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The Housewife, the Vigilante and the Cigarette‐Smoking Man: The CIA and Television, 1975–2001
Author(s) -
McCrisken Trevor
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.12100
Subject(s) - housewife , drama , ethos , viewpoints , entertainment , media studies , representation (politics) , sociology , advertising , history , law , gender studies , political science , literature , business , art , visual arts , politics
Reeling from the revelations about its operations in the 1970s, the CIA set up an O ffice of P ublic A ffairs 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 – S carecrow and M rs K ing , The E qualizer and The X ‐ F iles . 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 A gency 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 C old W ar drew to a close.