No American television show of the past decade has been vilified as has ""Comedy Central's South Park"". This is the show that has featured, in turn, a nine-year-old boy enmeshed in an affair with Ben Affleck, a maniacal Mel Gibson smearing feces everywhere, and the misadventures of Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, a talking, bouncing, singing piece of poop. While it's not always an exercise in good taste, ""South Park"" is a socially significant satire that has also devoted entire episodes to interpretations of ""Great Expectations"", Ken Burns' ""Civil War"", and ""Hamlet"". This volume explores the popularity and cultural relevance of ""South Park"" and its place as an artistically and politically worthy satire. Among the topics explored are the show's parody of the processes of manufacturing political consent; its treatments of Shakespeare's plays; the interrogation of anti-tobacco legislation; and the show's creators' seemingly irreverent and dismissive treatment of environmentalism.

This collection of 20 essays pays homage to a filmmaker who had a reputation for delivering the most movie for the least amount of money. Edgar G. Ulmer delivered classics like ""The Black Cat"", starring Bela Lugosi, and was nicknamed 'The King of the Bs' and 'The King of Poverty Row'. Ulmer's stealing away the wife of a producer led to his exile from Hollywood, and working outside the studio system and with low budgets, he turned out film noir, science fiction, and ethnic films that achieved cult status and limited critical acceptance. Among the contributors are Ulmer historians Bill Krohn, Greg Mank, and Sharon Pucker Rivo. Illustrations and a filmography are included in this title.

This work examines a selection of film series representative of three periods in American film history - silent cinema, Classic Hollywood cinema, and the post - Classic or New Hollywood cinema - as well as the place of the film series in other national cinemas, including those of France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and India. It offers an expanded definition of the industry practice of producing film series and examines the series themselves from a variety of cultural and critical perspectives, broadening the dialogue on the film series within the discipline of popular film studies.In the initial chapter the editor analyzes the series form, providing a point of departure for the discussions to follow. Part One examines early cinema, outlining the events and situations after 1907 that allowed early filmmakers to begin creating series based on and reproduced from the complex narratives of popular fiction. Part Two explores the cultural implications of Classic Hollywood cinema series, including Tarzan, Nancy Drew, and Maisie. Chapters in Part Three analyze James Bond and Star Wars, two of the most widely recognized series in post-Classic or New Hollywood cinema. Part Four examines mid-century European film series, including Germany's Fridericus and France's Angelique and Caroline. The final part presents studies of other international film series, including the postwar Japanese series Godzilla and Torasan, the popular ""Better Tomorrow"" series from Hong Kong, and several Hindi series from postcolonial India.

Hollywood films have presented audiences with stories of campus life for nearly a century, shaping popular perceptions of our colleges and universities and the students who attend them. In the process, these cinematic depictions of campus life have even altered the attitudes and behavior of college students themselves, serving as both a mirror of and a model for collegiate attitudes and behavior. One can only imagine how many high school seniors enter college today with the hopes of living the proverbial Animal House or PCU Greek experience, or how many have worried over the SAT and college admissions after watching more recent movies like 2004's ""The Perfect Score"".This book explores themes of college life in 680 live-action, theatrically released, feature-length films set in the United States and released between 1915 and 2006, evaluating how these movies both reflected and distorted the reality of undergraduate life. The topics include college admissions, the freshman experience, academic work, professor-student relations, student romance, fraternity and sorority life, sports, political activism, and other extracurricular activities. The book also includes a complete filmography and 65 illustrations.

Rowan and Martin's ""Laugh-In"" was one of the quirkiest and most unusual programs on television, defying definition as simply comedy, variety, or burlesque. The show had audiences laughing for six seasons and continues to make appearances in revivals, reunions, and salutes. Even with corny and now dated humor, the show's signature lines and gags are ingrained in popular American culture.This critical history of ""Laugh-In"" is arranged chronologically and includes background details on the show's creators and the events leading up-to ""Laugh-In's"" creation. In addition to an analysis of the original six seasons, the text includes information on lookalike shows that emerged after ""Laugh-In's"" success, and on the various resurgences of the show that continued up into the nineties. An appendix contains a complete program history with principal production credits and episode guides.

The sound of chainsaws revving on 'haunted' Halloween trails has evoked untold screams since Tobe Hooper's 1974 ""The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"" hit the cinemas. Since that first take-no-prisoners horror movie, Hooper's reputation as a master of horror has been secured by his adaptations of Stephen King (""Salem's Lot"", 1978, and ""The Mangler"", 1995), his blockbuster breakthrough ""Poltergeist"" (1982) and a variety of cult hits, from the underrated ""Lifeforce"" (1985) to the remake of ""Invaders from Mars"" (1986). This reference work is divided into five parts. Part I provides a history and overview of Tobe Hooper's career. Part II offers entries (with synopses, complete credits, critical reception and commentaries) on every feature film by year of release. Part III provides chronological information on Hooper's television movies and miniseries. Part IV offers entries on his episodes from horror television series. Part V is a critical essay and conclusion which places Hooper in horror film history and compares his work to all-time greats such as Romero, Craven and Carpenter.

Paul Bern was second only to Irving Thalberg at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1930s. Known throughout the movies as 'Hollywood's Father Confessor', Bern had earned a reputation for being a loyal and supportive friend and for becoming one of MGM's most respected and creative directors. In short, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who would say anything negative about Paul Bern. Until he died. Then he would be accused of becoming so depressed and despondent over his own impotence that he had no choice but to commit suicide, and he would be denounced for attempting to rape his new bride, Jean Harlow, and of beating her bloody with a cane on their wedding night just two months earlier.But MGM publicity people and studio police knew how Paul Bern really died. They knew a long-ago common-law wife had recently emerged from the fog of mental illness believing she was still married to Paul, and they knew she had visited him the night before he was found dead. They knew she had killed him, but they also knew that publicly revealing Bern's first marriage would mark his current marriage - a marriage to MGM's now fastest rising star - as bigamous. So, they staged a suicide and embarked on a very public tarnishing of Bern's memory and legacy, leaving the world to believe he was impotent and suicide-obsessed and killed himself out of frustration with his marriage to a sex symbol. This biography rights that wrong by uncovering startling facts about Bern and MGM's tarnishing of his memory. It features almost 100 rare photos, many never before seen, along with three appendices examining the handwriting on the alleged suicide note and Bern's will and estate.

This work contains the histories of 17 radio audience participation shows on the air during the 1940s and 1950s. They are Arthur Godfrey's ""Talent Scouts"", Art Linkletter's ""House Party"", ""Break the Bank"", ""The Breakfast Club"", ""Bride and Groom"", ""Can You Top This?"", ""Dr. Christian"", ""Dr. I.Q."", ""Double or Nothing"", ""Information Please"", ""Queen for a Day"", ""Stop the Music!"", ""Strike It Rich"", ""Take It or Leave It"", ""Truth or Consequences"", ""Welcome Travelers"", and ""You Bet Your Life"". Included for each show are the premise it was based upon, the producers, host, announcer, vocalists, orchestra conductor, writers, sponsors, the ratings, and the air dates. Biographical sketches are provided for 177 figures who were connected to radio audience participation shows. A guide to network audience participation shows follows the text as an appendix.

It is often said that the greater Los Angeles area is the largest movie set in the world, and if a person lives there long enough their home or street will probably be featured in a film or television show. The tourism industry in Tinseltown is huge business, with thousands of devoted fans each day flocking to see just where their favorite star's blockbuster was filmed.

This work documents locations used in over 335 motion pictures and 86 television series filmed in Los Angeles and San Diego. The locations were identified and verified after an extensive review of films, video tapes, site photographs, and personal interviews with film industry personnel. Included are synopses of the motion pictures and television series cited; an exhaustive index provides instant access to names, places, monuments, landmarks, film studios, film titles and television titles.

Barcelona-born, New York-based artist Francesc Torres (born 1948), a pioneer of installation art, is one of the most important European artists of his generation. In What Does History Know of Nail-Biting, which borrows its subtitle from Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, the artist explores a body of work made by Harry Randall, a photographer and filmmaker who was one of 3,500 Americans who joined the International Brigades to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Many of the so-called Abraham Lincoln Brigade did not make it home, but Randall did. Forty-five minutes of 16mm film, shot by Randall between 1937 and 1938, becomes the material for Torres' new limited-edition artist's book, which explores what history looks like outside of concrete historical events, trying to capture the fragmentation and confusion that silently seeps through the official narratives of history.

The result of nearly 15 years of research, this comprehensive analysis of Boris Karloff's life and career, incorporates criticism, in-depth production information, discussion of major cinematic themes and characters, and a look at the historical periods and events depicted in the films. Extensive biographical and career information is dovetailed with a discussion of the classic Hollywood era in order to examine Karloff's overall contribution to American cinema. Each of Karloff's horror films is examined at length, as well as his contributions to other media. Over 100 posters, portraits, film scenes and candid photos illustrate the text, and numerous contemporaries (Evelyn Karloff, Laurence Olivier, Henry Brandon, Ian Wolfe, Zita Johann, others) are quoted throughout.

Though they were close friends, Rudyard Kipling and Sir Henry Rider Haggard wrote about adventure and the exotic in very different ways. Examined together, their works illuminate each other. The writings of both authors have been adapted to the screen, stage, television, and radio numerous times (with varying degrees of fidelity) and this is a complete guide to those adaptations. In the main section of the book each original literary work is summarized, followed by a complete filmography and analysis for each film based on that story or poem. Separate sections provide information on adaptations created for radio, stage, and television. Photographs are included from films ranging from ""The Jungle Book"" (Kipling) to King Solomon's ""Mines"" (Haggard).

This book focuses on the mother-daughter relationship as it features in a number of films from the 1990s onwards. Bringing the insights of psychoanalysis and feminism to bear on a diverse and compelling range of representations of the mother-daughter dynamic, the author addresses a range of questions relating to the social, historical and cultural conditions which go to inform the female experience. These include, in relation to Dolores Claiborne, Heavenly Creatures and The Others, an exploration of different forms of familial violence and resistance to it and in One True Thing, Stepmom and Pieces of April, questions about the construction of the ideal mother and her loss. From The Piano’s engagement with French feminism and Losing Chase’s reworking of the life and work of Virginia Woolf to the depiction of cross-racial relationships during apartheid in Friends, the films that go to make up this study all share a central concern with both the literal and symbolic forms that the mother-daughter relationship encompasses.

The theatre had a difficult time establishing itself in Massachusetts. Colonial authorities in Boston were adamantly opposed to theatrical amusements of any kind. In the mid-eighteenth century, even theatricals performed in the homes of private citizens aroused the indignant ire of puritanically minded authorities. In 1750 the General Court of Massachusetts passed an act prohibiting stage plays or any other theatrical entertainment. In 1762, the New Hampshire House of Representatives refused a theatre troupe admission to the town of Portsmouth on the ground that plays had a 'peculiar influence on the minds of young people and greatly endangered their morals by giving them a taste for intriguing amusement and pleasure.'The first public dramatic performance in Boston was produced at a coffeehouse on State Street by two English actors and some local volunteers. In 1775 General John Burgoyne, himself an actor and playwright, converted Boston's Faneuil Hall into a theatre, where he presented, among other pieces, ""The Blockade of Boston"". After the Revolutionary War, in February 1794, the dramatic history of Boston may be said to have begun with the opening of the Boston Theatre.The history of Boston theatres from the eighteenth century through the present is covered in this well illustrated work. Although the theatre had a somewhat rocky beginning, by 1841 more than 15 theatre houses - including the Boston Theatre, Concert Hall, Merchants Hall, Boylston Hall, the Washington Gardens Amphitheatre, the Tremont Theatre, the Washington Theatre, the American Amphitheatre, the Federal Street Theatre, Mr. Saubert's Theatre, the Lion Theatre, the National Theatre (which boasted gas lighting), and the Howard Athenaeum - were all established.After these first theatres paved the way and puritanical restraint had been overcome, the public's enthusiasm for varied entertainment prevailed and theatres proliferated in the city. This book details the long and storied history of Boston theatre construction, alteration, restoration, and, in many cases, destruction. Information is also provided about building architecture, types of performances, ticket prices and other interesting data about each theatre's history.

Discover the work of Aubrey Beardsley, a complex and intriguing artist who shocked and delighted late-Victorian London Aubrey Beardsley (1872&1898) is best remembered for his powerful illustrations for Salome by Oscar Wilde. Spanning just seven years, his intense, prolific career as a draftsman and illustrator was cut short when he died at the age of 25. His subversive black-and-white drawings and his complex persona became synonymous with decadence: He alighted on the perverse and erotic aspects of life and legend, shocking audiences with his bizarre sense of humor and fascination with the grotesque. His keen observation of his contemporaries makes him of his time, but his distinct style has resonated with subsequent generations. A major influence on the development of Art Nouveau, and on psychedelic pop culture and design in the late 1960s, Beardsley&s drawings remain a key reference for many artists today. Here, short essays on aspects of Beardsley&s remarkable career complement reproductions of his fascinating work.

Cast, production credits, release date, and running time are provided for each of the Tarzan films. The plot synopses include the storyline, background information on the making of the film, and contemporary critical commentary. Also examined is Tarzan on television, from the TV movie Tarzan and the Trappers (1958) to the 1991 series. Heavily illustrated. This entry refers to the LARGE PRINT edition. For the standard edition please see ISBN 978-0-7864-1109-2.

Edward G. Robinson, a 1930s cinema icon, had an acting career that spanned over 60 years. After a brush with silent films, he rose to true celebrity status in sound feature films and went on to take part in radio and television performances, then back to Broadway and on the road in live theatre. This work documents Robinson's every known public performance or appearance, listing also co-workers, source material, background and critical commentary. The entries include feature films, documentaries, short subjects, cartoons, television and radio productions, live theatre presentations, narrations, pageants, and recordings that Robinson was involved with during his professional life. Also included are entries relating to Robinson's life and career, ranging from his art collection to his wives.

Many movie genres developed during the silent era, but none was as lasting as comedies. Actors and actresses stood in front of crude, hand-cranked cameras and invented a style that made people laugh and forget their troubles.This is a comprehensive reference work to the people, studios, technical companies and terms associated with silent film comedy. For people, there is a capsule biography, with birth and death rates and a summary of their contribution to the genre. For studios and companies, there is a brief history, focusing on their work in silent film comedy. For terms, a full definition is given.

When Charlie Chaplin left Keystone Studios for more money and greater creative control at Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, he added more depth to his character, more thought to his direction, and more substance to his humor: at Essanay, he grew from a comedian to a true cinematic artist. This work carefully examines all sixteen Chaplin comedies produced at Essanay, showing Chaplin as an artist in transition from the knockabout Keystone farces to more refined, sometimes brilliant Mutual productions. From ""His New Job"" (1915) to ""Triple Trouble"" (1918), the book covers each film with key details, a history of its production, and valuable commentary that places the picture in context within Chaplin's canon.

To today's radio listener, it is difficult to imagine the influence radio once held over the American people. Unlike movies or newspapers, radio both informed and entertained its audience without requiring them to participate. Part of its success depended upon the people who created the sound effects--a squeaking door, the approach of a horse, or a typewriter. The author did live sound effects during the Golden Age of radio. He provides many insights into the early days of the medium as it grappled with entertaining an audience based on a single sense (hearing). How the sounds were produced is fully covered as are the artists responsible for their production. Stories of successful effects production are balanced by embarrassing or funny failures. A list of artists and their shows is included. This entry refers to the LARGE PRINT edition. For the standard edition please see ISBN 978-0-7864-2266-1.

Some of theater's most powerful works in the past thirty years fall into the category of "verbatim theater," socially engaged performances whose texts rely on word-for-word testimony. Performances such as Fires in the Mirror, The Laramie Project, and The Vagina Monologues have at their best demonstrated how to hold hard conversations about explosive subjects in a liberal democracy. But in this moment of what author Ryan Claycomb terms the "rightward lurch" of western democracies, does this idealized space of democratic deliberation remain effective? In the Lurch asks that question in a pointed and self-reflexive way, tracing the history of this branch of documentary theater with particular attention to the political outcomes and stances these performances seem to seek. But this is not just a disinterested history--Claycomb reflects on his own participation in that political fantasy, including earlier scholarly writing that articulated with breathless hopefulness the potential of verbatim theater, and on his own theatrical attendance, imbued with a belief that witnessing this idealized public sphere was a substitute for actual public participation. In the Lurch also recounts the bumpy path towards its completion, two years marked by presidential impeachments, an insurrection, a national reckoning with racism, and a global pandemic. At the heart of the book is a central question: is verbatim theater any longer an effective cultural response to what can look like the possible end of democracy?

Born in the 1920s during the emergence of radio, schools of the air broadcast an impressive array of instructional programs for the classroom. These broadcast schools operated at the national, state and local levels; issued teacher manuals and learning materials; and offered enormous educational resources to students in both rural and urban areas. This work gives the history of 14 schools of the air, and fills an important gap in scholarship about American education and broadcast media. The book also assesses the successes and failures of the school of the air movement, and examines reasons for its demise.

On April 29, 1789, a band of mutineers turned an otherwise common, uneventful voyage into an unforgettable legend. The confrontation between Lieutenant William Bligh and Master's Mate Fletcher Christian of the H.M.S. Bounty has become one of the most famous stories in the annals of maritime history. Consequently, volumes have been written regarding the mutiny, its protagonists and its aftermath on Pitcairn Island. From William Bligh's firsthand account published in 1790 to 20th century cinematic representations, this copiously illustrated reference book examines more than 1700 books, articles and other materials which deal with the now infamous mutiny on the Bounty and its legacy. Covering the most important material published from 1790 through 2006, it provides descriptive analytical discussions of major works including nonfiction accounts, fictional representations, poetry, articles and movies. Presented chronologically by date of publication, the major works trace the history of the reactions, emotions and opinions that the mutiny has generated in the reading public, allowing the reader to consider each work within the cultural and scholarly context of its respective period. Each section includes an annotated bibliography of selected works and further supplemented with a bibliography of additional literature from the time period. Appendices direct readers to related Internet resources and notable documentaries, and a list of references is included.