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we call moments in the reception process. Although these ‘moments’ cannot be
strictly delimited (in time nor meaning), they represent different aspects of the
process of receiving and decoding a text. In this article we distinguish and intro-
duce four major ‘moments’ (cf. Groeben, 1982). Placed in a (more or less) chrono-
logical manner, these are: (1) the horizon of expectations, or the totality of
expectations with which the recipient encounters a (audiovisual) text; (2) the
recognition, or the literal comprehension of specific configurations (characters,
themes, actions, etc.) presented in the text; (3) the interpretation, or the inferential
comprehension of those configurations; and (4) the discussion, or the applied
comprehension of the programme within the recipient’s own background.
In this case study we explicitly apply existing analytical methods in order to
show how these methods can be incorporated into a more elaborated, changing
and articulated reception process scheme. While this case study, based on multi-
method approach and on the analytical scheme of diverse ‘moments’ in recep-
tion, provides a lot of information on the reception of both situation comedies by
the same group of people, in this framework we only present the most central
findings (see also Biltereyst, 1991).

Horizon of Expectations

A first structuring moment in the reception process is formed by the ‘horizon of
expectations’ – a concept which refers to the aesthetic and cultural expectations
with which the recipient encounters a programme (see Jauss, 1974). In this study,
we attempted to reconstruct this horizon with regard to domestic and US fiction
in general. Here we relied on the data from the general questionnaire phase
which took place before the viewing sessions. Some passages from the inter-
views, however, also provided useful data on this ‘horizon’.
Interpreting these data it was noticeable that viewers were quite critical in
their attitudes to the quality of domestic television drama in general. While all
respondents claimed to like American drama productions, especially their tech-
nical and entertaining qualities, only three (all older adults) of the thirty-four
respondents claimed to like Flemish drama productions. All other respondents
were quite neutral to it, stating that they had no or no specific preference for
indigenous fiction drama. Analysing these data it became clear that people were
especially critical of the technical and production qualities of domestic products
(acting, editing, etc.).
This critical horizon also became apparent in the interviews after the viewing ses-
sions. Although most respondents (n = 33) declared to have enjoyed and preferred
De Kollega’s far more than She’s the Sheriff, they remained quite critical of domestic
drama. A characteristic statement here was made by a 30-year-old female lawyer:

Yes, I do prefer De Kollega’s, but I admit that She’s the Sheriff is better as an
entertainment programme. OK, the story in De Kollega’s is very attractive
and everything is well-done, but She’s the Sheriff is more like a slapstick.