ABSTRACT
Popular television has some distinct privileges in representing the past. As Irwin-Zarecka asserts, it frames collective memory in at least two important ways: exposure, since “for many people, television offers the main, if not the only information they have about a great number of historical events”; and claims to historical accuracy, as “television presents us with reality-based drama, docudrama and document where the strength of writing, visuals, and faithfulness to detail all combine” (Irwin-Zarecka 1994, 155–156). These mnemonic capacities of television make it a worthwhile object of study in countries like the Czech Republic, which arguably still try to come to terms with their state socialist legacy.
