This book argues that as TV has evolved as a corporate-managed medium it has played an influential role in shaping our understandings of social class. The book is designed to navigate the steady stream of narrow working-class representations from television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, soap operas, police dramas, daytime talk shows, etc. This study breaks new ground not only in its focus on the working class, but also by exploring the ways in which race, gender, sexuality, ability, and age intersect with class, and how these diverse experiences are interpreted by network media that have largely ignored the influence of social and economic conditions on the lives of everyday people while constructing their own tales about how the world works.