Television in the Antenna Age

David Marc is a writer and editor who teaches at Syracuse University and Le Moyne College. He is the author of Demographic Vistas (1984; 1996), Comic Visions (1989; Blackwell, 1997) and Bonfire of the Humanities (1995). Robert J. Thompson is a Professor at Syracuse University, where he heads the Center for the Study of Popular Television at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. His books include Adventures on Prime Time (1990) and Television’s Second Golden Age (1996).

“One could hardly ask for a more entertaining introduction to the history of entertainment media and its role in contemporary culture.” Stephen O’Leary, Annenberg School for Communication, USC

• Foreword ixPreface xiAcknowledgments xiii1 No Small Potatoes 1Communication and Transportation: The Divorce 1Water, Water Everywhere 6Electrical Bananas 9Here Comes the Judge 10Say What? 112 A Downstream Medium 21The Show Business 22Radical Consumerism Occupies the Middle 27Networking 31Quality Control 343 A Burning Bush? 37Broadcasting: Love It or Need It? 38A Vertical System of Culture 44Compatible Software 464 Staging and Screening 53Sets 53Getting with the Program 55The Origins of ABC 585 Corruption and Plateau 66Technology 66Industry 67Art 67Scandals and Shake-Outs 706 Dull as Paint and Just as Colorful 76TV Rules 76Just Plain Folks 84Television Gothic 867 A Myth is as Good as a Smile 89When No News Was Good News . . . in Prime Time 91Shows Without Trees 94As Real As It Got 98Regulation and Social Effects 103Programming and the Television Industry 1088 Oligopoly Lost and Found 111The Train and the Station 114The Shock of the News 121The Third Mask of Janus 126Index 131