Inside Prime Time

Prime time: those precious few hours every night when the three major television networks garner millions of dollars while tens of millions of Americans tune in. Inside Prime Time is a classic study of the workings of the Hollywood television industry, newly available with an updated introduction. Inside Prime Time takes us behind the scenes to reveal how prime-time shows get on the air, stay on the air, and are shaped by the political and cultural climate of their times. It provides an ethnography of the world of American commercial television, an analysis of that world's unwritten rules, and the most extensive study of the industry ever made.

This is an anatomy and analysis of the television entertainment industry: how it thinks, how it makes decisions, and why it is what it is.

Prime time: those precious few hours every night when the three major television networks garner millions of dollars while tens of millions of Americans tune in. Inside Prime Time is a classic study of the workings of the Hollywood television industry, newly available with an updated introduction. Inside Prime Time takes us behind the scenes to reveal how prime-time shows get on the air, stay on the air, and are shaped by the political and cultural climate of their times. It provides an ethnography of the world of American commercial television, an analysis of that world's unwritten rules, and the most extensive study of the industry ever made.

The Oscar-winning actress, fitness expert and political activist outlines a roadmap for seniors who are experiencing unprecedented rates of longevity, sharing practical advice on everything from fitness and sexuality to coming to terms with past mistakes and embracing a spiritual life.

On the shortest night of the year, thirteen people are due to film a prime time TV series but on the morning of Midsummer's Eve, the brightest star in Swedish television is found shot dead in a mobile control room. Newspaper reporter Annika Bengtzon is drawn into the investigation where she soon learns that one of the suspects is her best friend. As events unfold her personal life starts to take a turn for the worse. Meanwhile, there's a murderer on the loose - and a terrifying drama about to take place in the public eye.

Prime-Time Families provides a wide-ranging new look at television entertainment in the past four decades. Working within the interdisciplinary framework of cultural studies, Ella Taylor analyzes television as a constellation of social practices. Part popular culture analysis, part sociology, and part American history, Prime-Time Families is a rich and insightful work the sheds light on the way television shapes our lives.

''The best book I've read on women in broadcasting. . . . It details the incredible struggle women have faced in what some consider a leadership industry.'' -- Larry King, USA Today ''This is a groundbreaking first history of the 'underground' women's movement at the networks. It is told with no holds barred by a leader of that struggle, which is still going on. I found it extremely moving.''