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The Housewife, the vigilante and the cigarette-smoking man : the CIA and television, 1975-2001
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McCrisken, Trevor (2015) The Housewife, the vigilante and the cigarette-smoking man : the CIA and television, 1975-2001. History, Volume 100 (Number 340). pp. 293-310. doi:10.1111/1468-229X.12100 ISSN 0018-2648.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.12100
Abstract
Reeling from the revelations about its operations in the 1970s, the CIA set up an Office of Public Affairs to improve its public image. Among its activities was greater engagement with television producers, but it largely failed to lead to more US drama series portraying the CIA in a better light. This article, however, analyses those few TV dramas that did characterize the CIA in the 1980s and 1990s – Scarecrow and Mrs King, The Equalizer and The X-Files. Each series gave a critique of the CIA and its practices while offering alternative pathways to redeeming the organization so that it could better serve US security and domestic safety. They are examples of how television dramas can ask questions, engage with critical issues in contemporary society, and push the boundaries of what we expect to see in our televisual entertainment. They may not have offered very much insight into what the CIA was actually doing globally, but their storylines did confront the public image of the CIA, question its ethos and its methods, and offer some alternative viewpoints on how the Agency might develop its role and approach. Each series attempted to push beyond stereotypes of the CIA and its agents, upset the usual balance between gender roles and refused to give the kind of closed, unambiguous viewpoints that so many US television dramas offered their audiences during the period. They contributed significantly to the cultural representation of the CIA as the Cold War drew to a close.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | E History America > E151 United States (General) | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Secret service -- United States, United States. Central Intelligence Agency, Spy films -- United States | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | History | ||||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||||
ISSN: | 0018-2648 | ||||||
Official Date: | April 2015 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 100 | ||||||
Number: | Number 340 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 18 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 293-310 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/1468-229X.12100 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 29 December 2015 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 29 December 2015 |
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