Amid civil war, failing states, and terrorism, Arab liberals are growing in numbers and influence. Advocating a culture of equity, tolerance, good governance, and the rule of law, they work through some of the region's largest media outlets to spread their ideals within the culture. Broadcasting Change analyzes this trend by portraying the intersection of media and politics in two Arab countries with seismic impact on the region and beyond. In Saudi Arabia, where hardline clerics silenced their opponents for generations, liberals now dominate the airwaves. Their success in weakening clerics' grip over the public space would not only help develop the country; it would ensure that the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad exports a constructive understanding of Islam. In Egypt, home to a brutal government crackdown on Islamists and a bloodsport of attacks on Coptic Christians, local liberals are acting with courage on the ground and over the airwaves. Through TV talk shows, drama, and comedy, they play off the government's anti-Islamist agenda to more thoughtfully advocate religious reform. Author Joseph Braude, himself a voice in Arabic-language broadcasts and publications, calls for international assistance to the region's liberals, particularly in the realm of media. Local civic actors and some reform-minded autocrats welcome a new partnership with media experts and democratic governments in North America, Europe, and the Far East. Broadcasting Change argues that support for liberal reform through Arabic media should be construed as an international "public good" - on par with military peacekeeping and philanthropy.

TV and Cars offers a compelling lens on television in a mobile media era. Cars are vehicles for television, a fixture of the shows and ads that drive TV. In this original approach to contemporary television, Paul Grainge looks beyond questions of speed, spoilers and cylinders to explore the small screen intimacy of cars - the way people interact, sing and dwell in the habitat of automobiles. Considering the industrial, cultural and aesthetic relation between TV and cars, Grainge examines how comedy entertainment such as sitcoms, talk shows, web series and vlogs have been drawn to the practice of 'passengering'. Getting under the bonnet of popular 'drive-and-talk' series like The Trip, Carpool Karaoke, Peter Kay's Car Share and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, this engaging interdisciplinary excursion finds new ways to look at both television and the social life of cars.

Whether you're a novice compositor or a well-versed one moving over from After Effects or Shake, this is THE book for you to learn the ins and outs of the powerful compositing software, Nuke. In addition to covering all of the menus, buttons, and other software-specific topics, it also offers critical lessons in compositing theory, including working in 2.5D and stereoscopic 3D. Through a tutorial-based approach, augmented by video footage and image files provided on the downloadable resources, this book will have you up and running in Nuke in just hours. The book features over 300 4-color images, industry insider sidebars, as well as an entire chapter dedicated to real-world Nuke case studies. The downloadable resources files are available at http://www.focalpress.com/books/details/9780240820354/.

American viewers are attracted to what they see as the non-scripted, unpredictable freshness of reality television. But although the episodes may not be scripted, the shows are constructed within a deliberately designed framework, reflecting societal values. The political, economic and personal issues of reality TV are in many ways simply an exaggerated version of everyday life, allowing us to identify (perhaps more closely than we care to admit) with the characters onscreen. With 16 essays from scholars around the world, this volume discusses the notion of representation in reality television. It explores how both audiences and producers negotiate the gulf between representations and truth in reality shows such as ""Survivor"", ""The Apprentice"", ""Big Brother"", ""The Nanny"", ""American Idol"", ""Extreme Makeover"", ""Joe Millionaire"" and ""The Amazing Race"". Various identity categories and character types found in these shows are discussed and the accuracy of their television portrayal examined. Dealing with the concept of reality, audience reception, gender roles, minority portrayal and power issues, the book provides an in-depth look at what we see, or think we see, in ""reality"" TV.

"I am not in danger ...I am the danger." With those words, Breaking Bad's Walter White solidified himself as TV's greatest antihero. Wanna Cook? explores the most critically lauded series on television with analyses of the individual episodes and ongoing storylines. From details like stark settings, intricate camerawork, and jarring music to the larger themes, including the roles of violence, place, self-change, legal ethics, and fan reactions, this companion book is perfect for those diehards who have watched the Emmy Award - winning series multiple times as well as for new viewers. Wanna Cook? elucidates without spoiling, and illuminates without nit-picking. A must have for any fan's collection. Excerpt. (c) Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. From Wanna Cook's Episode Guide 1.01 Pilot/Breaking Bad Original air date: January 20, 2008 Written and directed by: Vince Gilligan "I prefer to see [chemistry] as the study of change ...that's all of life, right? It's the constant, it's the cycle. It's solution - dissolution, just over and over and over. It is growth, then decay, then - transformation! It is fascinating, really." - Walter White We meet Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and Walt's family. Walt is poleaxed by some tragic news. With nothing to lose, Walt decides to try to make one big score, and damn the consequences. For that, however, he needs the help of Jesse Pinkman, a former student of Walt's turned loser meth cook and drug dealer. From the moment you see those khakis float down out of a perfectly blue desert sky, you know that you're watching a show like nothing else on television. The hard beauty and stillness of the American Southwest is shattered by a wildly careening RV driven by a pasty white guy with a developing paunch wearing only a gas mask and tighty-whities. What the hell? Like all pilots, this one is primarily exposition, but unlike most, the exposition is beautifully handled as the simple background of Walter's life. The use of a long flashback as the body of the episode works well, in no small part due to Bryan Cranston's brilliant performance in the opening, which gives us a Walter White so obviously, desperately out of his element that we immediately wonder how this guy wound up pantsless in the desert and apparently determined to commit suicide-by-cop. After the opening credits, the audience is taken on an intimate tour of Walt's life. Again, Cranston sells it perfectly. The viewer is presented with a middle-aged man facing the back half of his life from the perspective of an early brilliance and promise that has somehow imploded into a barely-making-ends-meet existence as a high school chemistry teacher. He has to work a lousy second job to support his pregnant wife and disabled teenage son and still can't afford to buy a hot water heater. Executive producer and series creator Vince Gilligan, along with the cast and crew (Gilligan & Co.), take the audience through this day in the life of Walt, and it's just one little humiliation after another. The only time Walt's eyes sparkle in the first half of the episode is when he is giving his introductory lecture to his chemistry class. Here Walt transcends his lower-middle-class life in an almost poetic outpouring of passion for this incredible science. Of course, even that brief joy is crushed by the arrogant insolence of the archetypal high school jackass who stays just far enough inside the line that Walt can't do a damn thing about him. So this is Walt and his life, as sad sack as you can get, with no real prospects of improvement, a brother-in-law who thinks he's a wuss, and a wife who doesn't even pay attention during birthday sex. Until everything changes. The sociologist and criminologist Lonnie Athens would likely classify Walt's cancer diagnosis as the beginning of a "dramatic self change," brought on by something so traumatic that a person's self - the very thoughts, ideas, and ways of understanding and interacting with the world - is shattered, or "fragmented," and in order to survive, the person must begin to replace that old self, those old ideas, with an entirely new worldview. (Athens and his theories are discussed much more fully in the previous essay, but since we warned you not to read that if you don't want to risk spoilage, the basic - and spoiler-free - parts are mentioned here.) Breaking Bad gives us this fragmentation beautifully. Note how from the viewer's perspective Walt is upside down as he is moved into the MRI machine, a motif smoothly repeated in the next scene with Walt's reflection in the top of the doctor's desk. Most discombobulating of all, however, is the consultation with the doctor. At first totally voiceless behind the tinnitus-like ambient soundtrack and faceless except for his chin and lips, the doctor and the news he is imparting are made unreal, out of place, and alien. As for Walt, in an exquisite touch of emotional realism, all he can focus on is the mustard stain on the doctor's lab coat. How many of us, confronted with such tragic news, have likewise found our attention focused, randomly, illogically, on some similar mundanity of life? It is from this shattered self that Walt begins to operate and things that would have been completely out of the question for pre-cancer Walt are now actual possibilities - things like finding a big score before he dies by making and selling pure crystal meth. Remember that Walt is a truly brilliant chemist, and knows full well what crystal meth is and what it does to people who use it. He may not know exactly what he's getting into, but he knows what he is doing. Enter Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul, best known previously for his role on Big Love), a skinny white-boy gangster wannabe, who under the name "Cap'n Cook" makes a living cooking and selling meth. He's also an ex-student of Walt's, and after being recognized by his former teacher during a drug bust, Walt has all the leverage he needs to coerce Jesse into helping him. Why does he need him? Because, as Walt says, "you know the business, and I know the chemistry." Symbolizing just how far beyond his old life Walt is moving, he and Jesse park their battered RV/meth lab in the desert outside of Albuquerque, far from the city and any signs of human life. All that is there is a rough dirt road and a "cow house" in the distance. The desert is a place without memory, a place outside of things, where secrets can be kept, and meth can be cooked. This is where Walt lives now. It is in this desert space that Walt becomes a killer, albeit in self defense. Ironically, the one thing that Walt views as holding the keys to the secret of life - chemistry - becomes the means to end lives. Walt, a father, teacher, and an integral part of an extended family - in other words, an agent of life and growth - has now become a meth cook, using chemical weapons to kill his enemies. Walter White has become an agent of death. The transformation is just beginning, but already Skyler (Anna Gunn, previously known for her roles on The Practice and Deadwood) is having some trouble recognizing her husband: "Walt? Is that you?" LAB NOTES Highlight: Jesse to Walt: "Man, some straight like you - giant stick up his ass all of a sudden at age what? Sixty? He's just going to break bad?" Did You Notice: This episode has the first (but not the last!) appearance of Walt's excuse that he's doing everything for his family. There's an award on the wall in Walt's house commemorating his contributions to work that was awarded the Nobel Prize back in 1985. The man's not a slouch when it comes to chemistry, so what's happened since then? At Walt's surprise birthday party, Walt is very awkward when he handles Hank's gun. Speaking of Hank (Dean Norris, whose other roles were in the TV series Medium, and the movies Total Recall, and Little Miss Sunshine), he waits until the school bus has left the neighborhood before ordering his team into the meth lab, showing what a good and careful cop he is. Maybe it's just us, but J.P. Wynne High School (where Walt teaches chemistry) seems to have the most well-equipped high school chemistry lab in the country. As Walt receives his diagnosis, the doctor's voice and all other sounds are drowned out by a kind of numbing ringing, signifying a kind of psychic overload that prevents Walt from being fully engaged with the external world. This effect will be used again several times throughout the series. Walt literally launders his money to dry it out, foreshadowing what's to come. Shooting Up: Thanks to John Toll, who served as cinematographer for the first season of Breaking Bad, the show has one of the most distinctive opening shots ever. Just watch those empty khaki pants flutter across a clear sky. Breaking Bad loves certain camera angles and this section is where we'll point out some of the shots that make the show stand out. Look at that taped non-confession Walt makes for his family when he thinks the cops are coming for him. We're used to watching recordings of characters - shows are filmed (or taped), but here, we're watching him recording himself on tape. Who's the real Walt? Title: Many pilot episodes share the name with the title of the show and Breaking Bad's pilot is no exception. Vince Gilligan, who grew up in Farmville, Virginia, has stated that "breaking bad" is a Southernism for going off the straight and narrow. When you bend a stick until it breaks, the stick usually breaks cleanly. But sometimes, sticks (and men) break bad. You can wind up in the hospital with a splinter in your eye, or you can wind up in Walter White's world. Either way, it's no kind of good. Interesting Facts: Show creator Vince Gilligan's early educational experience was at J. P. Wynne Campus School in Farmville, Virginia. He recycled the name for the high school in Breaking Bad. SPECIAL INGREDIENTS What Is Crystal Meth, Anyway? While there is some evidence that methamphetamine can be found naturally in several species of acacia plants, commercial meth making involves chemistry, not agriculture. The history of the drug dates back to 1893 when Japanese chemist Nagai Nagayoshi first synthesized the substance from ephedrine. The name "methamphetamine...

Best friends, boyfriends, high school and haute couture -- Gossip Girl has gone from a guilty pleasure to becoming the show everyone is talking about, from Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair, from gossip columnists to President Obama. From its not-so-humble beginnings as a bestselling book series set in the posh Upper East Side private schools of New York City, this show the Boston Herald deemed "every parent's nightmare" has catapulted into the pop culture stratosphere. In the first two seasons Gossip Girl has proved itself a popular and critical darling, influencing the culture it critiques and setting trends while providing biting social commentary on this generation of entitled, tech-savvy youth. In Spotted: Your One and Only Unofficial Guide to Gossip Girl, you'll find: * an episode-by-episode exploration of seasons 1 and 2, tracing the development of the characters and storylines * bios of the cast and the show's creators, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage * comparisons to the show's teen soap and literary predecessors, including how the Gossip Girl books were adapted * summaries of the movies that inspire each episode's title * sidebars of fun trivia * all the details on the music, the fashion, and the NYC locations where Gossip Girl films (complete with exclusive photos ) Chuck Bass. (And he's wearing purple.) Second only to a Blair Waldorf-inspired hair band, Spotted is the must-have accessory for any fan who says, "Not enough " when the end credits roll.

In the first two seasons of the HBO series Westworld, human guests pay exorbitant fees to spend time among cybernetic Hosts-partially sentient AI robots-and live out often violent fantasies. In Theology and Westworld, scholars from a range of disciplines within religious studies examine the profound questions that arise when the narrative of Westworld interacts with the study of religion. From transhumanism and personhood to morality and divinity, this book contributes to, confounds, and challenges ideas that are found in the study of religion and philosophy. Taken together, the chapters further our understanding of what it means to live in a world where the hard questions of human existence are explored through the medium of popular culture.

Praise for New Documentary: 'It's refreshing to find a book that cuts through the tired old debates that have surrounded documentary film and television. It heralds a welcome new approach.' Sight and Sound 'Documentary practice changes so fast that books on the subject are often out of date before they are published. Bruzzi's achievement is to have understood the genre as an activity based on performance rather than observation. This is a fresh perspective which illuminates the fundamental shifts that will continue to take place in the genre as it enters its second century.' John Ellis, Professor of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London New Documentary provides a contemporary look at documentary and fresh and challenging ways of theorising the non-fiction film. As engaging as the original, this second edition features thorough updates to the existing chapters, as well as a brand new chapter on contemporary cinema release documentaries. This new edition includes: Contemporary films such as Capturing the Friedmans, Etre et avoir, Farenheit 9/11, The Fog of War and Touching the Void as well as more canonical texts such as Hoop Dreams and Shoah Additional interviews with influential practitioners, such as director Michael Apted and producer Stephen Lambert A comprehensively revised discussion of modern observational documentary, including docusoaps, reality television and formatted documentaries The work of documentary filmmakers such as Nicholas Barker, Errol Morris, Nick Broomfield, Molly Dineen and Michael Moore and the work of Avant-Garde filmmakers such as Chris Marker and Patrick Keiller Gender identity, queer theory, performance, race and spectatorship. Bruzzi shows how theories of documentary filmmaking can be applied to contemporary texts and genres, and discusses the relationship between recent, innovative examples of the genre and the more established canon of documentary.

How is the android Data like Shakespeare's character Hamlet? Is the vengeful Khan (original series episode ""Space Seed"" and the film ""Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"") an echo of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick? The links between ""Star Trek"" and literature are vast: themes and characters that reflect those in classic literature; characters that quote literature in their dialog; and an enormous body of nonfiction books, novels, articles that have grown from the saga. Finally, like literature, ""Star Trek"" seeks to help in the human endeavour of understanding the world and its place in the universe. This book explores all of those connections. The Next Generation's Captain Picard frequently quotes Shakespeare. Captain Janeway from Voyager reenacts literature in Holodeck novels. Jake Sisko, son of Deep Space Nine's Commander Benjamin Sisko, becomes an award-winning writer. Beginning with Captain James T. Kirk' first appearance in the original series, then continuing through four subsequent series and ten movies, this book draws parallels between ""Star Trek"" stories and literary classics such as ""Hamlet"", ""Paradise Lost"", ""Ulysses"", ""Dracula"", and the New Testament, and works by the likes of Booker T. Washington, Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare. Appendices list the literary works discussed and the episodes and movies mentioned, each giving the chapters where references can be found.

Before the unprecedented televised presidential debates of 1960, most Americans were able to relate to their leaders in little more than an historical context. In the era of televised elections, however, the media have allowed Americans to witness the paternal, moral and intellectual qualities of their president up close. Television has been so critical to this process of political socialization that, for many Americans, the televised image of the president is the president. As the acclaimed television drama ""The West Wing"" demonstrates, fictional representations of the presidency can also be significant civic forces. This book examines how film and television drama contribute to shaping the presidency and the way most Americans understand it, and particularly the processes of political education. The text discusses ""The West Wing's"" didactic potential, its representation of White House politics, and its depiction of race and gender, with commentary on how fictional representations of the presidency become important elements of American political consciousness.

This book examines how the iconic character Hannibal Lecter has been revised and redeveloped across different screen media texts. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter has become one of Western culture's most influential and enduring models of monstrosity since his emergence in 1981 in Red Dragon, Thomas Harris' first Lecter book. Lecter is now at the centre of an extensive cross-mediated mythology, the most recent incarnation of which is Bryan Fuller's television program, Hannibal (NBC, 2013-2015). This acclaimed series is the focus of Hannibal Lecter's Forms, Formulations, and Transformations, which examines how Fuller's program harnesses the iconic character to experiment with traditional boundaries of genre, medium, taste, and narrative form. Featuring chapters from established and emerging screen and popular culture scholars from around the world, the book outlines how the show operates as a striking experiment with televisual form and formula. The book also explores how this experimentation is embodied by the boundary-defying character, the savage cannibalistic serial killer, practicing psychiatrist, and cultured art enthusiast, Hannibal Lecter. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Quarterly Review of Film and Video.

Since the early days of television, well before most households had a set, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has been handing out honors for the industry's best efforts. Now fans can read about their favorites - and perhaps rediscover some forgotten pleasures - in this reference to prime time and night-time Emmy winners. Beginning with the heated charade contest known as Pantomime Quiz, which won Most Popular Program of 1948 in the first Emmy Awards ceremony (held in 1949), each of more than 100 winning shows gets star treatment with an entry that includes the year of award or awards, air times, hosts, guests, casts and a full discussion of the show's history and run. Many of the entries include original interviews with cast or crew members. With such rich information, each show's entry constitutes a chapter in the history of television through the story of the show and the people who made it happen. The best of variety, drama, game shows, comedies, adventures and many more categories are featured. An appendix offers interesting facts and figures and ranks shows according to such statistics as longest run, longest delay from debut to win, and most Emmys won.

On the TV screen as elsewhere, there is often more than what meets the eye. For decades, television has offered not just entertainment, but observations - subtle and otherwise - on society. This book examines the cultural commentary contained in ""Buffy, the Vampire Slayer"", a show that ran for seven seasons (1997-2003) and 144 episodes. On the surface, Buffy is the marriage of a high school drama to gothic horror. This somewhat unusual vehicle is used to present, via the character of Buffy, fairly typical views of late 20th century culture-teenage problems; issues regarding a broken home; and the search for meaning and validation. In addition, subtler themes, such as cultural views of knowledge, ethnicity and history, are woven into the show's critique of popular culture. Organized into two sections, this volume offers an in-depth examination of the show: first, through the lens of Buffy's confrontation with culture, and second, from the complex perspectives of the individual characters. Issues such as values, ethical choices and the implications of one's actions are discussed - without ever losing sight of the limitations of a medium that will always be dominated by financial concerns. The final chapter summarizes what Buffy has to say about today's society. An appendix lists Buffy episodes in chronological order.

This book provides a detailed account of the creative, economic and regulatory processes underlying the production of children's television in a multi-platform era. Its collection of integrated case studies includes extended interviews with leading producers whose programs are watched by children all over the world. These reveal the impact of digitization on the funding, distribution and consumption of children's television, and the ways that producers have adapted their creative practice accordingly. In its comprehensive analysis of the production culture of children's television, this book provides a valuable lens through which to view broader transformations in media industries in the on-demand age. This original and engaging book explores the creative processes underlying the production of children's television, with close attention to underlying economic and policy dynamics. It does so through a combination of detailed case studies and interviews with leading producers from across three English-language markets. In its examination of the impact of new streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime on the funding, production and distribution of children's screen content, the book will reveal how producers successfully created content for these increasingly influential new services. It offers important insights into the production of children's screen content in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and builds on previous research in the field. The addition of analysis, which provides the context of historical, regulatory and economic factors that shape production in all three countries, is important for situating the personal testimonies and providing some critical distance. The variety of productions chosen for analysis, including drama, factual productions and animation, represents the very different pressures on different genres. Previous studies have looked at children's content as one genre, whereas this new study reveals children's content to be as diverse in range as adult content. The case studies show the pressures and opportunities emerging from different national and international context and offers its own unique take on matters such as diversity, gender representation and indeed the ethics of representing children from a producers' perspective. As a contribution to industry studies, this volume represents a valuable addition to the literature and will no doubt be referenced by future studies. The quantity and quality of original interview material goes far beyond interviews in the trade press. Combined with the rich detail of production case studies, the articulate interviews and Potter's highly engaging mode of writing, this book is an invaluable additional to research in the area. This book will provide a crucial analysis of success stories in the children's screen production industries at a time of flux and adaptation as television's distribution revolution takes place. The book will be indispensable for scholars of children's television and of UK, New Zealand and Australian media policy. It will also engage a wider audience interested in television production, production studies and digital distribution - including those teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It will be a valuable library resource for courses that include screen media industries and television production culture as part of their content. It will be of interest to scholars beyond children's television because of its analysis of success stories in screen production at a time of change and uncertainty. It will also be of relevance to the international screen production sector and industry bodies, including screen organizations such as Screen Australia, and the UK's Children's Media Foundation, for its analysis of success stories in the screen production industries. Also, of interest to the many groups with vested interests around children and children's media - including regulatory bodies like Ofcom in the UK, the Australian Communications and Media Authority in Australia and other key institutions, including legacy broadcasters such as the BBC, ABC and ITV.

The twenty-first century has seen LGBTQ+ rights emerge at the forefront of public discourse and national politics in ways that would once have been hard to imagine. This book offers a unique and layered account of the complex dynamics in the modern moment of social change, drawing together critical, social and cultural theory as well as empirical research, which includes interviews and multi-platform media analyses. This original new study puts forward a much-needed analysis of twenty-first century television and lesbian visibility. Books addressing the representation of lesbians have tended to focus on film; analysis of queer characters on television has usually focused on representations of gay males. Other recent books have attempted to address lesbian, gay and trans representation together, with the result that none are examined in sufficient detail - here, the exclusive focus on lesbian representation allows a fuller discussion. Until now, much of the research on lesbian and gay representation has tended to employ only textual analysis. The combination of audience research with analysis in this book brings a new angle to the debates, as does the critical review of the tropes of lesbian representation. The earlier stereotypes of pathological monsters and predators are discussed alongside the more recent trends of 'lesbian chic' and 'lesbianism as a phase'.

In past decades portrayals of mental illness on television were limited to psychotic criminals or comical sidekicks. As public awareness of mental illness has increased so too have its depictions on the small screen. A gradual transition from stereotypes towards more nuanced representations has seen a wide range of lead characters with mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, autism spectrum disorder, dissociative identity disorder, anxiety, depression and PTSD. But what are these portrayals saying about mental health and how closely do they align with real-life experiences? Drawing on interviews with people living with mental illness, this book traces these shifts, placing on-screen depictions in context and demonstrating their real world impacts.

"Introduction to Documentary Production" is designed for students who are approaching documentary production for the first time. The book is written in an accessible style by media staff at the University of Portsmouth, UK, all of whom have backgrounds in media production or journalism. The book covers the making of documentaries from concept through production to post-production and includes close readings of documentary makers' intent and target audiences.

For sociologists looking for a unique way to introduce their students to the field, for high school students or undergraduates taking their first sociology course, and for every Seinfeld fan, "Seinology" is both educational and a fun read.

This book examines The Wire's authenticity and its establishment of the series realism. Along with tracing creator David Simon's onscreen critique of numerous failed American institutions, the book focuses on the connection between authenticity and realism in three distinct areas: language, character, and location. While it is shown that The Wire is indeed authentic, the study examines occasions where the language, characters, and even the location are 'curated'. Yet, while we can witness these moments of curation, it is The Wire's unflinching focus on authentic dialogue, authentic characterisation, and an authentic location that makes the series the most realistic, and arguably the best, television show of all time.

Originally known as a brand for greeting cards, Hallmark has seen a surge in popularity since the early 2010s for its made-for-TV movies and television channels: the Hallmark Channel and its spinoffs, Hallmark Movie Channel (now Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) and Hallmark Drama. Hallmark's brand of comforting, often sentimental content includes standalone movies, period and contemporary television series, and mystery film series that center on strong, intuitive female leads. By creating reliable and consistent content, Hallmark, and by extension their owner Crown Media Family Values, offer people a calming retreat from the real world. This collection of essays strives to fill the void in academic attention surrounding Hallmark as there have been no significant scholarly articles or book-length studies on it. From the plethora of Christmas movies that are released each year to the successful faith-based scripted programming and popular cozy mysteries that air every week, there is a wealth of material to be explored. Specifically, this book explores the network's problematic relationship with race, the dominance of Christianity and heteronormativity, the significance placed on nostalgia, and the hiring and re-hiring of a group of women who thrived as child stars.

The ABC TV series The Bionic Woman, created by Kenneth Johnson, was a 1970s pop culture phenomenon. Starring Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers, the groundbreaking series follows Jaime's evolution from a young woman vulnerable to an exploitative social order, to a fierce individualist defying a government that sees her as property. Beneath the action-packed surface of Jaime's battles with Fembots, themes such as the chosen family, technophobia, class passing, the cyborg, artificial beings, and a growing racial consciousness receive a sophisticated treatment. This book links the series to precedents such as classical mythology, first-wave feminist literature, and the Hollywood woman's film, to place The Bionic Woman in a tradition of feminist ethics deeply concerned with female autonomy, community, and the rights of nonhuman animals. Seen through the lens of feminist philosophy and gender studies, Jaime's constantly changing disguises, attempts to pass as human, and struggles to accept her new bionic abilities offer provocative engagement with issues of identity. Jaime Sommers is a feminist icon who continues to speak to women and queer audiences, and her struggles and triumphs resonate with a worldwide fanbase that still remains enthralled and represented by The Bionic Woman.

For the few hundred television viewers in 1946, a special treat on the broadcast schedule was the variety show called Hour Glass. It was the first program to go beyond talking heads, cooking demonstrations, and sporting events, featuring instead dancers, comics, singers, and long commercials for its sponsor, Chase and Sanborn coffee. Within two years, another variety show Texaco Star Theatre, became the first true television hit and would be credited with the sales of thousands of television sets. The variety show formula was a staple of television in its first 30 years, in part because it lent itself to a medium where everything had to be live and preferably inside a studio. Most of the early television stars - including Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, and Arthur Godfrey - rose to prominence through weekly variety shows. In the 1960s, major stars such as Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Judy Garland and Danny Kaye were hosting variety shows. By the 1970s, the format was giving way to sitcoms and dramas, but pop music stars Sonny and Cher, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and Donny and Marie Osmond gave variety shows their last stand. This episode guide details 57 variety shows from the 1940s through the 1970s. A history of each show is first provided, followed by a brief look at each episode. Air date, guest stars, sketches performed, and a listing of songs featured are included.

When the space drama ""Battlestar Galactica"" debuted on ABC in 1978, it was expected to be the most popular new program of the year. Instead, it was attacked as a Star Wars rip-off and canceled after a mere 17 stories. The author acknowledges the show was full of dramatic cliches and scientific inaccuracies, but despite these shortcomings, ""Battlestar Galactica"" was a dramatically resonant series full of unique and individual characters, such as Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) and ace warrior Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch). The author contends that ""Battlestar Galactica"" was a memorable attempt to make science fiction accessible to mainstream television audiences. The brilliant work of artist John Dykstra brought a new world of special effects to network television. ""Battlestar Galactica"" also skillfully exploited legends and names from both the Bible and ancient mythology, which added a layer of depth and maturity to the weekly drama.

This title was first published in 2001. This work provides detailed information taken from the 'Programmes-as-Broadcast' daily log of output held at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham. Arranged in chronological order, entries are given for broadcasts of first performances of musical works in the United Kingdom, and include details of: the date of the broadcast, the composer, the title of the work, performers and conductor. In addition to its usefulness as a reference tool, the Chronicle enables us to gauge the trends in twentieth-century British musical life, and the role of the BBC in their promotion.

Television Policy offers a unique and authoritative account of the major developments in television programming and policy since 1976 by collecting in a single volume the MacTaggart lectures delivered at the Edinburgh International Television Festival across the last quarter of a century. The MacTaggart lecturers include the most celebrated and distinguished programme makers, producers, performers, playwrights, policymakers and senior media executives across all sectors of broadcasting. They include Greg Dyke, John Humphrys, John McGrath, Marcel Orphuls, Norman Lear, Jeremy Isaacs, John Mortimer, Peter Jay, Ted Turner, Jonathan Miller, Denis Foreman, John Schlesinger, Troy Kennedy-Martin, Philip Whitehead, Christine Ockrent, Rupert Murdoch, Verity Lambert, David Elstein, Michael Grade, Dennis Potter, Janet Street Porter, John Birt, Laurence Marks, Maurice Gran, Peter Bazalgette, Richard Eyre, David Liddiment and Mark Thompson. With a Foreword by John Willis and an introductory essay exploring the history of the MacTaggart lectures and a review of the shifting themes and concerns of the lectures, the book provides a forum for the significant debates which have helped to shape both television content and policy across twenty five years of considerable and unprecedented change in broadcasting. Topics covered include the future of public service programming; the relationship of government to broadcasters; the impact of ownership on the freedom of broadcasters; and debates about whether and how television should be regulated. Television Policy is essential reading for all students of media and communication studies as well as those interested in reading accounts of television programming and policy written by some of the most eloquent, eminent but contentious figures in television broadcasting. Features * The first collection of the prestigious MacTaggart Lectures * A unique insight into the development of television programming across 25 years * Authoritative and eloquent analyses of television policy * Critical assessment of the contribution of the MacTaggart Lectures to current policy debates * Insider accounts of the development and future of Public Service Broadcasting.