With its dedication to the high ideals of presenting the finest in drama, music, children's programs, and political debate, the U.S. public television system has proved a significant cultural force in a nation where broadcasting is largely driven by commercial considerations, often to the detriment of quality. Public television was at least partially born in reaction to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton Minnow's now famous comment that by 1961 American commercial television had become "a vast waste-land." (In 1978 Minnow would become chairman of PBS). From its 1950s roots in educational television, public (or non-commercial) television has grown, not without problems, internal conflicts, political opposition, and funding setbacks, to enjoy some considerable popular successes as a formidable, if vulnerable, alternative to the increasingly trivial and commercial-sodden programming of late twentieth-century network television.

Public and educational television dates back to the first public radio broadcasts...