Prime Time And Misdemeanors

A complete, first-hand account of the TV quiz-rigging affair from the author's point of view as an investigator and prosecutor.

Outstanding Academic Title for 2007, Choice Magazine Ever wonder how American television came to be the much-derided, advertising-heavy home to reality programming, formulaic situation comedies, hapless men, and buxom, scantily clad women? Could it have been something different, focusing instead on culture, theater, and performing arts? In Same Time, Same Station, historian James L. Baughman takes readers behind the scenes of early broadcasting, examining corporate machinations that determined the future of television. Split into two camps—those who thought TV could meet and possibly raise the expectations of wealthier, better-educated post-war consumers and those who believed success meant mimicking the products of movie houses and radio—decision makers fought a battle of ideas that peaked in the 1950s, just as TV became a central facet of daily life for most Americans. Baughman’s engagingly written account of the brief but contentious debate shows how the inner workings and outward actions of the major networks, advertisers, producers, writers, and entertainers ultimately made TV the primary forum for entertainment and information. The tale of television's founding years reveals a series of decisions that favored commercial success over cultural aspiration.

Equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of boxing, a young Joyce Brothers competed on The $64,000 Question and became the first woman to win the top prize money. That triumphant debut in 1955 was the initial step toward a career as a media pioneer. Through her own advice programs and perennial appearances on talk shows—as well as episodic television—Brothers became one of the most well-known figures of the 20th century. For more than four decades, viewers could count on her authoritative, calm response to almost any issue, from marital and financial woes to the Space Shuttle disaster. In Dr. Joyce Brothers: The Founding Mother of TV Psychology, Kathleen Collins explores how a clever businesswoman provided a mass-scale service for a never-ending demand: helping viewers understand themselves. Collins explains how Brothers’ longevity on television was in large part afforded by her symbiotic relationship with the medium. She played other roles in addition to–and interdependent on–that of media psychologist. Her numerous appearances on variety shows, sitcoms, and dramas kept her on the screen and in the public eye, creating both a persona as celebrity professional as well as professional celebrity. This portrait of Brothers’ multi-layered career also provides a means by which to observe U.S. cultural history, addressing cultural preoccupations with television and self-help obsessed audiences looking for guidance in reality TV. Drawing on primary sources from Brothers’ personal papers and published interviews—as well as interviews the author conducted with several of Joyce’s former colleagues and her daughter, Lisa Arbisser—Collins provides an engaging, informative, and thought provoking look at this iconic figure.

In recent years, the media has been awash in exuberant tales of the arrival of the information superhighway, when television will explode with exciting possibilities, offering some 500 channels as well as a marriage of TV and computer that will provide, on command, access to the latest movies, magazines, newspapers, books, sports events, stock exchange figures, your bank account, and much, much more. And the major TV networks, pundits add, will be doomed to extinction by this revolution in cable, computers, and fiber optics. But in Television Today and Tomorrow, Gene Jankowski--former President and Chairman of the CBS Broadcast Group--and David Fuchs--also a former top executive at CBS--tell a different story. They predict a bumpy road ahead for the information superhighway, and the major networks, they say, are abundantly healthy and will remain so well into the next century. The information superhighway, Jankowski and Fuchs admit, will dramatically increase the distribution channels, but it will have little impact on the amount of programming created--and this may spell disaster. The authors show how the networks began as a way to provide programs to local stations (who could not afford to produce their own), who in turn provided the distribution that gave networks access to mass audiences and ultimately large advertising dollars. They then offer us an inside look at television production--showing us, for instance, a veteran scriptwriter putting together a breakfast table scene for "Cloud Nine"--to underscore how much effort goes into producing just two minutes of primetime programming. They reveal that the present 20 channels require some 20,000 hours of programming each year, which is more than all the Broadway plays produced in this century, and they conclude that without a dramatic increase in programming (which won't happen if only because of the very finite supply of talent), the superhighway will be jammed bumper-to-bumper with reruns, old movies, and inexpensive programming aimed at tightly focused audiences ("narrowcasting" as opposed to "broadcasting"). This is hardly the bonanza the pundits have promised. The authors point out that the media blitz about the new technology has hardly focused on programming, or on funding, or on what needs these 500 channels will fill. The major networks, on the other hand, will remain the only means of reaching the whole country, and the only channels that offer a full schedule of current, live, and original programs, free of charge. And thus they will continue to attract most of the audience of TV viewers. The real loser in the cable revolution, the authors contend, is PBS, whose role as an alternative to network TV has been usurped by cable stations such as The Discovery Channel and Nickelodeon. This is a brass tacks look at television with an eye on the bottom line by two men who boast over sixty years of experience in the medium. If you want to understand television in America, where it came from and where it is going, you will need to read this book.

America was certainly the big winner of World War II, being the last major country intact. Euphoria, hubris, and a naive self-confidence became hallmarks of the people. This hubris was dented a bit in the 1950s when scandals erupted around the TV quiz shows that made everyoe feel so smart, and the U-2 spy incident of 1960 that revealed Americans were being lied to by the government. The book argues that these two events began the credibility gap that engulfed the nation later in the 1960s and continues to haunt us to this day. When the War ended, the United States still had its economy, infrastructure and industry intact. Taking up where the British Empire left off, the powerful new America expanded its influence around the globe. Suddenly light years ahead of any competitor, Americans abandoned themselves to a haze of consumerism and entertainment, trusting that they were safe and could not be harmed. The contestants on the big-money quiz shows turned out to be fakes, and the respected TV executives were also revealed to be liars and cheats. Far worse was yet to come. The United States government was caught in a lie regarding the CIA’s U-2 reconnaissance planes overflying the Soviet Union. On the eve of a crucial summit meeting in 1960, the USSR knocked Gary Powers out of the sky, along with plenty of incriminating hardware and data. Moscow delayed revealing what it knew, and Washington spent ten days denying it was a spy plane, then denying that President Eisenhower was aware of it. The world was turning into a very scary place, and soon, American schoolchildren were being taught to duck under their desks if a bomb should strike. Fear began to percolate into the heart of the nation.

In this lively and provocative synthesis, distinguished historian Glen Jeansonne explores the people and events that shaped America in the twentieth century. Comprehensive in scope, A Time of Paradox offers a balanced look at the political, diplomatic, social and cultural developments of the last century while focusing on the diverse and sometimes contradictory human experiences that characterized this dynamic period. Designed with the student in mind, this cogent text provides the most up to date analysis available, offering insight into the divisive election of 2004, the War on Terror and the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Substantive biographies on figures ranging from Samuel Insull to Madonna give students a more personalized view of the men and women who influenced American society over the past hundred years.

Genre is central to understanding the industrial context and visual form of television. This new edition of the key textbook on television genre brings together leading international scholars to provide an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the debates, issues and concerns of the field. Structured in eleven sections, The Television Genre Book introduces the concept of 'genre' itself and how it has been understood in television studies, and then addresses the main televisual genres in turn: drama, soap opera, comedy, news, documentary, reality television, children's television, animation and popular entertainment. This third edition is illustrated throughout with case studies of classic and contemporary programming from each genre, ranging from The Simpsons to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and from Monty Python's Flying Circus to Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. It also features new case studies on contemporary shows, including The Only Way Is Essex, Homeland, Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Planet Earth, Grey's Anatomy and QVC, and new chapters covering topics such as constructed reality, travelogues, telefantasy, stand-up comedy, the panel show, 24-hour news, Netflix and video on demand.

Presenting case studies of well-known shows including Will and Grace, Birds of a Feather, Sex and the City and Absolutely Fabulous, as well as 'reality' television, this book examines the transformations that have occurred in consumer society since its appearance and the ways in which these have been constructed and represented in popular media imagery. With analyses of the ways in which consumerism has played out in society, Consumerism on TV highlights specific aspects of the changing nature of consumerism by way of considerations of gender, sexuality and class, as well as less definable changes such as those to do with the celebration of ostentatious greed or the righteousness of the ’ethical’ shopper. With attention to the highly delineated consumer field in which ’shopping’ as an embedded practice of everyday life is caught between escapism and politics, authors explore a variety of themes, such as the extent to which consumerism has become embedded in forging identity, the positing of consumerism as a form of activism, the visibility of the gay male consumer and invisibility of the lesbian consumer, and the (re)stratification of consumer types along class lines. An engaging invitation to consider whether the positioning of consumerism through on-screen depictions is indicative of a new type of non-philosophical politics of 'choice' - a form of marketised, (a)political pragmatism - this book will appeal to scholars and students of sociology and cultural and media studies, with interests in class, consumption and gender.