Federal Communications Chairman Newton Minow's address to the 39th Annual Convention of the National Association of Broadcasters on 9 May 1961 started a fire of controversy over the content of broadcast television. Minow's characterization of early 1960s programming as "a vast wasteland" entered the public language. When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you — and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, violence, audience-participation shows...