The Early Shows A Reference Guide To Network And Syndicated Primetime Television Series From 1944 To 1949

The history of American television is finally written. The shows your grandparents chose as their favorites during the dawn of network television inspired the series of today. The genesis of genres began with The Laytons; Barney Blake, Police Reporter; Off the Record; The Dennis James Carnival; Meet the Press; The Original Amateur Hour; Texaco Star Theater; Toast of the Town; Candid Camera; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts; Hopalong Cassidy; Mama; The Lone Ranger; The Life of Riley. Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan, Jack Carter, Jackie Gleason, Gertrude Berg, Jack Lemmon, Boris Karloff, Mike Wallace, and Perry Como stand out among the stars of groundbreaking series that premiered in the 1940s. Each are categorized along with descriptions of most episodes of the Top 300 comedies, dramas, variety shows, and game shows. Classic television series. The roots of today's reboots. Index. Illustrated. About the author: Richard Irvin's other works include Forgotten Laughs: An Episode Guide to 150 TV Sitcoms You Probably Never Saw, and Spinning Laughter: Profiles of 111 Proposed Spin-offs and Sequels that Never Became a Series.

The history of American television is finally written. The shows your grandparents chose as their favorites during the dawn of network television inspired the series of today. The genesis of genres began with The Laytons; Barney Blake, Police Reporter; Off the Record; The Dennis James Carnival; Meet the Press; The Original Amateur Hour; Texaco Star Theater; Toast of the Town; Candid Camera; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts; Hopalong Cassidy; Mama; The Lone Ranger; The Life of Riley. Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan, Jack Carter, Jackie Gleason, Gertrude Berg, Jack Lemmon, Boris Karloff, Mike Wallace, and Perry Como stand out among the stars of groundbreaking series that premiered in the 1940s. Each are categorized along with descriptions of most episodes of the Top 300 comedies, dramas, variety shows, and game shows. Classic television series. The roots of today's reboots. Index. Illustrated. About the author: Richard Irvin's other works include Forgotten Laughs: An Episode Guide to 150 TV Sitcoms You Probably Never Saw, and Spinning Laughter: Profiles of 111 Proposed Spin-offs and Sequels that Never Became a Series.

Between the nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century television transformed from an idea to an institution. In Gender and Early Television, Sarah Arnold traces women's relationship to the new medium of television across this period in the UK and USA. She argues that women played a crucial role in its development both as producers and as audiences long before the 'golden age' of television in the 1950s. Beginning with the emergence of media entertainment in the mid-nineteenth century and culminating in the rise of the post-war television industries, Arnold claims that, all along the way, women had a stake in television. As keen consumers of media, women also helped promote television to the public by performing as 'television girls'. Women worked as directors, producers, technical crew and announcers. It seemed that television was open to women. However, as Arnold shows, the increasing professionalisation of television resulted in the segregation of roles. Production became the sphere of men and consumption the sphere of women. While this binary has largely informed women's role in television, through her analysis, Arnold argues that it has not always been the case.

Arthur Schwartz (1900-1984), a premier composer of American Popular Song during the mid-20th century, has been overlooked by historians. This first full-length biography covers his work on Broadway and in Hollywood, where he was known as the "master of the intimate revue" for his songs in the 1930s with Howard Dietz. Schwartz wrote music for films in the 1940s--with Academy Award nominations for They're Either Too Young or Too Old and A Gal in Calico--produced two popular movie musicals--Cover Girl and Night and Day--and was among the first songwriters to work in the new medium of television. The author describes his creative process and includes behind-the-scenes stories of each of his major musicals.

William Thiele is remembered today as the father of the sound film operetta with seminal classics such as Drei von der Tankstelle (1930). While often considered among the most accomplished directors of Late Weimar cinema, as an Austrian Jew he was vilified during the onset of the Nazi regime in 1933 and fled to the United States where he continued making films until the end of his career in 1960. Enchanted by Cinema closely examines the European musical film pioneer’s work and his cross-cultural perspective across forty years of filmography in Berlin and Hollywood to account for his popularity while discussing issues of ethnicity, exile, comedy, music, gender, and race.

From I Love Lucy to Will & Grace, this book looks at the television comedies that have tackled social issues, facilitated discussion, or in some other way have broken down barriers. Other landmark shows discussed here include All in the Family, Ellen, The Golden Girls, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Maude, Modern Family, Roseanne, and Soap.

The Big Valley, Burke's Law, The Rifleman, Zane Grey Theatre - these are just a few of the iconic series produced by Four Star Productions. This book covers all of the series produced and/or syndicated by Four Star from 1952 to 1989 as well as the many pilots the company made but were unable to sell. Topics include the first Western series created by legendary film director Sam Peckinpah, the first detective series with a female main character, the first, and perhaps only, ninety-minute game show pilot, and the one series that accounted for 70% of Four Star's revenue in 1969. Richard Irvin is the author of The Early Shows: A Reference Guide to Network and Syndicated Prime-Time Television Series from 1944 to 1949, Forgotten Laughs: An Episode Guide to 150 TV Sitcoms You Probably Never Saw, and Spinning Laughter: Profiles of 111 Proposed Comedy Spin-offs and Sequels that Never Became a Series - all from Bear Manor Media.

While Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball are most closely associated with the classic situation comedy, I Love Lucy, the production company they founded in the 1950s, Desilu, made several other television series - some memorable like The Lucy Show, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek, and many almost forgotten such as Willy and Grand Jury. This book focuses on another aspect of Desilu - the all but forgotten TV pilots and unproduced specials contemplated by Desi and Lucy. Chronicled in this work are projects like Desilu's version of Dallas - not a soap opera but a Western, an anthology series hosted by the artist Salvador Dali, Gene Roddenberry's cop dramas, Code 100 and Police Story, parodies of The Untouchables and The Flintstones, Desi's unproduced sitcom comeback titled Chairman of the Board, and a 1961 unproduced TV special that would have starred Lucy along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley and perhaps Desi Arnaz in a cameo role. These and many other such projects are chronicled for the first time in The Forgotten Desi and Lucy TV Projects The Desilu Series and Specials that Might Have Been. Richard Irvin is the author of several books about television history including Four Star Television Productions: A History of the Business, Series, and Pilots of the Iconic Television Production Company, The Early Shows: A Reference Guide to Network and Syndicated Prime-Time Television Series from 1944 to 1949, and Spinning Laughter: Profiles of 111 Proposed Comedy Spin-offs and Sequels that Never Became a Series - all from BearManor Media.