Ever since Norman Lear remade the BBC series Till Death Us Do Part into All in the Family, American remakes of British television shows have become part of the American cultural fabric. Indeed, some of the programs currently said to exemplify American tastes and attitudes, from reality programs like American Idol and What Not to Wear to the mock-documentary approach of The Office, are adaptations of successful British shows. Carlen Lavigne and Heather Marcovitch's American Remakes of British Television: Transformations and Mistranslations is a multidisciplinary collection of essays that focuses on questions raised when a foreign show is adapted for the American market. What does it mean to remake a television program? What does the process of "Americanization" entail? What might the success or failure of a remade series tell us about the differences between American and British producers and audiences? This volume examines British-to-American television remakes from 1971 to the present. The American remakes in this volume do not share a common genre, format, or even level of critical or popular acclaim. What these programs do have in common, however, is the sense that something in the original has been significantly changed in order to make the program appealing or accessible to American audiences. The contributors display a multitude of perspectives in their essays. British-to-American television remakes as a whole are explained in terms of the market forces and international trade that make these productions financially desirable. Sanford and Son is examined in terms of race and class issues. Essays on Life on Mars and Doctor Who stress television's role in shaping collective cultural memories. An essay on Queer as Folk explores the romance genre and also talks about differences in national sexual politics. An examination of The Office discusses how the American remake actually endorses the bureaucracy that the British original satiri

Remakes are pervasive in today's popular culture, whether they take the form of reboots, "re-imaginings," or overly familiar sequels. Television remakes have proven popular with producers and networks interested in building on the nostalgic capital of past successes (or giving a second chance to underused properties). Some TV remakes have been critical and commercial hits, and others haven't made it past the pilot stage; all have provided valuable material ripe for academic analysis. In Remake Television: Reboot, Re-use, Recycle, edited by Carlen Lavigne, contributors from a variety of backgrounds offer multicultural, multidisciplinary perspectives on remake themes in popular television series, from classic cult favorites such as The Avengers (1961-69) and The X-Files (1993-2002) to current hits like Doctor Who (2005-present) and The Walking Dead (2010-present). Chapters examine what constitutes a remake, and what series changes might tell us about changing historical and cultural contexts-or about the medium of television itself.

Remakes are pervasive in today's popular culture, whether they take the form of reboots, "re-imaginings," or overly familiar sequels. Television remakes have proven popular with producers and networks interested in building on the nostalgic capital of past successes (or giving a second chance to underused properties). Some TV remakes have been critical and commercial hits, and others haven't made it past the pilot stage; all have provided valuable material ripe for academic analysis. In Remake Television: Reboot, Re-use, Recycle, edited by Carlen Lavigne, contributors from a variety of backgrounds offer multicultural, multidisciplinary perspectives on remake themes in popular television series, from classic cult favorites such as The Avengers (1961-69) and The X-Files (1993-2002) to current hits like Doctor Who (2005-present) and The Walking Dead (2010-present). Chapters examine what constitutes a remake, and what series changes might tell us about changing historical and cultural contexts-or about the medium of television itself.

This analysis of cyberpunk science fiction written between 1981 and 2003 positions women's cyberpunk in the larger cultural discussion of feminist issues. It traces the origins of the genre, reviews critical reactions, and outlines the ways in which women's cyberpunk advances specifically feminist points of view. Novels are examined within their cultural contexts; their content is compared to broader controversies within contemporary feminism, and their themes are revealed as reflections of feminist discourse at the end of the 20th century. Chapters cover topics such as globalisation, virtual reality, cyborg culture, environmentalism, religion, motherhood and queer rights. Firsthand interviews with feminist cyberpunk authors are provided, revealing both their motivations for writing and their experiences with fans. The study treats feminist cyberpunk as a unique vehicle for examining contemporary women's issues and analyses feminist science fiction as a complex source of political ideas.

In twenty-first-century American television, series such as Revolution, Falling Skies, The Last Ship, or The Walking Dead engage with a variety of doomsday scenarios; whether the end times come by nuclear blast, rogue artificial intelligence, pandemic, alien invasion, or zombie uprising, there's a TV show for that. These post-apocalyptic programs represent both longstanding tensions and contemporary cultural moments. Examining such apocalypses in light of events like 9/11 or the avian flu epidemic suggests some of the worries that keep us up at night. Analyzing these speculative new futures through critical lenses of gender, race, and sexuality further reveals the more specific ambitions and anxieties of a patriarchy in flux-particularly the desire to "return" to a mythical American frontier where the straight white male hero can take the lead in fighting off the bad guys, protecting the family, and crafting a new world order based heavily on the old. Questions about post-apocalyptic television abound: whose voices are represented? What do they want? What tomorrows are they most afraid of-and what does this tell us about the world we live in today?