Spectacular Television: Exploring Televisual Pleasure

In terms of visual impact, television has often been regarded as inferior to cinema. It has been characterised as sound—led and consumed by a distracted audience. Today, it is tempting to see the rise of HD television as ushering in a new era of spectacular television. Yet since its earliest days, the medium has been epitomised by spectacle and offered its viewers diverse forms of visual pleasure. Looking at the early promotion of television and the launch of colour broadcasting, Spectacula...