This book explores the mechanisms that have driven the evolution of televisual comedy from the classic sitcom, a genre deeply rooted in its theatrical origins, toward a more mature stage of television's history. It analyzes four comic series--Scrubs, The Office, The Comeback, and Ugly Betty--revealing how each separates itself from the traditional sitcom archetype and shows increased awareness of the comic genre. Throughout the author focuses on two cardinal themes: the relationship between comedy and euphoria; and the relationship between comic texts and reality.|This book explores the mechanisms that have driven the evolution of televisual comedy from the classic sitcom, a genre deeply rooted in its theatrical origins, toward a more mature stage of television's history. It analyzes four comic series--Scrubs, The Office, The Comeback, and Ugly Betty--revealing how each separates itself from the traditional sitcom archetype and shows increased awareness of the comic genre. Throughout the author focuses on two cardinal themes: the relationship between comedy and euphoria; and the relationship between comic texts and reality.

In the past, the examination of myth has traditionally been the study of the "Primitive" or the "Other." More recently, myth has been increasingly employed in movies and in television productions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Star Trek television and movie franchise. This collection of essays on Star Trek brings together perspectives from scholars in fields including film, anthropology, history, American studies and biblical scholarship. Together the essays examine the symbolism, religious implications, heroic and gender archetypes, and lasting effects of the Star Trek "mythscape."

This collection of essays focuses on two sub-genres of reality television: dating shows, like ""The Bachelor"", ""Joe Millionaire"", and the earlier ""Love Connection""; and makeover reality shows, like ""The Swan"" and ""Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People"". Each author explores a different aspect of one or both of these types of shows, focusing especially on the cultural interaction between the text - dating and makeover shows - and society. Five of the essays utilize audience analysis to discern the ways in which actual, as opposed to idealized, viewers relate to these genres. The others cover a wide range of critical methodologies - including textual, rhetorical, cultural, and ideological approaches - to analyze a broad spectrum of dating and makeover shows.

Created in 2006 as a spinoff of Doctor Who, the internationally popular BBC television series Torchwood is a unique blend of science fiction and fantasy, with much more of an adult flavor than its progenitor. The series' "omnisexual" protagonist, maverick 51st-century time agent Captain Jack Harkness, leads a team of operatives from the present-day Torchwood Institute, a secret organization dedicated to battling supernatural and extraterrestrial criminals. With its archetypal characters, adult language, subversive humor and openly homosexual and bisexual storylines, Torchwood provides a wealth of material for scholarly analysis and debate.

Using Torchwood as its focal point, this timely collection of essays by a range of experts and enthusiasts provides an interpretive framework for understanding the continually developing forms and genres of contemporary television drama.

When media coverage of courtroom trials came under intense fire in the aftermath of the infamous New Jersey v. Hauptmann lawsuit (a.k.a. The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case,) a new era of fictionalized courtroom programming was ushered in to satiate the public's appetite for legal drama. This book is an alphabetical listing of the nearly 200 'courtroom', 'lawyer' and 'judge' shows telecast in the U.S. from 1948 through 2008, complete with cast and production credits, airdates, detailed synopses and background information. Included are such familiar titles as ""Perry Mason"", ""Divorce Court"", ""Judge Judy"", ""LA Law"", and ""The Practice"", along with such obscure series as ""They Stand Accused"", ""The Verdict is Yours Sam Benedict"", ""Trials of O'Brien"", and ""The Law and Mr. Jones"". The book includes an introductory overview of 'law'-oriented radio and TV broadcasts from the 1920s to the present, including actual courtroom coverage (or lack of same during those years in which cameras and microphones were forbidden in the courtroom) and historical events within TV's factual and fictional treatment of the legal system. Also included in the introduction is an analysis of the rise and fall of cable's Court TV channel.

The story of the motion picture industry during World War II comes to life with details of more than 450 films and the contributions of those who lived and worked through that era. This illustrated narrative combines a historical perspective of the war--and the events that followed--with chronological synopses of the films that reflect those turbulent years. Included are such efforts as Casablanca, The Battle of Midway and Der Fuhrer's Face. Also acknowledged are several recent film and TV productions as well as the men and women who continue adding to the lore of a somber yet fascinating period in history.

To paraphrase silent movie queen Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's classic 1950 film ""Sunset Boulevard"", 'The Epic Miniseries are Big! It's television that got small'! This is especially true when one compares such iconic epic miniseries as ""Rich Man, Poor Man"" (1976), ""Roots"" (1977), ""Holocaust"" (1978), ""Shogun"" (1980), ""The Winds of War"" (1983), and ""War and Remembrance"" (1988-89) to the formulaic sitcoms, hospital dramas, and reality shows making up today's television programming. This work traces the historical development, evolution, decline, and surprising rebirth of the epic miniseries. Topics covered in this title include the role of HBO and other cable networks in reviving the miniseries genre; producer/director Dan Curtis' obsessive, decade-long quest to produce what is likely the ultimate American epic miniseries in ""The Winds of War"" and ""War and Remembrance""; and, the powerful influence of foreign miniseries on American productions, among others.

Since its inception as an art form, anime has engaged assiduously with themes, symbols and narrative strategies drawn from the realm of magic. In recent years, the medium has increasingly turned to magic specifically as a metaphor for the exploration of a wide range of cultural, philosophical and psychological concerns. This book first examines a range of Eastern and Western approaches to magic in anime, addressing magical thinking as an overarching concept which unites the titles under scrutiny despite their generic and tonal diversity. It then explores the collusion of anime and magic with reference to specific topos. A close study of cardinal titles is complemented by allusions to ancillary productions in order to situate the medium's fascination with magic within an appropriately broad historical context.

Not every presidential visit to the theater is as famous as Lincoln's last night at Ford's, but American presidents attended the theater long before and long after that ill-fated night. As a young man in 1751, George Washington saw his first play, The London Merchant, during a visit to Barbados. John Quincy Adams understood theater well enough to publish dramatic critiques. William McKinley, on the other hand, avoided theatrical performances while in office, on professional as well as moral grounds. Dwight Eisenhower used drama as a vehicle for political propaganda. Richard Nixon took a more personal view of theater, having met his wife at a community theater audition.Surveying 255 years, this volume examines presidential theater-going as it reflects shifting popular tastes in America. To this end, it provides a chronology of theater attendance throughout the lives of all 43 American presidents. Defining theater as a live dramatic performance (including opera but excluding ballet), the book details the attendance habits and theatrical tastes of each chief executive as well as the ways in which his choices reflected the mores and tastes of his contemporary American public. An afterword provides a summary of presidential theater-going preferences.

On Friday, May 18, 1934, radio columns in the New York press announced that Bert Parks of CBS would be 'relinquishing his status as N.Y.'s youngest Network Staff Announcer to the newly appointed George Ansbro on the NBC Announcing Staff'. Ansbro's successful audition led to a career that included work on ""Young Widder Brown, Manhattan Maharajah and Dr. I.Q.,"" the television show from which the book's title line is taken. Fifty-five years after his broadcast beginning, he was hailed as a pioneer who in terms of service held the honor of being the oldest employee of any network. From his role as an NBC page in 1931 to his career as a network announcer, Ansbro recalls an era that includes a who's who of early radio and Hollywood stars, and a transition from what was known as the Blue Network and its beginnings at Rockefeller Center to the massive radio and television organization now known as ABC. Along with such names as Howard Cosell, Bob Hope, and Mary Pickford, Ansbro helped shape the modern entertainment world.

The Pulitzer Prizing-winning author Studs Terkel is layed bare in an autobiography of modern times - the stirring story of a man whose life has been so vivid that its telling mirrors the events of a century. From Mahalia Jackson to Bertrand Russell, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Frederico Fellini, Studs has met them all and captured their voices for us. With the addition of a marvelous new postscript, Talking to Myself is as enjoyable now as when it was first published--a work that is as unusual as it is compelling.

Many early radio stars, writers, and producers later migrated to television, but the crossover left the ""American Radio Archives"" with a treasure trove of television documents. The collected scripts span more than 40 years of American television history, from live broadcasts of the 1940s to the late 1980s. They also cover the entire spectrum of television entertainment programming, including comedies, soap operas, dramas, crime and westerns. The archives of this title cover nearly 1,200 programs represented by over 6,000 individual scripts. It includes an index of actors, crew, titles and production companies, as well as a glossary of industry terms and 38 photographs.

This work features interviews with 51 leading ladies who starred in B-westerns, A-westerns, and television westerns. Some were well-known and others were not, but they all have fascinating stories to tell and they talk candidly about their careers and the many difficulties that went along with their jobs. Back then, conditions were often severe, locations were often harsh, and pay was often minimal. The actresses were sometimes the only females on location and they had to provide their own wardrobe and do their own make-up, as well as discourage the advances of over-affectionate co-stars. Despite these difficulties, most of the women interviewed for this agree that they had fun. Claudia Barrett, Virginia Carroll, Francis Dee, Lisa Gaye, Marie Harmon, Kathleen Hughes, Linda Johnson, Ruta Lee, Colleen Miller, Gigi Perreau, Ann Rutherford, Ruth Terry, and June Vincent are among the 51 actresses interviewed.

Spiritualists in the nineteenth century spoke of a place they called the 'Borderland', a shadowy threshold where the living communed with the dead, and where those in the material realm could receive comfort or advice from another world. Drawing upon the skilled performances of mostly female actors and performers, the 'borderland' became a theatre, of sorts, in which dramas of revelation and recognition were produced in the forms of seances, trances, and spiritualist lectures. This book examines some of the most fascinating American and British actresses of the Victorian era, whose 'borderland' performances fairly mesmerized their audiences of amused skeptics and ardent believers. The book also focuses on the transformative possibilities of the spiritualist theatre, revealing how the performances allowed Victorian women to speak, act, and create outside the boundaries of their restricted social and psychological roles.

Occurring alongside the Women's Rights, Gay Rights, Civil Rights, and other identity movements of the 1960s, the Vietnam War was part of an era that rescripted gender and other social identity roles for many, if not most, Americans. This book examines the ways in which the war and its accompanying movements greatly altered traditional American conceptions of masculinity, looking particularly at discourses ranging from fictional narratives to memoirs, films, and military recruiting advertisements. Analysis of two canonical fiction texts - John Del Vecchio's ""The 13th Valley"" and Bobbie Ann Mason's ""In Country"" - illustrates the interrelatedness of race, sexuality, disability and masculinity, an approach appearing in no other book-length study. Finally, the book illustrates how, decades later, the masculine anxieties of the Vietnam era are still evident in discourses ranging from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to recent presidential campaigns.

Cinema is ideally suited to render the fantastic world of ESP and other psychic or paranormal abilities tangible to an audience. A technique as simple as a voice-over can simulate mental telepathy, while unusual lighting, set design, or creative digital manipulation can conjure clairvoyant visions, precognition, or even psychokinesis. This book explores the depiction of paranormal powers in fiction films, examining how popular films like ""Star Wars"", ""Independence Day"", ""The Green Mile"", and dozens of others both reflect and influence the way modern society perceives the notion of psychic abilities. The psychic theme is explored in nearly 100 films from a variety of genres including drama, comedy, horror, science fiction, crime melodrama, and children's films, providing a concise review of the history and concepts of mainstream cinematic parapsychology.

This book demonstrates how horror films of the 1930s and 1940s reflected specific events and personalities of the era, most notably the Great Depression and World War II. Beginning with ""Dracula"" and ""Frankenstein"" (1931), it relates the many ways that horror films and society intersected: Franklin D. Roosevelt's skepticism toward conventional wisdom and the public's distrust of experts was mirrored in ""Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"" and ""Murders in the Rue Morgue""; the freaks in Tod Browning's 1932 film of the same name revolted against the powerful people of the circus, much like the Bonus Army protested the sufferings of the Depression; King Kong's rampage on New York personified the anti - New York sentiment in the nation at large; Lon Chaney Jr.'s ""Wolf Man"" symbolized the experience of his creator, Curt Siodmak, as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.

In his Nobel speech, entitled Art, Truth and Politics, Harold Pinter explained how he was fighting against the «tapestry of lies». It is indeed those daily lies, lies of love or of state, that are exposed in this book, which emphasises his political agenda. In March 2007, the University of Lyon (Jean Moulin) and the ENS LSH organised VIVA PINTER, a tribute to his work centred on a key notion for the city of Lyon, the Spirit of Resistance. Pinter combined a concise, fragmented and syllogistic style with a keen perception of the metaphors of our time. The most specific instrument of this great humanist lay in his representation of power games. In this volume, scholars, stage-directors and lawyers tell us how his work is highly meaningful for them. Golden Palm winners Volker Schlöndorff and Jerry Schatzberg, film and theatre director David Jones, and BBC radio producer Barbara Bray share with us the memory of how they worked with Pinter on his major plays and films.

This collection of 14 essays explores drama from around the world that depicts the United States and Americans. From Eighteenth Century German dramas about Native Americans through post-Revolutionary War British plays, to the theaters of contemporary Japan, Mexico, Serbia, Ireland, Ghana and other nations, the contributors consider conflicting representations of Americans. Sometimes flattering, often critical, and occasionally insulting, these various international views highlight perceptions of America abroad and how they influence the world's stages.

The state of Wisconsin is unique in the number of historic movie theatres that remain standing today. Many are still open, bringing a sense of history, giving modern moviegoers an experience that simply can't be replicated by multiplexes and mall theatres. This book provides a reference guide to Wisconsin's historic movie theatres, from those built as opera houses, auditoriums, and community halls in the mid - 19th century to the ornate 'movie palaces' of the 1930s and, finally, the quickly and cheaply constructed postwar theatres constructed in the 1950s. More than 900 Wisconsin theatres are arranged alphabetically by town in entries that provide the theatre's name(s), location, number of seats, and opening and closing dates. A historical overview including information specific to each town or county provides a more complete snapshot of the communities which supported these historic theatres and were in turn affected by them. The book includes more than 400 photographs which demonstrate the different styles of theatres still standing throughout the state, including both original and present-day views of the theatres listed.

By the end of its five-year run on television, ""The Muppet Show"" had transformed its motley cast of characters from mere fistfuls of felt to true multi-media celebrities. Sophisticated and highly individuated, each of the Muppets nonetheless embodied a conventional character type from classic television comedy. Kermit, the manager of the show, functioned as straight man to the majority of the show's jokes. Miss Piggy, the resident diva, evolved from first season chorus girl to full-fledged megastar. From The Costello to Kermit's Abbot, Fozzie peddled his vaudevillian shtick to a tough audience, but his genuine sweetness made him lovable even when his jokes were terrible. Intended for both scholarly and general audiences, these essays represent the work and ideas of a global community of scholars and Muppet enthusiasts, providing a unique perspective on just how Kermit and the rest of the frogs, dogs, bears, and chickens became cultural icons with influences reaching far beyond the world of 1970s television comedy.

In the modern film making world, the term 'low-budget' can refer to anything from a $10 million indie flick to a student film produced on borrowed equipment with little to no money at all. Similarly, low budget filmmakers can range from seasoned auteurs attempting to shed the shackles of major studio control to novice talents trying to break into the industry. Designed for would-be filmmakers of all ages and experience levels, this book explains how to make a good, as well as commercially successful, low-budget movie in the current climate of mainstream, multi-million dollar Hollywood films. The purpose is not only to show low-budget filmmakers how to get movies made and distributed, but also how to maximize a film's potential for significant profit. Written in practical, understandable terms, the book covers everything from commercially viable genres to the most efficient film and video formats, along with tips on hiring stars, pursuing investors, distributing and marketing a film, and keeping track of expenses.

In this work, first-hand accounts and original interviews illuminate how the father-son relationship thrives because of baseball, and, sometimes, in spite of it. Each of these men bears a legendary name in baseball broadcasting - Caray, Brennaman, Buck and Kalas - and some can count four generations of men whose voices defined a team. All of the sons relate how their fathers' names opened doors for them but concurrently raised expectations of how they should perform, and all relate how they learned from their fathers' (and grandfathers') triumphs and mistakes. Throughout the work, a clear picture of baseball as a generational bridge emerges. It includes a foreword by Chip Caray, speeches by Joe Buck about his father Jack, and articles by Skip Caray, Chip Caray and Marty Brennaman.

This detailed study of the career of Anthony Mann argues Mann's prominence and influence alongside contemporaries like John Ford. Mann (1906-1967), who was active in Hollywood and Europe, directed or produced more than 40 films, including ""The Fall of the Roman Empire"" and ""God's Little Acre"". He was best known for his film noir and westerns and his work starring Jimmy Stewart, but Mann later moved into Cold War and epic films. The book features a filmography and 50 movie stills and photographs.