The British television director Alan Clarke is primarily associated with the visceral social realism of such works as his banned borstal play Scum, and his study of football hooliganism, The Firm. This book uncovers the full range of his work from the mythic fantasy of Penda's Fen, to the radical short film on terrorism, Elephant. Dave Rolinson uses original research to examine the development of Clarke's career from the theatre and the 'studio system' of provocative television play strands of the 1960s and 1970s, to the increasingly personal work of the 1980s, which established him as one of Britain's greatest directors. Alan Clarke examines techniques of television direction, and proposes new methodologies as it questions the critical neglect of directors in what is traditionally seen as a writer's medium. It raises crucial issues in television studies, including aesthetics, authorship, censorship, the convergence of film and television, drama-documentary form, narrative and realism. -- .

Trevor Griffiths has been a critical force in British television writing for over three decades. His successes have included the series Bill Brand (1976), his adaptations of Sons and Lovers and The Cherry Orchard (1981) and his television plays, The Comedians (1979), Hope in the Year Two (1994) and Food for Ravens (1997). During his creative life he has negotiated the issues of genre, politics, identity, class, history, memory and televisual form with a sustained creativity and integrity second to none. And he has parallelled this career with one as equally as eminent in the theatre, as well as the slightly more problematic forays into film-writing for Warren Beatty's Reds and Ken Loach's Fatherland. John Tulloch's Trevor Griffiths is also, however, a work that looks at such a creative and successful career from a number of different angles. For example, Griffith's televisual work coincides with the emergence of media and cultural studies and so Tulloch reflects on how critical citation moves from Marx to Derrida from the 70s throught to the 90s, mirroring the increased theorisation of media studies. He also looks at the dialogic relationship of Griffiths as the radical critic and the radical critique of cultural studies. Both a canny work on Griffiths, as well as a pertinent work for students introducing them to to broader concepts, theories and methods within the field, Tulloch's work will be read widely by students and academics in a range of disciplines.

Mediating Sexual Citizenship considers how the neoliberal imperatives of adaptation, improvement and transformation that inform the shifting artistic and industrial landscape of television are increasingly indexed to performed disruptions in the norms of sexuality and gender. Drawing on examples from a range of television genres (quality drama, reality television, talk shows, sitcoms) and outlets (network, cable, subscription video on demand), the analysis in this book demonstrates how, as one of the most dominant cultural technologies, television plays a critical role in the production, maintenance and potential reconfiguring of the social organisation of embodiment, be it within gender identities, kinship structures or the categorisation of sexual desire. It suggests that, in order to understand television's role in producing gendered and sexual citizenship, we must pay critical attention to the significant shifts in how television is produced, broadcast and consumed.

This pioneering study on fan translation focuses on Italian fansubbing as a concept, a vibrant cultural and social phenomenon which is described from its inception in 2005 to today. It explores far-reaching issues related to fansubbing and crowdsourcing, highlighting in particular the benefits and drawbacks of Web 2.0.

- This is an all-inclusive playbook that offers readers a real world based "how-to" manual to create factual television programming. - Includes exclusive industry interviews with top television executives including Matt Taylor (Disney, National Geographic International), Winona Meringolo (Investigation Discovery), Babette Perry (innovative Artists), and more. - Breaks down different areas of factual television that are not explored elsewhere.

Beyond representation poses the question as to whether over the last thirty years there have been signs of 'progress' or 'progressiveness' in the representation of 'marginalised' or subaltern identity categories within television drama in Britain and the US. In doing so it interrogates some of the key assumptions concerning the relationship between aesthetics and the politics of identity that have influenced and informed television drama criticism during this period. This book can function as a textbook because it provides students with a clear and coherent pathway through complex, wide-reaching and highly influential interdisciplinary terrain. Yet its rigorous and incisive re-evaluation of some of the key concepts that dominated academic thought in the twentieth century also make it of interest to scholars and specialists. Chapters examine ideas around politics and aesthetics emerging from Marxist-socialism and postmodernism, feminism and postmodern feminism, anti-racism and postcolonialism, queer theory and theories of globalisation, so as to evaluates their impact on television criticism and on television as an institution. These discussions are consolidated through case studies that offer analyses of a range of television drama texts including Big Women, Ally McBeal, Supply and Demand, The Bill, Second Generation, Star Trek (Enterprise), Queer as Folk, Metrosexuality and The Murder of Stephen Lawrence. This book is aimed at students and scholars of Television Drama, Media and Communication, Cultural Studies, Women's Studies and those concerned with questions of politics and aesthetics in other disciplines.

North/South, East/West focuses on the visual and discursive representation of identity promoted by public and private Italian national television at the turn of the twenty-first century. Michela Ardizzoni examines the role of politics, conglomeration, immigration, and satellite technology in framing discourses of gender, ethnic, and regional identities. In a time of social and political change for Italy, characterized by the increased visibility of ethnic minorities and the rise to political power of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's largest media mogul, North/South, East/West provides an in-depth textual analysis of current programs and their vision of identity

Two remarkable events occurred during 1976: The debut of Saturday Night Live and the Presidential Election pitting Gerald Ford against Jimmy Carter. Both events had profound and enduring influence on shaping the country America is today. When Saturday Night Live premiered, the show's impact was evident very quickly, as it grabbed huge ratings and several Emmy Awards in its first season; made household names of its seven original stars; and had a remarkable influence on popular and political culture with its mix of music, comedy, and live theater. In April of 1976, while he was in the midst of a fight for the Republican presidential nomination and his political survival, President Gerald Ford gave his press secretary, Ron Nessen, permission to become the first politician to guest host NBC's Saturday Night. In addition to Nessen, the President also appeared on the show, via video tape, to introduce his press secretary and to offer a comic counterpunch to Chevy Chase's signature line, "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not," at the beginning of "Weekend Update." Ever since Nessen's and Ford's appearances, it has become a rite of passage for politicians with a national profile, or those with a desire to have a national presence, to appear on Saturday Night Live, and the show's treatment of those politicians and many political topics has had a continuing impact on Americans' feelings and discussions about politics. This book is the first to examine the ground-shaking collision of SNL and Presidential Politics when it all began.

BBC's Orphan Black shattered conventions with one actress-Tatiana Maslany-playing a host of main characters. At the same time, it burst through the expectations of a crowd that anticipated male heroes and female victims. As the mighty heroines save one another and destroy the patriarchy, they're aided by supportive, gentle, even bumbling male love interests and friends. Even as the characters subvert gender expectations, they provide models that celebrate the many types of feminism through history and emerging today: Sarah, the punk feminist and protagonist, clashes with her foster-mother Siobhan, herself a veteran of radical feminism and literal combat. Housewife Alison begins as the quintessential post-feminist, while Krystal sports pink tops and high heels as a girl power icon. Cosima hails from Berkeley in her Birkenstocks and dreadlocks, the herald of second-wave lesbian feminism as she earns herself a science PhD. Beth has it all in the spirit of third-wave feminism, though her drug habits and relationship problems show the weakness of the era. M.K., hidden in her trailer yet ruling the internet as its hacker-queen, offers a new image as a fourth-wave feminist, conquering her disability through the new medium of the internet. At the same time, the science and ethics of cloning emphasizes the women's war against corporate power. Together with metafiction, allusions, symbolism, and deeper imagery, the show breaks all the barriers of gender as well as science fiction television.

This volume explores how television has been a significant conduit for the changing ideas about children and childhood in the United States. Each chapter connects relevant events, attitudes, or anxieties in American culture to an analysis of children or childhood in select American television programs. The essays in this collection explore historical intersections of the family with expectations of childhood, particularly innocence, economic and material conditions, and emerging political and social realities that, at times, present unique challenges to America's children and the collective expectation of what childhood should be.

When the BBC's television series Sherlock debuted in summer 2010 and traveled to the U.S. via PBS a few months later, no one-including Hartswood Films producers, series co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes) and Martin Freeman (John Watson), or those who would become ardent fans-knew what an international phenomenon it would become. Since then, Sherlock has encouraged a diverse fandom who participate in such traditional fan activities as writing fiction, creating art, attending conventions, and buying merchandise. Yet, Sherlock fandom does far more than that. Like the object of their affection, Sherlock Holmes, fans scrutinize clues about the series' meaning and deduce what happens off screen or off the set, then share their findings across the internet. They postulate theories and create personally empowering readings of the characters and relationships. They have tweeted with The Powers That Be, mobilized to filming locations via #Setlock, and become advocates for LGBTQIA communities. Sherlock's digital communities have changed the way that fans and TPTB interact in person and online as each publicly takes "ownership" of beloved television characters who represent far more than entertainment to their fans.

Reading Contemporary Serial Television Universes provides a new framework-the metaphor of the narrative ecosystem-for the analysis of serial television narratives. Contributors use this metaphor to address the ever-expanding and evolving structure of narratives far beyond their usual spatial and temporal borders, in general and in reference to specific series. Other scholarly approaches consider each narrative as composed of modular elements, which combine to create a bigger picture. The narrative ecosystem approach, on the other hand, argues that each portion of the narrative world contains all of the main elements that characterize the world as a whole, such as narrative tensions, production structures, creative dynamics and functions. The volume details the implications of the narrative ecosystem for narrative theory and the study of seriality, audiences and fandoms, production, and the analysis of the products themselves.

Cricket and broadcasting explores how the significance of radio and television to cricket in England has grown since the beginnings of broadcasting. Since the Second World War cricket has been increasingly shaped by its relationship with broadcasting which has been a force for conservatism and change. Representations of cricket on radio and television have done much to determine levels of interest and participation in the sport. Major changes such as the growth of the limited-overs game, the expansion of international cricket, reforms to County Championship and the rise of sponsorship were dependent on support from television, and income from television has enabled county cricket to survive as the highest form of domestic cricket in England. This accessibly written book will be essential reading for scholars and students of sports history, social and cultural history, and media studies. -- .

CSI has been heralded in many spheres of public discourse as a televisual revolution, its effects on the public unprecedented. The CSI Effect: Television, Crime, and Governance demonstrates that CSI's appeal cannot be disentangled from either its production as a televisual text or the broader discourses and practices that circulate within our social landscape. This interdisciplinary collection bridges the gap between the study of media, particularly popular culture media, and the study of crime. The contributors consider the points of intersection between these very different realms of scholarship and in so doing foster the development of a new set of theoretical languages in which the mediated spectacle of crime and criminalization can be carefully considered. This timely and groundbreaking volume is bound to intrigue both scholars and CSI enthusiasts alike.

Completed before he died, thirty years ago, this is the newly discovered autobiography of one of the most influential comedians of recent times, Marty Feldman. Marty Feldman was one of the most essential creative forces in British comedy embodied also by his close friends and creative partners from Beyond the Fringe (especially Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) and Monty Python (especially John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle). Marty played the fool, often very happily and with tremendous talent and volcanic, anarchic energy, for his entire life. Marty finished, and set aside eYE Marty soon before travelling to Mexico to shoot his final film. He did not know that he would die there, although he certainly felt he might die soon, and was haunted by the notion. The book is exactly as Feldman wrote it, with even the photos inserted where Feldman had noted they should go. Hilarious, deeply charming, aphoristic, ironic, charged throughout with lust for life and filled with scenes of great vanished eras and and portraits of other performers and friends, eYE Marty is the amazing discovery of the story of a man who was at the heart of the British comedy revolution.

Monty Python s Flying Circus was one of the most important and influential cultural phenomena of the 1960s and 1970s. The British program was followed by albums, stage appearances, and several films, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, and Monty Python s The Meaning of Life. In all, the comic troupe drew on a variety of cultural references that prominently figured in their sketches, and also tackled weighty matters that nonetheless amused their audiences. In Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition: Cultural Contexts in Monty Python, Tomasz Dobrogoszcz presents essays that explore the various touchstones in the television episodes and subsequent films. These essays look at a variety of themes prompted by the comic geniuses: .Death .The depiction of women .Shakespearean influences .British and American cultural representations .Reactions from foreign viewers The volume offers a distinguished academic discussion of Monty Python s oeuvre, exhibiting highly varied approaches from a number of theoretical perspectives, including gender studies, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis and cultural studies. Featuring a foreword by Python alum Terry Jones, Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition will appeal to anyone interested in cultural history and media studies, as well as the general fans of Monty Python who want to know more about the impact of this groundbreaking group."

Britain VS China: A comparison between competing television channels exploring how cultural values and world views bear upon the business of news production. Despite similarities in technology and organisation, and the rapid development of trans-nationalism, globalisation has its limits. At a time of radical economic and technological change, Rong Zeng in Television News and the Limits of Globalisation goes inside the newsrooms to analyse their products and bulletins first hand in order gain a deeper understanding of the limits and opportunities for global journalism in today's rapidly changing world. This project is the first and only study which compare broadcast journalists and their working practices in the UK and China. Zeng's findings will contribute to the field of comparative journalism by endeavouring to understand global journalism in different national and cultural settings.

Why is reality television flourishing in today's expanding media market? Religion and Reality TV: Faith in Late Capitalism argues that the reality genre offers answers to many of life's urgent questions: Why am I important? What gives my life meaning? How do I present my best self to the world? Case studies address these questions by examining religious representations through late capitalist lenses, including the maintenance of the self, the commodification of the sacred, and the performance of authenticity. The book's fourteen essays explore why religious themes proliferate in reality TV, audiences' fascination with "lived religion," and the economics that make religion and reality TV a successful pairing. Chapters also consider the role of race, gender, and religion in the production and reception of programming. Religion and Reality TV provides a framework for understanding the intersection of celebrity, media attention, beliefs, and values. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of religion and media studies, communication, American studies, and popular culture.

The Lone Ranger has endured as an iconic figure in American popular culture, from his 1933 premier as a radio serial hero through a highly-rated television series (1949-1957) to a 2013 feature film. Created by script writer Fran Striker and radio station owner George W. Trendle, the character was meant to embody courage, fair play and honesty, and writers had to adhere to specific guidelines: "he never smokes ... he uses precise speech ... he never shoots to kill." The popularity of the Ranger and his companion Tonto inspired later crime fighting duos like Batman and Robin, and The Green Hornet and Kato. This book examines the franchise in detail, with summaries and production details of the original radio episodes.

A figure from ancient folklore, the doppelganger-in fiction a character's sinister look-alike-continues to reemerge in literature, television and film. The modern-day doppelganger ("double-goer" in German) is typically depicted in a traditional form adapted to reflect present-day social anxieties. Focusing on a broad range of narratives, the author explores 21st century representations in novels (Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry, Jose Saramago's The Double), TV shows (Orphan Black, Battlestar Galactica, Ringer) and movies (The Island, The Prestige, Oblivion).

Are you not entertained?"" These are the prophetic words of Gladiator's Maximus Decimus Meridius, signifying that a new era of sword and sandal films and television shows that began in the 1990s, had officially arrived. The critical and commercial success of Ridley Scott's Gladiator combined with small screen popularity of Xena: Warrior Princess reignited interest in the genre, and soon the gates were opened for movies and shows such as 300, Spartacus, Rome, Troy and many more. This contemporary wave of historic epics, known as neo-pepla, is distinctively different from the peplum films of decades past due to its embracement of new technologies and storytelling techniques, creating truly epic and immersive experiences that could not be realized before. This collection of essays examines the neo-peplum phenomenon, taking a critical look at a variety of topics such as antiquity stories adapted from comic books as with Hercules staring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, how sword and planet films such as Jupiter Ascending and John Carter expand genre boundaries, depictions of Romans and slaves in Spartacus, and how films such as The Eagle and Centurion are a metaphor for American soliders during the Iraq War.

Agnes Moorehead (1900-74) was unique among twentieth-century American actresses in making a major career for herself in all four entertainment media after the age of 40. As the title indicates, Agnes Moorehead on Radio, Stage and TV focuses on Moorehead's career in radio, on the stage, and in television. A representative selection of 25 of her most interesting and representative performances in these media are discussed in separate profiles ranging in length from 1,500 to 7,500 words, with the longest chapters devoted to Mayor of the Town, Suspense, Moorehead's one-woman show, Bewitched and Gigi. Naturally, the book also covers Moorehead's celebrated appearance on The Twilight Zone, both her productions of Don Juan in Hell, and her Emmy-winning appearance on The Wild Wild West. Many less well-known performances have never been analyzed in detail before. These include fascinating and entertaining portrayals on TV series such as Wagon Train, Adventures in Paradise, Rawhide and Burke's Law. The profiles are organized in chronological order. Thus, from The Shadow to Gigi, the book can be read as a continuous, chronological narrative of Moorehead's unfolding acting career through more than three decades; or the individual chapters may be read as self-contained accounts of individual shows and performances. Each profile concentrates on Moorehead's contribution to the show or episode. In addition to analyzing the nature and function of Moorehead's role and how she performs it, the author variously discusses the place of the performance in her career development as a whole; her relationship with directors, producers, and/or fellow actors: comparisons and contrasts with similar types of roles in the same or other media; and curious, little known facts about the production. Nissen also discusses salient events in Moorehead's personal life at the time.

The essays included in this book offer an overview of literary works, films, TV series, and computer games, which reflect current social and political developments since the beginning of this century. The contributions intend to x-ray the most crucial aspects of contemporary North-American literature and culture. Addressing a variety of media, the authors of the essays probe the many ways in which repression and expression are the primary keywords for understanding contemporary American life and culture.

Anne Bancroft (1931-2005) was an American film, television and stage actress, stage producer and film director. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, she won the ""Triple Crown""-an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy. Her stage portrayal of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in 1959. She reprised the role for the 1962 film of the same name, winning the Oscar for Best Actress, but was perhaps best known as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967). Her extensive television work included numerous roles in movies and series, including Deep in My Heart (1999), for which she won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress. A filmography/videography and information about DVD availability are included.

Television 2.0 sets out to document and interrogate shifting patterns of engagement with digital television. Television content has not only been decoupled from the broadcast schedule through the use of digital video recorders (DVRs) but from broadcasting itself through streaming platforms such as Netflix, Vimeo and YouTube as well as downloading platforms such as iTunes and The Pirate Bay. Moreover, television content has been decoupled from the television screen itself as a result of digital convergence and divergence, leading to the proliferation of computer and mobile screens. Television 2.0 is the first book to provide an in-depth empirical investigation into these technological affordances and the implications for viewing and fan participation. It provides a historical overview of television's central role as a broadcast medium in the household as well as its linkages to participatory culture. Drawing on survey and interview data, Television 2.0 offers critical insights into the ways in which the meanings and uses of contemporary television are shaped not just by digitalization but by domestic relations as well as one's affective relationship to particular television texts. Finally it rethinks what it means to be a participatory fan, and examines the ways in which established practices such as information seeking and community making are altered and new practices are created through the use of social media. Television 2.0 will be of interest to anyone teaching or studying media and communications.