MIAMI VICE: Transforming Network Television in the 1980s

《迈阿密风云》： 20 世纪 80 年代网络电视的转型

• 批准号: AH/G006350/1
• 负责人: James Lyons
• 金额: $ 3.02万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FG006350%2F1
• 关键词: MIAMI; VICE; Transforming; Network; Television

This research project employs the landmark police procedural Miami Vice (1984-1990) to interrogate the reshaping of US network television in the 1980s. This watershed decade saw network television reconfigure itself to adapt to the challenges presented by the spread of satellite and cable television, the popularity of the VCR, and the rise of home computing and videogaming, all of which made vulnerable its established preeminence as domestic audio-visual entertainment. While previous critical work has identified Miami Vice as a defining show of the era, it has typically framed analyses of its distinctive look and sound with theories of the postmodern, or with questions of audience engagement. In contrast, this study seeks to examine the show's status at the forefront of strategies to adapt to the changing political economy of network television. In particular, it explores the show's importance to the NBC network, which, after being last in prime time ratings from 1975 to 1983, established itself as the premier network for the rest of the decade, in large part by responding to this new competitive landscape by innovating in programming content, in focusing on 'narrowcasting' for lucrative audience demographics, and in seeking to be at the forefront of new developments in entertainment technologies. Miami Vice was a key vehicle for such strategies, and the project illuminates many of the pivotal shifts in network policy, and their consequent impact on televisual entertainment, through a sustained assessment of its defining features.One of the main aims of the research project is thus to demonstrate the purposing of Miami Vice within the rapidly innovating sector for audio-visual entertainment in the 1980s. For example, one of the most significant but critically neglected developments during this period was the emergence of stereo television broadcasting, first by cable companies, and then by the major US networks from 1984 onwards. NBC, Miami Vice's broadcast network, took the lead in this area, and one of the key tasks of the project will be to reframe understandings of the show in order to assess its significance as a pivotal 'early adopter' application for stereo television sets, many of which were being manufactured by RCA, NBC's parent company. This development also anticipated changes in global entertainment markets, and another aim of the project is to illuminate the show's function as a global commodity benefiting from free-market economic and deregulatory policies; in particular the Reagan administration's efforts to open up foreign markets to US television products. One question the research will therefore address is the degree to which we must understand Miami Vice's defining characteristics as a corollary of its status as global televisual product. One of the advantages of the approach taken by the research is therefore to enable a more complex sense of the forces shaping televisual entertainment in the 1980s; one that takes account of how programming might serve the strategies of conglomerates stretching across different sectors of the media and communications industry, and with an increasingly expansive global reach. The legacy of these changes is still being felt in the present media moment, and the research addresses a rather neglected chapter in this recent history. While most criticism of Miami Vice has identified its contemporaneousness in relation to the showcasing of 'designer' fashions, popular music and affluent lifestyles, this project takes an interdisciplinary approach drawn from political economic theory, television studies and cultural studies to situate the show at the heart of a rapidly evolving media economy reshaping programming content to fit emergent modes of consumption. It is in this sense that the show serves as an emblematic product for a seminal decade; one that remade established certainties regarding the 'business' of television in ways that are still being felt today.

该研究项目采用具有里程碑意义的警察程序《迈阿密风云》（1984-1990）来审视 20 世纪 80 年代美国网络电视的重塑。在这个分水岭的十年里，网络电视进行了自我重组，以适应卫星和有线电视的普及、录像机的普及以及家庭计算和视频游戏的兴起所带来的挑战，所有这些都使其作为家庭视听娱乐的既定优势变得脆弱。虽然之前的批评工作已将《迈阿密风云》确定为那个时代的决定性节目，但它通常用后现代理论或观众参与问题来分析其独特的外观和声音。相比之下，本研究旨在探讨该节目在适应网络电视不断变化的政治经济战略的前沿地位。特别是，它探讨了该节目对 NBC 网络的重要性，该网络在 1975 年至 1983 年黄金时段收视率垫底之后，在接下来的十年中确立了自己作为首要网络的地位，这在很大程度上是通过节目内容创新、专注于利润丰厚的观众群体的“窄播”以及寻求处于娱乐技术新发展的前沿来应对这一新的竞争格局。 《迈阿密风云》是此类战略的关键工具，该项目通过对其定义特征的持续评估，阐明了网络政策的许多关键转变及其对电视娱乐的后续影响。因此，该研究项目的主要目标之一是展示《迈阿密风云》在 20 世纪 80 年代快速创新的视听娱乐行业中的目的。例如，这一时期最重要但又被严重忽视的发展之一是立体声电视广播的出现，首先是有线电视公司，然后从 1984 年起美国主要电视网开始出现。迈阿密风云的广播网络 NBC 在这一领域处于领先地位，该项目的关键任务之一将是重新构建对该节目的理解，以评估其作为立体声电视机关键“早期采用者”应用的重要性，其中许多电视机是由 NBC 的母公司 RCA 制造的。这一发展也预示着全球娱乐市场的变化，该项目的另一个目的是阐明该节目作为受益于自由市场经济和放松管制政策的全球商品的功能；特别是里根政府为美国电视产品开放国外市场的努力。因此，本研究将解决的一个问题是，我们必须在多大程度上理解《迈阿密风云》的定义特征，作为其作为全球电视产品地位的必然结果。因此，本研究采用的方法的优点之一是能够对塑造 20 世纪 80 年代电视娱乐的力量有更复杂的认识；一个考虑到节目编排如何服务于跨媒体和通信行业不同部门且全球影响力日益扩大的企业集团的战略。当前的媒体时代仍然可以感受到这些变化的影响，这项研究涉及了近代历史中一个相当被忽视的章节。虽然对《迈阿密风云》的大多数批评都认为它与展示“设计师”时装、流行音乐和富裕生活方式有关，但该项目采用了政治经济理论、电视研究和文化研究的跨学科方法，将节目置于快速发展的媒体经济的核心，重塑节目内容以适应新兴的消费模式。正是从这个意义上说，该剧成为了开创性十年的标志性产品。它以至今仍能感受到的方式重塑了电视“业务”的既定确定性。

项目成果

'I Want My MTS': The Development of US Stereo Television

“我想要我的MTS”：美国立体声电视的发展

• DOI: 10.7227/cst.8.3.3
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: The International Journal of Television Studies
• 作者: Lyons J