Thompson and Burns’ book (1990) is considered essential, as well as the research carried out by Cantor and Cantor (1992), Kubey (2009), Mann (2009), Kompare (2011), and Blakey (2017).

Secondly, the study focuses on the vast literature concerning the French Politique des Auteur, through the volumes that compile papers and interviews published in Cahiers du Cinéma (Santos-Fontenla, 1974; Baecque, 2003; Romaguera and Alsina, 2010). Furthermore, we analyze the investigations conducted by Sarris (1962, 1967, 1968) and Wollen (1969), which developed this paradigm in North America, where it was called ‘auteur theory’ –we use the term ‘politique’ or ‘theory’ depending on the context–.

Finally, in order to focus on television authorship, we have considered those authors that examine this issue, such as Dunne (2007), Lotz (2009), Hadas (2014), Schatz (2014), Steiner (2015), Benshoff (2016), and Fisk and Szalay (2017). At this point, the book Companion to Media Authorship by Gray and Johnson (2013) is a crucial reference. Likewise, the texts by Newman and Levine (2012), and Mittell (2015) are especially relevant.

This bibliographic review allows us to synthesize the connections between the Politique des Auteurs and the showrunner as auteur through the following scheme. Its content has lead to the subsequent critical analysis of each concept.

Figure 1: Connections between Film and Television Authorship.

Source: Compilation based on information supplied by the bibliographic review.