The last few years have increasingly shown that the boundaries between film and television are porous. This In Focus section re-examines historical intermedial connections, calling into question the dominant narrative of rivalry and contest. Case studies on specific genres, film and television viewing practices and discourses on the emergence of television demonstrate that there were numerous points of contact and cooperation between the two media in the 1950s and 1960s, a reassessment that opens up new perspectives and paves the way for further intermedial research on film–television relations.