This paper outlines the predominant aesthetics of American public television's contributors and viewers. These aesthetic perspectives are elaborated in relation to specific historic, institutional, and political trends in American society. The paper traces public television usage and support as the product of confusing and sometimes contradictory cultural forces--forces whose origins predate both television and film. The paper argues that these broad forces continue to exert influence on the way many Americans, particularly public television enthusiasts, interact with this extraordinarily realistic medium. The paper also invites speculation on and reexamination of a number of widely held beliefs about television as a medium, and public television in particular: (1) the notion that television is a monolithic medium; (2) misleading conceptualizations of television as a revolutionary medium; (3) the idea that television is a lower-status popular art form largely because the most prevalent American television practices have developed in opposition to both the precepts of formal education and the value hierarchy of consciousness in Western society; and (4) the views that television is an unusually coercive and explicit medium with a singular, and somewhat unavoidable message. The paper argues that changes in form, aesthetics, and content are evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and a long term perspective is in order. (Nine notes are included, and 43 references are appended.) (MS)