In this book, Nathanson examines how contemporary American television and associated digital media depict women's everyday lives as homemakers, career women, and mothers. Her focus on American popular culture from the 1990s through the present reveals two extremes: narratives about women who cannot keep house and narratives about women who only keep house. Nathanson looks specifically at the issue of time in this context and argues that the media constructs panics about domestic time scarcity while at the same time offering solutions for those very panics. Analyzing TV programs such as How Clean is Your House, Up All Night, and Supernanny, she finds that media's portrayals of women's time is crucial to understanding definitions of femininity, women's labor, and leisure in the postfeminist context.

The strange and wonderful place of Twin Peaks captivated audiences for more than two decades before its long-awaited return to television in 2017. David Lynch and Mark Frost created a land that embodies the politics of American culture. With its focus on small-town America and life outside urban centers, rural and suburban values play a big part in the overall Twin Peaks narrative. More than just a soapy murder investigation or a mysterious puzzle to be solved, Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return are metaphors for the political years in which they are set. The Politics of Twin Peaks investigates the show's engagement with American politics and identity. With a close relationship between the two, Twin Peaks is the rare cultural landmark in both film and television whose timelessness is defined by the fact that it can constantly be reinterpreted. Within that sometimes dreamlike Lynchian narrative, Twin Peaks hints at, sometimes explicitly and sometimes subtly, the political fault lines in the United States. In this edited collection, the politics inherent in Twin Peaks is approached from numerous points of view.

Single Season Sitcoms of the 1980s is the logical sequel to an earlier work also by Bob Leszczak titled Single Season Sitcoms 1948-1979, A Complete Guide. The decade of the 80s is presently being viewed with much reverence, and television programs, especially the situation comedies from that era, are enjoying renewed interest. Because of the increase in the number of available channels as a result of the exploding cable television industry at that time in history, the number of failed programs was also on the rise. For every successful sitcom from this period, such as The Golden Girls, Family Ties and Newhart, there were dozens upon dozens of almost forgotten flops such as Take Five with George Segal, Annie McGuire with Mary Tyler Moore, One Big Family starring Danny Thomas, and Life with Lucy starring Lucille Ball. A big name star didn't always equate with long-running TV success. Many of the short-lived shows addressed in this volume were mere springboards to bigger and better things for future stars such as Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, George Clooney, Jim Carrey, Brian Cranston, and Sarah Jessica Parker. A player's short stay with a major league baseball team is referred to as ""a cup of coffee."" The programs written about in Single Season Sitcoms of the 1980s drank from the very same mug, and the behind-the-scenes stories from cast members, guest stars, writers, producers, directors and musicians affiliated with these short-lived shows are the cream and sugar. Turn back the hands of your Swatch Watch and relive those Single Season Sitcoms of the 1980s.

Robin Nelson's State of play up-dates and develops the arguments of his influential TV Drama In Transition (1997). It is equally distinctive in setting analusis of the aesethetics and compositional principles of texts within a broad conceptual framework (technologies, institutions, economics, cultural trends). Tracing "the great value shift from conduit to content" (Todreas, 1999), Nelson is relatively optimistic about the future quality of TV Drama in a global market-place. But, characteristically taking up questions of worth where others have avoided them, Nelson recognizes that certain types of "quality" are privileged for viewers able to pay, possibly at the expense of viewer preference worldwide for "local" resonances in television. The mix of arts and cultural studies methodologies makes for an unusual and insightful approach. -- .

TV Scenic Design is a comprehensive resource for aspiring and practicing set designers. Summarizing the principles and practices of scenic design, it details design approaches, structures, and staging methods. TV Scenic Design is a comprehensive resource for aspiring and practicing set designers. Summarizing the principles and practices of scenic design, it details design approaches, structures, and staging methods. The information contained in the book can be applied to a variety of design situations, from campus or network TV studios, to exhibitions, audio-visual presentations or window displays. Whatever the scale, space or budget, the methods described in TV Scenic Design will ensure professional results. Now expanded to cover 'virtual' set design, this new edition continues to be an invaluable aid to anyone involved in creating effective sets. Contents: The background of design * The basics of design organization * Scenic construction * Staging techniques * Staging practices * Shoestring staging * Scenic effect * Electronic reality * Scenic operation * The designer on location * Controlling the tone and color * Lighting and the designer * glossary * Index Gerald Millerson's books on television and video have been acknowledged as among the best ever published. His other titles for Focal Press are Video Production Handbook, The Technique of Television Production, The Technique of Lighting for Television and Film and, in the Media Manual series, Effective TV Production and Video Camera Techniques.

Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. Based on full access to the archives, it offers a fascinating historical account of how one television series, Granada's World in Action, celebrated for its tough journalism, visual directness and public impact, functioned and developed over its run across 35 years between 1963 and 1998. In a succession of chapters looking at different periods in the series' development and at key dimensions of its distinctive identity, it gets deep inside the making of factual television and examines how a particular culture of production works within broader conditions of possibility and constraint. In particular, it charts the interwoven processes of change - technological, professional, aesthetic, institutional, economic, social and political. As well as discussing achievement and success, it examines the tensions, the debates and open conflicts that formed part of the context within which the series was made and transmitted across four decades. -- .

Alan Bennett is one of the UK's most well-known and successful writers. His oeuvre is one where populist art forms and intellectually complex arguments co-exist seamlessly, allowing the work to appeal to a wide audience. Bennett's familiar voice combines both an appreciation for the past with a critical assessment of contemporary Britain, often through relentlessly detailed observation of himself and of others. Bennett has acted, written, directed, presented or edited in almost every conceivable dramatic medium, including stage, television, radio, film and print media. This book is the first to focus on his often neglected work for television, from the mid-1960s right through to the present. It encompasses formats such as the single play (the rarely seen 1970s collaborations with Stephen Frears and Lindsay Anderson), the two Talking Heads series, perceived as a reinvention of the television monologue, and his autobiographical documentaries. While providing a context of television drama in which Bennett's output is embedded, this study also provides compact overviews of his work in other media. The book is intended for those interested in Alan Bennett, his many voices and the history of television drama. -- .

Time and Relative Dissertations in Space takes the reader on a rich and varied study of one of the greatest television programmes of all time: Doctor Who. Doctor Who has travelled an erratic path since it began in 1963, veering between respected institution and the source of countless jokes about low-budget visual effects. Yet, despite periods of hostile criticism and cancellation, the programme has survived to tell stories that span the breadth of space and time, returning to BBC1 in 2005 as a revitalised family drama with huge popular and critical success. Time and Relative Dissertations in Space is the first study of Doctor Who to explore the Doctor's adventures in all their manifestations: on television, audio, in print and beyond. Although focusing on the original series (1963-89), the collection recognises that Doctor Who is a cultural phenomenon that has been 'told' in many ways through a myriad of texts. to the ongoing narrative of Doctor Who, including Paul Magrs, Daniel O'Mahony, Lance Parkin and Dale Smith, the collection encourages debate with contrasting opinions on the strengths (and weaknesses) of the programme, offering a multi-perspective view of Doctor Who and the reasons for its endurance. With essays addressing core themes such as genre, narrative, authorship, visual style, music, sound, audiences, adaptations and the portrayal of history on screen, Time and Relative Dissertations in Space will be of interest to those involved in the wider field of Television Studies as well as readers with a fascination and love for Doctor Who.

Winner of the National Communication Association's 2018 Diamond Anniversary Book Award With the exception of slave narratives, there are few stories of black international migration in U.S. news and popular culture. This book is interested in stratified immigrant experiences, diverse black experiences, and the intersection of black and immigrant identities. Citizenship as it is commonly understood today in the public sphere is a legal issue, yet scholars have done much to move beyond this popular view and situate citizenship in the context of economic, social, and political positioning. The book shows that citizenship in all of its forms is often rhetorically, representationally, and legally negated by blackness and considers the ways that blackness, and representations of blackness, impact one's ability to travel across national and social borders and become a citizen. This book is a story of citizenship and the ways that race, gender, and class shape national belonging, with Haiti, Cuba, and the United States as the primary sites of examination.

Superheroes have been an integral part of popular society for decades. Over time, superheroes have developed their own mythology. Though scholars and fans have recognized and commented on this myth, the structure of the mythology has gone largely unexplored until now. The lexicon at the heart of this book gives a structure that can be used to identify the mythology as it applies to characters, stories, and other forms of narrative. The lexicon is the first effort to codify the mythology and how it works. Included are specific and detailed examinations of the myth in several narratives, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Green Arrow, especially in the CW series Arrow; and Beowulf. It also draws on examples from characters as diverse as Batman, Wolverine, Invincible, and John Constantine. This book is a first step toward recognizing the structure of the superhero and helps explain why the myth matters so much in current popular society, not only in America, but worldwide.

For more than 30 years, Lifetime has aired a broad range of programming, including original movies, sitcoms, dramas and reality shows. As other networks dedicated to women have come and gone, Lifetime continues to thrive in an ever-expanding cable marketplace, exploring such sensitive topics as race, commercialism, eating disorders, rape and domestic violence. This collection of new essays is the first to focus on Lifetime and the programs that helped define the network's brand that appeals to both viewers and advertisers. Series like Project Runway, Girlfriend Intervention and Army Wives are explored in depth. The contributors discuss the network's large opus of original films, as well at its online presence.

Through original analysis of three contemporary, auteur-directed melodramas (Matthew Weiner's Mad Men, Lars von Trier's Melancholia and Todd Haynes's Mildred Pierce), Living Screens reconceives and renovates the terms in which melodrama has been understood. Returning to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's foundational, Enlightenment-era melodrama Pygmalion with its revival of an old story about sculpted objects that spring to life, it contends that this early production prefigures the structure of contemporary melodramas and serves as a model for the way we interact with media today. Melodrama is conceptualized as a "plastic" form with the capacity to mould and be moulded and that speaks to fundamental processes of mediation. Living Screens evokes the thrills, anxieties, and uncertainties accompanying our attachment to technologies that are close-at-hand yet have far-reaching effects. In doing so, it explores the plasticity of our current situation, in which we live with screens that melodramatically touch our lives.

This is the first full-length study of the screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin, whose work for film and television includes Z Cars, The Italian Job, Kelly's Heroes, The Sweeney, Reilly - Ace of Spies and Edge of Darkness. With a career spanning six decades, Troy Kennedy Martin has seen the rise and fall of the television dramatist, making his debut in the era of studio-based television drama in the late 1950s prior to the transition to filmed drama (for which he argued in a famous manifesto), as the television play was gradually replaced by popular series and serials, for which Kennedy Martin did some of his best work. Written in an easily accessible style, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in television drama, screenwriting, and the history of British television over the last fifty years. -- .

Providing a cross-cultural investigation of the current phenomenon of transnational television remakes, and assembling an international team of scholars, this book draws upon ideas from transnational media and cultural studies to offer an understanding of global cultural borrowings and format translation. While recognising the commercial logic of global television formats that animates these remakes, the collection describes the traffic in transnational television remakes not as a one-way process of cultural homogenisation, but rather as an interstitial process through which cultures borrow from and interact with one another. More specifically, the chapters attend to recent debates around the transnational flows of local and global media cultures to focus on questions in the televisual realm, where issues of serialisation and distribution are prevalent. What happens when a series is remade from one national television system to another? How is cultural translation handled across series and seasons of differing length and scope? What are the narrative and dramaturgical proximities and differences between local and other versions? How does the ready availability of original, foreign series shape an audience's reception of a local remake? How does the rhetoric of 'Quality TV' impact on how these remakes are understood and valued? In answering these and other questions, this volume at once acknowledges both the historical antecedents to transnational trade in broadcast culture, and the global explosion in, and cultural significance of, transnational television remakes since the beginning of the twenty-first century. This book was originally published as a special issue of Continuum.

Representing Youth with Disability on Television is a complex and multidimensional mainstream cultural discourse that examines specific stereotypes in fictional programming. The book draws attention to the group labeled as disabled, which is often marginalized, misrepresented, and misunderstood in the media, by analyzing the popular television programs Glee, Breaking Bad, and Parenthood. To obtain a more rigorous account of the way that youth (9-18 years of age) with disability are framed on television, this analysis examines the following issues: how research on popular culture is contextualized within social theory; the theoretical perspectives on representations of disability in popular culture; and the various contexts, genres, media, representations, and definitions of youth with disability in popular culture. The text also outlines the historical growth of disability, which is crucial for a discussion regarding the changing dimensions of popular culture. Critical hermeneutics, content analysis, and methodological bricolage are the melange of methodologies used to closely examine the dominant models of disability (social vs. medical) used in the portrayal of disabled youth on television today.

The first book of its kind to introduce the problems of location lighting for single camera operators and provide an insight into the technology and techniques required to solve those problems. The approach is of a basic and introductory nature, geared toward the student and trainee cameraman. Professionals needing a refresher course on the subject will also find this an invaluable reference packed with key information, theory and practical approaches to different lighting situations.

This inside look at the production of 20th century television commercials begins with a review of advertising's beginnings in the late 19th century and describes its development through the 1960s and early 1970s. The author, a career ""Mad man,"" recounts his experiences on commercial productions - both live and film - in theaters and studios in New York City, on the White House Lawn, along Rome's Appian Way, in Lady Astor's dining room and on the Tryall Golf Course in Jamaica, among other places. The technical challenges and solutions involved in producing high-end commercials for America's major corporations are detailed. The broadcast community's single-minded targeting of advertising at specific audiences is highlighted.

During its 33-season run, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968-2001) left an indelible mark on millions of children and their caregivers. With television, Fred Rogers found the perfect medium for disseminating his prosocial messages to a mass audience of young people, helping them to better understand themselves and their world. Perhaps no series in the history of children's television has done more to develop the identity and ethics of the child. More than a decade after Rogers' death, he continues to attract an audience online. Yet despite the show's lasting impact it has been largely ignored by scholars. This collection of new essays focuses on Rogers' contribution to children's lives and media and to American culture. The contributors discuss his stance on the individual and the perception of self, his ideas about meaningful participation in a community and his use of television to accomplish his goals. At a time when the demands of a highly technological, media-dense world have diminished our capacity to listen carefully and to be present to others, Rogers' ideas still resonate.

An introductory guide for students learning professional make-up, hairdressing and wardrobe skills and `front of camera' professionals needing an understanding of the techniques. Written by an experienced professional, this manual offers a step-by step approach for the complete beginner with diagrams to show procedures for a variety of make-up effects, from corrective and character make-up, to period dramas, special effects and prosthetics. It describes the skills required of the job, introduces special make-up products and how to apply them for different effect and sets the context for the make-up artist's role, by considering technical requirements such as lighting, camerawork and chroma-key backgrounds.

At a time when debates about social inequality are in the spotlight, it is worth examining how the two most popular media of the 20th and 21st centuries-film and television-have shaped the representation of social classes. How do generic conventions determine the representation of social stereotypes? How do filmmakers challenge social class identification? How do factors such as national history, geography and gender affect the representation of social classes? This collection of new essays explores these and other questions through an analysis of a wide range of American and British productions-from sitcoms and reality TV to documentaries and auteur cinema-from the 1950s to the present.

Some of the greatest movies and television series have been written by script partners. Script Partners, Second Edition brings together the experience, knowledge, and winning techniques of Hollywood's most productive partnerships-including Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild ), Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack (Dallas Buyers Club), and Andrew Reich & Ted Cohen (Friends). Established and aspiring screenwriters will learn how to pick the right partner and the right project, co-create character and story structure, co-draft and revise a script, collaborate in film school and in the film industry, and manage both the creative and business sides of partnerships.

Packed with step by step information, hints and tips, this book provides all the basic information needed to production manage a film or video from beginning to end - from idea to delivery. Production Management for Film and Video gives all the basic information needed to production manage a film or video from beginning to end - from idea to delivery. Aspiring young film producers, programme makers and students of film or video production will find this an essential source of information, as indeed will anybody wishing to improve their knowledge and skills in the field. One is guided from the script or proposal, right through the various stages of production management to include: * script breakdown * crossplotting * scheduling * budgeting * preparation * the shoot * editing and post-production * delivery Now in its third edition, Production Management for Film and Video has been further revised to include: * information on health and safety requirements * the need to be aware of computer generated imagery * the effect this kind of programme making has on schedules and budgets. Different kinds of management for different productions are also covered - from features through to documentaries - and advice is offered on how to run a production more effectively. Examples, taken from actual productions, demonstrate the kind of documentation needed to develop, run and control a production. Emphasis is placed on the basic principles of good management that apply to all the different kinds of film that can be produced. Richard Gates is a freelance producer/production manager and has been involved in over 40 productions of different kinds. He also lectures extensively on production and production management techniques.

Some of the greatest movies and television series have been written by script partners. Script Partners, Second Edition brings together the experience, knowledge, and winning techniques of Hollywood's most productive partnerships-including Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild ), Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack (Dallas Buyers Club), and Andrew Reich & Ted Cohen (Friends). Established and aspiring screenwriters will learn how to pick the right partner and the right project, co-create character and story structure, co-draft and revise a script, collaborate in film school and in the film industry, and manage both the creative and business sides of partnerships.

Gothic television is the first full length study of the Gothic released on British and US television. An historical account, the book combines detailed archival research with analyses of key programmes, from Mystery and Imagination and Dark Shadows, to The Woman in White and Twin Peaks, and uncovers an aspect of television drama history which has, until now, remained critically unexplored. While some have seen television as too literal or homely a medium to successfully present Gothic fictions, Gothic television argues that the genre, in its many guises, is, and has always been, well-suited to television as a domestic medium, given the genre's obsessions with haunted houses and troubled families. This book will be of interest to lecturers and students across a number of disciplines including television studies, Gothic studies, and adaptation studies, as well as to the general reader with an interest in the Gothic, and in the history of television drama. -- .