This book explores the relationship between multiplicity and representation of non-European and European-American cultures, with a focus on comics and superheroes. The author employs a combination of research methodologies, including close reading of transmedia texts and interviews with transmedia storytellers and audiences, to better understand the way in which diverse cultures are employed as agents of multiplicity in transmedia narratives. The book addresses both commercial franchises such as superhero narratives, as well as smaller indie projects, in an attempt to elucidate the way in which key cultural symbols and concepts are utilized by writers, designers, and producers, and how these narrative choices affect audiences - both those who identify as members of the culture being represented and those who do not. Case studies include fan fiction based on Marvel's Black Panther (2018), fan fiction and art created for the Moana (2016) and Mulan (2020) films, and creations by both U.S.-based and international indie comics artists and writers. This book will appeal to scholars and students of new media, narrative theory, cultural studies, sociocultural anthropology, folkloristics, English/literary studies, and popular culture, transmedia storytelling researchers, and both creators and fans of superhero comics.

In the early 1950s, when television networks did not broadcast regular programming before 11 a.m., radio and newspapers were the most popular and reliable ways for Americans to get their morning news. Then, Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, vice president of programming at NBC, pitched a bold new concept to the network: a two-hour early morning news show that would run Monday through Friday starting at 7 a.m. By developing Today, Weaver filled a programming void before viewers even realized there was one-and revolutionized the viewing habits of millions. In The Today Show: Transforming Morning Television, Cathleen M. Londino provides an entertaining and informative look at the first twenty-five years of NBC's innovative program, from 1952 through 1977. Focusing on Today's broadcast history, the personalities instrumental to the show's success, and the show's contributions to the entertainment industry, this account illustrates how the evolution of Today closely paralleled the development of the broadcast industry and rise of the major networks. In addition to chronicling the show's history, the author profiles some of the key players both behind and in front of the camera, including Dave Garroway, Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, and Jane Pauley. The vision of morning news developed by Weaver more than sixty years ago endured far beyond his wildest expectation, establishing a model that would eventually be adopted not only by competing networks but also by television programmers around the globe. The Today Show: Transforming Morning Television is a fascinating account of the unprecedented success of this influential program and will appeal to anyone interested in television history.

Cindy Williams, half of the comedic duo of Laverne & Shirley, has had a wild and lively career in show business. This book is an engaging and heartfelt journey from Williams's blue collar roots to unexpected stardom-from being pranked by Jim Morrison while waiting tables at Whisky a Go Go to starring in one of the most iconic shows on television. With wit and candor, Cindy tells stories of her struggles as a child growing up with meager means and dreaming of becoming an actress. She also shares many misadventures and amusing anecdotes about some of the most famous actors in Hollywood. Never taking herself too seriously, Cindy finds humor and irony in the challenging world of show business.

Stories of time travel have been part of science fiction since H. G. Wells sent his nameless hero hurtling into Earth's distant future in The Time Machine. Time travel enables the storyteller to depict alternate realities, bring fictional characters face to face with historical figures, and depict moral and ethical dilemmas in which millions of lives (or the world as we know it) are at stake. From Doctor Who and Quantum Leap to the multiple incarnations of Star Trek, time travel has been a staple of science fiction television for more than fifty years. Time-Travel Television: The Past from the Present, the Future from the Past surveys the whole range of time travel stories on the small screen. The essays in this collection explore time travel series both familiar (Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1) and forgotten (The Time Tunnel, Voyagers!), as well as time-travel themed episodes and arcs in series where it is not central, such as Red Dwarf, Lost, and Heroes. Contributors to this volume consider some of the classic themes of time-travel stories: the promise (and peril) of "fixing" the past, the chance to experience (and choose) possible futures, and the potential for small changes to have great effects. Exploring time travel as a teaching tool, as a vehicle for moral lessons, and as a background for high adventure, this book offers new perspectives on many familiar programs and the first serious study of several unjustly neglected ones. Time-Travel Television is essential reading for science fiction scholars and fans, and for anyone interested in the many ways that television brings the fantastic into viewers' living rooms.

This volume chronicles the phenomenon of a television program that commanded first place for much of the time since its premiere in September 1984. Each week in the United States it has consistently drew a loyal audience of up to 60 million people, breaking records for ratings and shares. The show is credited with lifting a third-place network into commanding leadership, advancing the image of black families, being the object of the greatest syndication barter deal in history, and regenerating the sitcom genre. Approached from a systems-theoretical perspective, this book considers The Cosby Show historically, economically, politically, legally, and socioculturally. The book provides detailed examination of the show's production, audience profiles, and international reviews and reactions to it. Fuller includes the results of a survey conducted by her (and translated into appropriate languages) for more than 800 responses from a dozen countries. Media scholars continue to call for future research on acculturation effects of television and for research on complete, contextual studies of specific television genres. The Cosby Show: Audiences, Impact and Implications attempts to fill those gaps.

Growing up poor in an abusive home, Bob Beckel learned to be a survivor: to avoid conflict, mask his feelings, and to lie--all skills that served him well in Washington, where would become the youngest-ever Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and manage Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign. But Beckel was living a double life. On January 20, 2001--George W. Bush' second Inauguration Day--he hit rock bottom, waking up in the psych ward. Written with captivating honesty, Beckel chronicles how his addictions nearly killed him until he found help in an unexpected ally, conservative Cal Thomas, who helped him find faith and get his life back on track. Now sober, Beckel has been enjoying his life's surprise "second act" as a co-host of a breakout hit show on FOX News Channel, The Five.

As properties of DC comics continue to sprout over the years, narratives that were once kept sacrosanct now spill over into one another, synergizing into one bona fide creative Universe. Intended for both professional pop culture researchers and general interest readers, this collection of essays covers DC Universe multimedia, including graphic novels, video games, movies and TV shows. Each essay is written by a recognized pop culture expert offering a distinct perspective on a wide variety of topics. Even though many of the entries address important social themes like gender and racism, the book is not limited to these topics. Also included are more lighthearted essays for full verisimilitude, including analyses of long forgotten or seemingly marginal aspects of the DC Extended Universe, as well as in-depth and original interpretations of the most beloved characters and their relationships to one another. Highly accessible and approachable, this work provides previously unavailable in-roads that create a richer comprehension of the ever-expanding DC Universe.

The first work of its kind, this encyclopedia provides 360 brief biographies of African American film and television actresses from the silent era to 2009. It includes entries on well-known and nearly forgotten actresses, running the gamut from Academy Award and NAACP Image Award winners to B-film and blaxpoitation era stars. Each entry has a complete filmography of the actress's film, TV, music video or short film credits. The work also features more than 170 photographs, some of them rare images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Cowboy Bebop is one of the most beloved anime series of all time, and if you ask its fans why, you can expect to hear about its music. Composer Yoko Kanno created an eclectic blend of jazz, rock, lullabies, folk and funk (to list just a few) for Cowboy Bebop's many moods and environments. Cowboy Bebop's blend of science fiction, westerns and gangster films promised to be "the work which becomes a new genre itself," and only Kanno's score could deliver. In this volume of 33 1/3 Japan, musicologist Rose Bridges helps listeners make sense of the music of Cowboy Bebop. The book places it within the context of Bebop's influences and Kanno's larger body of work. It analyzes how the music tells Spike, Faye, Jet and the rest of the crew's stories. Cowboy Bebop and its music are like nothing else, and they deserve a guide to match. 33 1/3 Global, a series related to but independent from 33 1/3, takes the format of the original series of short, music-basedbooks and brings the focus to music throughout the world. With initial volumes focusing on Japanese and Brazilian music, the series will also include volumes on the popular music of Australia/Oceania, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and more.

Since his first novel in 1992, Michael Connelly has become one of America's most popular and critically acclaimed crime writers. He is best known as the author of a long-running series featuring LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, a compelling figure in contemporary crime fiction. He also created several additional series featuring a criminal defense attorney (Mickey Haller, known as the Lincoln Lawyer), an FBI profiler (Terry McCaleb), a newspaper reporter (Jack McEvoy), and an LAPD policewoman (Renee Ballard) who works the night shift. When he began incorporating all his characters into the Bosch megaseries, he expanded the notion of what a crime series can accomplish. This work takes an in-depth look at all of Connelly's work, including the 34 novels that comprise the Bosch megaseries, the film adaptations of his books, the popular "Bosch" TV series, and his standalone novels, short stories and podcasts. It includes chapters on his novelistic artistry and his portraits of Los Angeles and its police department.

This volume explores film and television sources in problematic conversation with classical antiquity, to better understand the nature of artistic reception and classical reception in particular. Drawing inspiration from well-theorized fields like adaptation studies, comparative literature, and film, the essays in this collection raise questions fundamental to the future of reception studies. The first section, 'Beyond Fidelity', deals with idiosyncratic adaptations of ancient sources; the second section, 'Beyond Influence', discusses modern works purporting to adapt ancient figures or themes that are less straightforwardly ancient than they may at first appear; while the last section, 'Beyond Original', uses films that lack even these murky connections to antiquity to challenge the notion that studying reception requires establishing historical connections between works. As questions of audience, interpretation, and subjectivity are central to most contemporary fields of study, this is a collection that is of interest to a wide variety of readers in the humanities.

Over the last few decades, television programs have attempted to depict some of the more troubling elements of society with a more conscientious approach. Issues that networks were once reluctant to broadcast-such as sexual abuse, sexual assault, and rape-have become frequent plot points for many popular shows. Narratives that portray important social issues could potentially affect the ways individual viewers understand such incidents in the real world, so it is important to pay close and critical attention to the stories about rape that are broadcast to mass audiences. In Assault on the Small Screen: Representations of Sexual Violence on Prime Time Television Dramas, Molly Ann Magestro examines the ways in which police and legal dramas on network and cable channels portray rape narratives. In this discussion, the author focuses on eight successful shows-NCIS, Criminal Minds, CSI, The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles, Dexter, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and The Good Wife. Each chapter offers a close reading and analysis of how one or more of the shows represent rape narratives and rape victims in ways that more or less address feminist understandings of rape and rape culture. The arguments in each chapter explore the specific narrative content of individual series rather than a single critical approach. Each of the eight shows considered within the book is the focus of its own argument, as the representations of rape narratives on television are as complex as issues surrounding rape can be in the real world. In a time when rape narratives are frequently making headlines, taking the time to examine and understand the messages broadcast by a medium as ubiquitous as television serves an important role in developing an understanding of rape culture. A significant step toward this understanding, Assault on the Small Screen will be of interest to scholars of film and television, media studies, gender studies, criminology, and sociology.

- your essential guide to getting yourself on to television - covers every genre, from reality show to makeover and quiz - full of practical advice from the industry on getting noticed and winning auditions 'teach yourself Get on TV' gives you everything you need to find, apply for and take part in any reality programme, quiz or talk show. It explains every different type of show to you, but most importantly gives you lots of practical advice from industry insiders on what to say in an application, how to audition, what to expect and how to cope with life before, during and after your15 minutes of fame.

While Richard Nixon's accomplishments and shortcomings are well-documented, one often ignored aspect of his career is his influence on the media conduct of politicians of his generation. Nixon pioneered the use of visual media in politics, beginning in the 1940s during his Congressional service. His historic "Checkers" speech was the first of its kind: a politician using television to save his political career. His appearances on entertainment television, which are now a normal feature of most national political campaigns, broke new ground as well. This book details the blueprint Nixon set for using television to achieve political goals. Presidents have often used new, innovative media as strategic methods of communication and public relations. The author argues that Nixon pioneered television media, using it consistently to connect with the American public.

The persistent popularity of the detective narrative, new obsessions with psychological and supernatural disturbances, as well as the resurgence of older narratives of mystery or the Gothic all constitute a vast proportion of contemporary film and television productions. New ways of watching film and television have also seen a reinvigoration of this 'most domestic of media'. But what does this 'domesticity' of genre and media look like 'Down Under' in the twenty.first century? This collection traces representations of the Gothic on both the small and large screens in Australia and New Zealand in the twenty.first century. It attends to the development and mutation of the Gothic in these post. or neo.colonial contexts, concentrating on the generic innovations of this temporal and geographical focus.

Most horror film fans are familiar with the classics, from the early Universal archetypes to the Hammer landmarks-all of which have been celebrated in countless books and magazines. But what about the parallel universe of television horror? The series, made-for-TV-movies and specials? With detailed coverage of shows from Britain, America and Europe, this book chronicles the small-screen appearances of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, adaptations of stories by Edgar Allan Poe and M.R. James, performances of stars like Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, groundbreaking series like The Television Ghost, Lights Out andDark Shadows, and such memorable movies as The Night Stalker, The Norliss Tapes and 'Salem's Lot, along with unearthed gems like The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre and Mrs. Amworth. The work of such key directors as Dan Curtis and Lawrence Gordon Clark is examined.

Among professional storytellers whose works have been adapted for cinematic dramatization, mid-19th century English novelist Charles Dickens stands in a class of his own. In addition to his most well-known works such as A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist, which are unrivaled for their sheer number of film adaptations, each of Dickens' other major works have been adapted for the screen multiple times, and many remain accessible for viewing on a variety of platforms. This book-by-book survey highlights the most popular adaptations of each Dickens book, spanning from the films of the silent era through the 21st century. The survey also includes a critical examination that compares the adaptations to the original texts. An analysis outlines the many connections between the fictional narratives and the novelist's own frequently misunderstood biography.

This book is a fascinating exploration into where discussion and deliberation of religious and spiritual concerns takes place as participation in traditional religion declines It explores how the complex and fantastical worlds of speculative television have become the place where theological questions and issues are now negotiated, understood, and formed It examines how shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Westworld invite their viewers and fans to engage with and imagine concepts traditionally reserved for religious spaces The book is informed by recent trends in both fan studies and religious studies, and with an emphasis on practice as well as belief It will resonate with scholars and upper-level students in the areas of religion, television studies, popular culture, fan studies, media studies, and philosophy

This book brings together thirteen timely essays from across the globe that consider a range of 'mediated youth cultures', covering topics such as the phenomenon of dance imitations on YouTube, the circulation of zines online, the resurgence of roller derby on the social web, drinking cultures, Israeli blogs, Korean pop music, and more.

The theme of surveillance has become an increasingly common element in movies and television shows, perhaps as a response to the sense that the world is now virtually under watch. But the recent surge of this filmic device calls for an explanation that transcends the basic assumption that media illustrates the changes of society. The persistent and growing presence of surveillance in cinematic productions is not merely a reflection of the advent of surveillance societies, but rather an aesthetic adaptation to the evolution of watching patterns. In Surveillance on Screen: Monitoring Contemporary Films and Television Programs, Sebastien Lefait examines this ever-increasing phenomenon. Drawing on the rapidly developing field of surveillance studies, Lefait offers an in-depth analysis of television shows and films, which complement current theoretical approaches to those subjects. This unique combination of surveillance theories with the latest concepts of film, television, and Internet studies is based on a large and diversified range of popular series and films, including the shows 24, Lost, and Survivor as well as such films as Minority Report, Paranormal Activity, The Truman Show, and the on-screen version of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Written from a perspective that does not limit itself to a "reflection-of-society" approach, this book explores both how cinema shapes our experience of surveillance and how surveillance influences our viewing of cinema. Lefait follows the various identifiable stages in cinema's experimental use of surveillance, studying the impact of technology on both the watcher and the watched. In addition to film and media studies, this book will be of interest to those engaged in information technology, sociology, and, of course, surveillance studies.

The television series< I>Gotham gave viewers a unique perspective on the fascinating world of Batman, the legendary comic book character. More than a simple "origin story," the series introduces viewers to a pre-Batman Gotham City, where young hero-cop James Gordon fights a one-man war on crime. In a city where crime is evolving from traditional organized crime to a city plagued by flamboyant and psychotic "super villains," there is a desperate need for a Batman. All of this is witnessed by Bruce Wayne, who was orphaned after his parents were murdered. This book details how characters and story lines throughout the series touch on modern America: our ethics and flaws, our fears and aspirations. Chapters also explore the show's unique twists to classic depictions of the franchise's characters, who have been adored by millions of fans across the decades. Throughout the text, the authors examine Gotham for its insight into 21st-century America, concluding in the exhilarating and frightening conclusion that "We ARE Gotham.

This book explores how the television industry is adapting its production culture and professional practises of scheduling to an increasingly non-linear television paradigm, a testing ground where different communicative tools are tried out in a volatile industry. Based on four case studies the book argues that a new television paradigm is being produced from within the multiplatform television organisations themselves in order to adapt to changing viewer habits and the tensions between digital and broadcast television. Drawing on a unique genre and production studies approach that cuts across the humanities and sociology in television studies, chapters cover in-depth studies of: * The communicative changes to the on-air schedule as a televisual text phenomenon in the digital era, and how the conceptualisations of the audience are changing in scheduling and curation for multiplatform portfolios * The changing production culture of scheduling in companies for their multiplatform portfolios * The dilemmas of curation in multiplatform portfolios. Situated at the intersection of the humanities and sociology in media production studies, this book will be of key interest to scholars and students of television studies, media production studies and cultural studies and to researchers and media professionals and management in the television industry.

Television drama has come to rival cinema in its sophisticated narrative form and high production values. At the heart of this success is the television writer, and TV has become the home of some of the most exciting and high quality writing. In a series of original interviews, showrunners and writers from some of the biggest American TV dramas of recent years share their experiences and practices of the 'writers' room', on shows such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men and Game of Thrones. Christina Kallas frames these insider insights with an astute overview of the writer's instrumental role in the rise of sophisticated TV narrative, and concluding reflections which will be invaluable to writers, critics and fans alike.

This book examines the complex ways in which television articulates ideas about DNA in the early 21st century. Considering television's distinct aesthetic and narrative forms, as well as its specific cultural roles, it identifies TV as a key site for the genetic imaginary. The book addresses the key themes of complexity and kinship, which function as nodes around which older essentialist notions about the human genome clash with newly emergent post-genomic sensibilities. Analysing a wide range of US and UK programmes, from science documentaries, science fiction serials and crime procedurals, to family history programmes, sitcoms and reality shows, Television and the Genetic Imaginary illustrates the extent to which molecular frameworks of understanding now permeate popular culture.