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.

This bibliography lists more than 700 articles, books, dissertations, and theses on the participation of African American women in the television industry. Includes materials on specific television personalities and programs, and black women's involvement as producers, news anchors, and editorial directors (among other topics). Also provides an extensive essay on the history of black women in television since 1939, and includes photographs of prominent African American television personalities. The appendices list African American women as Emmy, NAACP Image, and Los Angeles Black Media Coalition Technical Achievement award winners and nominees, and black women in starring and co-starring television roles. Indexing of the text covers authors, subjects, programs, films, and stations. Originally published in 1990.

This book, published originally in 1980, addressed the needs for a profile of televised violence which considered the advantages and disadvantages of various measures and for a furthering of research directions beyond the then-popular emphasis on children. The Committee on Television and Social Behavior was formed in1972 and stimulated new research in order to provide a multidimensional profile of the social effects of television programming. Chapters here look at the effect of television on adults as well as children, particularly special audiences such as the elderly and minority groups. An excellent summary of the various conceptual, substantive and methodological issues around television's influence.

Vale's Technique of Screen and Television Writing is an updated and expanded edition of a valuable guide to writing for film and television. Mr. Vale takes the aspiring writer through every phase of a film's development, from the original concept to the final shooting script. Teachers of the craft as well as writers and directors have acclaimed it as one of the best books ever written on how to write a screenplay. This book combines practical advice for the aspiring or established writer with a lucid overview of the unique features of this most contemporary art form, distinguishing film and video from other media and other kinds of storytelling. It teaches the reader to think in terms of the camera and gives practical advice on the realities of filmmaking. At the same time, Vale, who began his own career as a scriptwriter for the great French director Jean Renoir, provides a solid grounding in the history of drama from the Classical Greek theater through the great cinematic works of the twentieth century. Both philosophical and pragmatic, this is a very readable book for students and active professionals who want to improve their writing skills, and for film enthusiasts interested in knowing more about what they see on the screen. Mr. Vale is that rare combination, a practitioner of great experience who can offer a lucid explanation of his craft. Eugene Vale was born in Switzerland and began his career in France in the 1930s. He was an award-winning novelist, film and TV scriptwriter and teacher, whose works include the bestselling novel The Thirteenth Apostle and the scripts for Francis of Assisi, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and The Second Face. He also worked in many other areas of the motion picture industry, including directing, producing, cutting, distribution and finance. His archives are held by Boston University and University of Southern California. Mr. Vale died in 1997, shortly after he completed the updated version of this handbook.

The CW's long-running series Supernatural follows the adventures of brothers Sam and Dean Winchester as they pursue the "family business" of hunting supernatural beings. Blending monster-of-the-week storylines with the unfolding saga of the brothers' often troubled relationship, the show represents Gothic concerns of anxiety, the monstrous, family trauma and, of course, the supernatural. The lines between human and monster, good and evil, are blurred and individual identities and motivations resist easy categorization. This collection of new essays examines how the series both incorporates and complicates Gothic elements related to traditional tropes, storytelling, women and gender issues and monstrosity.

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.

This work brings together writings on television published in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, from essays by Nick Browne and Beverle Houston to the latest historical and critical research. It considers television's economics, technologies, forms and audiences from a cultural perspective that links history, theory and criticism. The authors address several key issues: the formative period in American television history; the relation between television's political economy and its cultural forms; gender and melodrama; and new technologies such as video games and camcorders. Originally published in 1993.

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.

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.

Originally published in 1991, this introduction to studying the television audience discusses developments in semiology and cultural studies and their contribution to our understanding of the power of television. How, in the most precise and intricate sense, does television influence the way we think about the world? What ideological role does it play in contemporary culture? Does TV control us or do we control it? This insightful book assesses the progress in responding to these questions and offers some answers of its own. In the 1980s, with the emergence of semiology and cultural studies in particular, there were a number of significant theoretical developments in our understanding of television's power of which this book provides an overview while also incorporating traditional approaches. It suggests that television influences us ambiguously and unpredictably, depending upon who we are and how we think. Ambiguity does not blunt television's power, it simply diversifies it into a very modern kind of omnipotence. Employing two major qualitative audience studies, this impressive study illustrates its argument with findings that are both unexpected and disturbing.

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. -- .

TV Outside the Box: Trailblazing in the Digital Television Revolution explores the new and exploding universe of on-demand, OTT (Over the Top) networks: Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Crackle, CW Seed, Vimeo, AwesomenessTV, and many more. Featuring in-depth conversations with game-changing content creators, industry mavericks, and leading cultural influencers, TV Outside the Box is essential reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of a global media revolution - while it's happening. Readers will discover: How the new "disruptors" of traditional television models are shaping the future of the television and feature film business. You'll hear directly from the visionaries behind it all - from concept genesis to predictions for the future of streaming platforms; their strategies for acquisitions and development of new original content; and how the revolution is providing unprecedented opportunities for both established and emerging talent. What's different about storytelling for the progressive, risk-taking networks who are delivering provocative, groundbreaking, binge-worthy content, without the restraints of the traditional, advertiser-supported programming model. Through interviews with the showrunners, content creators, and producers of dozens of trailblazing series - including Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, Transparent, and many more - you'll learn how and why the best and the brightest TV content creators and filmmakers are defining the new digital entertainment age - and how you can, too.

This comprehensive reference to TV cartoon shows covers some 75 years. In the decade or so since the first edition, the industry has grown and expanded to previously unimagined heights, thanks in great part to the upsurge of cable TV services catering to animation fans. In the ten-year period since the first edition, nearly 450 new cartoon series premiered in the U.S. Alphabetically arranged by title, the book discusses each cartoon show in detail, providing full production credits and offering commentary on such elements as development, characters, style, and the show's significance in the overall scheme of television animation.

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.

Impasse and Innovation in Psychoanalysis offers a rare perspective on the technical difficulties and creative responses to them that typify clinical psychoanalysis. The four seminars at the heart of this volume are not case reports in the usual sense. Rather, each seminar revolves around the challenges of translating an understanding of difficult process issues into an effective therapeutic response. What emerges in each case is a vivid picture of an analyst's subjective experience in conceptualizing and managing a particularly demanding treatment, supplemented by data about the patient's history and free associations and enlivened by seminar leader John Gedo's challenging questions and clinical commentary. Each seminar is framed by Mark Gehrie's introduction and commentary, the latter addressing the interplay of theory and technique in the preceding case. Gehrie's commentary is then followed by Gedo's notes, which are keyed to specific points in the seminar transcript. Gedo not only clarifies issues left in doubt by the original discussion but offers his own second thoughts about the clinical material and its technical handling. The uniquely dialogic format of this volume brings different voices to bear on issues at the forefront of the evolution of clinical psychoanalysis. Edifying reading for practicing analysts and analytic therapists, Impasse and Innovation in Psychoanalysis is a wonderful teaching tool, introducing candidates, residents, and students to the demands of coping with stressful transferences and enactments and sparkling, throughout, with Gedo's wit and wisdom.

Many female figures in recent fiction, film and television embody the Artemis archetype, modeled on the Greco-Roman goddess of the hunt. These characters are often identified as heroines and recognized as powerful and progressive pop icons. Some fit the image of the tough resourceful female in a science fiction or fantasy setting, while others are more relatable, inhabiting a possible future, a recent past or a very real present. Examining both iconic and lesser-known works, this collection of new essays analyzes the independent and capable female figure as an ideal representation of women in popular culture.

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. -- .

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. -- .

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.

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.

Tropical Gothic examines Gothic within a specific geographical area of 'the South' of the Americas. In so doing, we structure the book around geographical coordinates (from North to South) and move between various national traditions of the gothic (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, etc) alongside regional manifestations of the Gothic (the US south and the Caribbean) as well as transnational movements of the Gothic within the Americas. The reflections on national traditions of the Gothic in this volume add to the critical body of literature on specific languages or particular nations, such as Scottish Gothic, American Gothic, Canadian Gothic, German Gothic, Kiwi Gothic, etc. This is significant because, while the Southern Gothic in the US has been thoroughly explored, there is a gap in the critical literature about the Gothic in the larger context of region of 'the South' in the Americas. This volume does not pretend to be a comprehensive examination of tropical Gothic in the Americas; rather, it pinpoints a variety of locations where this form of the Gothic emerges. In so doing, the transnational interventions of the Gothic in this book read the flows of Gothic forms across borders and geographical regions to tease out the complexities of Gothic cultural production within cultural and linguistic translations. Tropical Gothic includes, but is by no means limited to, a reflection on a region where European colonial powers fought intensively against indigenous populations and against each other for control of land and resources. In other cases, the vast populations of African slaves were transported, endowing these regions with a cultural inheritance that all the nations involved are still trying to comprehend. The volume reflects on how these histories influence the Gothic in this region.

From HGTV and the Food Network to Keeping Up With the Kardashians, television is preoccupied with the pursuit and exhibition of lifestyle. Lifestyle TV analyzes a burgeoning array of lifestyle formats on network and cable channels, from how-to and advice programs to hybrid reality entertainment built around the cultivation of the self as project, the ethics of everyday life, the mediation of style and taste, the regulation of health and the body, and the performance of identity and "difference." Ouellette situates these formats historically, arguing that the lifestyling of television ultimately signals more than the television industry's turn to cost-cutting formats, niche markets, and specialized demographics. Rather, Ouellette argues that the surge of reality programming devoted to the achievement and display of lifestyle practices and choices must also be situated within broader socio-historical changes in capitalist democracies.

The notion of mode is critical in the reevaluation of melodrama. As a mode, melodrama appears not only as a dramatic genre pervaded by sensationalism, exaggerations, and moral polarities, but also as a cultural imaginary that shapes the emotional experience of modernity, characterized by anxiety, moral confusion, and the dissolution of hierarchy. Despite its usefulness, the notion of mode remains mystifying: What exactly are modes and how do they differ from genres? Refiguring Melodrama in Film and Television: Captive Affects, Elastic Sufferings, Vicarious Objects argues that, whereas genres divide a universe in terms of similarities and differences, modes express or modify an indivisible whole. This study contends that the melodramatic mode is concerned with the expression of the social whole in terms of suffering. Zarzosa explains how melodrama is not a cultural imaginary that proclaims the existence of a defunct moral order in a post-sacred world, but an apparatus that shapes suffering and redistributes its visibility. The moral ideas we associate with melodrama are only a means to achieve this end. To develop this conception of melodrama, Refiguring Melodrama in Film and Television offers a novel conceptualization of the following aspects of melodrama theory: affect, interpretation, exchange, excess, sacrifice, and coincidence. These aspects of melodrama are coupled with the analysis of classic melodramas (Home from the Hill and The Story of Adele H.), contemporary films (The Piano, [Safe], and Year of the Dog), and television series (Torchwood and Lost). Refiguring Melodrama in Film and Television provides an essential new look at melodrama and its function in popular culture and media.

Entertainment television is a key part of modern mass culture. Despite this, scholars tend to study news and information, both domestically and internationally much more often than entertainment. The elevation of news over entertainment in the study of international media carries through to textbooks, most of which concentrate on journalism or news. This text is unique in shifting the emphasis to entertainment. Since it is one of the first comprehensive books to deal with entertainment mass media worldwide, it meets students where they are (as TV watchers) and takes them to new places, both geographically and intellectually. media study that was previously reserved for global news and takes a truly worldwide approach, encompassing Nigeria, Egypt, Brazil, and India - in addition to the more high-profile, heavily researched areas of Europe and East Asia. The book also uses the familiar to illuminate new concepts, such as media effects, uses and gratifications, dimensions of cultural variability and proximity, globalization, and (from the field of business) core competency and windowing. an emphasis on why - from the success of Millionaire - a show that addresses all five of the classic gratifications - to the penchant of Japanese audiences for celebrity game show players; the dynamic movement of a vicarious trip around the world as students move through the 10 country chapters, starting east to England and arriving at the journey's end in Mexico; country-specific chapters that follow the same template to ensure comparability but draw on the individual insights, expertise, and currency of 10 resident authors; case studies that look at two familiar TV experiences--the Olympics and the Millionaire show - in a global and novel students in international or comparative media, cross-cultural communication, or TV studies courses.