Introduction: TV, the heartland myth, and the value of cultural populism -- "Essential, desirable, and possible markets": broadcasting midwestern tastes and values -- Square dancing and champagne music: regional aesthetics and Middle America -- "Strictly conventional and moral": CBS Reports in Webster Groves -- "You're gonna make it after all!": the urbane Midwest in MTM Productions' "quality" comedies -- "There is no 'Dayton chic'": queering the Midwest in Roseanne, Ellen, and The Ellen Show -- Fertility among the ruins: reconstituting the traumatized heartland -- Epilogue: Red state, blue state, purple heartland.