This is a new paperback edition of a book which has established itself as a classic text in media and cultural studies. The authors examine how television viewers around the world respond differently to popular television programmes - in this case, Dallas. It may be true that the whole world was watching Dallas and Dynasty, but was everyone seeing the same story? Nobody knows what message, if any, the viewers are actually getting and what critical capabilities they command. Liebes and Katz analyse conversations about Dallas among groups of families and friends in different sub-cultures: in Israel (where the programme was an all-time best-seller), in Japan (where it was rejected), and in the US (the original target audience). The authors propose that there is a process of negotiation between these quintessentially American stories and what the viewers bring to them: their life experiences, the 'texts' of their culture, and their expectations from the genres of family drama. Through a detailed study of how individuals in different contexts interpret popular TV fiction, Katz and Liebes show that viewers possess a good deal more critical ability than they are commonly given credit for.