Read complete books and articles on: Television Sitcoms

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13 of the Best Books and Articles on: Television Sitcoms

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Nervous Laughter: Television Situation Comedy and Liberal Democratic Ideology » Read Now
by Darrell Y. Hamamoto. 180 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

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...
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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
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2.

The Cosby Show: Audiences, Impact, and Implications » Read Now
by Linda K. Fuller. 230 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This volume chronicles the phenomenon of a television program that has commanded first place since its premiere in September 1984. Each week in the United States it has consistently drawn a loyal audience of more than 60 million people, breaking all records for ratings and shares. The show is...
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This volume chronicles the phenomenon of a television program that has commanded first place since its premiere in September 1984. Each week in the United States it has consistently drawn a loyal audience of more than 60 million people, breaking all records for ratings and shares. The show is credited with lifting a third-place network into commanding leadership, advancing the image of black families, being the object of the greatest syndication barter deal in history, and regenerating the sitcom genre. Approached from a systems-theoretical perspective, this book considers The Cosby Show historically, economically, politically, legally, and socioculturally.
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3.

Television Studies: Textual Analysis (Chap. 6 "He's Everything You're Not: A Semiological Analysis of Cheers") » Read Now
by Gary Burns. 262 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Burns and Thompson help to remedy the lack of a forum for current research on television by bringing together some of the best recent research in television studies. In...
4.

Seinfeld, in Commonweal » Read Now
by Frank McConnell. 2 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...funny as hell; and, more, because its funny in a way American sitcoms didnt manage to be funny until this thing came along. "Sitcom...generous, the shows wit and...
5.

Feminist Television Criticism: A Reader (Chap. 4 "Situation Comedy, Feminism, and Freud: Discourses of Gracie and Lucy" and Chap. 5 "Roseanne: Unruly Woman as Domestic Goddess") » Read Now
by Charlotte Brunsdon, Julie P. D'Acci, Lynn P. Spigel. 388 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

PART I: Housewives, Heroines, Feminists 1. Everyday Life, Michelle Mattelart 2. The Search for Tomorrow in Today's Soap Operas, Tania Modleski 3. Affirmation and Denial: Construction of Feminity on Indian Television (excerpts), Prabha Krishnan and Anita Digh 4. Roseanne: Unruly Woman as...
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PART I: Housewives, Heroines, Feminists 1. Everyday Life, Michelle Mattelart 2. The Search for Tomorrow in Today's Soap Operas, Tania Modleski 3. Affirmation and Denial: Construction of Feminity on Indian Television (excerpts), Prabha Krishnan and Anita Digh 4. Roseanne: Unruly Woman as Domestic Goddess, Kathleen Rowe 5. L.A. Law and Prime-Time Feminism, Judith Mayne 6. Empowering Women? The Oprah Winfrey Show, Corrine Squire 7. Identity in Feminist Television Criticism, Charlotte Brunsdon 8. New Traditionalism and Post-Feminism: TV Does the Home, Elspeth Probyn PART TWO: Audiences and Reception Contexts 9. Women's Genres, Annette Kuhn 10. Melodramatic Identifications: Television Fiction and Women's Fantasy, Ien Ang 11. Black Feminism and Media Criticism: The Women of Brewster Place, Jacqeline Bobo and Ellen Seiter 12. In Love with Inspecter Morse, Lyn Thomas 13. Fruitful Investigations: The Case of the Successful Lesbian Text, Hilary Hinds 14. the Suburban Home Companion: Television and the Neighborhood Ideal in Postwar America, Lynn Spigel 15. Behind Closed Doors: Video Recorders in the Home, Ann Gray PART THREE: Private Bodies, Public Figures 16. Television Tales and a Woman's Rage: A Nationalist Recasting of Draupidi's Disrobing, Purnima Mankekar 17. Abortion Discourse and 1970s Television Documentary, Julie D'Acci 18. The Ideology of Freshness in Feminine Hygiene Commericials, Kate Kane 19. Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile, Tricia Rose 20. The Gorgeous Lesbian in L.A. Law: The Present Absence?, Rosanne Kennedy 21. Reproducing Reality: Murphy Brown and Illegitimate Politics, Rebecca Walkowitz 22. Representation Wars: Malaysia, Embassy, and Australia's Corps Diplomatique, Suvendrini Perera
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6.

Color by Fox: The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television » Read Now
by Kristal Brent Zook. 148 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Offering a fascinating examination of the explosion of black television programming in the 1980s and 1990s, this book provides, for the first time ever, an interpretation of black TV based in both journalism and critical theory. Locating a persistent black nationalist desire--a yearning for home and...
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Offering a fascinating examination of the explosion of black television programming in the 1980s and 1990s, this book provides, for the first time ever, an interpretation of black TV based in both journalism and critical theory. Locating a persistent black nationalist desire--a yearning for home and community--in the shows produced by and for African-Americans in this period, Zook shows how the Fox hip-hop sitcom both reinforced and rebelled against earlier black sitcoms from the sixties and seventies. Incorporating interviews with such prominent executives, producers, and stars as Keenan Ivory Wayans, Sinbad, Quincy Jones, Robert Townsend, Charles Dutton, Yvette Lee Bowser, Ralph Farquhar, and Susan Fales, this study looks at both production and reception among African-American viewers, providing nuanced readings of the shows themselves as well as the sociopolitical contexts in which they emerged. While black TV during this period may seem trivial or buffoonish to some, Sly as a Fox reveals its deep-rooted ties to African-American protest literature and autobiography, and a desire for social transformation.
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7.

There's No Place like Home: The American Dream, African-American Identity, and the Situation Comedy, in Velvet Light Trap » Read Now
by Bambi L. Haggins. 14 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...medium depicted. Television, then as now, propagates...Ticci 62). The sitcoms shift from suburb...was his favorite television program" (Hamamoto...trend of Blacks in...
8.

The Portrayal of Racial Minorities on Prime Time Television, in Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media » Read Now
by Dana E. Mastro, Bradley S. Greenberg. 13 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Race of television character was...distributed between sitcoms (34%) and crime...distribution of television characters also...whereas most sitcoms are 30...
9.

When Men Divulge: Portrayals of Men's Self-Disclosure in Prime Time Situation Comedies, in Sex Roles: A Journal of Research » Read Now
by Glenn E. Good, Michael J. Porter, Mark G. Dillon. 9 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

...multiple types of television genres are eventually...situation comedies (sitcoms) because of their...male characters in sitcoms reflect the diversity...cultivated by prime...
10.

From Wise to Foolish: The Portrayal of the Sitcom Father, 1950s-1990s, in Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media » Read Now
by Erica Scharrer. 17 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Cassata, 1990). In television sitcoms, humor is often...writing and creating television programs is believed...portrayal in domestic sitcoms (Lauzen Dozier...unit--airing...
11.

Television Situation Comedies: Female Weight, Male Negative Comments, and Audience Reactions, in Sex Roles: A Journal of Research » Read Now
by Gregory Fouts, Kimberley Burggraf. 7 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

...Television Situation Comedies: Female Weight, Male Negative Comments...Gregory Fouts 1 A content analysis of 18 prime-time television situation comedies (two episodes each)...
12.

TV Genres: A Handbook and Reference Guide (Chap. 7 "Situation Comedy") » Read Now
by Brian G. Rose, Robert S. Alley. 456 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

"This book fills a need. It will be used by scholars and revered by undergraduates doing papers. It is a highly desirable acquisition for libraries of all types." Choice "[an] essential purchase for universityand most college libraries as well as large public libraries." Reference Books Bulletin
13.

We Bombed in Burbank: A Joyride to Prime Time » Read Now
by Vance Muse. 223 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...making good livings appearing weekly in drama series and sitcoms. Portrayals of minorities were becoming more abundant and...wondered then and still do about the real-world...