Kategoria BISAC: Performing Arts >> Television - History & Criticism

Reality programming--a broad title for unscripted shows that involve non-actors--is really an updated version of a classic television genre that had its first successes decades before "The Real World" or "Survivor" made their premieres. NBC launched "Try and Do It," a show in which audience members attempted to complete tasks such as whistling with a mouthful of crackers, in 1949. In the 1950s "Queen for a Day" crowned the most down-trodden of its four contestants, draping her in a sable-trimmed robe and granting a previously declared wish. The wild success reality television has achieved...

Christmas just isn't Christmas without Christmas on TV. Whether it's the made-for-television specials of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, a M*A*S*H* Christmas in Korea, Kramer playing Santa on Seinfeld, or the annual holiday disaster on The Simpsons or South Park, television's many representations of this beloved holiday have become as essential a part of our holiday season as lights, gifts, or mistletoe. In this entertaining chronicle of television and the Christmas season, former Television Critics Association President...

Crime dramas have been a staple of the television landscape since the advent of the medium. Along with comedies and soap operas, the police procedural made an easy transition from radio to TV, and starting with "Dragnet" in 1952, quickly became one of the most popular genres. Crime television has proven to be a fascinating reflection of changes and developments in the culture at large. In the '50s and early '60s, the square-jawed, just-the-facts detectives of "The Untouchables" and "The FBI" put police work in the best light possible. As the '60s gave way to the '70s, however, the...

Since late evening cartoons first aired in 1960, prime-time animated series have had a profound effect on American television and American culture at large. The characters and motifs from such shows as "The Flintstones" and "The Simpsons" are among the best-known images in world popular culture; and tellingly, even series that have not done well in prime time--series like "The Jetsons," for instance--have yielded similarly iconic images. The advent of cable and several new channels devoted exclusively to animated programming have brought old series back to life in syndication, while also...

In the years immediately following World War II, NBC's legendary David Sarnoff and his cross-town equal, CBS's William S. Paley, decided that American television would be identified with quality live drama surrounded by news, light entertainment (in the form of variety and quiz shows), and family-oriented series generally spun off from radio. That initial vision eroded over the years and decades, but the dramatic part of this equation endured well into the 1960s, when, with NBC's Project 120 (which commissioned movies expressly for television in 120-minute doses), the genres known as...

Tracing public and critical responses to TV from its pioneering days, this book gathers and gives context to the reactions of those who saw television's early broadcasts--from the privileged few who witnessed experimental and limited-schedule programming in the 1920s and 1930s, to those who bought TV sets and hoisted antennae in the post-World War II television boom, to still more who invested in color receivers and cable subscriptions in the 1960s. While the first two major sections of this study show the views of television's first broad public, the third section shows how social and...

In this pathfinding book, based on original archival research, Marsha F. Cassidy offers the first thorough analysis of daytime television's earliest and most significant women's genres, appraising from a feminist perspective what women watched before soap opera rose to prominence.

After providing a comprehensive history of the early days of women's programming across the nation, Cassidy offers a critical discussion of the formats, programs, and celebrities that launched daytime TV in America--Kate Smith's variety show and the famed singer's unsuccessful transition from patriotic...

From the alien worlds of Star Trek to the realistic operating room of ER, the design of sets and costumes contributes not only to the look and mood of television shows, but even more importantly to the creation of memorable characters. Yet, until now, this crucial aspect of television creativity has received little critical attention, despite the ongoing interest in production design within the closely allied discipline of film studies.

In this book, Piers Britton and Simon Barker offer a first analytical study of scenic and costume design for television...

During its five-year run from 1997 to 2002, the popular TV show Ally McBeal engaged viewers in debates over what it means to be a woman or a man in the modern workplace; how romance factors into the therapeutic understanding of relationships; what value eccentricity has and how much oddity society should tolerate; and what utility fantasy has in the pragmatic world. In addition to these social concerns, however, Ally McBeal stood out for being well-constructed, narratively complex, and stylistically rich--in short, beautiful TV.

Starting from the premise...

Providing video companionship for isolated housewives, afternoon babysitting for children, and nonstop evening entertainment for the whole family, television revolutionized American society in the post-World War II years. Helping the first TV generation make sense of the new medium was the mission of Jack Gould, television critic of The New York Times from 1947 to 1972. In columns noteworthy for crisp writing, pointed insights, and fair judgment, he highlighted both the untapped possibilities and the imminent perils of television, becoming "the conscience of the industry" for...

Women in television news have made great strides in the past twenty-five years. No longer limited to being the token pretty face on the nightly newscast, women have taken their places as working journalists in newsrooms, on the campaign trail, in war zones, and in the highest echelons of network news management. Barbara Walters and Connie Chung have even occupied the coveted network anchor's chair, if only briefly.

In this book, 70 of the foremost women in television news reflect on their professional successes, the personal and professional sacrifices that often bought those...

Winner, McGannon Communications Research Award, 2004

In 1971, the Sloan Commission on Cable Communications likened the ongoing developments in cable television to the first uses of movable type and the invention of the telephone. Cable's proponents in the late 1960s and early 1970s hoped it would eventually remedy all the perceived ills of broadcast television, including lowest-common-denominator programming, inability to serve the needs of local audiences, and failure to recognize the needs of cultural minorities. Yet a quarter century after the "blue sky" era, cable...

Winner, A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book

Flip through the channels at any hour of the day or night, and a television talk show is almost certainly on. Whether it offers late-night entertainment with David Letterman, share-your-pain empathy with Oprah Winfrey, trash talk with Jerry Springer, or intellectual give-and-take with Bill Moyers, the talk show is one of television's most popular and enduring formats, with a history as old as the medium itself.

Bernard Timberg here offers a comprehensive history of the first fifty years of television talk, replete with...

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show featured some of the wittiest, most inspired, and relentlessly hilarious animation ever created. The legendary Jay Ward and Bill Scott produced the gleeful wonder and cumulative joy that transcended the crude drawings and occasionally muddy sound. Jay Ward was the magnificent visionary, the outrageous showman, while Bill Scott was the genial, brilliant head writer, coproducer, and all-purpose creative whirlwind. With exclusive interviews, original scripts, artwork, story notes, letters and memos, Keith Scott has written the definitive history of Jay...

At last, a collection in one volume informing the citizenry about a phenomenon that has existed for nearly a quarter century: community television represents our single source for media access in the United States. With more than 2,000 community groups providing some 15,000 hours of original programming each week--more than the annual output of ABC, CBS, and NBC combined--Community Television compares and contrasts broadcasting and grassroots cablecasting in the form of public, educational, and government (PEG) access. Fuller describes community television in terms of its history, its...

The detective, as a preeminent figure in all forms of American popular culture, has become the subject of a variety of theoretical exploration. By investigating that figure, these essays demonstrate how the genre embodies all the contradictions of American society and the ways in which literature and the media attempt to handle those contradictions. Issues of class, gender, and race; the interaction of film and literature; and generic evolution are fundamental to any understanding of the American detective in all of his or her forms.

Beginning with essays about Raymond...

The 20th century might be accurately described as the television century. Perhaps no technological invention in recent history has so vastly affected the American public. An involving mixture of scholarship and nostalgia, this volume offers an intelligent examination of the many ways that American society has shaped--and been shaped by--television. Roman provides thematic chapters on all of television's major genres.

James Roman, author of Love, Light, and a Dream: Television's Past, Present, and Future (Greenwood, 1996), traces the evolution of American television...

Monty Python, the genius comedy troupe from Britain, single-handedly revolutionized sketch comedy and paved the way for everything from Saturday Night Live to Austin Powers. Now, in their official oral history, founding members John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin take readers behind the scenes in this no-holds-barred look at their lives and unforgettable comic works like "The Spanish Inquisition," "Dead Parrot," Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (inspiration for the hit Broadway musical...

The Meaning of Star Trek captures the essence of this timeless television masterpiece by examining it in the context of literary and social history, anthropology, myth, and religion: how it grew from the tradition of great science fiction writing; how the history of the show's Federation reconfigures our own; how its...