Fantasy television is a genre oftelevision programming featuring elements of thefantastic, often includingmagic,supernatural forces, or exoticfantasy worlds. Fantasy television programs are often based on tales from mythology and folklore, or are adapted fromfantasy stories in other media. The boundaries of fantasy television often overlap withscience fiction andhorror but also realistic fiction.
Similar to the difficulty faced by scholars offantasy film, classifying a television program as fantasy can be somewhat problematic given the fluid boundaries of the genre. Not all programs with fantastic elements may qualify as fantasy. Children's programs in particular often feature fantastic elements that do not qualify the program as fantasy, such as the giant talking avianBig Bird of the popularPBS seriesSesame Street. Nevertheless, some critics classify certain children's programs that feature traditional fantasy elements such asbarbarian characters,wizards, andmagic swords as part of the genre (see, for example,He-Man and the Masters of the Universe).[1]
Programs for general audiences may also be difficult to classify. The programThe Twilight Zone presented a series of unrelated stories, some of which were works of science fiction and some of which were tales of fantasy. The more generic term "speculative fiction" might be appropriate for such shows. Other series blend the fantasy and horror genres, such asBuffy the Vampire Slayer andAngel. And still other programs feature dream sequences or othersurreal elements, yet would not be considered fantasy shows by most fans or critics. Some of these programs serve as examples of themagical realism genre rather than fantasy, such asHBO'sSix Feet Under, which featured a realistic setting except for occasional scenes in which living and dead characters interact. In the United Kingdom, the term "telefantasy" is used as an umbrella term to collectively describe all types of programs that feature elements of the fantastic.[1]
Some critics considersuperhero programs to be works of fantasy ("superhero fantasy"), but others classify them as science fiction and still others consider them to be their own genre of programming (see, for example,Wonder Woman andLois & Clark). Proper classification is similarly ambiguous for theTokusatsu superhero programs from Japan, such asMahō Sentai Magiranger.[1]
A wide variety offantasy subgenres have been represented on television, both as original series and as television broadcasts of fantasy films. Typical examples of original programming in various subgenres include:
