Demographic Vistas

David Marc is Adjunct Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, and Visiting Professor, School of Theater, Film and Television, University of California, Los Angeles.

"Quite simply, a tour de force-a wonderful synthesis of history and criticism."-Daniel Czitrom, author of Media and the American Mind "A cooly sophisticated analysis ... of American televsion."-American Studies International From reviews of the first edition- "Demographic Vistas analyzes television in the tradition of a Gilbert Seldes or Michael Arlen. Exhibiting fluency in television history, theories of culture, and American literature, the book offers a thoughtful, idiosyncratic interpretation of television's life so far in American culture."-Critical Studies in Mass Communication "Marc does a good job of drawing links between the American literary tradition and television themes, which illustrate that television texts are not isolated from the critical mainstream of American creative efforts... These links illustrate that television texts offer themselves to much the same analytical forms as any other literary endeavor."-Southern Speech Communication Journal

• Preface to the 1984 EditionForeword to the Revised Edition , by Horace NewcombIntroduction to the Revised Edition1. Beginning to Begin Again2. The Situation Comedy of Paul Henning: Modernity and the American Folk Myth in The Beverly Hillbillies3. The Comedy of Public Safety4. Gleason's Push5. Self-Reflexive at Last6. What Was Broadcasting?Appendix: Broadcast Network Prime Time Viewing Suggestions, 1984-96NotesBibliographyGlossaryMain IndexIndex of Television SeriesIndex of Films Made for Theatrical Release