CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Glasgow Theses Service Bell, Stuart (2016) "Don't Stop": Re-Thinking the Function of Endings in Narrative Television. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7282/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] “Don’t Stop…” Re-thinking the Function of Endings in Narrative Television Stuart Bell (MA, MLitt) Submitted in fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy School of Culture and Creative Arts College of Arts University of Glasgow November 2015 (c) Stuart Bell, November 2015 !1 Abstract “Don’t Stop…” Re-thinking the Function of Endings in Television This thesis argues that the study of narrative television has been limited by an adherence to accepted and commonplace conceptions of endings as derived from literary theory, particularly a preoccupation with the terminus of the text as the ultimate site of cohesion, structure, and meaning. Such common conceptions of endings, this thesis argues, are largely incompatible with the realities of television’s production and reception, and as a result the study of endings in television needs to be re-thought to pay attention to the specificities of the medium. In this regard, this thesis proposes a model of intra-narrative endings, islands of cohesion, structure, and meaning located within television texts, as a possible solution to the problem of endings in television. These intra-narrative endings maintain the functionality of traditional endings, whilst also allowing for the specificities of television as a narrative medium. The first two chapters set out the theoretical groundwork, first by exploring the essential characteristics of narrative television (serialisation, fragmentation, duration, repetition, and accumulation), then by exploring the unique relationship between narrative television and the forces of contingency. These chapters also introduce the concept of intra-narrative endings as a possible solution to the problems of television’s narrative structure, and the medium’s relationship to contingency. Following on from this my three case studies examine forms of television which have either been traditionally defined as particularly resistant to closure (soap opera and the US sitcom) or which have received little analysis in terms of their narrative structure (sports coverage). Each of these case studies provides contextual material on these televisual forms, situating them in terms of their narrative structure, before moving on to analyse them in terms of my concept of intra-narrative endings. In the case of soap opera, the chapter focusses on the death of the long running character Pat Butcher in the British soap EastEnders (BBC, 1985-), while my chapter on the US sitcom focusses on the varying levels of closure that can be located within the US sitcom, using Friends (NBC, 1993-2004) as a particular example. Finally, my chapter on sports coverage analyses the BBC’s coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, and focusses on the narratives surrounding cyclists Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton. Each of these case studies identifies their chosen events as intra-narrative endings within larger, ongoing texts, and analyses the various ways in which they operate within those wider texts. This thesis is intended to make a contribution to the emerging field of endings studies within television by shifting the understanding of endings away from a dominant literary model which overwhelmingly focusses on the terminus of the text, to a more televisually specific model which pays attention to the particular contexts of the medium’s production and reception. !2 Table of Contents Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………….1 Acknowledgments ………………………………………………………………………3 Author’s Declaration ……………………………………………………………………4 Chapter One Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………..5 Chapter Two “The Story Machine”: The Problem of Television and Endings ………………………26 Chapter Three Contingency in Television ……………………………………………………………..67 Chapter Four The End of an Earring: Ending and Soap Opera ……………………………………..106 Chapter Five An Excess of Endings: The US Sitcom ………………………………………………153 Chapter Six Sport Opera: Endings in Sports Television …………………………………………..202 Chapter Seven Conclusion: The End? ………………………………………………………………..244 Appendix: Narrative Summary of Friends “The One with the Dozen Lasagnes” ……………….256 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………….261 Teleography/Filmography/Videogameography ………………………………………275 !3 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisors Amy Holdsworth and Karen Lury for their generous support and endless patience over the past four years. It is no overstatement to say that without your insight and enthusiasm this thesis would not be what it is today. Over the past eight years I have been lucky to call the Theatre, Film and Television Studies Department at Glasgow University my home away from home, and in that time I have met many people whose support and friendship have been invaluable. Thank you to the staff and students of the department for creating such a inspiring and stimulating atmosphere throughout my time at Glasgow. I would particularly like to thank Ian Garwood, Karen Boyle, and Christine Geraghty for their support and encouragement across the years, and Katharina Lindner, whose inspiring teaching on television first convinced me to pursue the subject. I would also like to thank my fellow PhD’s (both past and present) - especially Graeme, Phillip, Becky, Gabrielle, and Allison - for their encouragement and endless support. This thesis was made possible by funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, to whom I am appreciative of being given the opportunity to pursue this project with all my energies. Finally I would like to thank all my friends and family. Though they might not always have understood why I would decide to spend four years pursuing the finer aspects of Pat Butcher’s backstory, they have always been there to keep me going. In particular I would like to thank my partner Emily Morton, my Mum and Dad Shona and David Bell, my sister Aileen, and most of all my Gran Winifred Phillips, whose generosity made all this possible. !4 Author’s Declaration This thesis represent the original work of Stuart Bell, unless otherwise stated in the text. The research upon which is it based was carried out in the Theatre, Film and Television Studies Department at the University of Glasgow under the supervision of Professor Karen Lury and Doctor Amy Holdsworth during the period of October 2011 to November 2015. !5 Chapter One Introduction Origins This thesis is about endings in television, though over the course of my research I have found this simple description to lead to confusion. One of the unforeseen ‘pleasures’ of undertaking and writing a PhD has been talking about it with friends, family, and colleagues. However, attempting to reduce four years of study, and so many thousands of words of writing into an easily digestible statement has proven to be difficult, and I have invariably found my own attempts to be more misleading than intended. However the confusion which tends to arise has less to do, I think (hope), with my attempts to explain my research, and more to do with widespread conceptions concerning the idea of endings in television. To illustrate: whenever I have discussed my PhD with others, the conversation quickly, and perhaps understandably, turns into a discussion of specific endings, more accurately the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ endings on television and revealingly, I have found many of the same examples come up time and again. Frequently cited examples include the finales to Lost (ABC, 2004-2010), The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007), The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008), and more recently the final episodes of Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-2013) and Mad Men (AMC, 2007-2015). These examples are, I would argue, hugely revealing in their consistency and shared characteristics. For instance, they are all fictional, all originate from the United States, and all could, in different ways, be classified as quality or prestige dramas. While this !6 perhaps tells you more about the company I keep and their viewing habits, I find it equally revealing in terms of the kinds of programmes that do not come up, for example, soap opera, news, sport, or reality television. Conceptions of endings seem largely tied to drama, or in some cases comedy.1 The reasoning behind these selections is also highly illuminating. Reasons given for classifying an ending as ‘good’ largely tend to centre on ideas of closure and satisfaction, while reasons given for a particular ending’s ‘badness’ tend to centre on a lack of closure, as well as a sense that too many “threads” have been left hanging.2 When I first proposed the idea for this thesis, it was my intention to write about these very endings, to analyse them in order to construct a taxonomy of sorts, a model of television endings based on a detailed textual analysis of notable series finales drawn from both drama and comedy. Such a project would have sought to identify common characteristics across the endings of programmes such as those described above. In essence what I had originally proposed was a study of television endings rooted in literary and film studies, one which assumed that endings in television operated in a similar way to endings in those other mediums. However, it became clear early on that the concept of endings in television was far more complex and the relationship between the two more problematic than I had first anticipated.