Prime‐time pilots: A content analysis of changes in gender representation

This study examines the manner in which changes in the characterization of women occur during the production and re‐write phases of television pilots. It was hypothesized that the production and re‐write process is a significant venue for the restructuring of content toward traditional representations, thus limiting the portrayals of women. However, findings indicated no significant changes between the early and final versions of scripts. No support was found for the claim that changes in representation could be found within the production and re‐write phase or that proven producers were responsible for a broadening of images during this phase.