This article focuses on the production and reception of television drama, specifically the case study of conspiracy thriller Utopia. The empirical research is based on 21 production interviews with the makers of the drama and 56 interviews with audience members and fans of the drama. The concept of the television imaginary is used as an analytical lens for investigating the various ways television itself, and audiences and fans, are imagined and implicated in the cancellation of a cult drama series. In particular, Barthes’ early writing on a cultural imaginary is used to underscore the contrariness, the contra positions which creative producers, audiences and fans take, in the conspiracies and judgements surrounding the cancellation. Utopia conspiracies within and outside the television industry serve to legitimise and penalise the drama as a cult form; these conspiracies energise the subjective processes that shape an future imaginary for Utopia and drive its afterlife.

本文主要关注电视剧的制作和接收，特别是关于阴谋惊悚片《乌托邦》的案例研究。实证研究基于对电视剧制作人的21次生产访谈和对电视剧观众和粉丝的56次访谈。电视虚构的概念被用作分析镜头，以调查电视本身以及观众和粉丝的各种方式，并想像它们与取消电视剧系列有关。特别是，巴特斯（Barthes）早期关于文化假想的著作被用来强调这种矛盾，即创意制作人，观众和歌迷在取消交易的阴谋和判断中的矛盾立场。乌托邦电视行业内外的阴谋将电视剧合法化并作为一种崇拜形式予以惩罚；这些阴谋激发了主观过程，这些主观过程塑造了乌托邦未来的想象，并推动了乌托邦的来世。