Reading The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan Douglas inspired the idea for my final project. For my final project I am researching one of my favorite TV shows from the 90's, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. The show first aired it's pilot episode in January of 1993. I have learned that it had 14 million households watching on the Saturday night prime time television slot. The show stared British actress Jane Seymour and many sites I have looked at call her the 'queen of the mini series'. She was well known before taking the lead on Dr. Quinn.
The show ran for six seasons and had a viewers of all ages watching, which is very uncommon. Most fans feel the show ended too soon and were surprised by the abrupt cancellation. It is unclear exactly why it was cancelled before nicely wrapping up the story. Supposedly ratings dropped,even though it continued to beat out rival shows and also cost production was an issue. However, several sources suggest that it was cancelled for featuring a female lead and not capturing the 'right' viewers.
The show was a Western but featured several things uncommon to most Westerns. "Unusual elements for a western included main characters who were African American, Native American, and ‘a female lead character, the central authority figure.” (Dow, p.165) When I was younger I never really stopped to appreciate the post feminist ideas featured on the show and it has been interesting to research now.
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