Jonestown on Television

This media review adds to existing scholarship about Peoples Temple by examining Jonestown's presence in television history—from 1980 when actor Powers Boothe won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Jim Jones in the CBS-TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones to current programs in production by HBO and A&E. In addition to these docudramas, "Jonestown on Television" also addresses explicit and implicit references to Jonestown that have occurred on episodic television. Analyzing these television sources highlights how the events at Jonestown are being told, visualized, and remembered, and, as such, shaping Americans' cultural memory of the past.