Very Special Episodes

JONATHAN COHN is an assistant professor in digital cultures at the University of Alberta. He is the author of The Burden of Choice: Recommendations, Subversion, and Algorithmic Culture (Rutgers University Press).JENNIFER PORST is an assistant professor of media arts at the University of North Texas. She is the author of Broadcasting Hollywood: The Struggle Over Feature Films on Television (Rutgers University Press).

“’Very special episodes’ are an intriguing and surprisingly underexplored topic. This excellent collection pulls together an impressive array of approaches to this concept that will give readers a broad but detailed look at how ostensibly challenging material was made palatable on television.” - Derek Kompare (Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts, Southern Methodist University)  "Very Special Episodes establishes a compelling framework detailing how the TV industry makes and manages cultural value, relevance, and distinction not via aesthetic exceptionalism, but as special parts of its programming regularity. Historical grounding from the volume's sixteen astute essays provides a much-needed antidote to film studies' myopic 'discovery' of a 'golden age' of quality TV only in the premium HBO/Netflix era. This is Exhibit-A, a must-read, for understanding TV not just as an 'industry' but as a resilient critical industrial practice." - John T. Caldwell (Distinguished Research Professor, UCLA, and author of Specworld: Studying Folds, Faultlines, and Fra)

• Preface and Acknowledgments A Very Special Introduction JONATHAN COHN AND JENNIFER PORST1 Listen to Save Lives: Music and the Atomic Bomb in Cold War Very Special Episodes REBA WISSNER2 Blackface on a White Christmas: Bewitched’s “Sneaky Racism” JONATHAN COHN3 Conspicuous Morality: Very Special Episodes, the War on Drugs, and Broadcast Deregulation PHILIP SCEPANSKI4 “Due to Its Subject Matter”: Creating the Very Special Teen Sex Talk in 1980s Sitcoms BARBARA SELZNICK5 “Thanksgiving Orphans”: Cheers and Very Special Holiday Episodes of TelevisionJENNIFER PORST6 Very Spooky Episodes: Roseanne, Working-Class Monsters, and the Playful Perversions of Halloween TV DAVID SCOTT DIFFRIENT7 A Very Special Visit to the “Old Neighborhood”: Containing the Los Angeles Uprising on The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirLINDSAY GIGGEY8 The Night the Lights Went out at (Most of) NBC: Producing a Network with 1994’s Must See TV Blackout Stunt ERIN COPPLE SMITH9 Ellen, “The Puppy Episode,” and a Special TV Milestone? RON BECKER10 “And Was There a Lesson in All This?”: Weaponizing-and Subverting-the Very Special Episode ERIN GIANNINI11 Animating Entertainment, or Very Special Media Reflexivity MIMI WHITE12 Liveness and the Live Episode in Television Comedy BRETT MILLS13 Too black-ish? Banned Very Special Episodes APRYL ALEXANDER AND JENNIFER PORST14 Knife Crime and Passion: A Very Special Episode of EastEnders CHRISTINE BECKER15 UnREAL, Sexual Assault, and the Very Special Season JORIE LAGERWEY AND TAYLOR NYGAARDNotes on Contributors Index