"this medium" refers to the previous sentence--cable TV networks. None of your examples are relevant, as far as I can tell. That said, The Dick Van Dyke Show is a great work of visual art? Sure, Carl Reiner knows how to write a sitcom, but c'mon--
Miles
> Ingmar Bergman
> Fanny and Alexander
> John Cassavetes
> Johnny Staccato
> Rainer Werner Fassbinder
> Jail Bait
> Eight Hours a Day are Not Enough
> World on a Wire
> Martha
> Fear of Fear
> Berlin Alexanderplatz
> Federico Fellini
> Orchestra Rehearsal
> John Frankenheimer
> Playhouse 90
> Joseph L. Mankiewicz
> A Carol for Another Christmas
> Mike Nichols
> Angels in America
> Carl Reiner
> The Dick Van Dyke Show
> Jacques Rivette
> Out 1
> Roberto Rossellini
> The Rise of Louis XIV
> Socrate
> Pascal
> The Age of the Medici
> Descartes
> Franklin J. Schaffner
> Studio One
> Playhouse 90
> Joss Whedon
> Firefly
>
>
>> What amazes me is how a show as good as the Sopranos
>>
> (and measured against other episodic TV shows on cable,
> it is good!)
>
> That's akin to asserting that a singer who is off pitch
> only half the time should be considered good because she
> could be off pitch all of the time. That THE SOPRANOS
> was better than most of the wretched fare on television
> means that it is superior to horrible. But being superior
> to horrible does not necessarily translate into being good.
>
> Brian
>
>
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