Television and Popular Culture – serie

When Lou Grant premiered in the fall of 1977, it quickly became a symbol of television drama at its best. During its five years on the air, Lou Grant earned critical acclaim as an entertaining yet thoughtful drama about important social and political issues, a rarity for episodic television in the late 1970s.Douglass K. Daniel reveals how the creators of Lou Grant investigated journalism in the post-Watergate era to present a modem-day portrayal of the profession. They based characters, dialogue, and plots on the experiences of dozens of professional journalists. By researching social problems, they developed relevant story lines that gave episodes unusual immediacy. The show won thirteen Emmy Awards, among them two for Best Drama, and a Peabody Award. Journalists hailed the series as television's most realistic newspaper drama.The book describes the bitter controversy that erupted in 1982 when lead actor Edward Asner came under fire for his political beliefs regarding American involvement in El Salvador. Amid calls for advertiser boycotts, right-wing charges that Asner had aided the enemy, and falling ratings, CBS canceled the series. Daniel's intensive retrospect includes interviews with actors, producers, writers, directors, network censors, and journalists. He summarizes all 114 episodes. discusses original character sketches, and includes editorial cartoons.

TV on Strike examines the upheaval in the entertainment industry by telling the inside story of the first writers' strike—the hundred-day writers’ strike that thwarted Hollywood in late 2007 and early 2008. The television industry’s uneasy transition to the digital age was the driving force behind what seemed then to be the most significant labor dispute of the twenty-first century. Now, in 2024, we know it was only the first battle.The strike put a spotlight on how the advent of new media distribution platforms reshaped the traditional business models that governed the television industry for decades. The uncertainty that sent writers out into the streets of Los Angeles and New York with picket signs laid bare the depth of the divide between the media barons who rule the entertainment industry and the writers who are integral as the creators of movies and television shows.With both sides afraid of losing millions in future profits, a critical communication breakdown spurred a fierce battle with repercussions reverberated in the 2023 writers and actors strikes. The saga of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike is told through the eyes of the key players on both sides of the negotiating table and of the foot soldiers who surprised even themselves with the strength of their resolve to fight for their rights in the face of an ambiguous future. In the years since the strike ended, the rise of digital distribution platforms has continued to change the business landscape in ways that few could have predicted when Hollywood guilds were first feverishly trying to hammer out a contract template for a new era.

This is an insider's tour, touching on the network's dizzying decision-making process, and the artists who have revolutionized the medium.

Updated and expanded for the third edition, this volume combines scholarship with movie lore to present a comprehensive account of the development and influence of the American screenwriter. The text is written in an informal style and includes anecdotes and stories that spotlight writer's creative work and their struggle to achieve recognition.

Nat Hiken was the driving force behind the 1950s and 1960s series ""Sgt Bilko"" and ""Car 54, Where Are You?"". This biography of the television pioneer places him in broadcast history, drawing on first-hand interviews with some well-known TV personalities such as Carol Burnett and Alan King.

Deborah Pearlman and Abby Finer of the Warner Bros. Television Writers Workshop reveal in this essential guide insider tips and tricks aimed at paving the way to better scripts by new writers. The book focuses on all aspects of writing for television, from the definition and importance of sample material to what it takes to be a successful TV writer. The authors offer invaluable insider information on the keys to writing a good script and how to choose the right show for sample material. In particular, they provide instruction on troubleshooting scripts - with a do and don't list. For the novice scriptwriter, they include advice on how to research, brainstorm ideas, and write a beat sheet and outline through to a polished draft. Filled with practical advice and up-to-date industry information, each chapter provides strategies and insights that will jumpstart a fledgling writing career toward success.

In 1929, ""The Goldbergs"" debuted on the air, introducing Gertrude Berg - and her radio alter ego, Bronx housewife Molly Goldberg - to the nation. The show would become one of the most beloved and enduring programs of Golden Age radio and of early TV. At the helm was Berg who, as creator, star, writer, and producer, became a force to be reckoned with. This multifaceted biography provides a penetrating look at how Gertrude Berg carved a special place for herself in the annals of broadcast history. Decades before Lucille Ball, Berg triumphed as a woman of commercial and creative consequence in what was essentially a male-dominated arena. For over three decades, Berg's ""Molly"" fluttered about and hung out her kitchen window dispensing motherly advice laced with engaging malapropisms, insights, and lots of ""schmaltz."" The show offered a warmly comedic look at the lives and dreams of working-class American Jews and subtle insights into the nature of assimilation. While Molly, husband Jake, and Uncle David represent Old World Jewish stereotypes, children Rosalie and Sammy are as American as apple pie. A sentimental portrait of the immigrant experience, ""The Goldbergs"" offered a mythic ideal of the American dream. Drawing on Gertrude Berg's papers at Syracuse University's Bird Library and rare interviews with her family and colleagues, the author reveals her as shrewd, creative, and forthright. Unlike ""Molly,"" Berg was a cultivated woman and a Columbia graduate. A pioneer in the concept of product tie-in, she parlayed the show's popularity into a movie, short stories, and even a cookbook. In 1951, she stood up to the blacklist by refusing to fire longtime co-star Philip Loeb who was under investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The book also chronicles Berg's accomplishments in theater, film, and literature.

Conventional screen histories tend to concentrate on New York City and Hollywood in chronicling the evolution of American cinema. Notwithstanding the tremendous contribution of both cities, Syracuse and Central New York also played a strategic - yet little-known - role in early screen history.In 1889 in Rochester, New York, George Eastman registered a patent for perforated celluloid film, a development that would telescope the international race to record motion by means of photography to the immediate future. In addition, the first public film projection occurred in Syracuse, New York, in 1896. Norman O. Keim and David Marc provide a highly readable and richly detailed account of the origins of American film in Central New York, the colorful history of neighborhood theaters in Syracuse, and the famous film personalities who got their start in the unlikely snow belt of New York State. Lavishly illustrated, this book will be treasured by both film buffs and Central New Yorkers.

In Watching TV with a Linguist, Fägersten challenges the conventional view of television as lowbrow entertainment devoid of intellectual activity. Rather, she champions the use of fictional television to learn about linguistics and at the same time promotes enriched television viewing experiences by explaining the role of language in creating humor, conveying drama, and developing identifiable characters. The essays gathered in this volume explore specific areas of linguistics, providing a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the study of language. Through programs such as Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Sherlock, and The Wire, contributors deftly illustrate key linguistic concepts and terminology using snippets of familiar dialogue and examples of subtle narration. In addition, contributors aim to raise linguistic awareness among readers by identifying linguistics in action, encouraging readers to recognize additional examples of concepts on their own. To this end, each chapter provides suggestions for viewing other television series or specific episodes, where further examples of the linguistic concepts in focus can be found. Invaluable as a resource in linguistics and communication courses, Watching TV with a Linguist is the first book to use the familiar and compelling medium of television to engage students with the science of language

Castleman and Podrazik present a season-by-season narrative that encompasses the eras of American television from the beginning in broadcast, through cable, and now streaming. They deftly navigate the dizzying array of contemporary choices so that no matter where you start on the media timeline, Watching TV provides the context and background to this multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Drawing on decades of research, the authors weave together personalities, popular shows, corporate strategies, historical events, and changing technologies, enhancing the main commentary with additional elements that include fall prime time schedule grids for every season, date box timelines, highlighted key text, and selected photos.Full of facts, firsts, insights, and exploits from now back to the earliest days, Watching TV is the standard chronology of American television, and reading it is akin to channel surfing through history. The fourth edition updates the story into the 2020s and looks ahead to the next waves of change. This new edition is the first to also be available in a digital format.

Mixing interviews, essays, and representative scripts of three successful television dramatists, the book will be of immeasurable use to the novice scriptwriter. Designed to inspire the fledgling scriptwriter, this book combines analytical essays on the work of three successful television writers with interviews and complete scripts printed in correct professional format. The writers Marion Hargrove (Maverick, The Waltons), James Dougherty (thirtysomething), and Michael Kozell (Hill Street Blues) are used as examples of professionals who developed a personal voice and a distinctive style while serving as staff writers for existing prime-time television programs. Douglas Heil theorizes that students of television scriptwriting need to engage in ""close study of exemplary writing"" and the three full scripts he offers are useful models of humane and entertaining drama. The book is not only of value to aspiring scriptwriters but also to those readers with a general interest in media history.

This anthology presents writings that examine the TV sitcom in terms of its treatment of gender, family, class, race and ethnic issues. The selections range from early shows such as ""I Remember Mama"" to the more recent ""Roseanne"". The volume also looks unflinchingly at major controversies, for example, the NAACP boycott of the stereotypical yet wildly popular ""Amos n' Andy"" and the queer reading of ""Laverne and Shirley"". These diverse essays constitute a veritable history of postwar American mores. Some are classic, some are forgotten, but all indicate the importance of considering text and subtext (social, historic, industrial) in the critical study of television. A final chapter by the author bids sitcoms adieu with the 'cultural spectacle of ""Seinfield's"" last episode.'

A critical inquiry into the new woman warrior's appropriation of violence and the Western war narrative. It delves into the meaning of that appropriation for alternative storytelling, and provides a forum to recognize women's increasing role in popular culture as they are cast as action heroes.

Black Male Frames charts the development and shifting popularity of two stereotypes of black masculinity in popular American film: ""the shaman"" or ""the scoundrel."" Starting with colonial times, Williams identifies the origins of these roles in an America where black men were forced either to defy or to defer to their white masters. These figures recur in the stories America tells about its black men, from the fictional Jim Crow and Zip Coon to historical figures such as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Williams argues that these two extremes persist today in modern Hollywood, where actors such as Sam Lucas, Paul Robeson, Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman, among others, must cope with and work around such limited options. Williams situates these actors' performances of one or the other stereotype within each man's personal history and within the country's historical moment, ultimately to argue that these men are rewarded for their portrayal of the stereotypes most needed to put America's ongoing racial anxieties at ease. Reinvigorating the discussion that began with Donald Bogle's seminal work, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, Black Male Frames illuminates the ways in which individuals and the media respond to the changing racial politics in America.

This collection of essays translates visual language into on-screen politics. While the series ""The West Wing"" may be criticized as ""idealistic"", its clever techniques of camera work, lighting, editing, and mise en scene reflect America's best image of itself, and entertains a loyal audience that wants to believe in the nobility of the American Dream. It introduces readers to the sensibilities to appreciate the show's nuances and the necessary knowledge to avoid any misreadings.

Since 1940, Captain America has battled his enemies in the name of American values, and as those values have changed over time, so has Captain America's character. Because the comic book world fosters a close fan-creator dialogue, creators must consider their ever-changing readership. Comic book artists must carefully balance storyline continuity with cultural relevance. Captain America's seventy-year existence spans from World War II through the Cold War to the American War on Terror; beginning as a soldier unopposed to offensive attacks against foreign threats, he later becomes known as a defender whose only weapon is his iconic shield. In this way, Captain America reflects America's need to renegotiate its social contract and reinvent its national myths and cultural identity, all the while telling stories proclaiming an eternal and unchanging spirit of America. In Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence, Stevens reveals how the comic book hero has evolved to maintain relevance to America's fluctuating ideas of masculinity, patriotism, and violence. Stevens outlines the history of Captain America's adventures and places the unfolding storyline in dialogue with the comic book industry as well as America's varying political culture. Stevens shows that Captain America represents the ultimate American story: permanent enough to survive for nearly seventy years with a history fluid enough to be constantly reinterpreted to meet the needs of an ever-changing culture.

In this illuminating book, David S. Silverman assesses four controversial television programs from the perspective of media history, assessing the censorship present at all four networks and the political and intellectual inertia it produces in broadcast television. Beginning with ""The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour"" in the sixties, the author also examines ""The Richard Pryor Show"", ""TV Nation"", and ""Politically Incorrect"". Drawing on firsthand accounts by the writers, producers, and performers of these programs, Silverman offers an unbiased view of the ways in which censorship, sponsor intimidation, regulation, and network tampering force all American broadcasters to manipulate creative talent and stifle genuine controversy. Shedding new light on the prevalence of censorship in broadcast television, this book reinvigorates the subject of free speech in American society.

Bringing together seventeen original essays by scholars from around the world, Screwball Television offers a variety of international perspectives on Gilmore Girls (WB/CW, 2000-2007). Adored by fans and celebrated by critics for its sophisticated wordplay and compelling portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship, this contemporary American TV program finally gets its due as a cultural production unlike any other - one that is beholden to Hollywood's screwball comedies of the 1930s, sleeped in intertextual references, and framed as a 'kinder, gentler kind of cult television series' in this lightly focused yet wide-ranging collection. This volume makes a significant contribution to television studies, genre studies, and women's studies, taking Gilmore Girls as its focus while adopting a panoramic critical approach sensitive to such topics as serialized fiction, elite education; addiction as a social construct; food consumption and the disciplining of bodies; post-feminism and female desire: depictions of journalism in popular culture; the changing face of masculinity in contemporary U.S. society; liturgical and ritualistic structures in televisual narrative; Orientalism and Asian representations on American TV: Internet fan discourses; and new genre theories attuned to the landscape of twenty-first-century media convergence. Screwball Television seeks to bring Gilmore Girls more fully into academic discourse not only as a topic worthy of critical scrutiny but also as an infinitely rewarding text capable of stimulating the imagination of students beyond the classroom.

Since 1940, Captain America has battled his enemies in the name of American values, and as those values have changed over time, so has Captain America’s character. Because the comic book world fosters a close fan–creator dialogue, creators must consider their ever-changing readership. Comic book artists must carefully balance storyline continuity with cultural relevance. Captain America’s seventy-year existence spans from World War II through the Cold War to the American War on Terror; beginning as a soldier unopposed to offensive attacks against foreign threats, he later becomes known as a defender whose only weapon is his iconic shield. In this way, Captain America reflects America’s need to renegotiate its social contract and reinvent its national myths and cultural identity, all the while telling stories proclaiming an eternal and unchanging spirit of America.In Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence, Stevens reveals how the comic book hero has evolved to maintain relevance to America’s fluctuating ideas of masculinity, patriotism, and violence. Stevens outlines the history of Captain America’s adventures and places the unfolding storyline in dialogue with the comic book industry as well as America’s varying political culture. Stevens shows that Captain America represents the ultimate American story: permanentenough to survive for nearly seventy years with a history fluid enough to be constantly reinterpreted to meet the needs of an ever-changing culture.

First published in 1880, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ became a best-seller. The popular novel spawned an 1899 stage adaptation, reaching audiences of over 10 million, and two highly successful film adaptations. For over a century, it has become a ubiquitous pop cultural presence, representing a deeply powerful story and monumental experience for some and a defining work of bad taste and false piety for others. The first and only collection of essays on this pivotal cultural icon, Bigger Than ""Ben-Hur"" addresses Lew Wallace’s beloved classic to explore its polarizing effect and to expand the contexts within which it can be studied.In the essays gathered here, scholars approach Ben-Hur from multiple directions—religious and secular, literary, theatrical, and cinematic—to understand not just one story in varied formats but also what they term the ""Ben-Hur tradition."" Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, contributions include the rise of the Protestant novel in the United States; relationships between and among religion, spectacle, and consumerism; the ""New Woman"" in early Hollywood; and a ""wish list"" for future adaptations, among others. Together, these essays explore how this remarkably fluid story of faith, love, and revenge has remained relevant to audiences across the globe for over 130 years.

First published in 1880, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ became a best-seller. The popular novel spawned an 1899 stage adaptation, reaching audiences of over 10 million, and two highly successful film adaptations. For over a century, it has become a ubiquitous pop cultural presence, representing a deeply powerful story and monumental experience for some and a defining work of bad taste and false piety for others. The first and only collection of essays on this pivotal cultural icon, Bigger Than ""Ben-Hur"" addresses Lew Wallace’s beloved classic to explore its polarizing effect and to expand the contexts within which it can be studied.In the essays gathered here, scholars approach Ben-Hur from multiple directions—religious and secular, literary, theatrical, and cinematic—to understand not just one story in varied formats but also what they term the ""Ben-Hur tradition."" Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, contributions include the rise of the Protestant novel in the United States; relationships between and among religion, spectacle, and consumerism; the ""New Woman"" in early Hollywood; and a ""wish list"" for future adaptations, among others. Together, these essays explore how this remarkably fluid story of faith, love, and revenge has remained relevant to audiences across the globe for over 130 years.

Castleman and Podrazik present a sweeping season-by-season story, capturing the essence of television from its inception to the contemporary era of anytime access and online streaming, including every prime time fall schedule since 1944. The authors have dug through the mounds of obscure facts, offbeat anecdotes, and corporate strategies that have made television a multibillion-dollar industry. Watching TV provides a fascinating history of how the personalities, popular shows, and coverage of key events have evolved across eight decades. Full of facts, firsts, insights, and exploits, as well as rare and memorable photographs, Watching TV is the standard history of American television. This third edition includes coverage up through the mid-2010s and looks ahead to the next waves of change.

In Watching TV with a Linguist, Fägersten challenges the conventional view of television as lowbrow entertainment devoid of intellectual activity. Rather, she champions the use of fictional television to learn about linguistics and at the same time promotes enriched television viewing experiences by explaining the role of language in creating humor, conveying drama, and developing identifiable characters. The essays gathered in this volume explore specific areas of linguistics, providing a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the study of language. Through programs such as Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Sherlock, and The Wire, contributors deftly illustrate key linguistic concepts and terminology using snippets of familiar dialogue and examples of subtle narration. In addition, contributors aim to raise linguistic awareness among readers by identifying linguistics in action, encouraging readers to recognize additional examples of concepts on their own. To this end, each chapter provides suggestions for viewing other television series or specific episodes, where further examples of the linguistic concepts in focus can be found. Invaluable as a resource in linguistics and communication courses, Watching TV with a Linguist is the first book to use the familiar and compelling medium of television to engage students with the science of language

Aspiring writers often ask how they can break into the television writing business. Meyers believes that the answer can be found by asking why people become television writers and what makes them successful. Inside the TV Writer's Room reveals these insights and much more. This volume, a collection of interviews with some of today's top episodic writers arranged in a roundtable format, explores the artists drive to express how the writers honed their creativity, and what compromises they have made to pursue their craft both before and after finding success. Each chapter's topic is distilled into a practical lesson for both professionals and aspirants to heed if they wish to find or maintain success in writing for television. The book includes such leading entertainment writers and producers as Neal Baer, executive producer of the NBC series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Tim King of the groundbreaking hit Heroes, Peter Lenkov of 24 and CSI: New York, and Shawn Ryan, creator of the acclaimed series The Shield. Individual writers discuss the struggle to balance artistic fulfillment with the realities of commerce, and how they inject an original voice into a show that is often not their own creation.

Bringing together seventeen original essays by scholars from around the world, Screwball Television offers a variety of international perspectives on Gilmore Girls. Adored by fans and celebrated by critics for its sophisticated wordplay and compelling portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship, this contemporary American TV program finally gets its due as a cultural production unlike any other, one that is beholden to Hollywood’s screwball comedies of the 1930s, steeped in intertextual references, and framed as a ""kinder, gentler kind of cult television series"" in this tightly focused yet wide-ranging collection.This volume makes a significant contribution to television studies, genre studies, and women’s studies. Screwball Television seeks to bring Gilmore Girls more fully into academic discourse not only as a topic worthy of critical scrutiny but also as an infinitely rewarding text capable of stimulating the imagination of students beyond the classroom.

Today more than ever, series finales have become cultural touchstones that feed watercooler fodder and Twitter storms among a committed community of viewers. While the final episodes of The Fugitive and M*A*S*H continue to rank among the highest rated broadcasts, more recent shows draw legions of binge-watching fans. Given the importance of finales to viewers and critics alike, Howard and Bianculli along with the other contributors explore these endings and what they mean to the audience, both in terms of their sense of narrative and as episodes that epitomize an entire show. Bringing together a veritable ""who's who"" of television scholars, journalists, and media experts, including Robert Thompson, Martha Nochimson, Gary Edgerton, David Hinckley, Kim Akass, and Joanne Morreale, the book offers commentary on some of the most compelling and often controversial final episodes in television history. Each chapter is devoted to a separate finale, providing readers with a comprehensive survey of these watershed moments. Gathering a unique international lineup of journalists and media scholars, the book also offers readers an intriguing variety of critical voices and perspectives.

The NBC series Hannibal has garnered both critical and fan acclaim for its cinematic qualities, its complex characters, and its innovative reworking of Thomas Harris's mythology so well-known from Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its variants. The series concluded late in 2015 after three seasons, despite widespread fan support for its continuation. While there is a healthy body of scholarship on Harris's novels and Demme's film adaptation, little critical attention has been paid to this newest iteration of the character and narrative.Hannibal builds on the serial killer narratives of popular procedurals, while taking them in a drastically different direction. Like critically acclaimed series such as Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, it makes its viewers complicit in the actions of a deeply problematic individual and, in the case of Hannibal, forces them to confront that complicity through the character of Will Graham. The essays in Becoming explore these questions of authorship and audience response as well as the show's themes of horror, gore, cannibalism, queerness, and transformation. Contributors also address Hannibal's distinctive visual, auditory, and narrative style. Concluding with a compelling interview with series writer Nick Antosca, this volume will both entertain and educate scholars and fans of Hannibal and its many iterations.

One of the most popular shows to come out of Shondaland, Shonda Rhimes's production company, is ABC's political drama Scandal (2012–18)—a series whose tremendous success and marketing savvy led LA Times critic Mary McNamara to hail it as ""the show that Twitter built"" and Time magazine to name its protagonist as one of the most influential fictional characters of 2013. The series portrays a fictional Washington, DC, and features a diverse group of characters, racially and otherwise, who gather around the show's antiheroine, Olivia Pope, a powerful crisis manager who happens to have an extramarital affair with the president of the United States. For seven seasons, audiences learned a great deal about Olivia and those interwoven in her complex world of politics and drama, including her team of ""gladiators in suits,"" with whom she manages the crises of Washington's political elite. This volume, named for both Olivia's team and the show's fans, analyzes the communication, politics, stereotypes, and genre techniques featured in the television series while raising key questions about the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and viewing audiences. The essays range from critical looks at various members of Scandal's ensemble, to in-depth analyses of the show's central themes, to audience reception studies via interviews and social media analysis. Additionally, the volume contributes to research on femininity, masculinity, and representations of black womanhood on television. Ultimately, this collection offers original and timely perspectives on what was one of America's most ""scandalous"" prime-time network television series.

The NBC series Hannibal has garnered both critical and fan acclaim for its cinematic qualities, its complex characters, and its innovative reworking of Thomas Harris's mythology so well-known from Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its variants. The series concluded late in 2015 after three seasons, despite widespread fan support for its continuation. While there is a healthy body of scholarship on Harris's novels and Demme's film adaptation, little critical attention has been paid to this newest iteration of the character and narrative.Hannibal builds on the serial killer narratives of popular procedurals, while taking them in a drastically different direction. Like critically acclaimed series such as Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, it makes its viewers complicit in the actions of a deeply problematic individual and, in the case of Hannibal, forces them to confront that complicity through the character of Will Graham. The essays in Becoming explore these questions of authorship and audience response as well as the show's themes of horror, gore, cannibalism, queerness, and transformation. Contributors also address Hannibal's distinctive visual, auditory, and narrative style. Concluding with a compelling interview with series writer Nick Antosca, this volume will both entertain and educate scholars and fans of Hannibal and its many iterations.