Fringe Television: A Challenge to Prime-Time Criticism.

To account adequately for television as a cultural force in the 1980's, this essay suggests that mass communication studies must accept the critical challenges posed by fringe television. After defining fringe television as the sea of programming that surrounds the prime‐time domain of the three major broadcast networks, this essay identifies end maps various fringe sectors appearing on today's broadcast and cable schedules. The articles included in this special issue are then introduced as examples of relevant textual and contextual approaches to the study of fringe content. This essay concludes by surveying the critical imperatives facing future studies involved in the analysis of the diverse programming that thrives on the ragged borders of popularity.