View the Table of Contents
Read the Introduction

aA groundbreaking book, highly original in concept and persuasive in its execution. Johnson elegantly rewrites the history of American television with an eye to its geographical imaginary.a
--Anna McCarthy, New York University

"Network chieftains, advertising executives, and primetime performers generally fly over the heartland with barely a glance, but itas never far from their thoughts, or ours. In this remarkable analysis of American television, Victoria Johnson cogently explains why Middle America matters: on the screen, in the home, and in public life."
--Michael Curtin, author of "Playing to the Worldas Biggest Audience"

The Midwest of popular imagination is a aHeartlanda characterized by traditional cultural values and mass market dispositions. Whether cast positively -- as authentic, pastoral, populist, hardworking, and all-American -- or negatively -- as backward, narrowminded, unsophisticated, conservative, and out-of-touch -- the myth of the Heartland endures.

Heartland TV examines the centrality of this myth to televisionas promotion and development, programming and marketing appeals, and public debates over the mediumas and its audienceas cultural worth. Victoria E. Johnson investigates how the asquarea image of the heartland has been ritually recuperated on prime time television, from "The Lawrence Welk Show" in the 1950s, to documentary specials in the 1960s, to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in the 1970s, to "Ellen" in the 1990s. She also examines news specials on the Oklahoma City bombing to reveal how that city has been inscribed as the epitome of a timeless, pastoral heartland, and concludes with ananalysis of network branding practices and appeals to an imagined ared statea audience.

Johnson argues that non-white, queer, and urban culture is consistently erased from depictions of the Midwest in order to reinforce its areassuringa image as white and straight. Through analyses of policy, industry discourse, and case studies of specific shows, Heartland TV exposes the cultural function of the Midwest as a site of national transference and disavowal with regard to race, sexuality, and citizenship ideals.

View the Table of Contents
Read the Introduction

aA groundbreaking book, highly original in concept and persuasive in its execution. Johnson elegantly rewrites the history of American television with an eye to its geographical imaginary.a
--Anna McCarthy, New York University

"Network chieftains, advertising executives, and primetime performers generally fly over the heartland with barely a glance, but itas never far from their thoughts, or ours. In this remarkable analysis of American television, Victoria Johnson cogently explains why Middle America matters: on the screen, in the home, and in public life."
--Michael Curtin, author of "Playing to the Worldas Biggest Audience"

The Midwest of popular imagination is a aHeartlanda characterized by traditional cultural values and mass market dispositions. Whether cast positively -- as authentic, pastoral, populist, hardworking, and all-American -- or negatively -- as backward, narrowminded, unsophisticated, conservative, and out-of-touch -- the myth of the Heartland endures.

Heartland TV examines the centrality of this myth to televisionas promotion and development, programming and marketing appeals, and public debates over the mediumas and its audienceas cultural worth. Victoria E. Johnson investigates how the asquarea image of the heartland has been ritually recuperated on prime time television, from "The Lawrence Welk Show" in the 1950s, to documentary specials in the 1960s, to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in the 1970s, to "Ellen" in the 1990s. She also examines news specials on the Oklahoma City bombing to reveal how that city has been inscribed as the epitome of a timeless, pastoral heartland, and concludes with ananalysis of network branding practices and appeals to an imagined ared statea audience.

Johnson argues that non-white, queer, and urban culture is consistently erased from depictions of the Midwest in order to reinforce its areassuringa image as white and straight. Through analyses of policy, industry discourse, and case studies of specific shows, Heartland TV exposes the cultural function of the Midwest as a site of national transference and disavowal with regard to race, sexuality, and citizenship ideals.

This book offers an introductory guide to sports TV, its history in the United States, the genre's defining characteristics, and analysis of its critical significance for the business practices, formal properties, and social, cultural, and political meanings of the medium. Victoria E. Johnson discusses a range of examples, from textual analysis of programs such as Monday Night Football and Being Serena to examination of television rights details, to sports TV's technological innovations and engagement of critical political debates. Johnson examines sports TV from its introduction to the ESPN+ era. She proposes that sports, as seen on TV in all of its iterations, is the central cultural forum for working through questions of community ideals, struggles over national and regional mythologies, and questions of representative citizenship. This book is an ideal guide for students and scholars of television, media, and cultural studies as well as those with an interest in television genre, sports TV history, and contemporary sport and media culture.

This book offers an introductory guide to sports TV, its history in the United States, the genre's defining characteristics, and analysis of its critical significance for the business practices, formal properties, and social, cultural, and political meanings of the medium. Victoria E. Johnson discusses a range of examples, from textual analysis of programs such as Monday Night Football and Being Serena to examination of television rights details, to sports TV's technological innovations and engagement of critical political debates. Johnson examines sports TV from its introduction to the ESPN+ era. She proposes that sports, as seen on TV in all of its iterations, is the central cultural forum for working through questions of community ideals, struggles over national and regional mythologies, and questions of representative citizenship. This book is an ideal guide for students and scholars of television, media, and cultural studies as well as those with an interest in television genre, sports TV history, and contemporary sport and media culture.