This article examines the struggle for cultural authority that occurred in critical and industrial discourse surrounding the so-called “dramedies” that premiered on network television in 1987, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (NBC, 1987—88, Lifetime, 1989—91), Frank’s Place (CBS, 1987—88), The Slap Maxwell Story (ABC, 1987—88), and Hooperman (ABC, 1987—89). It situates that dispute in the broader trends of the changing practices and understandings of “quality television” and the erosion of network power.The article builds on the existing scholarship on early eighties quality with a consideration of later challenges to this critical-industrial construct and specific attention to the imperatives and tactics that shaped various parties’ attempts to achieve discursive dominance. A close examination of the attempted linkage of dramedy to established markers of quality demonstrates both the contingency of the seemingly stable discourse of quality television and its reflexive resistance to change.
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