Burns and Thompson help to remedy the lack of a forum for current research on television by bringing together, in this volume, some of the best recent research in television studies. This work will begin to fill the gap in literature on television studies as a discipline. In compiling these 13 papers, the editors maintain a balance of timely interest and lasting relevance. The contributors study the texts of current TV dramatic and comic series, such as Dallas and Cheers, as well as current trends in nonfiction TV, such as network and local news coverage. Each analysis of a specific television text is complimented with rigorous theoretical argumentation. Students and scholars of communications and television criticism will find Television Studies valuable reading. The book begins with a two-chapter debate primarily seeking a definition of `television studies.' The debate includes a critical examination of the capitalist institutions that dominate television as an industry. Further chapters discuss dramatic television series; an examination of the development of the lengthy serial text of Dallas, and structural analysis of the pilot episode of Cheers. The book contains five essays on nonfiction television, including an insiders view of the production and promotion of local TV news and an analysis of CBS and ABC's TV news coverage of South Africa over a two week period in 1987. In a final essay, conventional wisdom about `the audience' is refuted.

Investigating the leading drama genres of different television eras in both Britain and the US, this book traces the evolution of television drama from the 'high culture' aspirations and technical limitations of its early days to the intense commercial competition that informs the creation of television drama today.

Stanley Baxter delighted over 20 million viewers at a time with his television specials. His pantos became legendary. His divas and dames were so good they were beyond description. Baxter was a most brilliant cowboy Coward, a smouldering Dietrich. He found immense laughs as Formby and Liberace. And his sex-starved Tarzan swung in a way Hollywood could never have imagined. But who is the real Stanley Baxter? The comedy actor's talents are matched only by his past reluctance to colour in the detail of his own character. Now, the man behind the mischievous grin, the twinkling eyes and the once- Brylcreemed coiffure is revealed. In a tale of triumphs and tragedies, of giant laughs and great falls from grace, we discover that while the enigmatic entertainer could play host to hundreds of different voices, the role he found most difficult to play was that of Stanley Baxter.

Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Contexts, Politics, Style, and Reception of the Television Series, edited by David P. Pierson, explores the contexts, politics, and style of AMC's original series Breaking Bad. The book's first section locates and addresses the series from several contemporary social contexts, including neo-liberalism, its discourses and policies, the cultural obsession with the economy of time and its manipulation, and the epistemological principles and assumptions of Walter White's criminal alias Heisenberg. Section two investigates how the series characterizes and intersects with current cultural politics, such as male angst and the re-emergence of hegemonic masculinity, the complex portrayal of Latinos, and the depiction of physical and mental impairment and disability. The final section takes a close look at the series' distinctive visual, aural, and narrative stylistics. Under examination are Breaking Bad's unique visual style whereby image dominates sound, the distinct role and use of beginning teaser segments to disorient and enlighten audiences, the representation of geographic space and place, the position of narrative songs to complicate viewer identification, and the integral part that emotions play as a form of dramatic action in the series.

Women's soap opera viewing has long been thought of by feminists and nonfeminists as an unproductive waste of time. Blumenthal takes the opposing view, arguing that women's "indulgence" in these programs is actually liberating. In overcoming the social opposition to the stigma attached to the feminine content and style, and engaging in soap opera viewing, women celebrate their femininity, particularly their gendered identification with romance, relationality, intuitiveness, talkativeness, and other aspects of emotionality. This book will be of interest to academics in the areas of sociology, women's studies, and media studies.

From Eastenders to Dr Who, Desert Island Discs to Monty Pyton, The Office to Peaky Blinders, test your knowledge of the history of the BBC and all your favourite programmes with this OFFICIAL puzzle book. From casual quizzers to trivia obsessives, everyone will love this light-hearted and fun book of puzzles and quzzes, released to mark the 100th birthday of the oldest and most famous broadcasting company in the world. Learn about the organisation's history, from its beginnings right up until the present day, discovering all about its fantastic programmes, from comedy, drama and news to soaps, quiz shows and documentaries, along the way. Catch up with your favourite shows, stars and characters and learn about the history of the BBC on the way. You'll find long-standing, iconic series like Dr Who, Eastenders, The Archers or Desert Island Discs as well as cutting-edge dramas such as I May Destroy You and Peaky Blinders. There are also classic comedies like Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and Dad's Army as well as genre-changing hits like The Office or Fleabag. Each spread includes a lively, brief history together with puzzles that will suit all levels of knowledge and skill, making this title the perfect book for everyone to to enjoy. Over its hundred years the BBC has been at the heart of family entertainment and information, known throughout the world for the quality of its output. Packed with history, facts, puzzles, and images of favourite stars and programmes, this is the perfect gift for Christmas and beyond!

Television is changing almost beyond recognition. In the battle for consumers, social media sites, smart phones and tablets have become rivals to traditional linear TV. However, audiences and producers are also embracing mobile platforms to enhance TV viewing itself. This book examines the emerging phenomenon of the second screen: where users are increasingly engaging with content on two screens concurrently. The practice is transforming television into an interactive, participatory and social experience. James Blake examines interactive television from three crucial angles: audience motivation and agency, advances in TV production and the monetisation of second screen content. He also tracks its evolution by bringing together interviews with more than 25 television industry professionals - across the major UK channels - including commissioning editors, digital directors, producers and advertising executives. These reveal the successes and failures of recent experiments and the innovations in second screen projects. As the second screen becomes second nature for viewers and producers, the risks and opportunities for the future of television are slowly beginning to emerge. Television and the Second Screen will offer students and scholars of television theory, industry professionals and anyone with an abiding interest in television and technology, an accessible and illuminating guide to this important cultural shift.

The 2010 General Election represented a pathbreaking contest in Political Communication. The TV debates changed forever the feel of the campaign. This book brings together key commentators, analysts and polling experts to present readers with a unique and valuable insight into the development of political communication in British Politics.

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in the relationship between the news, media and death. Driven by a perceived ubiquity of death and dying on television, in newspapers and on the internet, many scholars have attempted to more closely examine aspects of this coverage. The result is that there now exists a large body of scholarly work on death in the news, yet what has been lacking is a comprehensive synthesis of the field. This book seeks to close this gap by analyzing the scholarship on death in the news by way of a thematic approach. It provides a historical overview, looks at the conditions of production, content and reception, and also analyzes emerging trends in the representation of death online. This fascinating account provides a much needed overview of what we currently know about death in the news and provides food for thought for future studies in the field.

Shaw argues that journalism should focus on deconstructing the underlying structural and cultural causes of political violence such as poverty, famine and human trafficking, and play a proactive (preventative), rather than reactive (prescriptive) role in humanitarian intervention.

A stimulating treatment of an area of public life which is a subject of continuing debate and controversy. This volume covers the years in which ITV faced more challenges than at any time in its history and its regulator, the IBA, was subject to political pressures so extreme that they brought about its abolition and rebirth as the Independent Television Commission. The book gives detailed accounts, based on documents not previously available and interviews with over sixty senior figures in the industry, of the changes and controversies of the period. Highlights include: the conflict with government over the programme Death on the Rock , the battle with the BBC for possession of the rights to Dallas , the financial crisis at ITN, the impact of the Peacock Committee Report and the 1990 White Paper on Broadcasting, as well as detailed accounts of the broadcasters' and the regulator's battle with the government over the Broadcasting Bill and the subsequent 'auction' of ITV licences.

"Reality Television, Affect and Intimacy" shifts current discussions of media and reality from the informative to the affective, from knowledge to feelings. In reality television, Misha Kavka argues, everyday 'reality' is the ground for an experience of immediacy, or televisual intimacy, that is self-evidently mediated and performed. The book explores this paradox by conceptualising the relation between affect and media. For Kavka, affect matters because the feelings generated across the screen are real in a material way. Investigating such concepts as publicity and privacy in reality TV families, performance technologies in "Big Brother," arranged marriages in romance reality TV, and gender, race and sexuality in "Survivor" and "Project Runway," she argues that affect is the core reality of a public sphere that is reconfigured by its viewing patterns. Renewing attention to the complexities of affective intimacies, this book offers the rich realities of feeling as a critical alternative to traditional communication models.

KA-POW BOFF ZAP This action-packed compendium is the perfect introduction and guide to the beloved 1960s Batman TV series. The dynamic duo, the colourful villains, the gadgets, that theme tune --it's all here Filled with fascinating facts, statistics and quotes, this fun-filled Bat-book is loaded with never-before-seen photos and in-depth looks at the episodes. The ideal gift for all Bat-fans

Victorians on Screen investigates the representation of the Victorian age on British television from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Structured around key areas of enquiry specific to British television, it avoids a narrow focus on genre by instead taking a thematic approach and exploring notions of authenticity, realism and identity.

The very idea of 'public service' came under fierce attack in the Thatcherite 1980s. This book takes the two key services, broadcasting and the NHS, and traces the heated debates and political pressures which radically transformed them both. It points to the parallels between them, and describes issues of health, sickness and the provision of medical care as they were reflected in the radio and television output. Across a wide range of programming, from popular drama to investigative journalism, the book captures the mood of the decade as it traces the politics of the NHS, from the Winter of Discontent to the Aids crisis; and the politics of broadcasting, from the coming of Channel Four to the increasing government attacks on the BBC. Concluding in 1990 with two pivotal Acts of Parliament, "Broadcasting and the NHS in the Thatcherite 1980s" traces the roots of the present crisis in the public services.

This Brief Guide is a comprehensive guide to P.G.Wodehouse's two best-loved comic characters, Bertram ("Bertie")Wooster and his valet Reggie "Jeeves," Bertie's many friends and relatives, and their life of country houses and champagne. Cawthorne offers fascinating insights into Wodehouse's world, his Jeeves and Wooster stories, and the many adaptations for stage and screen.

What is the connection between what is said on TV and how it is said? Structured around four key features of the current broadcast landscape (storytelling, closeness, conflict and persuasion), "Television Discourse" examines the specific forms and structures of talk across media genres as varied as exploitative shows and political interviews.

What does popular culture's relationship with cyborgs, robots, vampires and zombies tell us about being human? Insightful scholarly perspectives shine a light on how film and television evince and portray the philosophical roots, the social ramifications and the future visions of a posthumanist world.

For decades after its invention, television was considered by many to be culturally deficient when compared to cinema, as analyses rooted in communication studies and the social sciences tended to focus primarily on television's negative impact on consumers. More recently, however, denigration has largely been replaced by serious critical consideration of what television represents in the post-network era. Once derided as a media wasteland, TV is now praised for its visual density and complexity. In the last two decades, media scholars have often suggested that television has become cinematic. Serial dramas, in particular, are acclaimed for their imitations of cinema's formally innovative and narratively challenging conventions. But what exactly does "cinematic TV" mean? In Cinematic TV, author Rashna Wadia Richards takes up this question comprehensively, arguing that TV dramas quote, copy, and appropriate (primarily) American cinema in multiple ways and toward multiple ends. Constructing an innovative theoretical framework by combining intertextuality and memory studies, Cinematic TV focuses on four modalities of intermedial borrowings: homage, evocation, genre, and parody. Through close readings of such exemplary shows as Stranger Things, Mad Men, Damages, and Dear White People, the book demonstrates how serial dramas reproduce and rework, undermine and idolize, and, in some cases, compete with and outdo cinema.

Over the last century, many 16th- and 17th-century events and personalities have been brought before home, cinema, exhibition, festival and theatrical audiences. This collection examines these representations, looking at recent television series, documentaries, pageantry, theatre and popular culture in various cultural and linguistic guises.