Week 9/10 Cult TV

What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?

Hill argues that literary/television producers can't manufacture a cult folllowing -only the fans can do that. The reason for this is that a cult following is the product of the beliefs and behaviors of the fan who build a culture around their favorite stories. You can't tell fans to incorporate aspects of television into their daily lives. That is a decision only the fans can make.

The rise of a cult following can be objectively totalled by how fans express their appreciation and involvment for their favorite shows. Some common examples of this include “appreciation societies” where likeminded individuals congregate (sometimes virtually on the internet and sometimes physically at confrences), online discussions, purchasing/creating memorobelia/merchandise, the creation of fan-fiction and real world role playing where fans dress up and act like their favorite characters. A great example of these ‘appreciation societies’ would be for harry potter, it has almost been 10years since the last book was published and the movie franchise is over, but the releaseof an interactive online fansite ‘pottermore’ has attracted millions of users.

While the rise of cult followings aren't exclusively dependent on technology such as the internet, home computers and hand held cameras, they have certainly helped likeminded individuals express/share their appreciation for their favorite television shows. As television producers continue to better understand their cult followings I expect to see programming in the future that allows fans to vote on how they want their series to progress similar to how fans of reality TV can “call in” and vote characters out, such as with the old R.L.Stine ‘Goosebump’ books, you could dictate the way the story evolves and finishes.

Hills, M. (2004). Defining Cult TV; Texts,Inter-texts and Fan Audiences, TheTelevision Studies Reader, in R. C. Allen& A. Hill. (p.517-520) London and New York:Routledge

In what way is Buffy influenced by the romantic gothic tradition? Yet how does Buffy also provide a contemporary critique of this tradition?

Romantic gothic tradition is based on the “admiration for a male Romantic hero who struggles with opposing forces within his psyche. The conflicting pulls of social and antisocial impulses, emotion/ intellect. The view upon the traditional gothic hero is “as a lonely, sensitive, often misunderstood crusader against injustices of the fates and the cruelty of man.” (Rose, 2002) Critically Buffy in turn takes on most of these characteristics of gothic romantic tradition however alternatively, as a female, that captures a feminine narrative with significant ties to the community and her ‘Scooby Doo gang.’

Rose, A (2002) Of creatures and creators: Buffy does Frankenstein, in R. Wilcox & D. Lavery (eds) Fighting the forces: what’s at stake in Buffy the vampire slayer. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.