American TV Series Revivals: Introduction

This special issue examines contemporary American TV series revivals with a focus on production and reception contexts as well as the industrial, cultural, and textual practices involved. Each essay is concerned with a different case study and brings a distinct approach to the analysis of the trend on American network television and the online streaming service Netflix. Together, they analyze how revivals rely on past TV experiences to circulate new products through the crowded contemporary media landscape, and how they seek to negotiate the televisual heritage of original series, feelings of generational belonging, as well as notions of the past, present, and future in meaningful ways. This introduction to the special issue provides the definitions, broader historical context, and theoretical framework of televisual repetition and innovation for understanding contemporary TV series revivals.