Since commercial television emerged in the late 1940s, it has been on the cutting edge of social, political, economic, and cultural developments in the United States and the world. This book is a provacative history of how the major networks schemed to gain ratings and power, and to keep the FCC at bay. The result was the creation of limited and rigidly standardized television offerings. Professor MacDonald examines how the introduction of cable TV in the 1980s has weakened the power of the networks and reshaped the industry.