Practicing vocabulary a lot these days. It occurred to me this morning that if you say „Chekhov“ to Americans without a doubt the great majority will immediately respond saying something about Star Trek. I would tell you „One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off,“ and know that Chekhov was a writer and playwright, but until recently I couldn’t name the title of any work he is known for. Lenin wrote that his reading of Chekhov’s Ward No. Six made him a revolutionary. I would have told you the execution of Lenin’s brother for a failed assassination attempt on the tsar had a deep effect on him, but Ward No. Six I have no knowledge of.
The referent for this term in American English has most definitely been captured by Hollywood scriptwriters. Sixty years ago it was entirely other: to the extent anyone recognized it instead of thinking of a television show/blockbuster films they would think of a literary genius, works probing aspects of human nature.