It's Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era

ISBN-13: 9780415960380 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 260 str.

Marc Leverette

Opis

Since first going on the air in 1972, HBO has continually attempted to redefine television as we know it. Today, pay television (and HBO in particular) is positioned as an alternative to network offerings, consistently regarded as the premier site for what has come to be called "quality television." This collection of new essays by an international group of media scholars argues that HBO, as part of the leading edge of television, is at the center of television studies' interests in market positioning, style, content, technology, and political economy. The contributors focus on pioneering areas of analysis and new critical approaches in television studies today, highlighting unique aspects of the "HBO effect" to explore new perspectives on contemporary television from radical changes in technology to dramatic shifts in viewing habits. It's Not TV provides fresh insights into the "post-television network" by examining HBO's phenomenally popular and pioneering shows, including The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City as well as its failed series, such as K Street and The Comeback. The contributors also explore the production process itself and the creation of a brand commodity, along with HBO's place as a market leader and technological innovator. Contributors: Kim Akass, Cara Louise Buckley, Rhiannon Bury, Joanna L. Di Mattia, Blake D. Ethridge, Tony Kelso, Marc Leverette, David Marc, Janet McCabe, Conor McGrath, Shawn McIntosh, Brian L. Ott, Avi Santo, Lisa Williamson Foreword by Toby Miller Marc Leverette is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture and co-editor of Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead and Oh My God, They Deconstructed South Park Those Bastards Brian L. Ott is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age. Cara Louise Buckley is a lecturer at Emerson College.

Spis treści

Foreword: It's Television. It's HBO, Toby Miller

Introduction: If It's Not TV, Then What?, Marc Leverette, Brian L. Ott, and Cara Buckley-Ott

Part I: Industry and Economics

Introduction: The Not TV Industry, Marc Leverette

1. Para-Television and Discourses of Distinction: The Culture of Production at HBO, Avi Santo

2. And Now No Word from our Sponsors: How HBO Puts the Risk Back Into Television, Tony Kelso

3. Will Yingshuiji Buzz Help HBO Asia?, Shawn McIntosh

4. It's Not TV, it's HBO's Original Programming: Producing Quality TV, Janet McCabe and Kim Akass

Part II: Text and Contexts

Introduction: The Not TV Text, Brian L. Ott

5. Carnivàle: TV Drama without TV Genre, David Marc

6. Challenging Sitcom Conventions: From The Larry Sanders Show to The Comeback, Lisa Williamson

7. "Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits," Marc Leverette

8. Baltimore on The Wire: The Tragic Moralism of David Simon, Blake D. Ethridge

Part III: Audiences and Identity

Introduction: The Not TV Audience, Cara Louise Buckley

9. K Street: "Raping HBO" or "What HBO is All About"?, Conor McGrath

10. Praise You Like I Should: Cyberfans and Six Feet Under, Rhiannon Bury

11. Fashion(able/ing) Selves: Consumption, Identity, and Sex and the City, Cara Louise Buckley and Brian L. Ott

12. "No Country for the Infirm": Angels in an Unchanged America, Joanna L. Di Mattia

 

O autorze

Marc Leverette is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture and co-editor of Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead and Oh My God, They Deconstructed South Park! Those Bastards!

Brian L. Ott is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age.

Cara Louise Buckley is Lecturer at Emerson College.