Mass media scholarship traditionally has depicted elderly viewers of television as an accepting and homogeneous audience. This ethnographic study of a retirement community researches the relationship between individuals and their community in the development of discourse that influences program choices and discussion of content. In this community of well‐educated, upper middle‐class retirees, interest in living in the present, a preference for quality television, and an insistence on “serious” leisure urge residents toward what they consider to be television's premium programs, including C‐SPAN and related public affairs programming. Viewers of these shows discuss them with their neighbors and use what they learn from them to participate in the publi