Docudrama is a film genre which is found primarily, but not exclusively, on television. Brian's Song (1970)—the story of the tragic death of football player Brian Piccolo—was the first notable U.S. example. The success of Brian's Song proved to the television networks that the made-for-television, reality-based telefilm could be both a critical and popular success. However, the docudrama has been a controversial form in North America because of its apparently cavalier mixture of truth and fiction, drama and documentary—a case of blurred boundaries which unsettles some viewers and critics. The genre has had at least a dozen names and several uncomplimentary epithets applied to it: drama-documentary, dramatized documentary, dramadoc, faction, infotainment, reconstruction, historical drama, biographical drama, historical romance, thesis drama, problem play, and "based-on-fact."

For many of those who do not like the form, the television docudrama is a cheap replacement for the more distinguished...