Nostalgia for cult TV: repackaging the West German television movie

초록

The discourse of 'cult' applied to West German made-for-television films from the 1970s as part of their DVD release after 2000 signals not only a shift in the cultural categories of assessment but also a nostalgia for television as a medium capable of assembling a mass audience around a controversial social or political issue. Based on a selective appropriation of genre markers, director's star personae, and textual eccentricities, the shift from mainstream to 'cult' also announces a post-modern turn in the production and consumption of contemporary television.