1) THE HISTORY OF TV DRAMAS

Pamela Douglas (Screenwriter) gives expert video advice on: When did dramas
come to television?; Why are dramas so popular with audiences? and more...
WHEN DID DRAMAS COME TO TELEVISION?
From the earliest time of television - I think I'm going back to the 1950s - there was
something called Playhouse 90, which were movies basically, 90 minute movies.
Nobody does 90 minutes on TV anymore, but they were plays for television. From
the earliest time there were two forms on television. One was the variety kinds of
shows and the other was dramas, which come from radio dramas that preceded
them. Dramas have always been part of television.
WHAT IS A 'TELEPLAY'?
A teleplay is a screenplay to be aired on television. It's exactly the same as a
screenplay for movies, except that it has a shape that will fit television better,
meaning that it may have different act structures or it may have different time
constraints. It may have also, be closer to the kinds of material that television is
likely to use.
HOW LONG HAVE DRAMAS BEEN AROUND?
Dramas have been around for as long as mankind has been around. There is no
difference between the people outside of caves sitting around a fire recounting the
quest of who just slayed some kind of beast and brought home the meat, and much
of what we see today, especially in movies. Beyond that, the ancient Greek
principles of storytelling, as found in Aristotle and elsewhere, apply as well today as
they ever did.
HAS THE DRAMA GROWN WITH TELEVISION?
Dramas have grown marvellously with television. The whole world of dramatic
writing has evolved in just the last few years. At one time, dramas were two hour
movies where you had a predictable beginning, a three act structure, and an end.
Television has changed all of that, particularly around the time of Hill Street Blues,
which was a groundbreaking show. The creators of that show, Steven Bochco and
Michael Kozoll, at the time, realized their stories were spilling over the edges of the
hour. The notion of closing out a story within a given time frame was false to the
way life worked and did not give due justice to the stories that people needed to
tell. They decided to go ahead and allow that spill-over by having episodes continue
with arcs that went through multiple episodes. That opened the door to the long
narrative, to telling stories that increased in depth rather than width. In other words,
the stories grew as the characters and their relationships were revealed.

WHY ARE DRAMAS SO POPULAR WITH AUDIENCES?

Dramas are so popular today because of people's involvement with the characters.
It isn't because they have to necessarily find the next step of a story, it's because
they need to find out what will happen to somebody they love or fear for.
WHY DO NETWORKS KEEP PRODUCING DRAMAS?
Networks produce dramas because they make revenue. At this moment, comedy is
not faring well on networks. Dramas attract huge, huge audiences. It's not that
strange to hear of 20 and 30 million people tuning in for an episode of a very
successful show, such as Grey's Anatomy or, at one time, Lost. Not every series has
giant numbers like that, but across the slate the networks are proud of their shows
that win awards. It puts a gloss over all their other divisions, and essentially it's
about success as well as prestige.
WHAT IMPACT HAS THE DRAMA HAD ON TELEVISION?
Drama has become emblematic of quality on some of the networks, or it has given a
face and a personality to what all of their fare has to offer. One example is Friday
Night Lights on NBC. Friday Night Lights is not a show with high ratings; NBC
renewed it because of the tremendous love for it among the fans as well as the
critical acclaim. Drama is beloved by networks or featured by networks partly just
as a matter of business, but it's also a matter of identity in some cases.
WHAT ARE THE MOST INFLUENTIAL DRAMAS ON TELEVISION?
If you go back to Hill Street Blues, for example, in the 1980s, we're talking about the
beginning of the parallel story telling, of the very long narrative, of story lines that
have multiple episodes, of huge ensemble casts, and great depth and honesty in
story telling. That was one of many early iconic TV drama shows that started the
golden age which we're in now. There have been many wonderful shows since then Homicide: Life on the Street, which still is a network show, St. Elsewhere, and
others. Coming to closer time, the advent of HBO and those high quality dramas,
most especially The Sopranos, added even more depth to what you could do with
characters and with story telling and with the kinds of material that the audience
would accept and love. So HBO opened the door to a lot with The Sopranos and
other fine shows. There are outlets all over the dial; Showtime is doing some
interesting programming, as is the Sci-Fi channel. While most of it is the expected
stuff, they have the brilliant drama Battlestar Galactica, which is another groundbreaking show because it defies stereotypes and categories in the depth of the
stories and the subject matter they can tell. That was also true, by the way, of West

Wing. So, all of these have moved television to a level of serious critical
consideration and artistic consideration that had not existed before the 1980s.

HOW HAVE TV DRAMAS EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS?

TV dramas have evolved by taking chances. The frightening prospect of bean
counters - business people rather than artists - becoming increasingly in charge of
networks has threatened to put a dampener on the very creativity that has now
created a golden age. Fortunately, networks are not the only outlets any more. The
era of the three big is long gone. Those who dare to do exciting, innovative, honest,
deep subject areas and characters are succeeding with their audiences.
ARE DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDERS CHANGING TELEVISION?
DVR has created a revolution in television viewing. The notion of recording to watch
anytime you want, which was familiar with TiVo and has now included other
methods, is putting power in the hands of the viewers. DVR is completely upending
the old network idea of scheduling. It's also challenging the way ratings are figured,
because if you only count viewers who are watching at the assigned time, in some
cases you may be losing most of your audience.
HOW ARE DVDS OF SERIES CHANGING TELEVISION?
It's not just DVR technology that is changing to give viewers choice. It's also the
prevalence of DVD viewing of TV series. There are people who are not watching
shows at all when they air, but are waiting for the box sets to come out and
watching the entire season as one would look at a 22 hour movie.

2)
The first thing you need when trying to choose the
greatest TV dramas of the past 13 years is firm criteria.
Rule one: we only considered shows that are finished. Kaput.
Over. So no Mad Men, no House Of Cards, no Homeland not yet.
You only have to have witnessed the tension and frenzy that
greeted the final episode of Breaking Bad (and of course, The
Sopranos before it) to see why this is important. If the TV boxset
is the great literary novel of its day (aside from all those great
literary novels, of course), then how could we judge them without
their final chapters? Next: we decided to focus on shows that are
human dramas in the conventional sense, rather than genre
pieces with (often brilliant) dramatic elements
(goodbye Battlestar Galactica and Game Of Thrones). Anything
that was comedy, sci-fi or fantasy first and foremost was duly
acknowledged, then put to one side.
Finally: this is an international list, which may make the final
contents a little surprising. A spoiler: there is not a single British
TV drama made this century that made the cut. Not even close.
For all Top Boy and Peaky Blinders are promising signs, our fair
isle is still a long way from matching the depth, scope and
richness of execution not to mention the sheer length and
consistency that typify those shows at the forefront of Americas
TV revolution. What emerges from taking stock of the worlds

television dramas since 2000 is a clear if uncomfortable message:

Britain must do better.
But back to the top ten. The second thing you need when picking
from the greatest TV dramas of this century is a thick skin. Its
remarkable, when you begin arguing about it, how much weve
taken these stories to our hearts. Where once it was fashionable
to pretend not to watch television, now the hours weve spent
with Tony Soprano, or President Bartlett or Stringer Bell are a
point of pride and a fountain of fond memories. TVs new golden
age is all about shows we defend as though theyre old friends.
3) While the films selected by the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association to receive Golden Globes often become part of the
Oscars season conversation, the TV prizes given out by the HFPA
also often provide an interesting look at where TV is now. And this
year, the nominees for the major prizes of best drama series and
best comedy series show the dominance of cable and streaming
programs, as only one broadcast TV show (Foxs Empire a
first-year show, no less) made the cut for either category. All the
other nominees for both awards were from cable or streaming,
the latter being a form of TV that has experienced a meteoric rise.
Cable is a force in the drama category, with HBOs Game of
Thrones, USAs Mr. Robot, and Starzs Outlander all
contending for the prize. Netflixs Narcos also made the cut, as
did "Empire." Recommended: The 20 best TV sitcoms of all time
readers' choice
Meanwhile, streaming programs dominated the comedy category.
Four of the six nominees are from streaming (Amazons Mozart in
the Jungle and Transparent, Hulus Casual, and Netflixs
Orange Is the New Black). Meanwhile, HBOs Silicon Valley
and Veep made the cut, too.

Is this a huge shift? Nominees each year of course depend on TV

offerings and the whims of the HFPA. The dominance of cable and
climb of streaming can be seen in the Golden Globes TV series
nominees of the past several years, though more broadcast shows
usually made the cut.
Last year, only CBSs The Good Wife (drama) and the CWs
Jane the Virgin (comedy) received nominations in terms of
broadcast shows. The year before, almost all the comedy series
nominees were from broadcast, but they were all excluded this
year (one, Parks and Recreation, is over).
These nominees arent surprising for our current TV landscape.
HBO has been a force at awards shows for years its been 17
years since its acclaimed show The Sopranos debuted. Other
cable networks have also become contenders in these categories.
But these contenders show how widespread TV of quality is now.
Netflix is a force, but cable networks like USA and Starz and
streaming services like Hulu are on the rise, too.
And they demonstrate just how quickly streaming has established
itself in the pop culture conversation and at awards shows.
Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and
Popular Culture at Syracuse Universitys Newhouse School, points
out that streaming has gone from winning its first high-profile
Emmy Award in 2013 with "House of Cards" to dominating the
comedy series Golden Globes category in 2016.
In terms of the lack of broadcast shows, Mr. Thompson says in an
interview with The Christian Science Monitor, If people were
taken aback by how few broadcast were there... they haven't
been paying attention.
He says both cable and streaming have advantages in terms of
being able to produce good programming.

They've got a great advantage of having shortened seasons, he

points out. A show like Amazons Transparent airs 10 episodes a
season, while a show like CBSs The Good Wife usually airs 22.
These nominees could also be an indicator of what network or
streaming service is about to become a big presence, too.
Thompson points to Hulu, which he says hasnt had a culturedominating hit yet.
But they're poised to do a lot of things, he says.

4)How Sherlock Holmes changed the world

In 1893, author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle shoved detective Sherlock

Holmes off a cliff. The cliff was fictionally located in Switzerland,
over the Reichenbach Falls. But Conan Doyle did the dirty work
from his home in London where he wrote. It is with a heavy heart
that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall
ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr Sherlock
Holmes was distinguished, narrator Dr John Watson says in
Conan Doyles story The Final Problem, which appeared in The
Strand magazine in December 1893.
Conan Doyle himself seemed a little less emotional in private.
Killed Holmes, he wrote in his diary. One can imagine Conan

Doyle, slicked-back hair shimmering in the candlelight, twirling his

ample mustache with glee. He later said of his famous character:
I have had such an overdose of him that I feel towards him as I
do towards pat de foie gras, of which I once ate too much, so
that the name of it gives me a sickly feeling to this day.

5)50 Best movies on netflix,ranked

There are plenty of good TV series on Netflix. If youre trying to
figure out what to watch next, heres a great place to start with a
look at the 50 best shows on the streaming service.
50. Damages (5 of 5 seasons)
49. Sense8 (1 of 1 seasons)
48. Sons of Anarchy (7 of 7 seasons)
46. Arrow (3 of 4 seasons)
45. Top of the Lake (1 of 1 seasons)

44. Fringe (5 of 5 seasons)

43. Psych (8 of 8 seasons)
42. Quantum Leap (5 of 5 seasons)
41. Dexter (8 of 8 seasons)
40. Family Guy (12 of 14 seasons)
39. Alias (5 of 5 seasons)
38. How I Met Your Mother (9 of 9 seasons)
37. Portlandia (5 of 5 seasons)
36. Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia (9 of 10 seasons)
35. Lost (6 of 6 season)
34. The Wonder Years (6 of 6 seasons)
33. House of Cards (3 of 3 seasons)
32. Rectify (2 of 3 seasons)
31. Terriers (1 of 1 seasons)
30. Better Off Ted (2 of 2 seasons)
29. Bobs Burgers (4 of 6)
28. Black Mirror (2 of 2 seasons)
27. Parks and Recreation (6 of 7 seasons)
26. Peaky Blinders (2 of 2 seasons)
25. Bloodline (1 of 1 seasons)
24. Bojack Horseman (2 of 2 season)
23. The Office (US and UK, Complete Series of Both)
22. Luther (3 of 3 seasons)

21. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (7 of 7 seasons)

20. Firefly (1 of 1 seasons)
19. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (1 of 1 seasons)
18. Doctor Who (8 of 9, not including Classic Doctor Who)
17. West Wing (7 of 7 seasons)
16. Gilmore Girls (7 of 7 seasons)
15. The X-Files (9 of 9 season)
14. 30 Rock (7 of 7 seasons)
13. Daredevil (1 of 1 seasons)
12. Scrubs (9 of 9 seasons)
11. Orange in the New Black (3 of 3 seasons)
10. Mad Men (6.5 of 7 seasons)
9. Archer (5 of 6 seasons)
8. Friends (10 of 10 seasons)
7. Arrested Development (4 of 4 seasons)
6. Sherlock (3 of 3 seasons)
5. Friday Night Lights (5 of 5 Seasons)
4. Louie (4 of 5 seasons)
3. The Walking Dead (5 of 6 seasons)
2. Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared (1 of 1 seasons)
1. Breaking Bad (5 of 5 seasons)

Jared Pagal
Jan 29,2016
Eng023/B03
Hjalmar Hernandez

Sir

Reference
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 Driscoll,M.. (2016,Jan 10). Golden Globes: Why cable and

streaming shows dominate the TV nominations.Retrieved
from http://www.csmonitor.com/TheCulture/TV/2016/0110/Golden-Globes-Why-cable-andstreaming-shows-dominate-the-TV-nominations
Armstrong,J.. (2016,Jan 6). How Sherlock Holmes changed
the world.Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160106-how-sherlockholmes-changed-the-world?ocid=sw.ppc.partneredpost.facebook.keewee.lexus&kwp_0=91423&kwp_4=469447
&kwp_1=261575

Rowles,D.. (2015,Oct 30).The 50 Best Tv shows in

Netflix,Ranked. Retrieved from http://uproxx.com/tv/bestshows-on-netflix-good-tv-series-ranked/