A discussion of television and changes in the media over the last two decades of the 20th century. Having spent most of his career working with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Martin Esslin appraises American television with the eyes of both a detached outsider and a concerned insider. He states that American popular culture has become the popular culture of the world at large, and is thus more than a purely social phenomenon - it fascinates and in some instances frightens the whole world.