Science fiction series have remained a staple of American television from its inception: classic programs such as The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Star Trek, along with recent and current series including Babylon 5 and Stargate SG-1, have been some of the most enduring and influential of all television shows. In this chronological survey, author M. Keith Booker examines this phenomenon and provides in-depth studies of the most important of these series. Science Fiction Television traces the development of the genre as a distinct cultural phenomenon within the context of broader developments in American culture as a whole. In the process, it offers a unique and informative guide for television fans and science fiction fans alike, one whose coverage is unprecedented in its scope and breadth. A must-read for anyone interested in its subject or in American popular culture, Science Fiction Television is a perceptive and entertaining history of one of television's most lasting forms of entertainment.

Since 1948 when television began its rapid--almost exponential--growth, America has literally focused on TV, but the average viewer has been unaware of the key behind-the-scenes role of the TV director. In Take One, Jack Kuney shows what the director does in his equipment-filled twilight zone--the TV control room. The author identifies the crucial aesthetic contribution of the director who in selecting shots determines not only what millions of viewers will see but also how closely they will see them and in what sequence. More important, Kuney's interviews affirm that generally the director's talent, aesthetic judgements, and instincts set the tone of the program and determine a show's impact on its audience. The volume consists of a series of ten interviews, collected over a period of four years, with directors of television programs, each a specialist in a different field, who show a diversity that ranges from New York to Hollywood, the Metropolitan Opera to the Super Bowl. Their insights explain that various types of programs dictate the degree of the director's involvement: the director's role changes with the nature of the program, be it concert, game show, news, discussion, documentary, special event, drama, panel show, or the Miss America Pageant. In each interview the author's commentary acts as a guide and summation to the observations of the director. Dealing with the unique aesthetics of contemporary television, Take One is the most up-to-date work in the field and will be important and useful reading for students of production, and aspiring directors in the field.

As American security became increasingly dependent on technology to shape the consciousness of its populace and to defend them, science fiction shows like The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and The X-Files both promoted the regime's gendered logic and raised significant questions about that logic and its gendered roles. By charting the interaction between political developments in the security state and the evolution of feminist ideology in the culture from the end of WWII to the present, Wildermuth shows how these shows reflected and helped catalyze an evolving feminist consciousness in American culture and explores where they may yet take us in the future.

This work presents more than 400 A-Z entries on the individuals, programs, media innovations, and broad topics that tell the story of women's involvement both in front of and behind the television camera. From thought-provoking trends to entertaining trivia, this delightfully illustrated A-Z encyclopedia covers it all: Gracie Allen, Ally McBeal, Asian women, black sitcoms, cable TV, the Emmys, tabloid and talk shows, older women on television, Penny Marshall, Our Miss Brooks, Jane Pauley, soap operas, Jamie Tarses, That Girl, Oprah Winfrey, and more. Although limited to the role of women in and on television, Women and American Television is notable for unearthing the more obscure personalities and programs not covered by other television encyclopedias. Includes cross references, bibliography, helpful appendixes, and a subject index. A-Z entries range from Gracie Allen and Ally McBeal to talk shows and soap operas Includes cross references, a bibliography, helpful appendixes, and a subject index Delightfully illustrated

Robots in Popular Culture: Androids and Cyborgs in the American Imagination seeks to provide one go-to reference for the study of the most popular and iconic robots in American popular culture. In the last 10 years, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) have become not only a daily but a minute-by-minute part of American life-more integrated into our lives than anyone would have believed even a generation before. Americans have long known the adorable and helpful R2-D2 and the terrible possibilities of Skynet and its army of Terminators. Throughout, we have seen machines as valuable allies and horrifying enemies. Today, Americans cling to their mobile phones with the same affection that Luke Skywalker felt for the squat R2-D2. Meanwhile, our phones, personal computers, and cars have attained the ability to know and learn everything about us. This volume opens with essays about robots in popular culture, followed by 100 A-Z entries on the most famous AIs in film, comics, and more. Sidebars highlight ancillary points of interest, such as authors, creators, and tropes that illuminate the motives of various robots. The volume closes with a glossary of key terms and a bibliography providing students with resources to continue their study of what robots tell us about ourselves. Provides readers with detailed information on popular examples of robots/AI in American popular culture Provides readers with considerable Further Reading suggestions, including scholarly, pop culture, and scientific readings on each topic Places popular examples of robots/AI in pop culture in proper historical perspective Provides scholarly material that gives readers additional important historical context in five essays Gives equal coverage to a diverse array of robots, from the well-known to the obscure

Melodrama in Contemporary Film and Television debates the ways in which melodrama expresses and gives meaning to: trauma and pathos; memory and historical re-visioning; home and borders; gendered and queer relations; the family and psychic identities; the national and emerging public cultures; and morality and ethics.

Most people have, at some point, experienced powerful, often strange and disconcerting, responses to films and television programmes of which they cannot always make sense. Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, this book argues that the seemingly mundane and everyday activity of film and television viewing in the home is in fact extraordinary.

Bringing together the voices of scholars from Europe and North America with those of key contest stakeholders, Performing the 'New' Europe: Identities, Feelings, and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest argues that this popular music competition is a symbolic contact zone between European cultures: an arena for European identification in which both national solidarity and participation in a European identity are confirmed, and a site where cultural struggles over the meanings, frontiers and limits of Europe are enacted. This exciting collection explores the ways in which European artists perform, disavow, and contest their racial, national, and sexual identities in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), and asks difficult questions about European inclusions and exclusions the contest reflects. It suggests the ESC as an ever-evolving network of peoples and places transcending both historical and geographical boundaries of Europe that brings into being new understandings of the relationship between culture, space, and identities.

Research shows that, while people around the world consistently nominate television as their most important news source, much of the content of news bulletins is lost to viewers within moments. In response, Barrie Gunter argues that this can be explained by the way in which televised news is written, packaged and presented.

"Defining Visions" is a powerful narrative social history that examines television's rise as the great "certifying agent" in American life. This newly updated and fully revised edition extends its coverage to the end of the 20th century. It defines the "Television Age" as a discrete period in American history bracketed by monumental events - the triumph of the Allied victory in World War II and the devastation of 9/11.

The new edition includes discussions of key events in American history and TV history since the book's original publication in 1997, including the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Clinton impeachment; the massacre at Columbine High School; the 2000 presidential election; and the television coverage of September 11, 2001. In addition, the book considers the cultural impact of recent prime-time programs such as "Seinfeld, CSI," and "Will & Grace,"

As with the successful first edition, "Defining Visions: Television and the American Experience in the 20th Century" is thematically organized and presents a sweeping account of the connections between the medium and American culture. It tells the story of how television not only covered history in the 20th century but also actively influenced its course.

Austin City Limits is the longest running musical showcase in the history of television, and it still captivates audiences forty years after its debut on the air. From Willie Nelson's legendary pilot show and his fourteen magical episodes running through the years to Season 35, to mythical performances of BB King and Stevie Ray Vaughn, to repeat appearances from Chet Atkins, Bonnie Raitt and Ray Charles, and recent shows with Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire and The Decemberists, the show has defined popular roots music and indie rock. This is why country rocker Miranda Lambert - relatively unknown when she taped a show almost a decade ago - gushed to the studio audience, "Now I know I have arrived!" Austin City Limits: A History tells this remarkable story. With unprecedented access behind the scenes at the tapings of shows with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Mos Def, Wilco, and many more, author Tracey Laird tells the story of this landmark musical showcase whose history spans dramatic changes in the world of television, the expansion of digital media, and the ways in which we experience music. Beginning as a simple weekly broadcast, it is today a multifaceted "brand" in contemporary popular music, existing simultaneously as a program available for streaming, a presence on Twitter and other social media, a major music festival, and a state-of-the-art performance venue. Laird explores the ways in which the show's evolution has driven, and been driven by, both that of Austin as the "Live Music Capital of the World," and of U.S. public media as a major player in the dissemination and sponsorship of music and culture. Engagingly written and packed with anecdotes and insights from everyone from the show's producers and production staff to the musicians themselves, Austin City Limits: A History gives us the best seat in the house for this illuminating look at a singular presence in American popular music. Timed to publish with the airing of Austin City Limits 2014 - the 40th anniversary celebratory broadcast featuring an all-star lineup of musicians including the Foo Fighters, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, and others - here is a book for all fans of this beloved music institution.

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"In recent years, an expanding wave of law and criminal justice programs has emerged on American television. Elayne Rapping proves a masterful guide in her overview of a wide range of TV narrative fiction series, Court TV, talk shows, news, and other programs that deals with law, order, criminality, and justice, contextualizing TV crime and justice in the context of fierce political battles over these topics in the past decades of American history."
--Douglas Kellner, author of "Media Culture and Media Spectacle"

"Lively and engagingly written, it explores as Rapping writes, "an interplay of aesthetics, politics, and legal history [that] come together in complex and often contradictory ways. Anyone who has watched these shows will appreciate seeing them in a new way. Much of the enjoyment in reading the book comes from Rapping's ability to draw on a wide range of cultural and intellectual interests and present them in down-to-earth language."
--"Trial"

"Accessible and lucid."
--"www.sirreadalot.org"

""Law and Justice as Seen on TV" is deliberately provocative."
--"Akron Beacon Journal"

""Law and Justice as Seen on TV" provides a comprehensive and sophisticated look at the ways law appears nightly in the living rooms of millions of Americans. Combining valuable insights about the workings of the television industry with an insightful argument about the criminalization of American life, Elayne Rapping has made a distinctive contribution to interdisciplinary legal scholarship. Her work shows how valuable the analysis of popular culture can be in illuminating some of the most important legal and socialissues of our time."
--Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

Law and Justice as Seen on TV examines the impact, significance, and social and political problems raised by the enormous onslaught of law-related television programming, both fiction and nonfiction, in the years since the rise of live televised trials as major media events. The book weaves together the various strands--media history and analysis, legal history and policy, and the national turn to the political right in the last decades--which gave birth to this trend and has kept it thriving and growing, by leaps and bounds, to the present day.

Beginning with the history of courtroom drama on TV and its various contradictions and shifts, since the late 1940s to the present, the book analyzes the various entertainment series and genres that have so proliferated in recent years, giving special attention to such popular and influential series as "Law and Order" and "Cops." The second section begins by charting the complex and contested history of the coming of cameras to the courtroom and the way in which that legal decision led to televised trials and to the rise of Court TV. It examines as especially interesting and important the major trials--such as those of the Menendez brothers, O.J. Simpson, and Timothy McVeigh--which helped to shape the way television came to frame trials and their social implications for public consumption. From there it examines major social issues--gender violence, youth crime, family dysfunction, victims' rights which, with the rise of the courtroom as a major political and television arena, have come to be viewed largely aslegal issues to be discussed and determined in legal terms by Americans in general.

Accessible and lucid, Law and Justice as Seen on TV concludes with an examination of the broad implications of this social and cultural trend, closing with some thoughts about its expansion, on television and in the actual legal arena, during the "war on terrorism" in the wake of 9/11.

Timely and ground-breaking, Love in Western Film and Television discloses surprising, and often disturbing, information about the complicated (and often conflicted) emotional frontiers found in Western films released after the Second World War. Fourteen essays by authors from around the world offer new insights to those interested in the American character and the areas of culture, gender, film, and American studies.

In this collection of 22 interviews (with Ralph Bellamy, Angela Cartwright, Barbara Eden, Kathy Garver, Gale Gordon, Don Grady, Linda Kaye Henning, Anne Jeffreys, Meredith MacRae, Gary Owens, Paul Peterson, Kasey Rogers, Rose Marie, James Stacy, Connie Stevens, Deborah Walley, Ray Walston, Julie Newmar, Dawn Wells, Jane Wyatt, Dick York, and Alan Young) some of the biggest stars of 1950s and 1960s television reminisce about their experiences, look at the show's impact on their life, and provide insight into the creative process of those classic television shows.

An innovative and original new study, "Television, Memory and Nostalgia" re-imagines the relationship between the medium and its forms of memory and remembrance through a series of case studies of British and North American programmes and practices. These include "ER," "Grey's Anatomy," "The Wire," "Who Do You Think You Are?," and "Life on Mars."

Consuming Reality examines TV's response to the increasing pressure to brand content in a post-advertising era. June Deery's comprehensive analysis of the commercial practices found in popular reality programming reveals links to larger trends such as the sentimental dissemination of capitalist and nationalist ideologies, the professionalization of social relationships (including conceptions of self), and the mainstreaming of PR techniques in everyday life. Examining topics such as reality formats as pseudo-events, product placement, donorship, TV-web branding, making over homes/bodies as properties, consumer identity and pathology, Disney, and the American Dream, this book engages in a comprehensive examination of RTV's advertising and promotional strategies, as well as the commodification of viewers, of TV participants, of ideologies, dreams, and ideas.