OK, so just to clarify the rules one more time. In the last few years television has gone through somewhat of renaissance, from something that is just there to eclipsing film as the exciting medium for storytelling. The Golden Age of Television is an attempt to try and capture the shows that have been responsible for this renaissance.

The shows have been selected through a mixture of appeal and influence. We have tried to limit it to the past 10 years , because that is when this resurgence has largely come about, however this does lead to difficulties. Generally any show that started before 1997 is out, but there are exceptions. For example Larry Sanders and Seinfeld are both out of the timeframe. Larry Sanders was pivotal in creating HBO as we know it so it is in, where as Seinfeld, while undoubtedly very influential but no so much in creating this ?Golden Age? is out. Confused? Excellent.

Obviously it is all very subjective (I mean Firefly??!? Phhhttt, what a joke), and we would love to hear your thoughts and comments. What should be in, what should be out. Tell us how wrong we are. We value your opinion, but remember – the envelope is always right?

THE OFFICIAL amended LIST:

Arrested Development
Buffy
Carinvale
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Deadwood
Entourage
Firefly
Futurama
Friday Night Lights
I’m Alan Partridge
The Larry Sanders Show
Lost
Love My Way
Nathan Barley
The Office
Oz
The Shield
Six Feet Under
The Sopranos
South Park
Weeds
The Wire

And by popular demand:

THE WEST WING!!!!

(the people have spoken)

THE PERIPHERALS:

Heroes (originally in, but tossed out on reflection)
The Newsroom (disappeared from the list at the 11th hour)
Sex And The City (again, unlucky not to be included)
The Games (the greatest Aussie comedy?)

Further to the “news” item that WIN would be showing Brady Bunch in the afternoon and why they would bother sending out a media release about it, a dedicated listener informed me of WIN boss Bruce Gordon’s current battle with PBL Media/Nine over content deals and pointed me to a Fairfax article from this morning:

“We’re out of contract and they keep threatening to turn us off,” Mr Gordon said. “We said, ‘Go ahead: take your programming off’, and we think it would be a lot of fun if they did. We can program this network. When I bought this network in 1979, there were no affiliation agreements.”

PBL Media, owner of the Nine Network, wants WIN to pay 40 per cent of its revenue in return for programming, up from the 32 per cent it pays under the current agreement, which officially expired on July 1.

Mr Gordon wants the fees reduced to reflect poor ratings, and to bring them into line with the 29 per cent of revenue that WIN’s main regional competitors, Prime and Southern Cross Broadcasting, pay their partners at Seven and Ten.

Apparently it is worthwhile to boast about putting on 35 year old repeats if it means you’re sticking it to the big boys.

WIN calls Nine’s bluff on program supply — The Age