as "Golden Age" television, these shows are most frequently discussed in terms of quality and prestige. Less examined, however, is the broader cultural work performed by these programs, particularly in helping to frame notions of American identity in the postwar/Cold War era. I address facets of the format such as its association with Method acting and the resultant debates about "authentic" American experience; its frequent portrayal of what I call "neighbor panic", which may ultimately force us to reexamine mythologies about midcentury "conformity" in the United States; its tendency toward social critique and discussions about the "Americanness" or "un-Americanness" of censorship; and its use of various forms of historical discourse to address the traumas and fantasies of war in a medium heavily sponsored by American defense contractors. Drawing on original archival research as well as scholarship on both television history and theories of community and belonging, the project posits the anthology series as a site of struggle over national meaning. |
