With television having matured as a creative medium in the past few decades, it has taken its rightful place among the subjects scholars study seriously. Professors are now analyzing the meaning and significance of classic shows with the care and intellectual respect traditionally accorded to literary masterpieces. But some academics still resist the idea that anything of genuine and lasting artistic value can be found on television. This resistance seldom results from empirical study, that is, from actually watching the TV programs other scholars are writing about. Rather, it usually takes the form of a blanket condemnation of television as a medium, a dismissal in principle that relieves the critic of any need to bother with studying individual programs. In this article, the author explains why it is time for academics to get with the program, or rather with all the artistically sophisticated programs television has to offer. (Contains 9 footnotes.)