Over the past Decade the quantity and quality of published literature on the role and meaning of television content has increased notably. That increase has been encouraged through expanded, more sophisticated undergraduate and graduate curricular offerings involving television and media studies, and increased opportunities for conference interchange among those conducting research in this field. We have both seen variously involved in such efforts and in conjunction with the series editors felt it was time for a volume of the Sage Annual Reviews of Communication Research to take formal cognizance of the trends in television studies.