Your search for: subjects:"Television Broadcasting Social Aspects United States"

Nervous Laughter examines 40 years of situation comedy, decade by decade, providing the first truly panoramic view of TV's most popular dramatic form. Within this context, Hamamoto traces what he describes as the dominant liberal democratic ideology implicit within situation comedy and explains its ...

Nervous Laughter examines 40 years of situation comedy, decade by decade, providing the first truly panoramic view of TV's most popular dramatic form. Within this context, Hamamoto traces what he describes as the dominant liberal democratic ideology implicit within situation comedy and explains its enduring popularity. "Critically analyzing four decades of television situation comedies from The Honeymooners to The Bill Cosby Show, Hamamoto shows how the sitcom reflects, explains, legitimates, and challenges the society in which it is grounded, illuminating the power of laughter both to reaffirm and to question existing social structures. . . . Hamamoto offers a well-researched and refreshingly lucid study, immensely readable for its astute scholarship. Indispensable for students and scholars of television, popular culture, and comedy." Choice

In the beginning, television was filled with promise. Offering convenient entertainment and easy access to the latest news and information, it was a truly democratic medium that was supposed to enrich the lives of its citizens. Yet today, the airwaves are inundated by a flood of drivel that panders ...

In the beginning, television was filled with promise. Offering convenient entertainment and easy access to the latest news and information, it was a truly democratic medium that was supposed to enrich the lives of its citizens. Yet today, the airwaves are inundated by a flood of drivel that panders to the audience's most base interests.

How did this happen? What went wrong?

Down the Tube answers these questions. Explaining that the United States, almost alone among the nations of the world, surrendered virtually the entire command of its public airwaves into the hands of the commercial sector, it reveals that television's primary purpose has nothing to do with producing quality programs. Its main concern is to package and deliver identifiable demographic groups (e.g., women 18-49) to their advertisers. Written by insiders who have played on both sides of the programming game, Down the Tube is both a sweeping examination of the history of television and an important indictment of the mercenary mentality that taints the most influential and powerful medium in the world.

Archie Bunker's America discerns what was "in the air" as television networks tried to accommodate cultural and political swings in America from the Vietnam era through the late 1970s. Josh Ozersky's spirited examination of the ways America changed television during a period of intense social ...

Archie Bunker's America discerns what was "in the air" as television networks tried to accommodate cultural and political swings in America from the Vietnam era through the late 1970s. Josh Ozersky's spirited examination of the ways America changed television during a period of intense social upheaval, recuperation, and fragmentation uncovers a bold and beguiling facet of American cultural history. From the conflict-based comedy of All in the Family and such post-1960s frolics as Three's Company to tendentiously apolitical programs like Happy Days, Ozersky describes the range and power of television to echoed larger schemes of American life.

Around 1968, advertisers who were anxious to break into the lucrative baby-boomer demographic convinced television networks to begin to abandon prime-time programming that catered to universal audiences. With the market splintering, networks ventured into more issue-based and controversial territories. While early network attempts at more "relevant" programming failed, Ozersky examines how CBS struck gold with the political comedy All in the Family in 1971 and how other successful, conflict-based comedies turned away from typical show business conventions. As the 1970s wore on, the innovations of the previous years began to lose their public appeal. After Vietnam and Watergate, Ozersky argues, Americans were exhausted from the political turbulence of the preceding decade and were ready for a televisual "return to normalcy."

Straightforward, engaging, and liberally illustrated, Archie Bunker's America is peppered with the stories of outsider cops and failed variety shows, of a young Bill Murray and an old Ed Sullivan, of Mary Tyler Moore, Fonzie,and the Skipper, too. Drawing on interviews with television insiders, trade publications, and the programs themselves, Ozersky chronicles the ongoing attempts of prime-time television to program for a fragmented audience --

This original and engaging book investigates American television viewing habits as a distinct cultural form. Based on an empirical study of the day-to-day use of television by working people, it develops a unique theoretical approach integrating cultural sociology, postmodernism and the literature ...

This original and engaging book investigates American television viewing habits as a distinct cultural form. Based on an empirical study of the day-to-day use of television by working people, it develops a unique theoretical approach integrating cultural sociology, postmodernism and the literature of media effects to explore the way in which people give meaning to their viewing practices. Accessibly written and at the cutting edge of cultural studies and television research, this book is essential reading for students and academics in cultural studies, television research, media and communication studies.