History and Tv in Czech Republic

by T. Dvorakova

I. The history of television broadcasting

The roots of television broadcasting in the Czech Lands are to be sought in the period of the so-called First Czechoslovak Republic. Probably the first Czech television set was constructed according to the British model by the film technologist František Pilát as early as 1930¹. Evaluated as historically significant are the television experiments of Assistant Professor Jaroslav Šafránek from the Physical Institute of the Medical Faculty of Charles University². Another interesting chapter in the planning of television broadcasting was the project of the Baťa shoemaking concern for its own television broadcasts in the town of Zlín (the company’s seat), based on the American and British models³. The Czech Lands⁴ could not compete with their western neighbour as concerns the size of the market and commercial strength, but in terms of the status of the media, they traditionally belonged to highly advanced regions of Europe. Thus for instance the first public broadcasts of the Czech radio station Radiojournal went on the air as early as 1923.

In the 1930s, the Czech media industry had at its disposal a viable structure of synergically interconnected audio-visual, sound and printed media, similarly to other industrial countries of Europe⁵. But unlike Germany, interwar Czechoslovakia did not succeed in implementing regular television broadcasts. Apart from the at first cautious, though serious interest of the state and the inadequate commercial strength of Czechoslovak investors, no small role was also played by the political situation of the time when the sovereignty of the Czechoslovak Republic was threatened by Nazi Germany. The plans for television broadcasting were definitively thwarted by the Nazi occupation and the Second World War.

Soon after the end of the war, the television project began to assume much more clear-cut contours. The first operational equipment for television broadcasting was presented in the spring of 1948 at the International Radio Exhibition MEVRO in Prague. The technology proper could be speedily installed inter alia thanks to the fact that following the liberation of Czechoslovakia, Czech engineers made use of some of the know-how of several formerly German companies which had participated in the television broadcasting research carried out in the Sudetenland⁶. But further development of television broadcasting in Czechoslovakia was artificially inhibited, because in the cold war period the expertise and radar technologies were used for military purposes⁷.

It was not until April 1952 that the Czechoslovak Government unexpectedly issued a decree charging the Ministry of Telecommunications with responsibility for the construction and operation of radio and television technical equipment⁸. In the summer of the same year, a committee was set up at the Government Presidium to deal with technical issues, coordinate television broadcasting and task individual state industrial sectors manufacturing transmitters and receivers, ensuring transmission and developing camera tubes⁹. On the May Day of 1953 – in a complicated political situation a few weeks after the death of J. V. Stalin and Czech President Klement Gottwald – the Prague Studio of Czechoslovak Television started its public broadcasts.

Regular broadcasts began in February 1954, followed by the opening of other regional studios: in 1955 in Ostrava (for North Moravia and Silesia), in 1956 in Bratislava (Slovakia), in 1961 in Brno (Moravia) and in 1962 in Košice (Eastern Slovakia). Starting on the 25^th of February, 1954, Czechoslovak Television broadcast regularly 3 days a week, later in the year the periodicity increased to 4 days a week, in 1955 to 5 and in 1958 to 7 days weekly¹⁰.

Comparing with countries which have access to the sea, Czechoslovakia as a landlocked country had (and still has) at its disposal only a limited number of terrestrial broadcasting frequencies. The second channel of Czechoslovak Television nonetheless went on the air in 1970. In 1973 the second channel started broadcasting in colour, and in 1974 colour programmes appeared on the first channel as well. The third channel, the frequency of which had been kept free in the preceding years for the needs of the Soviet occupation army, went on the air in May 1989, several months before the political changes in our country¹¹.

The essential milestone in the history of Czech television broadcasting was the year of 1991, the date of the establishment of independent Slovak and later Czech Televisions; the existing Czechoslovak Television continued operating the first channel. Act no. 468/1991, on the operation of radio and television broadcasting¹², which was adopted in October 1991, differentiated between two categories of broadcasters – public ones, whose operation is envisaged by law, and license holders (private radios and televisions). Czechoslovak Television ceased to exist as of 31^st December, 1992, with the split-up of Czechoslovakia¹³.

The first licence for the operation of private television broadcasting was granted to FTV Premiéra (later on Premiéra, TV Prima), which went on the air in 1993 in Prague and Central Bohemia. A real breakthrough was the appearance of the first nationwide commercial television TV NOVA, which started broadcasting in February 1994. Its attractive programmes and excessively benevolent legislation helped it win the interest of masses of viewers, but also led to many future protracted litigations between the Czech state and international investors who accused it of failing to protect their investments. The second half of the 1990s can no doubt be called an era of commercial television, while the public Czech Television struggled to find its identity, manoeuvring between its duty of public service and the need to achieve a rating high enough to attract buyers of advertising time.

II. The here and now of television broadcasting

As in other countries, in the Czech Republic, too, the most important technical change in the television broadcasting of recent decades is digitalization. It was launched at an experimental level in 2005, and at the same time, a heightened interest in the acquisition of satellite and cable transmission licences was observable, with private investors clearly planning to acquire nationwide digital frequencies in the future. The CSFILM channel emerged inter alia (see below), and truly nationwide digitalization was gradually taking place in individual regions from July 2008 till October 2010.

In the second part of last decade, a noticeable shift also occurred in the till then rather limited attempts to interconnect television broadcasting with state-of-the-art telecommunication technologies. In 2007, O2, the largest Czech telecommunication operator,

launched a commercially successful project of multimedia services including IPTV and Video on demand¹⁴. The Czech Television has also adopted in recent years a very progressive strategy of disseminating its contents by means of the internet. On its web site it currently offers an extensive audio-visual archive, including a complete programme of newscasts, but also programmes protected by copyright, documentary films of independent producers etc.¹⁵. Experiments with paid streaming of the complete range of Czech Television broadcasts were conducted in 2009 and discontinued¹⁶. The activities of Czech Television also have an impact on private operators of terrestrial television broadcasting, but so far only to a limited extent¹⁷. The Czech media scene is still waiting for its first strong purely internet television. It is obvious that the foreseeable future of television broadcasting in the Czech Republic, as in other countries, will be characterized by interlinking telecommunication and television services with modern technologies (HDTV broadcasting, D3-stereoscopic television etc.).

Currently most Czech viewers can choose from 4 broadcasting television multiplexes with 11 nationwide channels broadcasting terrestrially in the Czech language¹⁸. They include¹⁹:

Channel	Operator	Broadcaster category	Contents format and orientation
ČT1	Czech Television	public	full range
ČT2	Czech Television	public	more demanding target groups, documentary and discussion programmes, programmes for/about minorities, sport
ČT24	Czech Television	public	newscasts, commentaries, magazines
ČT4	Czech Television	public	Sport
NOVA	CET 21 Ltd.	private	full range
Nova Cinema	CET 21 Ltd.	private	serials, films
Prima	FTV Prima, Ltd.	private	full range
Prima COOL	FTV Prima, Ltd.	private	serials, films
Barrandov TV	Barrandov Television Studio,a.s.(joint-stock Co).	private	almost full range
Z1	První zpravodajská, a.s.	private	newscasts, economy
Óčko	MAFRA	private	music

As concerns historical genres, a further number of nationwide TV channels are available in the Czech Republic only in cable, satellite or other paid-for broadcasting modes, namely²⁰:

Channel	Contents formats and orientation
CSFILM	archive Czech and Slovak films
Docu	archive Czech and Slovak documentary films (the CSFILM group)
Viasat History	international documentary channel specializing in history
Spektrum	international documentary channel, thematic series focussed on history
Discovery	international documentary channel, including documentaries on history
National Geographic	international documentary channel, including documentaries on history

III. Relation between television and history

When we look at the history of Czech television broadcasting, we find that from the social-historical point of view, the history of the nation influenced the development of the institution of Czechoslovak (later on the Czech) Television in much the same way as it did the destinies of the entire Czechoslovak population. But the opposite model applies, too: on many occasions, television became an active tool of shaping the nation’s history.

While in the period of the First Republic television broadcasting on a non-state (whether private or public) basis was contemplated as well, after 1945 this variant was unthinkable. Even though the post-war Czechoslovak Republic then was not yet a communist country, the influence of radically leftist concepts of cultural policy was practically absolute²¹. And as early as the summer of 1945, that means a mere couple of months after the end of World War II, the Czechoslovak film industry was nationalized, according to war-time plans. From then on, all sorts of film-relating business were to be possible solely within the frame of the state monopoly. Czech and Slovak theatres were nationalized, too, as were other types of cultural institutions. Therefore it is not surprising that the regime counted with television as a potentially powerful propaganda instrument only provided it was put under state control.

The communist putsch in February 1948 naturally further tightened up the state supervision over what was to become the dominant medium of government propaganda. The decision in 1948 to suspend experiments with television broadcasting as well as that on the reinstatement in 1952 of plans for a speedy implementation of an elementary form of television broadcasting in Czechoslovakia were taken at the highest places. The Czechoslovak Television was established as a state enterprise whose management directly reported to the Government and the Communist Party leadership. The exact mechanisms of official censorship practice and unofficial interference with the contents of the broadcasts practised by official circles (the Government, the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party etc.) have not yet been sufficiently explored. What is certain is the fact that they took place at many different levels, starting with jamming the broadcasts of ‘problematic’ programmes and ending with removals and replacements of the Czechoslovak Television management.

In 1961, Czech and Slovak households altogether already possessed one million television sets, ²² to which 250 000 were added each subsequent year, and by the end of the 1960s their number climbed to as many as three million²³. Together with the radio, television became the most important mass medium in the country. The swift widening of the range of television broadcasting coincided with the far reaching democratizing changes in the 1960s, which culminated in the Prague Spring and were violently suppressed in 1968 by the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Treaty armies. After the abolition of censorship in March 1968, Czechoslovak Television became one of the most effective channels of disseminating the ideas of the democratic movement, and its Director Jiří Pelikán was one of the symbols of the revival process in general. The above-described two-way influencing of historical events in Czechoslovakia and the developments in the Czechoslovak Television was particularly evident in periods of political escalation. During the uprising of Prague’s inhabitants against the Nazis in May 1945, it was the radio, as the chief mass medium, which directly intervened in the historical event: most blood was shed in its defence. In case of the occupation in August 1968, the influence of the radio and television on the historical event was balanced. They broadcast from secret temporary studios which were gradually exposed during live transmission and silenced by the occupation troops, until the transmission routes were completely cut off.

The resumption of Czech Television broadcasting on the 4^th of September, 1968 met with a huge viewer response. From their very beginning, the post-occupation broadcasts were subjected to heavy censorship²⁴. The reinstallation of neo-Stalinist cadres²⁵ and the onset of the so-called ‘normalization’ further curtailed the freedom of expression. But because of the prevailing mood in society, it was being clipped little by little. Quick and immediate were interventions in the coverage of current affairs, while artistic creation was not affected very much in the first wave of suppression. Still in January 1969 the television covered the suicide committed by the philosophy student Jan Palach in protest against the changes in society in the aftermath of the occupation²⁶. Palach’s funeral, covered live by the television, became one of the last national demonstrations against the occupiers. In March 1969, the Czechoslovak Television mediated for its viewers the euphoria of the whole nation when the Czech squad beat the Soviets at the World Ice-hockey Championship. But in August 1969, it already reported on the protests on the occasion of the first anniversary of the occupation entirely in the spirit of the normalization propaganda²⁷.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Czechoslovak Television was absolutely the most important means of government propaganda. The emphasis which the establishment placed on the contents of television broadcasts was connected with a general trend in society – a departure from the public to the private spheres, and also growing consumerism, supported by the regime. The television set became a matter-of-fact part of the equipment of households, weekend cottages, pubs and restaurants (which, with few exceptions, obligatorily closed at

10 p.m.). Another reason why the rating of Czechoslovak Television was so high in these decades was the shortage of other opportunities for the population to enjoy their leisure. As regards genre preferences, the television as well as the film output of that time, an effort of the makers to depart from topical to escapist, historical or so-called timeless themes is observable. As we will see below, they sometimes came up against bans imposed by the dramaturgy management. Propaganda dominated newscasts and commentaries, but also documentary programmes and fiction, including historical serials in which the communist regime made use of the proclaimed concept of historiography²⁸.

The process of the so-called glasnost and perestroika, which started in the Eastern bloc countries in the mid-1980s, was becoming reflected in Czechoslovak Television programmes at a very slow pace. And it is symptomatic that the television kept more or less silent about the earliest moments of the Velvet Revolution. The massacre of the protesting students in central Prague Národní třída was trivialized in its newscasts, and the alleged illegitimacy of the rally was stressed. The key role was played by a rumour about the death of one of the students, spread in good faith mainly by the exile Radio Free Europe. Meanwhile a struggle of the employees for impartiality of informing about the events in the capital city erupted in Czechoslovak Television. The first uncensored newscast could be watched by its viewers on the 26^th of November, 1989²⁹. The timely lifting of censorship no doubt contributed to the smooth progress of political changes in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

One of the last examples of Czech Television becoming itself an active co-creator of history was the so-called television crisis at the turn of 2000 and 2001. The conflict between its employees and its management caused by political pressure on the choice of persons to fill the managerial posts once again sent hundreds of thousands of people to the streets.

IV. The pre-1989 image of history in television

In the initial years, the television programme was to a large degree composed of ‘borrowed’ theatre performances, including operas, variety shows, later on also reportages and live broadcasts. But borrowed feature films and documentaries were predominant. The historical genre, mediated by such borrowed programmes, thus appeared in the Czech and Slovak television broadcasting scheme already in the first months of broadcasting³⁰. A further number of genres appeared in the second half of the 1950s: newscasts, commentaries and educational programmes. Regular daily newscasts started in 1956. In 1959, Czech Television broadcast the first part of the first Czech fiction-type TV serial, but all serials presented till 1967 were void of historical elements³¹.

During the Prague Spring the Czech society started, among other things, to take interest in events of recent past which had been either suppressed completely by the totalitarian regime or the official information about them was had been strongly biased. Of the known examples, let us mention the reportage of Ota Bednářová and Milan Tomsa Svědectví pro výstrahu / A Warning Testimony – reconstruction of a 1954 political trial the rehabilitation process in 1963, or Hele, Čendo, kvete bez / Look, Čenda, the lilac is in bloom – an inquiry into the fates in 1945-1968 of the young people who were children in May 1945 and were photographed in the arms of Red Army soldiers. The important topic, condemned by the totalitarian regime, of Czechoslovaks in western exile who participated in anti-Nazi resistance during the Second World War was dealt with by Tibor Podhorec in the documentary film Dvakrát odvážní / Twice Valiant³². The absolutely best-known television film of this stream is the four-part documentary of Vlastimil Vávra Na pomoc generální prokuratuře / In Aid of the General Prosecutor, investigating the real causes of the alleged suicide of Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk³³ in 1948.

The documentary and journalistic production in the 1970s and 1980s was characterized by a return to the traditional ideological frames of depicting history. Historical events were mostly commemorated on the occasion of various anniversaries. Those promoted by the regime were mostly connected with the history of the Communist Party, the workers’ movement, the communist putsch in 1948 and similar events in other countries (the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, the first manned space flight etc.). A part of the documentary output was produced under the direct supervision of the Ministry of the Interior; it included documentaries which showed the democratizing processes of the 1960s, Czech émigrés etc. in a negative light³⁴.

A significant genre, which well documents the ideological development of the presentation of history, is that of fiction serial. It is a profiling genre, demanding in terms of production and cost, which the Czechoslovak Television intended to offer at prime-time, and into which both the makers and the ideological supervisors were logically prepared to invest great energy. Of the 123 Czech serials and mini-series about the events of 1989 produced by Czechoslovak Television, 34 can be called historical³⁵.

The statistics make it clear that as concerns television serials, the most fruitful period was that between 1968 and 1976. In 1977 to 1981, on the contrary, the television dramaturgy left historical serials out of its calculation. We still know little about the causes of their total disappearance from the production plans of Czechoslovak Television, because no detailed historical studies relating to this period have been undertaken so far.

In 1968 till 1971, the liberal tendencies of the 1960s – the time when the notion of traditional Marxist historiography as the only possible interpretation of history³⁶ was being dismantled in literature and drama – were still influencing the manner of depicting history. The authors of Czech serials unequivocally preferred the history of everyday life (serials Marriages of Convenience, F. L. Věk) to the big-men-history concept. Instead of some of the epochs highlighted before, the serial stories could just as well take place in other historical periods (e.g. late baroque in F. L. Věk). Their protagonists were no longer only workmen, communists and national revival artists, but also representatives of the emerging Czech bourgeoisie (Marriages of Convenience), foreign celebrities (Alexandr Dumas starší / Alexander Dumas Senior), or characters from the Prague underground (Hříšní lidé města pražského / The Sinful People of Prague City). One serial (Dreyfusova aféra / The Dreyfus Affair) was even made in Czech-French co-production.

Example: Sňatky z rozumu / Marriages of Convenience (director František Filip, CST 1968)

A serial based on a novel of the same name by the Czech writer Vladimír Neff. It narrates the story of two entrepreneurial families during the second stage of national revival from 1859 to 1881. Apart from the family peripeteias, the main theme of the serial is the crystallization of the Czech bourgeoisie within the frame of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Most of the protagonists are fictitious or loosely modelled after real historical personages. But renowned figures of Czech history are also directly present in the story, seen from the angle of vision of the middle-class Czech family. The script was written by Otto Zelenka. This serial belongs to the best ever produced in our country.

Starting in 1971, the presentation of history in Czech serials was gradually returning to the concept of Marxist historiography. The authors of historical serials were forced to promote the totalitarian regime. The most typical examples included extensive serial chronicles, spanning several decades and describing Czech modern history, but this time completely in the spirit of communist ideology. Most of them were the life stories of men facing historical reversals (farmer Jan Hamr in the serial Nejmladší z rodu Hamrů / The Youngest of the Hamr Family /1975/, glassmaker Jakub Cirkl in the serial Synové a dcery Jakuba Skláře / The Sons and Daughters of Jacob the Glassmaker /1984/, resistance fighter Petr Vitásek in Rodáci / The Fellow Countrymen /1988/ etc.). A good example illustrating the changes in the treatment of history is the loose follow-up of the serial Marriages of Convenience, called Ill Feelings (1968).

Example: Zlá krev / Ill Feelings (director František Filip, CST 1986)

A loose follow-up of the serial Marriages of Convenience, based on Neff’s novels Zlá krev / Ill Feelings and Veselá vdova / The Merry Widow. This time the story is situated in the last two decades of the 19^th century. Beside the two middle-class families from the preceding serial, the Pecold working-class family is put in the foreground as well. Contrary to the Marriages of Convenience, Ill Feelings completely gives up attempts to portray the whole gamut of the period cultural and social trends. Emphasis is put solely on the development of the workers’ movement, the social and ethnic tensions of the time. The last scene of the serial shows demonstrating workers and students, while the commentator says: ‘The people has closed ranks to offer resistance.’

The most striking examples of the dominance of ideology over Czech television production in the 1970s and 1980s are serials celebrating exponents of the regime (Gottwald /1986/) and its protective apparatus (Thirty Cases of Major Zeman /1976/). In this case the regime made direct use of history for developing its own iconography. In terms of approach to history, these serials returned far back into the 1950s.

Example: Třicet případů majora Zemana / Thirty Cases of Major Zeman (director Jiří Sequens, CST 1976)

This high-budget serial spans the period between 1945 and 1974 – one episode per year. The star hero is Jan Zeman, a communist and anti-fascist who, after returning from concentration camp, accepts an offer to join first the public and later on the secret police. He fights tirelessly against the criminal and political enemies of the regime. Most episodes are based on real political events (the post-war ‘transfer’ of German population from the border regions of Czechoslovakia, confrontations with the members of the Ukrainian insurgent army of Stepan Bandera in Eastern Slovakia, the communist takeover in 1948, the murder of communist functionaries in 1951, the anti-communist resistance of brothers Ctirad and Josef Mašín, the Prague Spring, events of the year 1968, the case of the underground music band Plastic People of the Universe etc.). Some episodes are of a purely criminal genre, while the overall impact of the serial is heavily ideological, aimed against all ‘enemies’ of the regime (West Germany and its agents, former Nazis, the church, right-wing intellectuals etc.).

Yet even in the 1970s and 1980s, there were honourable exceptions among Czech serials, in which the compulsory ideological ingredient was smoothed. They included in particular the interesting serial Once upon a time there was a house, or the serial for children and young people Vlak dětství a naděje / The Train of Childhood and Hope (directed by the outstanding film maker Karel Kachyňa), both situated in the period of the Second World War.

Example: Byl jednou jeden dům / Once upon a time there was a house (director František Filip, CST 1974

The scriptwriters Jan Otčenášek and Oldřich Daněk made use of classical ideological frameworks: the chief characters of the serial, which covered the period from the late 1930s till 1945, are the inhabitants of a Prague tenement house – a group clearly stratified in terms of their class background. But there is very little ideology in the rendering of their stories. Taboo themes are raised, too, such as the Czechs’ voluntary work in the Third Reich, the cowardice of some characters, human sacrifices that served no purpose, or casualties which could have been avoided. Big history is replaced by the micro-cosmos of tragicomic destinies.

In the second half of the 1980s, an increasing share of serials were co-produced with western televisions, and an ideological slant was naturally undesirable in their case. They included for instance Circus Humberto (1988) and Dobrodružství kriminalistiky / Adventures in Criminological Investigation (1989).

V. The image of history in television after 1989

After 1989, the image of history in the Czech media – television not excepting – assumed an unthought-of plasticity especially thanks to the substantial broadening of the ways of its reflection. A single, compulsory concept of historiography was replaced by a number of approaches and methods. This change was followed by a dramatic upswing of the historical genre, which still continues. Growing interest of televisions in presenting historical programmes has been observable particularly in the past few years. The reasons are no doubt many and varied – major anniversaries in recent years, the trendiness of retro genres, or sufficient time distance from the collapse of the totalitarian regime. When we try to identify the main or significant elements of contents and form which are linked with the image of history, we can define several clearly profiled genre and thematic groups of historical programmes.

The public Czech Television has four channels at its disposal (CT1, CT2, CT24 and CT4). As for format, the full-range CT1 channel focuses on the majority viewer and tries to compete by its offer with private televisions. CT1 presents all historical epochs which are currently popular – from antiquity to the revolutionary events of 1989. It does so through borrowed feature films (mostly of Czech, American, British, French and Italian make), but also serials and dramas of its own production. Serials, drama productions and films produced directly by Czech Television portray all epochs, most often modern history. These products frequently use history as an elegant retro backdrop (the serials Četnické humoresky / Cops and Robbers, Náhrdelník / The Necklace – a story unfolding at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, etc.); or as a necessary period setting for adaptations of important literary works (such as the novel of Karel Poláček Bylo nás pět / There were five of us, with children as the protagonists, Adolf Branald’s Stříbrná paruka / Silver Wig, Josef Škvorecký’s Prima sezóna / Swell Season, the biography of the writer Jan Neruda Laskavý divák promine / Begging the pardon of the kind viewer, Zdeněk Jirotka’s Saturnin and others).

But even in the mainstream production we can find a group of works the main goal of which is to reflect history. In an overwhelming majority of Czech fictions of this type, it is reflection of the totalitarian (Protectorate or communist) past. So far its depiction is, perhaps without exception, deliberately set off against the communist ideology of the preceding period. Themes as the war-time communist resistance or celebration of the communist coup d’état in 1948 are perceived as politically improper and are not used. On the other hand, the stories of the victims of communism and an innovative (in terms of political stand and genre) view of the Nazi occupation get the floor. Good examples include the psychological serial Friendship in the House of Anguish, Zdivočelá země / The Land Gone Wild – a serial with elements of adventure narrating the story of an ex-RAF pilot who, after returning to his homeland, wrestles with all sorts of persecution – or Tři králové / The Three Wise Men, describing the fates of three famous non-communist resistance fighters during World War II.

Example: Přítelkyně z domu smutku / Friendship in the House of Anguish (director Hynek Bočan, CT 1992)

A serial based on the autobiographical memoirs of the writer and signatory of Charter 77 Eva Kantůrková, who was imprisoned in the early 1980s for her anti-regime activities. It is a psychological study of an intellectual who is forced to adapt herself to the prison environment. The work has won several foreign awards.

Similarly we could give examples of television productions which approach history with a higher degree of reflection comparing with more routine retro products. Let us mention e.g. Operace Silver A / Operation Silver A, which combines the theme of the fates of Czech film stars of the Protectorate period with that of the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. The psychological television drama Archiv / The Archive, though situated in the present, deals with the issue of long-term negative impacts of the work of the communist secret police upon the lives of the people whom it targeted. Another, in artistic terms very valuable example is the television drama PF 77.

Example: PF 77 (director Jaroslav Brabec, CT 2003)

The script of this television production was ‘written-to-measure’ by the renowned author Pavel Kohout and his wife Jelena Mašínová for the actress Vlasta Chramostová (appearing in the main role), one of the leading figures of Czech dissent in the 1970s and 1980s. It is a story of a famous character actress of the National Theatre and teacher at the Drama Academy. The crisis comes when the Charter 77 is published in January 1977: the authorities exert pressure on her, with the aim to make her publicly condemn the Charter. One of her students signs the Charter and is expelled from the Academy. The experimental form of the narration accentuates the psychological level of the story, the suffocating atmosphere and irrationality of everyday life in Czechoslovakia of the mid-1970s.

A completely new phenomenon in the Czech television environment is the mainstream serial Tell a Story, which has been on the programme of Czech Television since 2009. It is the first Czech historical, prime-time soap opera of many parts, probably made according to foreign models. In its case, history serves as a commercial aspect of the product, and at the same time as its aim.

Example: Vyprávěj / Tell a Story (director Biser Arichtev, CT since 2009)

The story covers the period from 1964 to 2005. Four series composed of a total of 14 instalments are planned, relating to years 1964-1975, 1975-1985, 1985-1995 and 1995-2005. The serial is being produced in a cheap retro-style. It is primarily a commercial product, designed to entertain and target the broadest possible group of viewers. Emphasis is placed on various aspects of everyday life, ‘ordinariness’, nostalgic set-design, amusing paradoxes of the past, and family atmosphere. History is reflected as a time of firm social bonds and certainties of childhood. It is no coincidence that the subtitle of the serial is ‘In all times we long for happiness’.

The basic story line describes the twists and turns in the life of an ‘ordinary’ family – a young Czecho-Slovak married couple, their child, closest relatives and friends. Big history appears in the serial only insofar as it intervenes in the lives of ‘ordinary’, apolitical people. Specific historical events are mostly depicted with humorous detachment. But there are a few interesting exceptions: the part devoted to the suicide of Jan Palach, and the plot concerning the persecution of the musical underground, which are presented quite seriously or with an admixture of romanticism.

The serial is presented as a key product of Czech Television. Its screening is accompanied by a massive promotion campaign, focused on selected aspects of the past, and presenting history as a game (interactive web pages, combination of borrowed visuals from the serial and cartoon elements, historical quizzes, questionnaires regarding memories of the past etc.³⁷.

To have the full picture, let us add that occasionally historical documents appear in the CT1 programme as well – mainstream products of the type of BBC’s Aircraft Crashes etc.

The CT2 minority channel grants much more space to documentary products, including those reflecting history. The documentary output itself can be divided into many groups – for working purposes I will use the terms ‘typical CT documentary’ and ‘independent documentary’.

The first category involves documentary films, whether produced by Czech Television or independent makers, which are primarily designed for television. Such products are of a standardized length, depending on the current broadcasting scheme (e.g. ca 13, 23 or 53 minutes) but also a standardized form. For historical documents, the form of the so-called ‘speaking heads’ (surviving contemporaries, historians etc.) is used, in combination with illustrative scenes and out-of-vision commentaries. Illustrative shots are very often borrowed from archived audiovisual recordings (newsreels³⁸, feature films, archive serials); or alternatively, shots of documents, photographs, or illustrative pictures of places. Less frequent is the use of elements of ‘documentary drama’ (acted scenes with elements of fiction, subjectivized camera etc.), which does not have a strong tradition in Czech television production³⁹. This form of course is not binding, and a variety of its mutations (such as in-vision commentator) appear quite often. The dramaturgic lines of reflecting history are clear-cut in this group of documentaries. Most often, they present concrete fates of the victims of the communist regime. Many primarily television documentaries are produced in longer cycles and screened once a week. Among the recent examples, worth of mention are Neznámí hrdinové – Pohnuté osudy / Unknown Heroes – Momentous Fates, stories of less-known fighters against the totalitarian regime, or the series Příběhy železné opony / Stories of the Iron Curtain and Captives of the Iron Curtain.

Example: the series V zajetí železné opony / Captives of the Iron Curtain (different directors, 2006-2007)

This series of thirteen-minute documentaries capture the fates of people who tried to defect from communist Czechoslovakia. Their stories greatly vary: from adventurous attempts to cross the borders in a hand-made hot-air balloon, to the stories of dissidents whom the secret police forced to emigrate by means of torture. The moderator of the series is the famous folk singer Jaroslav Hutka, who spent a part of his life in exile himself.

In terms of production, the so-called ‘independent documentaries’⁴⁰are more ambitious projects as a rule, often designed for further distribution (in cinemas and at festivals, in the form of DVDs etc.). Their form is authorial and very diverse, as is their length. They often deal with similar topics as the primarily television documentaries, but also draw attention to new issues or use novel ways of their treatment. Of all their authors, let us mention three renowned documentary makers who work with historical themes in an idiosyncratic manner. The established author of historical documentaries Pavel Štingl⁴¹ works most often with themes relating to the period of the Second World War. Outstanding among his documentaries is Deník pana Pfitznera / Mr. Pfitzner Diary – a detailed portrait of an apolitical university teacher and later the Nazi Mayor of Prague, composed solely of archive material and commentaries. Jan Šikl is the author of the documentary series Soukromé století / The Private Century, a portrayal of selected human destinies cutting across the history of the 20^th century, based on family and amateur films.⁴² The Czech documentarist Helena Třeštíková, who is best known abroad, specializes in a specific way of depicting the past – throughout her career she has been using the form of long-term observation cycle, observing many of the protagonists for as long as ten years. In these documentaries, history is treated as not the primary subject, but a secondary value of depicting the present which has in the meantime become the past. This manner of presenting history facilitates the highest possible authenticity. Apart from the life stories of the protagonists, direct representation of everyday life, of the mentality of young people 30 years ago, the social aspects of life in the given period etc. are the most attractive features of these projects.

Example: Marcela (director Helena Třeštíková, 2006)

This full-length film is based on the project of Manželské etudy / Marital Sketches, launched in the early 1980s. It starts with the wedding of the protagonist, a young woman called Marcela. Her marriage suffers from a number of risk factors – the dominant mother-in-law, financial shortage, poor housing situation. The living standard in the first half of the 1980s is shown as very different from the current one. Despite the birth of a child at its early stage, the marriage breaks up after several years. The son born out of Marcela’s second short-lived relationship suffers from cerebral dysfunction. After 1989, Marcela, a single mother, is destitute. From her perspective, the 1990s look very different from the way they are presented in the Czech media: in concrete respects, they are much rougher. Marcela loses hope for an improvement of her social status and personal situation. For financial reasons the family moves out of Prague. The most dramatic moment comes when Marcela’s first-born daughter is reported missing, and a few days later found dead. The documentarists themselves become involved in the stories, as do the viewers who, after the presentation of Marcela’s tragedy, send the unfortunate women money and offer their help…

Another important television genre dealing with history are discussion and journalistic programmes and magazines. The CT2 and CT24 channels of Czech Television devote a relatively large space to this type of programmes on history. Every week CT2 premieres in the prime time (and CT24 reruns) the historical series Historiec.cz / History.cz (on occasions under the title Historie.eu / History.eu). The commentators, as a rule joined by three or four historians, debate on selected topics, often of a character relevant to the current situation. Apart from modern history, the discussions concern European and older history, and are supported by excerpts from archive newsreels, feature films, documentaries and serials. One of programmes of this type which attracts large audiences is the Retro magazine, focused on selected phenomena of pre-1989 everyday life (such as hairstyles, popular sports, housing, literature for children and young people etc.). The information is presented in an entertaining, sometimes playful forms, with the moderator dressed in retro style interviewing contemporaries and experts in the given field. In this case, too, illustrative materials from the television and film archives are used. Specific reminders of the past are year-long projects of Czech Television relating to particular anniversaries. The first appeared in 2008 under the title The Fateful Eights in Our history, a reminiscence of important years ending with the figure 8. It was followed by the project 20 Years of Freedom⁴³, devoted to the 20^th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. The campaign of 2010 is entitled Democracy: Year 1⁴⁴, and deals with the changes in society after 1989. These projects further include evening programmes on CT24 (and in some cases also CT2 or CT1), commenting upon selected issues, reruns of past prime-time newscasts and other archive documentaries, as well as new documentary films on the respective topics.

Even though private televisions are not primarily interested in presenting history, they, too, have contributed to the wide-ranging discussion about it. Apart from borrowed foreign films and TV serials, in which history figures more or less frequently, it was some private television channels in particular which have decided to make use of the popularity of the serials from the 1970s and 1980s and rerun them. First among them was Prima, which reran inter alia the above-mentioned propagandist serial Thirty Cases of Major Zeman. Currently the film and television production from the totalitarian times is utilized by several channels: beside Prima also Barrandov TV, which however concentrates on films from the television archives. A specific position is held by the paid-for television channels CSFILM and DocuCS, which offer exclusively older Czech and Slovak feature films and documentaries. With respect to their narrow focus, these channels include a number of almost unknown works of Czech cinematography (historical genres, propagandists ones not excepting) in their offer, and as such are important means of providing the public with access to the film archives.

VI. Résumé: The Czech image of history

A discussion has been taking place in the Czech press for some time already which highlights the problem of Czech schoolchildren being taught mainly about older Czech and international history, while very little time is awarded in the curricula to modern history. The mass media, on the other hand, remain faithful to topics which are typical of them – current affairs, information which is fresh and attractive. History is thus mostly recalled in connection with current events – such as anniversaries or new discoveries⁴⁵ – and in some instances used for making the discussion more attractive, whether by means of its retro setting or by raising issues which provoke it.

As in other countries of the former Eastern bloc, in the Czech Republic, too, the image of national history is still predominantly determined by the need for a reflection of the several decades of totalitarian rule. And this need is generally perceived as self-evident, understandable and desirable, even though not all viewers need to concern themselves with history in any way. Currently the periods reflected most frequently include that of the “Velvet Revolution”, because of its recent 20^th anniversary. Very popular among the authors of television programmes are also the 1960s which culminated in the Prague Spring and the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Treaty armies in August 1968. Another gratifying subject of Czech television programmes are the 1950s and also the period of so-called normalization (1970s-1980s). A traditionally contemplated period is that of the Second World War (including the crisis year of 1938 and the Munich Agreement).

It is well known that for historical reasons, the Czechs are sceptical as concerns the trustworthiness of their authorities and hence also the official interpretations of history, and their scepticism is often peppered with specific humour. An interesting testimony to this effect was given several years ago by the television contest Největší Čech / The Greatest Czech, based on the model of the British competition Great Britons (2002). In this programme of the Superstar show type, the viewers were choosing in several rounds the greatest figure of Czech history. It is symptomatic that for a long time it seemed that the winner would be Jára Cimrman – a popular, mystifying character of a jack-of-all trades and all-inventor, created by the founders of a famous theatre ensemble whose plays parody the soapy images of 19^th-century Czech national revivalists. Later on he was excluded from the contest because the BBC owners of the licence did not accept fictitious personages. In the end the largest number of votes were cast for Emperor Charles IV⁴⁶, whose ‘Czechhood’ is however disputable as well …

Another conclusion following from the above text is that Czech authors and viewers probably do not suffer from an excessive inferiority complex as concerns their history, nor do they feel a need to conceal its painful moments. Controversial topics and themes which are not pleasant for the Czech nation, such as its war-time collaboration with the Nazi regime, violence against Germans during their post-war transfer from Czechoslovakia, mass collaboration of the Czech population with the secret police etc., are debated and reflected relatively often. In some instances, what may no doubt be also problematic is the superficiality of the message, insufficient synthesis of information, the need of looking for narrative structure⁴⁷ and the consequent schematic conception of particular historical epochs. Thus the 1960s, for examples, are mostly presented very uncritically, very positively, with a certain measure of nostalgia, as a cult period in Czech history. The so-called normalization in the 1970s and 1980, on the contrary, and the time of the greatest political oppression by the communist regime in the 1950s, are mostly depicted as dark historical periods. The situation changes when it comes to the Second War World, because this period has already been subjected to a traditional positivist reflection and today emphasis is placed on innovation – new facts (non-communist resistance etc.), humour, a psychological view of history, aspects of everyday life, search for new genre types etc.

In the course of the past two decades, a trend of a departure from the old, positivist concept in the spirit of ‘big-men-history’ to a micro-historical, subjective, particularized angle of vision is evident in the Czech television output dealing with history. A progressive line is set especially by authorial documentary films, which mostly do not slide into even a semblance of positivism. The micro-historical point of view is adopted quite often even in mediocre television production, also thanks to its relatively low costs. Production cheapness and low demands of course cut both ways – they are inter alia the main for returning excerpts from archive newsreels and television news to the Czech TV screens, but also for the reruns of more or less propagandist television serials from totalitarian times.

Czech viewers who are interested in the modern history of their nation thus get the green light – but not so much those who are interested in older Czech history and the history which unfolded outside the Czech valley. With a few exceptions (the cold war, the Second World War, the Stalinist persecution etc.), programmes aimed primarily at reflection of foreign political history are almost absent in Czech television output. It makes one wonder why we are learning so little about the history of our neighbours⁴⁸, including Slovakia.

Tereza Czesany Dvořáková

Translation Alena Faltýsková

Referencies¹:

• Milan Bárta, Cenzura československého filmu a televize v letech 1953-1968. In SECURITAS IMPERII. Sborník k problematice vztahů čs. komunistického režimu k “vnitřnímu nepříteli”. 2003, vol. 10, 5-58.

• Petr Bednařík, Synové a dcery Jakuba skláře I: Zachycení našich dějin v televizním seriálu Jaroslava Dietla. In: Pražské sociálně vědní studie / Prague social science studies. Praha: FSV UK 2006.

• Petr Bednařík – Irena Reifová, Normalizační televizní seriál: socialistická konstrukce reality. In: Sborník Národního muzea v Praze /Acta musei nationalis Pragae. Series C, 2008, vol. 53, No. 1-4, 71-74.

• Petr Bednařík – Irena Reifová, Obraz událostí roku 1968 v normalizačních seriálech Československé televize. In: Radim Wolák – Barbara Köpplová, Česká média a česká společnost v 60. letech. Praha: Radioservis 2008, 55-65.

• Petr Bednařík – Irena Reifová, Obsahové proměny českého televizního seriálu v letech 1989-2009. In: Jan Jirák – Barbara Köpplová – D. Kasl Kollmannová (eds.). Média dvacet let poté. Praha: Portál, 2009, 149-158 .

• Petr Blažek – Petr Cajthaml – Daniel Růžička, Kolorovaný obraz komunistické minulosti. Vznik, natáčení a uvedení Třiceti případů majora Zemana. In: Petr Kopal (ed.), Film a dějiny. Praha: NLN 2005.

• Jarmila Cysařová, Československá televize a politická moc 1953–1989. In: Soudobé dějiny 2002, vol. 3–4, 521–537.

• Jarmila Cysařová, Československá televize v období zániku komunistického režimu a vítězství demokratické revoluce (1985–1990). Praha: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR 1999.

• Jarmila Cysařová, Televize a totalitní moc 1953–1967. Praha: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR 1998.

• Jarmila Cysařová, Televize a totalitní moc 1969–1975. Praha: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, 1998.

• Vilém Čermák, Tři králové – tajemství televizního seriálu. In: Petr Kopal (ed.), Film a dějiny. Praha: NLN 2005.

• Čísla a fakta o Československé televizi. Praha: ČST, 1978.

• Georg G. Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge, University Press of New England 1997.

• Barbara Köpplová – Jitka Kryšpínová – Petr Bednařík – Lenka Čábelová – Václav Moravec, Dějiny českých médií v datech: rozhlas, televize, mediální právo. Praha: Karolinum 2003.

• Jiří Moc, Seriály od A do Z. Lexikon českých seriálů. Praha: Česká televize 2009.

• Irena Reifová, Kryty moci a úkryty před mocí. In: Jakub Končelík – Barbara Köpplová – Irena Prázová (eds.), Konsolidace podnikání a vládnutí v České republice a Evropské unii II. Sociologie, prognostika a správa, média.Praha: Matfyzpress, 2002, 354-371.

• Irena Reifová, Synové a dcery Jakuba skláře: Dominantní a rezistentní významy televizní populární fikce ve druhé polovině 80. let. In. Mediální studia 2007, No. 1, 34-67.

• Daniel Růžička, Major Zeman – propaganda nebo krimi? Praha: Práh, 2005.
• Miloš Smetana, Televizní seriál a jeho paradoxy. Praha: SV nakladatelství, 2000.
• Strasmajer, Vladimír a kol.: Cesta k divákovi, Dvacet let Československé televize, ČST Praha 1973.
• Jaroslav Šafránek, Televise. Praha: Svaz radioobchodníků, 1936.

Internet sources

Study on history of television a.o. at:

• http://www.louc.cz/temata.html#hist (Milan Šmíd, Historie televize v ČR – 1-5; SERIÁL: 50 let televize v kostce).

Czech television history at:

• http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct/historie/index.php
• http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/english/history.php (English)

Czech television yearbooks, statistics etc at:

• http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct/publikace/index.php

• http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/english/publications.php (English)

Czech television share statistics at:

• http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct/sledovanost/index.php

Czech television on-line broadcasting and streaming at:

• http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/

Appendix – Share of historical series 1959-2009²

Year	Number of all series	Historical series3	Percentage of historical series
1959	1	0	0 %
1960	1	0	0 %
1961	0	0	X
1962	0	0	X
1963	1	0	0 %
1964	1	0	0 %
1965	0	0	X
1966	1	0	0 %
1967	2	0	0 %
1968	4	3	75 %
1969	2	2	100 %
1970	2	2	100 %
1971	8	2	25 %
1972	7	4	57 %
1973	2	1	50 %
1974	2	1	100 %
1975	7	4	57 %
1976	3	2	67 %
1977	4	0	0 %
1978	4	0	0 %
1979	5	0	0 %
1980	6	0	0 %
1981	7	0	0 %
1982	6	1	17 %
1983	8	1	13 %
1984	7	4	57 %
1985	11	1	9 %
1986	9	3	33 %
1987	2	0	0 %
1988	11	3	27 %
1989	6	1	17 %
1990	3	1	33 %
1991	6	3	50 %
1992	11	5	45 %
1993	5	3	60 %
1994	10	6	60 %
19954	10	5	50 %
1996	11	2	18 %
1997	5	3	60 %
1998	5	1	20 %
1999	5	2	40 %
2000	8	1	13 %
2001	5	2	40 %
2002	1	1	100 %
2003	5	3	60 %
20045	8	0	0 %
2005	9	0	0 %
2006	9	0	0 %
2007	12	2	17 %
2008	15	1	7 %
2009	9	1	11 %
Total	282	77	27 %