History & Criticism

This work examines the change from live to filmed television dramas during the period 1952-1958 and the characteristics and programs that are most associated with filmed television drama. Along with many technical changes that had to be made in the...

This collection of new essays examines how the injection of supernatural creatures and mythologies transformed the hugely popular crime procedural television genre. These shows complicate the predictable and comforting patterns of the procedural with...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer earned critical acclaim for its use of metaphor to explore the conflicts of growth, power, and transgression. Its groundbreaking stylistic and thematic devices, boldness and wit earned it an intensely devoted fan base--and as...

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report have attracted much interest in recent years from popular audiences as well as scholars in various disciplines. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been named on Time magazine's list of the...

HBO's Carnivale was a critically-acclaimed, elaborate period narrative set in Depression era America that set the stage for the current explosion of cinematic storytelling on television. Despite an ambitious and unusual storyline, remarkable...

Created around the world and available only on the web, internet "television" series are independently produced, mostly low budget shows that often feature talented but unknown performers. Typically financed through crowd-funding, they are filmed with...

Lost has received widespread acclaim as one of the most innovative, intelligent, and influential dramatic series in television history. Central to Lost's success has been its capacity to evoke audience interpretations of its mysteries, undiminished...

Joss Whedon once identified himself as an 'angry, hard-line atheist' who is nevertheless 'fascinated by the concept of devotion.' While organized religion seems to hold no satisfactory answers for Whedon, his dedication to exploring the meanings of faith...

Greg Olson, author of David Lynch: Beautiful Dark, the essential book on Lynch’s life and art, has resided in the Twin Peaks region of the Northwest for decades, and David Lynch spent youthful years in the Northwest; both of their fathers were woodsmen...

Hanna and Barbera: Conversations presents a lively portrait of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, the influential producers behind Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, the Smurfs, and hundreds of other cartoon characters who continue to entertain the...

The fictionalized Los Angeles of television's Angel is a world filled with books, texts, and other forms of literature--from the all-important Shansu prophecy that predicts Angel's return to a state of humanity to the ever-present books dominating the...

From automatons to zombies, many fantastic elements have been cross-pollinated with the western genre. This Second Edition of the A-to-Z Encyclopedia of the Weird Western includes numerous new entries covering film, television, animation, dime novels,...

Soap operas have captured loyal, often lifelong viewers since the first daytime serial debuted in 1949. In this collection of 29 new and five classic essays and recollections, authors and soap opera insiders delve into the passion for television...

This collection analyzes twenty-first-century American television programs that employ temporal and narrative experimentation. These shows play with time, slowing it down to unfold narrative through time retardation and compression. They disrupt the...

This title analyzes the social, political, and institutional context of ""The Flip Wilson Show"", which ran on NBC between 1970 and 1974.When ""The Flip Wilson Show"" debuted on NBC in 1970, the major legislative...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781476688015Author Jonathan F BassettFormat PaperbackPage Count 175Imprint McFarland & Co IncPublisher McFarland & Co Inc

The award-winning television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988-1999) has been described as ""the smartest, funniest show in America,"" and forever changed the way we watch movies. The series featured a human host and a pair of robotic puppets...

While the American soap opera is known primarily for its marketing value, producers, health professionals, politicians, and rebels elsewhere focus on the serials' potential for social change: African, Indian and South American serials offer information...

Much has been written about the Walt Disney Company's productions, but the focus has largely been on animation and feature film created by Disney. In this essay collection, the attention is turned to The Disney Channel and the programs it presents for a...

In many pop culture texts, "monsters" can be read as metaphors for marginalized Others in U.S. culture. This book applies the philosophical lens of Michel Foucault's normalizing and bio-powers to zombies, vampires, magicians, genetic mutants...

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...

The highest-rated network program during its first three seasons, comedy-variety show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (NBC, 1968-1973) remains an often overlooked and underrated innovator of American television history. Audiences of all kinds - old and...

Launched in 1977 by the Christian Broadcasting Service, the network originally associated with Pat Robertson has gone through many changes in ownership and title. Its most recent incarnations, ABC Family (2001-2016) and Freeform (2016-present), feature a...

Spartacus, the Thracian gladiator turned rebel leader, endures as a near-mythic hero who fought for the oppressed against a Roman oligarchy built on the backs of slave labour. The image of Spartacus as a noble if doomed avenger is familiar and his story...

Throughout the long-running BBC series Doctor Who, the Doctor has rarely been alone-his companions are essential. Male or female, human or alien, young or old, the dozens of companions who have travelled with him over the past 50 years have served as...

Since the early 2000s, popular culture has experienced a "Zombie Renaissance," beginning in film and expanding into books, television, video games, theatre productions, phone apps, collectibles and toys. Zombies have become allegorical figures...

The West Wing, first broadcast in 1999, is thought by many to have been one of the most significant dramas shown on network television. Despite its overly idealized depiction of American political life, and blatant contradictions in the way we consider...

The subjects of this book constitute a significant cross section of BBC science fiction television. With such characters as the Doctor (an enigmatic time-traveling alien), Kerr Avon (a problematic rebel leader), Dave Lister (a slovenly last surviving...

This collection analyzes twenty-first-century American television programs that rely upon temporal and narrative experimentation. These shows play with time, slowing it down to unfold the narrative through time retardation and compression. They disrupt...

Exploring the Land of Ooo: An Unofficial Overview and Production History of Cartoon Network’s "Adventure Time" is a guide through the colorful and exuberant animated television series that initially aired from 2010 to 2018. Created by visionary artist...

This wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection-the first of its kind-invites us to reconsider the politics and scope of the Roots phenomenon of the 1970s. Alex Haley's 1976 book was a publishing sensation, selling over a million copies in its first year...

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...

Ally McBeal, the immensely popular television series by producer David Kelley that ran on Fox television from 1997 to 2002, was both groundbreaking and controversial. Attracting a tidal wave of popular attention, the show's challenging presentation of...

Here is an excellent reference book on "first run" syndication--the distribution of programs either made exclusively for non-network play, or of programs intended for network telecasts but ultimately making their debuts in syndication. Bringing...

In 1833 Alexander Pushkin began to explore the topic of madness, a subject little explored in Russian literature before his time. The works he produced on the theme are three of his greatest masterpieces: the prose novella The Queen of Spades, the...

Created around the world and available only on the web, internet ""television"" series are independently produced, mostly low budget shows that often feature talented but unknown performers. Typically financed through crowd-funding,...

ABC's action-comedy series Batman (1966-68) famously offered a dual address in its wildly popular portayal of a comic book hero in a live action format. Children uncritically accepted the show's plots and characters, who were guided by lofty ideals and...

HBO's critically acclaimed drama The Wire has seen increasing use as course material in college classrooms since the 2008 series finale. Yet there are few resources available to those using the show as a teaching tool. This collection of new essays...

The Dick Van Dyke Show (CBS 1961-1966) was a uniquely self-reflexive sitcom that drew on vaudevillian tropes at a time when vaudeville-based comedy variety was disappearing from television. At the same time, it reflected the liberal politics of the...

A pioneering study at the intersection of religion and media, Small Screen, Big Picture treats television as a virtual meeting place where Americans across racial, ethnic, economic and religious lines find instructive and inspirational narratives. An...