Television since 1980

Television sf has undergone tremendous change since the 1980s. In the face of challenges from cinema, the internet, and computer games, sf has been at the forefront of television’s attempts to maintain a regular and devoted audience. From what is usually considered a lean period in Britain and the US during the 1980s, the genre has developed two distinct popular forms through which it continues to attract viewers in an overcrowded, diverse multi-channel climate: the cult series and the quality series. In the competition between established networks and new cable channels for revenue and audiences, in which inexpensive reality television shows have proved invaluable, more expensive dramatic formats, such as the series, serial, and miniseries, have combined with popular genres, such as sf, crime, horror, and medical drama, to produce programs that either maintain a small but hardcore fanbase over several seasons or attract millions of casual viewers through hype and marketing in a relatively short period of one or two seasons.