Television category: 3830 books

An investigation of the fictional representations of the city in contemporary British and American television drama, assessing their political, sociological and cultural implications. The book draws on the following five key case studies for specific and detailed analysis: • Queer as Folk • Armistead...

An elementary school dropout, George Burns went on to become one of America’s most beloved entertainers. This book covers a neglected part of his career—his work as a television producer. Burns was not only a behind-the-scenes producer, but also filled the role of producer in various comedies...

This is a rare manual for the guidance of hopeful television presenters, written by BAFTA Award winning television producer Tony Nicholson, with a foreword by top TV presenter CHRIS TARRANT.  It has been written based on over thirty years of working with some of the top names in the business,...

Creator of television series such as Shameless, Clocking Off, State of Play, Reckless, Linda Green and Children’s Ward, Paul Abbott is a British 'showrunner' and writer whose name and reputation for edgy, intelligent, successful and socio-political programmes holds significant weight both in the...

Since its introduction in the early 1960s, Spanish-language television in the United States has grown in step with the Hispanic population. Industry and demographic projections forecast rising influence through the 21st century. This book traces U.S. Spanish-language television’s development from...

The antihero prevails in recent American drama television series. Characters such as mobster kingpin Tony Soprano (The Sopranos), meth cook and gangster-in-the-making Walter White (Breaking Bad) and serial killer Dexter Morgan (Dexter) are not morally good, so how do these television series make us...

In Screening Culture, Viewing Politics Purnima Mankekar presents a cutting-edge ethnography of television-viewing in India. With a focus on the responses of upwardly-mobile, yet lower-to-middle class urban women to state-sponsored entertainment serials, Mankekar demonstrates how television in India...

When the space drama Battlestar Galactica debuted on ABC in 1978, it was expected to be the most popular new program of the year. Instead, it was attacked as a Star Wars rip-off and canceled after a mere 17 stories. The author acknowledges the show was full of dramatic clichés and scientific inaccuracies,...

Polly Kahl started blogging about the Gosselins after they moved to her small town of Wernersville, Pennsylvania. In the next two years she experienced a whirlwind of life lessons about reality TV and the business of entertainment as the Gosselin family splintered and eventually broke apart. Jon & Kate...

From 1955 to 1964, American television was awash in adult Westerns, as much as one quarter of all prime-time programming. During its six seasons (1957-1963), Have Gun-Will Travel was recognized as one of the best shows on television--politically the most liberal, and intellectually and aesthetically...

Playing Doctor is an engaging and highly perceptive history of the medical TV series from its inception to the present day. Turow offers an inside look at the creation of iconic doctor shows as well as a detailed history of the programs, an analysis of changing public perceptions of doctors and medicine,...

Author Michael J. Hayde’s definitive work about Superman on radio and television. Hayde is well-known for My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized but True Story of Dragnet and The Films of Jack Webb; and Little Elf: A Celebration of Harry Langdon, and this new treasure trove of information on The...

Characterized as it is by its interest in and engagement with the supernatural, psycho-social formations, the gothic, and issues of identity and subjectivity, horror has long functioned as an allegorical device for interrogations into the seamier side of cultural foundations. This collection, therefore,...

How "public" is public television if only a small percentage of the American people tune in on a regular basis? When public television addresses "viewers like you," just who are you? Despite the current of frustration with commercial television that runs through American life,...