The question of why we laugh (or don't laugh) has intrigued scholars since antiquity. This book contributes to that debate by exploring how we evaluate screen comedy. What kinds of criteria do we use to judge films and TV shows that are meant to be funny? And what might that have to do with our social and cultural backgrounds, or with wider cultural ideas about film, TV, comedy, quality and entertainment? The book examines these questions through a study of audience responses posted to online facilities such as Twitter, Facebook, review sites, blogs and message boards. Bore's analysis of these responses considers a broad range of issues, including how audiences perceive the idea of "national" comedy; what they think of female comedians; how they evaluate romcoms, sitcoms and web comedy; what they think is acceptable to joke about; what comedy fans get excited about; how fans interact with star comedians; and what comedy viewers really despise. The book demonstrates some of the ways in which we can adapt theories of humour and comedy to examine the practices of contemporary screen audiences, while offering new insights into how they negotiate the opportunities and constrictions of different online facilities to share their views and experiences.

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.

This elegant cookbook celebrates the characters and cuisine of the popular Netflix series Emily in Paris. Taste your way through Emily's Parisian neighborhood with 75 recipes inspired by the Netflix series and l'Hexagone itself. Cook show-inspired favorites like Gabriel's Omelette, the "French D" Cake made for Emily's coworkers, and Pierre's Cracked Creme Brulees; or classic French fare such as Ratatouille and Pain au Chocolat; and even American expat favorites including Quiche au Ciment (AKA Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza). Featuring lavish stills from the show, fan-favorite quotes, and a detailed character-driven narrative, fans of Emily in Paris, Francophiles, and home cooks alike can celebrate the timeless classics of French cuisine at home.

This book examines the creative strategies, narrative characteristics, industrial practices and stylistic tendencies of complex serial drama. Exemplified by shows like HBO's The Sopranos, AMC's Mad Men and Breaking Bad, Showtime's Dexter, and Netflix's Stranger Things, complex serials are distinguished by their conceptual originality, narrative complexity, transgressive lead characters and serial allure. As a drama form that continues to expand and diversify in today's television, HBO's Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones, Netflix's Orange Is the New Black and Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale provide further examples. Dunleavy investigates the strategies that underpin the innovations, influence and success of complex serial drama, giving students and scholars a nuanced understanding of this contemporary TV form.

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.

Shudder's Creepshow: From Script to Scream is the official behind-the-scenes book featuring the spine-tingling stories and tantalizing talent behind The Creepshow series. Shudder's Creepshow: From Script to Scream, produced by AMC Networks Publishing and Creepshow showrunner and executive producer Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), is a coffee-table book which brings fans behind-the-scenes of the acclaimed Creepshow series with deep dives into its riveting origins, gripping development, provocative production, sinister special effects, and much more. Features a foreword by legendary storyteller Stephen King and an afterword by horror aficionado Kirk Hammett, Metallica's lead guitarist. Based on the hit anthology series from Nicotero, Cartel Entertainment, Striker Entertainment, and in partnership with Titan Books, the book is written by Dennis L. Prince, designed by John J. Hill, and co-produced by Julia Hobgood. The series has been heralded as "an irresistibly macabre package," (Slant Magazine) and "an undeniable love letter to all generations of horror fans," (CBR), and over three seasons, has been one of the most watched programs on Shudder.

Joss Whedon may be primarily known for his numerous films and television series that feature villainous vampires, angry gods, and even bloggers who wish to rule the world, but what connects much of his work is the constant presence of a particular type of antagonist: the corporation. In this study of Whedon's work, from his early days as story editor for Roseanne to his relationship with Marvel, I trace his use of corporate culture as the primary antagonist under which all of his protagonists struggle, from the fast food horrors in Buffy and Roseanne, to the corporate-funded technology used in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers films, followed by an extensive case study of the multifaceted (and difficult to defeat) Rossum Corporation in Dollhouse. The proliferation of corporate actors allows Whedon and his team to provide explicit sociopolitical commentary on a real world in which corporations wield enormous control.

This concise book provides an accessible overview of the history of the telenovela in Latin America within a pan-Latino context, including the way the genre crosses borders between Latin America and the United States. Telenovelas, a distinct variety of soap operas originating in Latin America, take up key issues of race, class, sexual identity and violence, interweaving stories with melodramatic romance and quests for identity. June Carolyn Erlick examines the social implications of telenovela themes in the context of the evolution of television as an integral part of the modernization of Latin American countries.

Premiering in 1993 on FOX Network, The X-Files followed the investigations of two FBI special agents, Fox Mulder and Dr. Dana Scully as they pursued the supernatural, the bizarre, and the alien, as well as the government conspiracies at work to conceal the truth of their existence. For nine seasons, Chris Carter's series broke new ground in complex narrative television by integrating science fiction and horror with the forensic investigation of the detective genre. Shaped by the conspiracy films of the 1970s, the series had the ability to comment on the contemporary political climate one week and poke fun at its own self-seriousness the next. Responding to its cinematic visual style, haunting score, complex and nuanced writing, witty dialog, and the exceptional acting of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who elevated the show with their chemistry, fans embraced The X-Files, making it one of the most beloved cult television series to this day. The aim of this book is to provide the reader with several points of entry into the television series, with social, cultural, and political analyses framed by the examination of the show's many overlapping genres. Divided into chapters highlighting the episodic standalones known as the ""monster-of-the-week"" (MOTW) and the serial mythology or ""mytharc,"" the first section of the book explores the ways the MOTWs represented social differences in stories of fantastic, supernatural beings both strange and estranged. Through comparative analyses and detailed discussions of individual episodes, it becomes clear that the MOTWs were less concerned with the alien than with alienation, using the figure of the ""monster"" to focus on a range of ethnic, racial, and social outsiders. The latter half of the book turns to the serialized mythology, examining both the arc of the alien conspiracy as well as the fan-driven relationship between Mulder and Scully. While the romance subplot was powered in part by the show's fans, the alien-government conspiracy mythology was Carter's unique vision. This volume argues that The X-Files was a milestone because it employed the generic tropes of science fiction to call our attention to contemporary global politics and the history behind them. Specifically, Theresa Geller maps the ways the series used the mytharc not to predict the future, but to unbury the violence and injustice of our own past. With its return to television as an ""event series"" in 2016, this volume offers a timely assessment of the show's cultural relevance and social significance. Fans of the show, as well as readers interested in cultural studies, genre criticism, race and ethnicity, fan studies, social commentary, and gender studies will appreciate this insightful examination of the series.

This critical anthology sets out to explore the boom that horror cinema and TV productions have experienced in Spain in the past two decades. It uses a range of critical and theoretical perspectives to examine a broad variety of films and filmmakers, such as works by Alejandro Amenabar, Alex de la Iglesia, Pedro Almodovar, Guillermo del Toro, Juan Antonio Bayona, and Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza. The volume revolves around a set of fundamental questions: What are the causes for this new Spanish horror-mania? What cultural anxieties and desires, ideological motives and practical interests may be behind such boom? Is there anything specifically "Spanish" about the Spanish horror film and TV productions, any distinctive traits different from Hollywood and other European models that may be associated to the particular political, social, economic or cultural circumstances of contemporary Spain?

History on British television explores the production and consumption of factual history programming on British television. The chronological development of Western historiography is compared to phases of British television history production, highlighting how progressive developments in social and cultural trends have shaped what we make of the past and what the past makes of us. Charting the rise and dominance of television history as a popular cultural form, the book examines how the past has become a model for citizenship, prioritising certain groups and classes, marginalising others. Clearly defined chapters deal with the battle between the BBC and its commercial rivals to become the 'voice of the nation'. Engaging, informed and easy to read, the book is intended for researchers, teachers and students interested in television and historical studies, as well as readers keen to understand how collective memory, television and history have become a potent propaganda mixture of stylised myths reinforcing nationality, identity and citizenship. -- .

Bette Davis as a madam. Orson Welles hosting The Twilight Zone. Mae West voicing a cartoon character. Shirley Temple playing a social worker. While Hollywood stars like Lucille Ball, Loretta Young and Donna Reed successfully transitioned to television in its early days, many others tried and failed to become TV regulars. Drawing on contemporary interviews and other sources, this book profiles more than 50 actors - including Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Alan Ladd and Buster Keaton - and their unsuccessful pilots and short-lived series roles.

Popular film and television hold valuable potential for learning about sex and sexuality beyond the information-based model of sex education currently in schools. This book argues that the representation of complicated-or "messy"-relationships in these popular cultural forms makes them potent as affective pedagogical moments. It endeavours to develop new sexual literacies by contemplating how pedagogical moments, that is, fleeting moments which disrupt expectations or create discomfort, might enrich the available discourses of sexuality and gender, especially those available to adolescents. In Part One, Clarke critiques the heteronormative discourses of sex education that produce youth in particularly gendered ways, noting that "rationality" is often expected to govern experiences that are embodied and arguably inherently incoherent. Part Two explores public intimacy, contemplating the often overlapping and confused boundaries between public and private.

The success of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels and HBO's Game of Thrones series underscores the perennial popularity of medieval history-or rather ""medievalism,"" the idea of the Middle Ages. Medievalist movies, books and video games are lucrative property in the multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry, and Renaissance fairs, reenactment groups and historical martial arts clubs have become prominent in pop culture. Yet actual medieval history-especially medieval military history-remains a niche subject of scholarship. This book, written by an historian and medieval martial arts expert, explains how Martin's fantasy world reflects real history.

The study of television and music has expanded greatly in recent years, yet to date no book has focused on the genre of comedy television as it relates to music. Music in Comedy Television: Notes on Laughs fills that gap, breaking new critical ground. With contributions from an array of established and emerging scholars representing a range of disciplines, the twelve essays included cover a wide variety of topics and television shows, spanning nearly fifty years across network, cable, and online structures and capturing the latest research in this growing area of study. From Sesame Street to Saturday Night Live, from Monty Python to Flight of the Conchords, this book offers the perfect introduction for students and scholars in music and media studies seeking to understand the role of music in comedy onscreen and how it relates to the wider culture.

Since the early 2000s, Disney Channel has been dominated by original live-action programming popular among tween girls. The shows' successes rely not only on their popularity among girl audiences, but also on the development of star personae by girl performers, such as Raven-Symone, Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez. In addition, these programs and their performers have spawned lucrative media and merchandising franchises for the Walt Disney Company. This book includes analyses of this Disney Channel programming, as well as Disney corporate reports and executive statements, together with Disney Channel stars' performances, promotional appearances, media production, philanthropic efforts, and entrepreneurism. Analyzing these texts, performances, activities, and personae, it considers the ways in which they reproduce celebrity, visibility, and feminine performativity as central to successful twenty-first century girlhood.

Prominent media scholars have argued that the dissemination of propaganda is an important function of the news media. Yet, despite public controversies about 'fake news' and 'misinformation', there has been very little discussion on techniques of propaganda. Building on critical theory, most notably Herman and Chomsky's Propaganda Model, Florian Zollmann's pioneering study brings propaganda back to the forefront of the debate. On the basis of a forensic examination of 1,911 newspaper articles, Zollmann investigates US, UK and German media reporting of the military operations in Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt. The book demonstrates how 'humanitarian intervention' and 'R2P' are only evoked in the news media if so called 'enemy' countries of Western states are the perpetrators of human rights violations. Zollmann's work evidences that the news media plays a crucial propaganda role in facilitating a selective process of shaming during the build-up towards military interventions. This process has led to an erosion of internationally agreed norms of non-intervention, as enshrined in the UN Charter.

The years following the Cultural Revolution saw the arrival of television as part of China's effort to 'modernize' and open up to the West. Endorsed by the Deng Xiaoping regime as a 'bridge' between government and the people, television became at once the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party and the most popular form of entertainment for Chinese people living in the cities. But the authorities failed to realize the unmatched cultural power of television to inspire resistance to official ideologies, expectations, and lifestyles. The presence of television in the homes of the urban Chinese strikingly broadened the cultural and political awareness of its audience and provoked the people to imagine better ways of living as individuals, families, and as a nation. Originally published in 1991, set within the framework of China's political and economic environment in the modernization period, this insightful analysis is based on ethnographic data collected in China before and after the Tiananmen Square disaster. From interviews with leading Chinese television executives and nearly one hundred families in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xian, the author outlays how Chinese television fosters opposition to the government through the work routines of media professionals, television imagery, and the role of critical, active audience members.

Yoga gurus on lifestyle cable channels targeting time-pressured Indian urbanites; Chinese dating shows promoting competitive individualism; Taiwanese domestic makeover formats combining feng shui with life planning advice: Asian TV screens are increasingly home to a wild proliferation of popular factual programs providing lifestyle guidance to viewers. In Telemodernities Tania Lewis, Fran Martin, and Wanning Sun demonstrate how lifestyle-oriented popular factual television illuminates key aspects of late modernities in South and East Asia, offering insights not only into early twenty-first-century media cultures but also into wider developments in the nature of public and private life, identity, citizenship, and social engagement. Drawing on extensive interviews with television industry professionals and audiences across China, India, Taiwan, and Singapore, Telemodernities uses popular lifestyle television as a tool to help us understand emergent forms of identity, sociality, and capitalist modernity in Asia.

Yoga gurus on lifestyle cable channels targeting time-pressured Indian urbanites; Chinese dating shows promoting competitive individualism; Taiwanese domestic makeover formats combining feng shui with life planning advice: Asian TV screens are increasingly home to a wild proliferation of popular factual programs providing lifestyle guidance to viewers. In Telemodernities Tania Lewis, Fran Martin, and Wanning Sun demonstrate how lifestyle-oriented popular factual television illuminates key aspects of late modernities in South and East Asia, offering insights not only into early twenty-first-century media cultures but also into wider developments in the nature of public and private life, identity, citizenship, and social engagement. Drawing on extensive interviews with television industry professionals and audiences across China, India, Taiwan, and Singapore, Telemodernities uses popular lifestyle television as a tool to help us understand emergent forms of identity, sociality, and capitalist modernity in Asia.