Television Storyworlds as Virtual Space examines television as a series of virtual realities viewers enter and explore one episode at a time. Drawing on specific examples, from Westworld to Green Acres, Twin Peaks to Fargo, it illustrates how each of these worlds invites us in, encourages us to move about within it, and constantly pushes against its own boundaries so that its universe continually expands and develops. Specific chapters consider the importance of title sequences in helping us enter these storyworlds, how childrens television educates us in using virtual reality, and the centrality of the post-apocalyptic series to the TV landscape. Ultimately, the book situates television as part of an artistic continuum, one that stretches back as far as cave paintings, but that also anticipates the digitally-based virtual reality that lies just on the horizon.

M. King Adkins is associate professor at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: TV, A Vast . . . Land

Chapter 1. Where Everybody Knows Your Name: TV Worlds
Chapter 2. Land Spreadin Out So Far and Wide: The TV Medium
Chapter 3. Im the Map, Im the Map, Im the Map: TVs Storyworld Techniques
Chapter 4. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Opening Credits
Chapter 5. Can You Tell Me How to Get, How to Get to Sesame Street?: Kids TV and
Chapter 6. To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before: Reinventing the World
Chapter 7. Walk the Straight and Narrow Track: Developing Worlds
Chapter 8. These Are Their Stories: Postmodern Spaces
Chapter 9. Next Time, onArrested Development: Of TV Endings

Bibliography
List of TV Shows Referenced
Index
About the Author