FTVS512 - final paper

Rachel Brethauer For: Heather Osborne-Thompson FTVS 512 December 15, 2011

N O D U L L M O M E N T S O R D U L L M E N T O L E R AT E D : QUALITY DRAMA, MAD MEN, AND SONS OF ANARCHY It’s an interesting time to be a television viewer. Never before have audiences had so many options —traditional television networks, cable and satellite channels, online streaming properties, episode downloads, OnDemand, and even the rise of independent web series—the options are endless.

The world is truly at our fingertips. And the content of all of these properties are gifts in and of themselves. The post-network era is a golden age of quality drama, a genre that has evolved alongside television itself. Viewers can indulge in sophisticated and layered narratives, get to know complex and flawed characters, and be drawn into worlds the likes of which television has never seen.

In his book, Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture, Jason Mittell describes television genres as cultural categories1. These cultural categories, Mittell states, “operate throughout the range of spheres that constitute television as a medium—industries, texts, audiences, policies, critics, and historical contexts. Rather than emerging from texts as has traditionally been argued, genres work to categorize texts and link them into clusters of cultural assumptions through discourses of definition, interpretation, and evaluation. These discursive utterances may seem to reflect an already established genre, but they are themselves constitutive

1

Jason Mittell, Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture (New York: Routledge, 2004), xi.

of that genre; they are the practices that define genres, delimit their meanings, and posit their cultural value2.”

Following this argument, this paper will examine two contemporary series, Sons of Anarchy and Mad Men, and their respective historical, textual, paratextual, and critical contexts to define quality drama as a genre in the post-network era.

DEFINING QUALITY DRAMA In Television’s Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER, Robert J. Thompson outlined characteristics that, he argued, defined quality drama. “These shows were generic mongrels, often scrambling and recombining traditional TV formulas in unexpected ways; they had literary and cinematic ambitions beyond what we had seen before, and they employed complex and sophisticated serialized narratives and inter-series ‘mythologies’3.” Since the publishing of that book in 1996, however, many of these characteristics have become standard practice for many television series4 . Certainly, there are series today that adopt such characteristics while simultaneously raging against the concept of quality. To fully define quality drama, the historical context of the genre should be explored.

In the early 1980s, network television faced a challenge much like that faced by the film industry in the 1960s, when television was replacing motion pictures as the choice mass medium. To combat this competition (and in turn create the paradigm that television was fluff, but movies were where the real stuff happened), “in 1966, the movie industry trashed the Hays Production Code, a self2

Mittell, Genre, xiv.

Robert J. Thompson, “Preface”, in Quality TV: contemporary American television and beyond. (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007), xix.

3

4Thompson, Preface, xx.

regulating policy that had been in effect since 1930 and that limited the content of the movies.

Rules controlling language and the presentation of sex, violence, and other ‘offensive’ material were lifted, and in their place came a rating system that measured each film’s appropriateness for younger viewers5.” This change allowed filmmakers to take greater creative risks and produce the first American art films, launching the careers of artists such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. And in 1982, the Department of Justice dismantled the Television Code, opening up network television to take risks similar to that of the film industry in the early 1970s and helping to establish the genre of quality drama.

Quality drama as a genre could also not have existed without the FCC’s Prime-time Access Rule, “Which forbade the networks from providing programming during the heavily-viewed hour of 7:00 to 8:00 P.M. on Mondays through Saturdays6.” Instituted in 1971, the rule gave independent television stations more of a chance to be seen. The advent of cable further balanced the tables, by allowing independent UHF stations to finally be broadcast with the same clarity of network television 7. The availability of new programming options available from independent stations (and the burgeoning cable networks) required the networks to be more experimental with their programming to capture the attention of the most coveted audience—young, upscale, welleducated viewers. NBC, the third place network at that time, speculated on a new strategy: “critical acclaim...might be their quickest way to commercial success8 .” So, in 1982, NBC dubbed their Thursday night lineup “the best night of television on television9”. Thursday nights on NBC that 5

Robert J. Thompson, Television’s Second Golden Age (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 41.

6 Thompson, Golden, 37.

7

ibid.

8 Thompson, Golden, 38.

9

ibid.

season included Taxi, Cheers, and Fame, but the jewel in the crown was Hill Street Blues, what Thompson declares the first serious attempt at quality drama10. It was “literary, visually dense, and filled with language that sounded more like the movies than television.11” It took Hill Street Blues time to find an audience, and NBC’s spot as the third-place network meant they were more likely to stick with a critically acclaimed series with low ratings (the same thing happened with fellow quality drama St. Elsewhere and now-classic sitcom Cheers): “nothing was working and they had nothing to lose12”. This innovation-through-desperation continued at ABC when the network fell to third place, giving audiences such quality dramas as thirtysomething, China Beach, and Twin Peaks13.

In the mid-1990s, quality drama as a genre reached even higher levels. Still network-based, quality dramas such as Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blue, and ER reached new levels of acclaim (and in many cases, blockbuster ratings). Boundaries were broken and new life was breathed into the age-old formats of ‘cop show’ and ‘medical drama’ through cinematic visuals, often breakneck pacing, and an examination of issues through the characters’ inner lives. With a few exceptions (such as The West Wing), after the mid-90s, the locus of quality drama on television shifted to a single place: HBO. IT’S NOT TV, IT’S QUALITY DRAMA

10

ibid.

11

ibid.

12 Thompson, Golden, 44.

13

ibid

The advent of the post-network era at the turn of this century was a boon to viewers. TV service providers now had to actively fight for viewership, and fight even harder to attract quality audiences. According to Gary R. Edgerton in The Essential HBO Reader, “Overall, ‘the traditional business model for television [was] being rewritten’, and the network that initially set this whole transitional process in motion with its distinctive programming during the mid- to late-1990s was HBO14.” HBO managed this revolution by funneling “its considerable cache of subscription dollars into hiring the best available talent, reaching deeply into the creative community15. One of those creatives was a man named David Chase. With credits on shows such as Northern Exposure and I’ll Fly Away, his lasting legacy will be his HBO masterpiece, The Sopranos. A critical and ratings success, garnering an average of 12 million viewers each week—respectable numbers for a network series in the post-network era, jaw-dropping numbers for a show on premium cable—The Sopranos was a watershed for American television. In her article, “Why The Sopranos is the most influential TV drama ever”, television critic Maureen Ryan argues the following lessons television executives could glean from Tony Soprano and his crew: • Dark, challenging storytelling can draw a large number of viewers and a torrent of critical praise.

• Using film-quality production values and top-notch writing will garner more good press than any ad campaign can buy.

• Casting less famous but gifted actors can not only save money but also pay off during awards season.

Gary R. Edgerton and Jeffrey P. Jones, eds., The Essential HBO Reader (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2008), 12.

14

15

Edgerton, HBO, 13.

• A risk-taking, successful, buzzed-about show will not just rake in high-income viewers and the advertisers who chase them, it can brand a cable network and put it on the cultural map16 .

Following the lead of The Sopranos, such criteria is applicable to the entire genre of quality drama in the post-network era, including Sons of Anarchy and Mad Men. STORYTELLING THAT’S ANYTHING BUT BASIC (CABLE) Once The Sopranos became a full-fledged cultural phenomenon, followed closely by fellow HBO shows such as Sex and the City and Six Feet Under, other television services sat up and took notice, including—especially—FX. Launched in 1994, FX is a basic cable network owned by Fox Entertainment Group. Its original purview was to air live programming from New York17. When that approach failed, and Peter Liguori ascended to the network presidency in 1998, things at FX started to turn around. During his five-year tenure, Liguori expanded the subscriber base from 39 million homes to 84 million, and turned the network into a “top-five basic cable network”18. One of the shows created during Liguori’s reign helped launch FX to the head of the basic cable class. That show was The Shield.

According to The Guardian, The Shield is “is reprobate, founded on moral ambiguity, driven by violence, lacking the core of good guys who police Homicide and The Wire. Shakespearean in its epic corruption and Jacobean in plotting and the darkness of its soul, it adopts Homicide's precinct format, taking its fast, nervy, handheld shooting style and pushing it to the limit, and with its Los Maureen Ryan, “Why The Sopranos is the most influential TV drama ever”, Chicago Tribune The Watcher Blog, April 1, 2007. http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2007/04/the_sopranos_th.html (accessed December 6, 2011) 16

Howard Wen. “TV Made Unfresh Daily.” Wired. Wired.com. September 1995. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/ 3.09/streetcred.html?pg=14 (accessed December 6, 2011).

17

18 “Peter

Liguori.” Discovery Communications Inc,. October 6, 2010. http://corporate.discovery.com/leadership/peterliguori/ (accessed December 6, 2011).

Angeles street work shows a crapped-out city in a way that most Hollywood doesn't 19.” Such definition clearly places The Shield in the genre of quality genre. As the first basic cable drama to win an Emmy (Michael Chiklis, Best Lead Actor in a Drama, 2002), The Shield served as a calling card both to the industry, that FX had transcended its original, lowbrow material20, and to advertisers, who had previously shied away from The Shield’s violent storylines21.

The success of The Shield spurred other basic cable networks (such as AMC) into original series creation, and paved the way for a future FX hit. Kurt Sutter, the creator and showrunner of Sons of Anarchy, cut his TV-writing teeth at The Shield, rising from staff writer to executive producer over the course of its seven seasons.

When John Landgraf took the reins as president at FX in January 2004, the network was home to a number of hits. Quickly, Landgraf realized, “I’m the schmuck who’s supposed to replace The Shield, Nip/Tuck, and Rescue Me22.” Soon after, he created an in-house production unit, FX Productions, giving the network a share in show profits and increasing control over costs23. One of the first shows produced under this umbrella was Sons of Anarchy. With just the right execution, this new show could replace The Shield as FX’s gritty flagship drama.

In early 2008, Kurt Sutter assembled a skilled production team, one that included key alumni of The Sopranos, including director Allen Coulter, production designer Scott Murphy, and editor Sidney

Chris Petit, “Non-fiction boy.” The Guardian. TheGuardian.co.uk. Friday, 26 December 2008. http:// www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/dec/27/tv-drama-david-simon-wire-shield (accessed December 6, 2011).

19

20

Randee Dawn, “How Much is an Emmy Worth?” The Hollywood Reporter. August 2, 2010, Vol. 415 Issue 38, p. 9-11.

21

ibid.

Joe Flint, “FX’s John Landgraf is pushing the cable network to new highs” The Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2011. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/27/business/la-fi-ct-fx-20110927 (accessed December 6, 2011).

22

23

ibid.

Wolinsky24. The production team augmented the strong ensemble cast, which included Sutter’s wife Katey Sagal, cast firmly against type as Gemma Teller Morrow, the Lady Macbeth matriarch of the motorcycle club.

Early reviews and buzz about Sons of Anarchy referred to it as “The Sopranos on Harleys” because of the subject matter overlaps—two groups on the outskirts of society, struggling with inner turmoil and politics, and the constant threat of the authorities.

While its first episode went up against Governor Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention, Sons of Anarchy drew 2.5 million viewers25 (though1.5 million of those viewers were part of the coveted 18-49 demographic26), a considerably smaller number than the premieres of Damages and The Riches in 200727 . Ratings increased after the premiere, and the show averaged 5.4 million total viewers, 3.5 million of them in 18-4928. FX picked up the show for a second season on October 6, 2008, just five weeks into the premiere season29. Critics and audiences alike loved the fast-paced bombast of the Reaper Crew. Sons of Anarchy’s ratings continued to grow over time, and even surpassed network shows in the ratings—when the show beat The Jay Leno Show in 2009, it could well have been a catalyst in the decision to reinstall Leno at 11:35pm.

Kurt Sutter, “Sons of Anarchy Update. Cameras Roll.”, Sutterink blog, February 17, 2008. http:// sutterink.blogspot.com/2008/02/sons-of-anarchy-update-cameras-roll.html (accessed December 6, 2011).

24

Robert Seidman, “‘Sons of Anarchy’ Duels with Sarah Palin”, TV by the Numbers. September 4, 2008. http:// tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2008/09/04/sons-of-anarchy-duels-with-sarah-palin/4941/ (Accessed December 6, 2011).

25

Jon Lafayette, “‘Sons of Anarchy’ Scores for FX in Premiere”, TVweek.com September 4, 2008. http:// www.tvweek.com/news/2008/09/sons_of_anarchy_scores_for_fx.php. (Accessed December 6, 2011).

26

27

Seidman, “Duels”.

28FX

Press Release http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2008/10/06/fx-picks-up-second-season-of-new-drama-sons-ofanarchy-29073/20081006fx01/ (accessed December 6, 2011).

29

ibid

Often violent, packed with story, and devoted to showcasing the life of an outlaw motorcycle club, Sons of Anarchy recently completed its fourth season. In an interesting departure from typical quality drama, the show has been largely ignored by awards-granting bodies, despite critics’ frequent lauding of the acting performances (particularly Sagal, but this season, Charlie Hunnam and Maggie Siff have earned their fair share of kudos) and praise of the largely fearless, emotionally intense, and tightly packed storylines. Perhaps the reason the show does not have awards bestowed upon it lies at the feet of its creator. Kurt Sutter’s persona will be discussed in greater detail later in this paper, as part of a larger discussion of television authorship and how it functions as a paratext of television. His pull-no-punches, off-the-cuff approach to fan and press interaction has created a stir on more than one occasion, the largest being in August 2011, when he took to Twitter and blamed Frank Darabont’s firing from his position as executive producer of The Walking Dead on AMC’s lucrative deal with the far more subdued creator and executive producer of Mad Men, Matthew Weiner30.

When AMC shattered its ratings record in 2006 with the premiere of Western mini-series Broken Trail31, they realized that an original series could help draw fresh eyes to their considerable stable of classic movies. AMC original programming executive Christina Wayne received the pilot script for an offbeat period piece just two months after arriving at the network. Already rejected by HBO, the home of the pilot script’s author, Sopranos writer-producer Matthew Weiner, Mad Men was exactly what AMC was looking for as its entree into the world of original series.

Kurt Sutter, Twitter.com. August 11, 2011. https://twitter.com/#!/sutterink/status/101553495483744256 (accessed December 6, 2011).

30

Michael Idov, “The Zombies at AMC’s Doorstep” New York Magazine, May 15, 2011. http://nymag.com/arts/tv/ upfronts/2011/amc-2011-5/ (accessed December 6, 2011).

31

The pilot was shot in New York City, using many of the same crew as Weiner worked with on The Sopranos32. AMC picked up the series, and it premiered on July 19, 2007, to 900,000 viewers. The numbers weren’t huge, but previous ratings AMC had in the time slot hovered around the 100,000 mark33—so Mad Men was a clear winner. Backed by a massive $25 million dollar advertising campaign34, the season two premiere garnered more than two million viewers. The following week, viewership tumbled by 40%35, but were still an increase over season one. Still, Mad Men’s relatively small numbers (even by cable standards) were enough to satisfy AMC. They got even greater satisfaction from the knowledge that the audiences Mad Men attracted were among the most affluent of all television viewers—the median household income for the show’s viewers aged 25 – 54 exceeded $100,00036.

Right out of the gate, Mad Men received glowing reviews. Those reviews turned into accolades, and ultimately, awards. Much like The Sopranos before it, Mad Men became the show to beat in many categories at the Emmy awards, and beyond.

QUALITY DRAMA, TEXTUALLY SPEAKING On the surface, Mad Men and Sons of Anarchy don’t seem to have much in common. One show is a violent and explosive action drama with breakneck pacing, while the other is a contemplative

Matthew Weiner Interview, Archive of American Television. http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/matthewweiner (accessed on December 6, 2011).

32

33

ibid.

James Poniewozik, “Mad Men Proves that Advertising Works”, Time.com, July 29, 2008. http:// entertainment.time.com/2008/07/29/mad_men_proves_that_advertisin/ (accessed December 6, 2011).

34

James Poniewozik, “Maybe AMC Can Get a $10 Million Refund”, Time.com, August 6, 2008. http:// entertainment.time.com/2008/08/06/maybe_amc_can_get_a_10_million/ (accessed December 6, 2011).

35

36

Idov, “Zombies”.

period piece where critics have complained about glacially-moving storylines37 . But once you begin to eel away the layers of each series, a different story emerges and both shows unite easily under the banner of quality drama.

Starting with Sons of Anarchy, the more unexpected show to be considered quality drama, let’s explore the hallmarks discussed earlier in this paper. Sons of Anarchy is absolutely a generic hybrid.

Not only does it pack a large amount of cinematic action (explosions, tightly edited motorcycle chase scenes, frequent physical and gun battles) into each episode, the show is also a family drama, delving into what happens when dark secrets are kept for too long. Furthermore, the large ensemble cast and their intertwined narratives lend a soap-operatic quality to the series. Sons also has literary ambitions (but don’t say that too loud), whether it’s the easy parallels to Hamlet and Macbeth, or less obvious homages to the work of August Strindberg38. Sons of Anarchy also works hard each week to exhibit levels of creative ‘edginess’39 that firmly distinguish the show (and, in turn, FX itself) from more traditional fare, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

The creative team of Sons of Anarchy is quick to scoff at any suggestion that the show is brainy, but there are fewer series on television right now with more complex storylines, or such an in-depth mythology. While an encyclopedic knowledge of the backstory of Charming and the motorcycle club isn’t required to enjoy the series, it’s interesting to note that season three’s focus on the Sons’ intricate relationship with the IRA and the club’s Belfast chapter, critics were torn between praising

Jason Mittell, “On Disliking Mad Men”, Just TV blog, July 29, 2010. http://justtv.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/on-dislikingmad-men/. (accessed December 6, 2011).

37

Dylan Callaghan, “The Motorcycle Dramatist”, WGA.org http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=4404 (accessed December 6, 2011).

38

39Trisha

Dunleavy. Television Drama: form, agency, innovation. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 238.

this departure from formula40 and complaining that the show got bogged down in the details41, possibly because up until that point in the series, the club’s politics and motivation took more of a backseat to the more immediate and reactive needs of the club.

On the other hand, Mad Men, because of its affluent audience and the weight of all its awards, is probably closer to what the average viewer would consider when asked to define quality drama.

The show is actually more easily accessible as a quality drama—the audience instantly knows what they’re being sold: the intricate ins and outs of the employees of Sterling Cooper (and later Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) and their intimates as they navigate the wild worlds of the 1960s and the advertising industry. Mad Men offers less genre-bending than Sons of Anarchy, but does hold up its end of the quality drama moniker with its literary ambition. The show is frequently compared to the works of John42 Cheever 43, Richard Yates44 , and both the book and film versions of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit45. Mad Men’s plot lines are also serialized, and the show sometimes toys with non-linear storytelling, featuring flashbacks in certain episodes, and starting new seasons in different years. In the progressive and tumultuous 1960s, even an 18-month gap in time is enough to create

40

Maureen Ryan, “'Sons of Anarchy' Season 3, Episode 5 Recap (with Intel from Creator Kurt Sutter)”, AolTV.com,

http://www.aoltv.com/2010/10/05/sons-of-anarchy/ (accessed December 6, 2011).

41Alan

Sepinwall, “'Sons of Anarchy' - 'NS': Today I settle all family business?” What’s Alan Watching blog, HitFix.com, November 30, 2010, http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/sons-of-anarchy-ns-today-i-settle-all-familybusiness (accessed December 6, 2011).

Ken Tucker, “‘Mad Men’ review: Don takes a dip”, Ken Tucker’s TV, EW.com, September 13, 2010, http://watchingtv.ew.com/2010/09/13/mad-men-season-4-episode-8/ (accessed December 6, 2011).

42

Peter Applebome, “Decoding the ‘Mad Men,’ Ossining and Cheever Nexus”, NYTimes.com, July 21, 2010, http:// www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/nyregion/22towns.html (accessed December 6, 2011).

43

44 “‘Mad

Men’ Q&A: 'I'm fascinated that people get so much out of it’” Season Pass Blog, Variety.com, October 22, 2008. http://weblogs.variety.com/season_pass/2008/10/mad-men-qa.html (accessed December 6, 2011).

Matthew Weiner Interview, Archive of American Television. http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/matthewweiner (accessed on December 6, 2011).

45

a whole new world for Don Draper (and the rest of his contemporaries) to inhabit and learn to adapt to.

In her article, “The Lack of Influence of thirtysomething,” Jane Feuer states that, “of course most quality dramas deal with the inner lives of the characters46 ”. This assertion—along with Thompson’s declaration that “‘Quality TV’ is simply television’s version of the ‘art film’47”, a genre of film where the inner life of a character often takes great import over the external factors of the story—seems to ring truest of all the aspects of quality drama. For example, the entire series of The Sopranos was framed by the conceit that Tony was sharing his life with Dr. Melfi, and trying to reconcile his inner life with the events of his external one. Alternately, Dexter has struggled with his own demons, terrifying childhood, and ‘dark passenger’ for the past six seasons. On Sons of Anarchy, the inner lives of each character is usually the motivation for action. Whether it’s Jax Teller wanting to adopt a more peaceful approach to MC life in season one, partially as a way to get to know his dead father, or his and Tara’s grim knowledge in the end of season four that they’re now just as doomed and locked into the violence of the outlaw life as Clay and Gemma were by the murder of John Teller two decades earlier.

When we last left him, Don Draper was in no better shape. Still trying to outrun the specter of Dick Whitman and his own inadequacies in his adopted life, Don had just raced headlong into an impromptu engagement with his secretary.

Perhaps an even greater hallmark than the examination of the inner lives of characters on quality dramas is the fact that, in the post-network era, the characters in quality dramas are anti-heroes.

Jane Feuer, “The Lack of Influence of thirtysomething”, in The Contemporary Television Series, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), p. 36.

46

47 Thompson, Golden, 16.

Moral ambiguity certainly makes for a more interesting examination of inner life, though the sheer number of anti-hero protagonists in quality dramas today have led the popular media to lament it48. The hero of regular TV (picture Gil Grissom on CSI or even Coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights—a good show, certainly, but not a quality drama) has been largely eschewed in the quality drama landscape of the post-network era for characters are more likely—for whatever reason: circumstance, childhood trauma, greed, or a combination—to be bad people. The people we watch on TV no longer need to be inherently good to be sympathetic protagonists. The television landscape, like life, is no longer merely black and white, but many shades of gray. This is explicitly clear with both Sons of Anarchy and Mad Men. While the intentions of the motorcycle club may be honorable, keeping Charming, charming and free of the conflation of corporate influence, suburban sprawl, and big box store mentality is largely to allow the club to continue their gun (and now drug) running with the least amount of resistance.

In the pilot of Mad Men, Don Draper engages in adultery, casual bigotry, and partakes in daytime drinking and office smoking, two practices that would today cause quite a stir in corporate America. The main characters of quality dramas might not be people you’d want to be friends with, but they’re certainly compelling to watch.

Perhaps the largest textual difference in the presentation of Sons of Anarchy and Mad Men is that Sons is so adamant about not being brainy. Sutter himself (a man with an M.F.A.49) even declared on his blog that Sons isn’t trying to be The Wire, and lamented that certain critics are trying to

Robert Lloyd, “Are you sick of TV antiheroes?” Show Tracker blog, LAtimes.com, July 29, 2011, http:// latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/07/no-more-antiheroes-breaking-up-with-breaking-bad.html (accessed December 6, 2011).

48

49Kurt

Sutter Biography, imdb.com, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1176676/bio (accessed December 6, 2011).

approach Sutter’s show as if it were as nuanced and layered as a David Simon show 50. However, the show is a clear meditation on the current state of American life, and it frequently brings the issues of racism, terrorism, and sexism to the fore of viewers’ minds—even while keeping its “bloody pulp fiction51” allure.

Alternately, Mad Men comments on contemporary American culture through the themes of the 1960s, in a glossy, affluent way. It’s an easier show for more upscale viewers (including, one would suspect, many television critics) to make the argument that its content is quality. The dusty back roads of Charming and its violent, leather-clad outlaws come from a place (FX) where a pedigree is looked down upon, possibly even ridiculed. AMC, on the other hand, is a place where people with discerning tastes go to watch classics from the film world. These ideas are clear examples why an examination of the quality drama genre, particularly in the post-network era, must also include an evaluation of and discourse on paratextual elements.

TRANSCENDING TELEVISION “Rarely if ever can a film or program serve as the only source of information about the text...Many of these items are filters through which we must pass on our way to the film or program, our first and formative encounters with the text 52.” Such an argument is especially true in the post-network era, where spoilers, behind-the-scenes footage, webisodes, product tie-ins, mobile apps, and fancreated paratexts such as mash-ups and character Twitter accounts proliferate the media

Kurt Sutter, “Critics Lament...what is Sons of Anarchy?”, Sutterink blog, http://sutterink.blogspot.com/2011/12/criticslamentwhat-is-sons-of-anarchy.html (accessed December 11, 2011).

50

51

ibid.

Jonathan Gray, Show sold separately: promos, spoilers, and other media paratexts. (New York: New York University Press, 2010), p. 3.

52

landscape. Both Sons of Anarchy and Mad Men play the paratext game in very different—yet effective—ways.

The audience’s initial exposure to a show is often through the branded promotion created by its network. While in recent years broadcast networks such as NBC have aimed for a masterbranded, homogenous approach to its onscreen promotions, many cable networks—FX and AMC included—take a different tack, choosing to match promotions to the distinct brand of a show. Sons of Anarchy’s on-air promotions are fast-paced, action-packed evocations of the outlaw spirit53. You can tell the show is very different from another FX show, such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, whose promotions embrace that show’s absurdity54. AMC’s promotional department does the same. Often featuring the strains of Mad Men’s theme song, the languidly cut spots focus on the interpersonal dramas between characters and the cool detachment the series itself evokes55. This is in contrast to the faster-paced, harder-hitting promotions for AMC’s newest series, Hell on Wheels56.

Beyond on-air promotions, the first way many viewers encounter a show (beyond word of mouth) is via the internet. If someone tells me about a show, the first thing I do is search it online. This often leads to a trip to the show’s official presence on the network’s website. Here, a careful collection of information is curated, ready to help fans experience the show to the fullest. In the case of Mad Men, you can read about the show, its cast and characters, get episode recaps— written and video—interact with other fans,and play an array of games, including Mad Men

53

Sons of Anarchy show promotion, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E5NgZ2E9AY (accessed December 6, 2011).

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 7 on-air promotion, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwkNdA18TJA (accessed December 6, 2011).

54

55

Mad Men on-air promotion, http://youtu.be/S7iHeLMEEKU (accessed December 6, 2011).

Hell on Wheels on-air promotion, http://www.amctv.com/hell-on-wheels/videos/hell-on-wheels-on-air-promo (accessed December 6, 2011).

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Yourself, which became a viral phenomenon before the premiere of season 3 in 200957. It allowed fans to recreate their likeness in the retro aesthetic of the show.

Along with behind-the-scenes footage and background information on the show’s characters and cast, the Sons of Anarchy website offers more of a chance for viewers and fans to interact and discuss the show via social media properties such as Facebook, Twitter, and GetGlue. FX also operates community forums and provides a place for motorcycle-riding fans of Sons to show off their hog.

Because AMC and FX understand the need for strong branding, both shows’ web properties offer fans a chance to become fully ensconced in the world of their chosen series. Whether discussing plot points or downloading exclusive wallpapers, these properties “help shape the viewer’s experience of a single text 58.”

In some instances, paratexts extend the world of a series by providing viewers with unused backstory created by the writers, which can give viewers a deeper appreciation for the main textual material. Sons of Anarchy and FX sell a mobile app for Android and Apple smartphones which gives diehard fans greater insight into the characters of the show (going even beyond what’s available on the website), the opportunity to learn more about the Sons’ Belfast and IRA connections, and access exclusive video ‘appisodes’, such as footage of members of the Sons during their most recent stint in prison—in the mythology of the show, this took place between seasons three and four. After debuting in the mobile space, the appisodes were then included on the Season 3 DVD and Blu-Ray discs as bonus features. Such paratexts raise some questions, however.

57”Recreate Yourself

in Swanky '60s Style With MadMenYourself.com”, Mad Men Blog, July 27, 2009. http:// blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2009/07/mad-men-avatar-maker.php (accessed December 6, 2011).

58

Elizabeth Evans, Transmedia television audiences, new media, and daily life, (New York: Routledge, 2011), p. 19.

If transmedia scenes are being created, do they then become canon of the show, even though a (much) smaller audience will consume them? Is it important or required for a fan to seek out these videos to fully understand and appreciate the storylines that come after this content? Or are the scenes merely a reward in and of themselves for fans’ deep engagement?

Being a fan of a show, if you choose, can be a far more encompassing experience in the postnetwork era. Fan fiction communities exist across the web, there are endless forums and social media outposts where the minutiae of nearly every media property is being discussed. And fans are always finding new ways to demonstrate their love of a show. For example, in the summer of 2008, Twitter was becoming a social media staple at the same time Mad Men’s second season was drawing raves. Some intrepid fans began tweeting as the show’s characters, interacting with each other and with fans. Initially, AMC was not happy about the development, and forced Twitter to suspend the two biggest accounts, @don_draper and @peggyolson 59. Within hours, AMC’s web marketing group Deep Focus explained the social media world order—imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and engagement—and AMC had Twitter reinstate the accounts60. The fans in this instance were “brand ambassadors” who could help cultivate the Mad Men brand online.

While fans are important ambassadors of a brand, especially in the online space, the ultimate brand ambassador in the post-network era is a television series’ author. After all, “being ‘authored’ is perhaps the most important factor in distinguishing quality drama from ordinary TV, and this was even more true in the 2000s than it was in the 1980s...This lineage pays particular attention to the

59Peter

Kafka, “AMC To Twitterers: Please Don't Market "Mad Men" For Us” Business Insider, August 26, 2008, http:// www.businessinsider.com/2008/8/amc-to-twitterers-please-don-t-market-madmen-for-us. (accessed December 6, 2011).

Michael Learmouth, “Twitter, AMC, Wise Up, Restore "Mad Men" Accounts”, August 26, 2008, http:// www.businessinsider.com/2008/8/twitter-amc-wise-up-restore-mad-men- (accessed December 6, 2011).

60

television medium. It ‘recombines’...traditional television dramatic genres...with structural elements taken from the daytime soap opera and mixes in the personal ‘quirks’ of the show’s auteur.61” Both Sons of Anarchy and Mad Men are, in a way, extensions of their auteurs, and vice versa. Matthew Weiner tends to take a more traditional approach to his interaction with fans, the press, and the industry. He aligns himself with quality and prestigious arenas, such as his more than five-hour long interview with the Archive of American Television, which is run by the Television Academy Foundation62.

Kurt Sutter, on the other hand, is very much for the people. He actively participates in a variety of social media properties, working hard to share his show with the public. Prior to his life as a television writer, he planned to be an advertising creative. He usesTwitter and Facebook, but has also created a YouTube channel offering not just behind-the-scenes footage from the set, but also a Q&A series called WTF Sutter? where he answers fans’ questions about Sons of Anarchy.

As disparate as both approaches to authorship-as-paratext are, the practices match the ethos of the author’s respective shows. Weiner embraces the arm’s length approach Don Draper takes with his life, choosing to let the fastidious, detail-oriented work (in this case, Mad Men itself) largely speak for itself. Sutter, though, thrives on the creation of a community, a brotherhood much like that of the Sons of Anarchy themselves (minus the murder and gun running, one would presume).

Raucous, salty, and uninhibited, Sutter’s persona is exactly fitting for the brand of the show. And as

61

Jane Feuer, thirtysomething, p. 30.

Matthew Weiner interview, http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/matthew-weiner (accessed December 6, 2011).

62

someone who originally planned to become an advertising creative 63, Sutter understands the importance of building a strong fan base (or brand ambassadorship) in the success of a show.

CONCLUSION Over the past 30 years, television has evolved from its place as a three-network monopoly to a vast frontier of basic and premium cable channels, DVD and Blu-Ray collections, OnDemand programming, and the ability to find most anything you’d want to watch (and many things you wouldn’t) on the internet. As a way to stand out from the (growing) pack of available entertainment, quality drama emerged as a new genre for a new age. Audiences wanted to connect on a deeper level with their favorite television characters, and to see that, on television— as in life—things are rarely black and white. Mixing genres was another way to get (and keep) audiences’ attention, and creating complicated characters who don’t always do the right thing have proven to be a way to draw eyes. Sons of Anarchy and Mad Men, each in their own unique way, uphold the tradition of quality drama and push the envelope of the heights television can reach.

Kurt Sutter, “The Art of the Tease”, Sutterink Blog, July 16, 2010 http://sutterink.blogspot.com/2010/07/art-oftease.html (accessed December 6, 2011).

63

A N N O TAT E D W O R K S C I T E D NYTimes.com. The New York Times, 21 July 2010. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.nytimes.com/ 2010/07/22/nyregion/22towns.html >. Popular media article discussing Ossining, NY and its place as a setting in both John Cheever works and Mad Men. Callaghan, Dylan. "The Motorcycle Dramatist." WGA.org. Writers Guild of America, West, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=4404>. Trade/Union publication.

Interview with Kurt Sutter, info on him and Sons of Anarchy.

Dawn, Randee. "How Much is an Emmy Worth?." The Hollywood Reporter 2 Aug. 2010: 9-11. Print.

Trade publication. Discussing what an Emmy win means to different TV series, financially, creatively, and more.

Dunleavy, Trisha. Television Drama: form, agency, innovation. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.

Book. Background information on television drama, shows, authorship.

Edgerton, Gary R., and Jeffrey P. Jones. The essential HBO reader. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. Print. Book, class text. Referenced chapter on The Sopranos.

Evans, Elizabeth. Transmedia television audiences, new media, and daily life. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print. Book. Information on transmedia television, its practices and effects.

Flint, Joe. "FX's John Landgraf is pushing the cable network to new highs." Los Angeles Times Business Section. The Los Angeles Times, 27 Sept. 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <articles.latimes.com/ 2011/sep/27/business/la-fi-ct-fx-20110927 >. Popular press, business section. Information on John Landgraf's tenure as president of FX. Gray, Jonathan. Show sold separately: promos, spoilers, and other media paratexts. New York: New York University Press, 2010. Print. Book. Information on paratexts and how they shape audience experience and influence genre.

Hammond, Michael. The contemporary television series. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. Print. Book. Mainly used information on Jane Feuer's article, "The Lack of Influence of thirtysomething", but also got information about writer-producers as well.

"Hell on Wheels Video Page." AMCtv.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.amctv.com/hell-onwheels/videos/hell-on-wheels-on-air-promo >. On-air promotion example. Demonstrates the Hell on Wheels brand.

Idov, Michael. "The Zombies at AMC's Doorstep." Vulture. New York Magazine, 15 May 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <nymag.com/arts/tv/upfronts/2011/amc-2011-5/ >. Popular media, discussion of the current state of AMC. "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 7 promo." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwkNdA18TJA >. On-air promotion example. Demonstrates the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia brand.

Business Insider. Silicon Valley Insider, 26 Aug. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.businessinsider.com/ 2008/8/amc-to-twitterers-please-don-t-market-madmen-for-us.>. Business media, reportage on Mad Men and fan/character twitter account controversy.

"Kurt Sutter | Biography." Internet Movie Database | imdb.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.imdb.com/name/nm1176676/bio >. Database. Kurt Sutter biography.

Lafayette, Jon. ""'Sons of Anarchy' scores for FX in Premiere." TV Week. N.p., 4 Sept. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.tvweek.com/news/2008/09/sons_of_anarchy_scores_for_fx.php.>. Trade publication. Information about Sons of Anarchy series premiere ratings.

Business Insider. Silicon Valley Insider, 26 Aug. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.businessinsider.com/ 2008/8/twitter-amc-wise-up-restore-mad-men- >. Business media, reportage on Mad Men and fan/ character twitter account controversy.

Show Tracker Blog. The Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/07/no-more-antiheroes-breaking-up-with-breakingbad.html >. Popular media/television criticism, discussing the recent trend of anti-hero protagonists on television today.

"Mad Men season 2 promotion." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <youtu.be/S7iHeLMEEKU >.

On-air promotion example. Demonstrates the Mad Men brand.

"Matthew Weiner Interview." Archive of American Television. Television Academy, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/matthew-weiner>. Archival interview with Matthew Weiner. Information about Weiner, Mad Men, the Sopranos, and more.

McCabe, Janet, and Kim Akass. Quality TV Contemporary American Television and Beyond..

London: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2010. Print. Book. Helped me formulate arguments, learn more about quality drama as a genre.

Mittell, Jason. "On Disliking Mad Men Ă&#x201A;ÂŤ Just TV." Just TV. N.p., 29 July 2010. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. <http://justtv.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/on-disliking-mad-men/>. Personal blog of TV/cultural studies scholar Jason Mittell. Opinion and criticism of Mad Men. Mittell, Jason. Genre and television: from cop shows to cartoons in American culture. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print. Book. Used for greater information on Mittell's television genre theory.

"Peter Liguori : Discovery Communications." Discovery Communications. N.p., 6 Oct. 2010. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://corporate.discovery.com/leadership/peter-liguori/>. Corporate Website bio of Peter Liguori. Provides historical background on his time as president of FX. Petit, Chris. ""Non-fiction boy" | TV drama: The Shield versus The Wire." TheGuardian.co.uk. The Guardian, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/dec/27/tvdrama-david-simon-wire-shield>. Popular media. Information on The Shield, comparison to another quality drama, The Wire.

Poniewozik, James. "Mad Men Proves that Advertising Works." Time Magazine. N.p., 29 July 2008.

Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <entertainment.time.com/2008/07/29/mad_men_proves_that_advertisin/ >.

Popular media, television criticism and reportage. Discussing the season 2 premiere ratings (and promotional campaign) of Mad Men. Poniewozik, James. "Maybe AMC Can Get a $10 Million Refund | Entertainment | TIME.com." Time Magazine. N.p., 6 Aug. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://entertainment.time.com/2008/08/06/ maybe_amc_can_get_a_10_million/>. Popular media, television criticism and reportage. Discussing Mad Men's season 2, episode 2 ratings drop off.

"Recreate Yourself in Swanky '60s Style With MadMenYourself.com - Mad Men - AMC." AMC Blogs - AMC Blog, Breaking Bad, The Killing, Mad Men, The Walking Dead. N.p., 27 July 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2009/07/mad-men-avatar-maker.php>. Show blog.

Announcement of the Mad Men Yourself game, info about paratexts.

Ryan, Maureen . "'Sons of Anarchy' Season 3, Episode 5 Recap (with Intel from Creator Kurt Sutter)." AolTV. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.aoltv.com/2010/10/05/sons-of-anarchy/ >.

Popular media/television criticism blog. Critical response to season 3 of Sons of Anarchy.

Ryan, Maureen. "Why 'The Sopranos' is the most influential TV drama ever." The Watcher Blog. The Chicago Tribune, 1 Apr. 2007. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/ entertainment_tv/2007/04/the_sopranos_th.html>. Popular media/television criticism. Helped with section on The Sopranos, a definition of quality drama.

TVbytheNumbers.com. N.p., 4 Sept. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/ 2008/09/04/sons-of-anarchy-duels-with-sarah-palin/4941/>. Ratings website/reportage. Information on Sons of Anarchy series premiere and its ratings.

What's Alan Watching?. HitFix.com, 30 Nov. 2010. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. < http://www.hitfix.com/ blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/sons-of-anarchy-ns-today-i-settle-all-family-business>. Popular media/television criticism blog. Critical response to season 3 of Sons of Anarchy.

"Sons of Anarchy Show Promotion." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <www.youtube.com/ watch?v=1E5NgZ2E9AY >. On-air promotion example. Demonstrates the Sons of Anarchy brand.

Sutter, Kurt . "Twitter status update by @sutterink." Twitter. N.p., 11 Aug. 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. < https://twitter.com/#!/sutterink/status/101553495483744256>. The Tweet that caused Kurt Sutter to (temporarily) quit Twitter. Controversy, drawing comparisons between Sutter and Weiner.

Sutter, Kurt. "SONS OF ANARCHY UPDATE. CAMERAS ROLL. | SutterInk." SutterInk. N.p., 17 Feb. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://sutterink.blogspot.com/2008/02/sons-of-anarchy-updatecameras-roll.html>. Personal blog of Kurt Sutter. Information on shooting the pilot of Sons of Anarchy.

Sutter, Kurt. "The Art of the Tease." SutterInk. N.p., 16 July 2010. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <sutterink.blogspot.com/2010/07/art-of-tease.html >. Kurt Sutter's personal blog, discussion of the dichotomy between the creative practices of making Sons of Anarchy and promoting Sons of Anarchy.

SutterInk blog. N.p., 7 Dec. 2011. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. <g, http://sutterink.blogspot.com/2011/12/ critics-lamentwhat-is-sons-of-anarchy.html>. Kurt Sutter's personal blog. His response to the critical (and some fans') response to the season 4 finale of Sons of Anarchy.

Thompson, Robert J.. Television's second golden age: from Hill Street blues to ER : Hill Street blues, Thirtysomething, St. Elsewhere, China Beach, Cagney & Lacey, Twin Peaks, Moonlighting, Northern exposure, L.A. law, Picket fences, with brief reflections on Homicide, NYPD b. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997. Print. Book. Background information on quality television, historical info.

Ken Tucker's TV. EW.com, 13 Sept. 2010. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <watching-tv.ew.com/2010/09/13/madmen-season-4-episode-8/ >. Popular media/television criticism blog. Critical response to Mad Men, references to John Cheever.

Wen, Howard. "TV Made Unfresh Daily." Wired.com . Wired Magazine, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/streetcred.html?pg=14>. Popular media. Historical information on FX as a network.

Season Pass Blog. Variety.com, 22 Oct. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011. <weblogs.variety.com/season_pass/ 2008/10/mad-men-qa.html >. Trade publication, information about Mad Men from Matthew Weiner.