I would like to thank first of all my students and colleagues at that unique institution the Graduate Center of City University of New York, especially my colleagues in the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Program. Gabriel Arce Rollins, a doctoral candidate at the GC, was the research assistant who compiled the impeccable references and bibliography.

My thanks go also to the two anonymous readers of the manuscript for their kind and helpful comments and to Anthony Cond at Liverpool University Press for his speed, efficiency, and encouragement. I am grateful also to B. Ruby Rich, editor of Film Quarterly, who has during the time this book was written given me as columnist a regular opportunity to write and publish on film and television of the Spanish-speaking world.

Raúl Miranda, the head of the Centro de Documentación at the Cineteca in Mexico City has been consistently kind and helpful. In Guadalajara, Guillermo Orozco has continued to be an inspiration in Mexican TV studies. That role has been played for me in Spain by two authorities in the field at the Universidad Carlos III: Manuel Palacio and Concepción Cascajosa Virino. I am also grateful to Fran Zurián and Norberto Mínguez of the Complutense for repeated invitations at which I have been able to present my work in Madrid. The annual Coloquios Internacionales Cine Iberoamericano Contemporáneo, which I have co-organized with Nancy Berthier of the Sorbonne, Antonia del Rey Reguillo of Valencia, and Álvaro A. Fernández of Guadalajara, have been invaluable forums for learning about and presenting on Spanish-language media.

Patricia Arriaga, producer of XY, kindly introduced me at a memorable conference organized by 17, Instituto de Estudios Críticos in Mexico City, where I had the pleasure of defending the honor of Mexican TV. Andrés Solar, the producer of Crónica de castas, kindly provided the striking cover image for this book. I am also grateful for invitations to the festivals of Guadalajara, Morelia, and San Sebastián and to the market event Madrid de Cine, where I learned so much about media industries in the two countries.

An early, short version of the first chapter was published in Spanish as “La miniserie televisiva como memoria histórica: desde el 23-F hasta Marisol,” in Norberto Mínguez (ed.), Ficción y no ficción en los discursos creativos de la cultura española (Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2013), 175–84.