Beliefs about television viewing tell us much about our views of gender, the family and society. This study considers specific audiences in an investigation of the various kinds of pleasure which television offers, and examines new perspectives on the relationship between ideology and television. The first section introduces the theoretical and methodological problems raised by the study of television audiences, and the second section presents case studies of a wide range of viewers: women office workers, Israeli views of Dallas, German families, the elderly and American daytime soap opera fans.