Copyright by Charlotte Elizabeth Howell 2016 The Dissertation Committee for Charlotte Elizabeth Howell Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Divine Programming: Religion and Prime-time American Television Production in the Post-Network Era Committee: Alisa Perren, Supervisor Kathryn Fuller-Seeley Tom Schatz Horace Newcomb Jorie Lagerwey Divine Programming: Religion and Prime-time American Television Production in the Post-Network Era by Charlotte Elizabeth Howell, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2016 Dedication To my mother and father, Joyce and Hank, who made all of this possible. Acknowledgements I owe more to my advisor, Alisa Perren, than can be conveyed here. I thank her for her mentorship, teaching, guidance, advocacy, and bottomless support, all of which combine to form the best foundation I could ever hope for. I am grateful to her for every opportunity, for every time she went to bat for me, for every kind word and kick in the tuches. Kathy Fuller-Seeley opened her door to me during my first year of graduate school and continued to provide the greatest advice, optimism, and support. I am grateful for her openness even (especially) when I would drop in on her in her office just to chat and feel better about teaching, academia, and life by the time I left. Tom Schatz has been a wealth of knowledge and to-the-point feedback throughout my time in Texas, and I thank him for all that he has done for me. I am so humbled and grateful (and sometimes still a bit star-struck) that Horace Newcomb agreed to be on my dissertation committee; his ongoing interest in my research and career and the genuine care he has shown me have been gifts throughout this process. Jorie Lagerwey showed me that it was possible to pursue this topic on a large scale and has continued to be an incredibly valuable sounding board, mentor, and friend. I am grateful to Jorie for kindly responding to my long-winded emails when I was a Masters’ student and continuing to model generosity in scholarship ever since. My thanks to Mary Beltrán, Suzanne Scott, Mary Celeste Kearney, Michael Kackman, Shanti Kumar, Janet Staiger, Thomas A. Tweed, Ted Friedman, and Alessandra Raengo who all contributed to the evolution of my thinking and of this project. I thank Paul Stekler, Char Burke, Michelle Monk, and Bert Herigstad, who all supported me throughout my work on this project. I also thank Cindy McCreery, v Cully Hamner, and all the other generous people who put me in touch with their colleagues, friends, and friends-of-friends to make this possible. I dedicated this dissertation to my parents, but they deserve my thanks as well. My mother, Joyce B. Howell, whose enthusiasm and real-talk about joining the “family business” of academia is my inspiration, my staunchest ally, and my greatest support. My father, Hank Howell, has always shown an insatiable curiosity and unending support for my work, for which I am forever grateful. This dissertation is better because of their feedback, edits, and love. My brother, Walter, and my sister-in-law, Mary Katherine, provided a perspective to my work that was desperately needed as I was formulating my terms and argument. Grammie, Aunt Luahna, Uncle Al, Aunt Mary, Emilie, Josh, and Jess, thank you for your support over the years. I will always be grateful for my family’s love and belief in me. I have been incredibly lucky to find and maintain friendships with some of the most wonderful, smart, strong, boss ladies I have ever known. Liz, my fake cousin, you are just the best in so many ways, not the least of which was putting up with me working on final revisions during your bachelorette weekend. Brittany, my media soulmate and London buddy, you are phenomenal. Thank you and Adam for your crunch-time copyediting and kind words about my dissertation (minus the chapter Mal ate). Caroline Leader, Sarah Murray, Carolina Hernandez, Jessalynn Keller, Amanda Landa, and Morgan Blue: the other six of the magnificent seven, you made and continued to make me strive to be magnificent. Thank you for filling up my love tank every time I get to see you. Emily Kofoed, Laurel Ahnert, Lauren Cramer, Jing Zhang, Daren Randall Fowler, Jay (and honorary members Sara Baugh and Kyle Wrather): y’all will always be the vi cohort of my heart and the people who pushed my brain harder than it had ever been pushed. Laura Felschow, Jackie Pinkowitz, and Annie Major, you kept me sane when it seemed impossible and made me feel like I had roots in Austin again. Nancy, Leah, the Cindys, Sherri, MaryJo, and all of my soccer ladies, thanks for getting me out of the house weekly and always being ready with positive energy and booze. To my fellow UT grads, past and present, who support each other and find joy wherever possible, thank you. vii Divine Programming: Religion and Prime-time American Television Production in the Post-Network Era Charlotte Elizabeth Howell, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2016 Supervisor: Alisa Perren This dissertation addresses how religion weaves through industrial practices of prime- time American television including programming, marketing, and content creation in the twenty-first century. Through a focus on the exponential growth of this one subject, religion, across the television landscape since 9/11, I am able to illustrate how a range of industry practitioners have responded to technological, cultural, and political forces in the post-network era. This study consists of interviews with industry executives and creative figures as well as analysis of trade/journalistic discourses and network marketing materials. Using these interviews as well as both genre and ideological analysis of more than a dozen programs (e.g., Friday Night Lights, Supernatural, and Daredevil), my research charts how religious discourses—and specifically, Christian discourses—are produced, marketed, and often discursively displaced in diverse genres across the contemporary primetime dramatic American television landscape. In particular, I analyze the paradoxical situation in which, even as religious representations multiplied in contemporary American prime-time dramas, writers, producers, executives, and marketers continued to regard religion as ideologically risky. As a result, these creatives have used a variety of containment strategies to distance themselves from the idea that they or their work might be religious. The year 2015 marks the potential beginning of a new stage, illustrated by a few case studies that offer examples of an accelerated openness among creatives discussing religion in their work. viii Table of Contents List of Figures ...................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Religion in Hollywood: A Dynamic Process ..................................................1 Histories of Religion On Television ...............................................................7 Television and Religion in the Classic Network Era (1955-1985) ........7 Television and Religion in the Neo-Network Era (1985-early 2000s) ..8 The Boom in Religious Representation (2003-2016) ..........................14 Scope .............................................................................................................25 Key Frames and Scholarly Interventions ......................................................33 Television Studies in the Post-Network Era ........................................34 Television Genres .......................................................................36 Quality Television .......................................................................39 Media Industry Studies and Cultural Studies of Production ................42 Religious Studies and Post-Christianity ..............................................45 Methods and Sources ....................................................................................50 Chapter Structure ..........................................................................................53 Chapter One Neo-Network Prehistory and "Preachy" Programs ..........................65 The Neo-Network Effect on Post-Network Productions: Against “Preachy”65 Old Networks and New Netlets: Broadcast in the Neo-Network Era ..........68 Preachy Religious Messages and the Middlebrow Audience: Touched by an Angel ....................................................................................................71 Attempting to Avoid “Preachy” and Failing: 7th Heaven ............................77 Touched by an Angel’s Post-Network Descendants: United Artists Media Group’s Biblical Projects .....................................................................86 Conclusion ....................................................................................................90 Chapter Two Geographic Displacement: Christianity, Quality, and Southern Authenticity ...................................................................................................94 Christianity in Quality Representations of the Authentic South ...................94 Southern Realism and Quality ......................................................................97 ix Heartland Subjects, Quality Audience: Friday