Television category: 3830 books

When critics decry the current state of our public discourse, one reliably easy target is television news. It’s too dumbed-down, they say; it’s no longer news but entertainment, celebrity-obsessed and vapid.   The critics may be right. But, as Charles L. Ponce de Leon explains in That’s the...

One of the most successful series of its time, Have Gun—Will Travel became a cultural phenomenon in the late 1950s and made its star, Richard Boone, a nationwide celebrity. The series offered viewers an unusual hero in the mysterious, Shakespeare-spouting gunfighter known only as “Paladin” and...

Volume Two for 2013! It's time for reporters to get street smart. And not just about reporting. There's more to the television news business than gathering facts and getting your face on camera. You need to navigate the minefield present in every newsroom in America. Broadcast Journalism Street Smarts...

David Lynch and Mark Frost’s television series Twin Peaks debuted in April 1990 and by June of 1991 had been cancelled. Yet the impact of this surreal, unsettling show – ostensibly about the search for homecoming queen Laura Palmer’s killer – is far larger than its short run might indicate....

David Lynch and Mark Frost’s television series Twin Peaks debuted in April 1990 and by June of 1991 had been cancelled. Yet the impact of this surreal, unsettling show – ostensibly about the search for homecoming queen Laura Palmer’s killer – is far larger than its short run might indicate....

Blake’s 7, Terry Nation’s science fiction tale of cosmic freedom fighters, became a hit series in Great Britain when it premiered in 1978. Eight years later, the show quickly became a cult program in America. A dramatization of futuristic outlaw heroes who defend the innocent from both alien and...

A comprehensive look at the history of African Americans on television that discusses major trends in black TV and examines the broader social implications of the relationship between race and popular culture as well as race and representation.

Though unjustly neglected by English-language audiences, Spanish film and television not only represent a remarkably influential and vibrant cultural industry; they are also a fertile site of innovation in the production of “transmedia” works that bridge narrative forms. In Spanish Lessons, Paul...

Whatever happened to Bozo the Clown, to Aunt Norma, to Solomon C. Whiskers, those television celebrities who hammed it up between cartoons and contests during local kids' shows? In Hi There, Boys and Girls! America's Local Children's TV Programs, Tim Hollis tracks down the story of every known local...

Capitalizing on Darren McGavin's irresistible charm and his success on the small screen, Revue Studios cast him in their new series, Riverboat, which premiered in 1959. Since McGavin was also starring in Mike Hammer at the same time, he became the first actor to simultaneously star in two television...

Europe Un-Imagined examines one of the world’s first and only trans nationally produced television channels, Association relative à la télévision européenne (ARTE). ARTE calls itself the "European culture channel" and was launched in 1991 with a French-German intergovernmental mandate...

Although undeservedly underrated by critics, scholars and other television writers, "JAG" was a a ratings success that redefined American patriotism in the common consciousness in the immediate post-9/11 era. This long overdue book examines the phenomenon of "JAG" from a scholarly perspective, covering reception as well as legal and military authenticity.

There are certain films and shows that resonate with audiences everywhere—they generate discussion and debate about everything from gender, class, citizenship and race, to consumerism and social identity. This new ‘teachable canon’ of film and television introduces students to alternative classics...

Winner of the 2009 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award The Midwest of popular imagination is a "Heartland" characterized by traditional cultural values and mass market dispositions. Whether cast positively —; as authentic, pastoral, populist, hardworking,...