A Wonderful (After) Life: Public Domain Works and Television Discourse

Abstract

The story of how Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life accidentally became a holiday classic has become a standard ‘fun fact’ to include when discussing the movie – a chance oversight in paperwork resulted in its copyright expiring in 1974, thus local television broadcasters seized the opportunity to air the film free of charge throughout the Christmas season. This article more closely examines the industrial and legal dealings which determined the fate of the Frank Capra film for nearly four decades, and how those twists and turns were discussed in forums ranging from the popular press to the halls of the U.S. Congress. I investigate the ways in which the prestige that is now associated with the film was only later brought into play as a means of arguing for it to come back under traditional corporate ownership. Using this film as a particular example allows us to clearly see the longstanding discourses of quality that media scholars argue has been associated with the cinematic medium. Meanwhile, the television broadcast format – arguably how Wonderful Life was kept in the public consciousness, growing the film’s fanbase over the years – became tagged as ‘devaluing’ the movie’s status.