Arts / Mass Media / Television / History & Criticism

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

by Neil Postman & Andrew Postman

Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman's groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in...

The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy

by Bill Carter

The New York Times bestselling author of The Late Shift delivers "a boisterous, two-timing, high-stakes drama about the business of comedy" (The Associated Press).

No one is more uniquely suited to document...

Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV

by Warren Littlefield

Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, ER, Cheers, Law & Order, Will & Grace…Here is the funny, splashy, irresistible insiders’ account of the greatest era in television history -- told by the actors, writers, directors,...

Mad Men and Philosophy: Nothing Is as It Seems

by Rod Carveth, James B. South & William Irwin

A look at the philosophical underpinnings of the hit TV show, Mad Men

With its swirling cigarette smoke, martini lunches, skinny ties, and tight pencil skirts, Mad Men is unquestionably one of the most stylish,...

Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live

by Tom Shales

WHEN A YOUNG WRITER named Lorne Michaels talked NBC executives into taking a chance on a new weekend late-night comedy series, nobody really knew what to expect-not even Michaels. But Saturday Night Live, launched...

SH-BOOM!

by Clay Cole

There was a small sliver of time between Be-Bop and Hip-Hop, when a new generation of teenagers created rock 'n' roll. Clay Cole was one of those teenagers he was the host of his own Saturday night, pop music...

The Tube Has Spoken

by Julie Taddeo

Featuring ordinary people, celebrities, game shows, hidden cameras, everyday situations, and humorous or dramatic situations, reality TV is one of the fastest growing and important popular culture trends of...

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour"

by David Bianculli

An unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the rise and fall of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour -- the provocative, politically charged program that shocked the censors, outraged the White House, and forever...

You're Lucky You're Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom

by Phil Rosenthal

The creator and executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond, on how to make a sitcom classic and keep laughing This laugh-out-loud memoir takes readers backstage and inside the writers’ room of one of...

Billion-Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson's Creek, and Other Adventures inTV Writing

by Jeffrey Stepakoff

Now in paperback, the riveting behind-the-scenes look at how television shows are really created, from a successful writer-producer

When Jeffrey Stepakoff was graduating with an MFA in playwriting, he imagined...

Hi There, Boys and Girls! America's Local Children's TV Programs

by Tim Hollis

Whatever happened to Bozo the Clown, to Aunt Norma, to Solomon C. Whiskers, those television celebrities who hammed it up between cartoons and contests during local kids' shows?

In Hi There, Boys and Girls!...

Season Finale

by Susanne Daniels & Cynthia Littleton

In the mid-1990s, two major Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, each launched their own broadcast television network with the hope of becoming the fifth major player in an industry long dominated...

Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture

by Jason Mittell

Genre and Television proposes a new understanding of television genres as cultural categories, offering a set of in-depth historical and critical examinations to explore five key aspects of television genre:...

Reading Mystery Science Theater 3000: Critical Approaches

by Shelley S. Rees

First broadcast in the not too distant past on a television station in Minnesota, Mystery Science Theater 3000 soon grew out of its humble beginnings and found a new home on cable television. This simple show...

Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds Who Made the Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic

by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

When writer-producers James L. Brooks andAllan Burns dreamed up an edgy show about a divorced woman with a career, theCBS executives they pitched replied: American audiences wont tolerate divorcein a series...

The A to Z of African-American Television

by Kathleen Fearn-Banks

From Amos 'n' Andy to The Jeffersons to Family Matters, this work covers it all. There are entries on all different genres and performers. Additionally, information can be found on general issues, ranging from...

Global Media: The Television Revolution in Asia

by James D. White

This book is about the processes of globalization, demonstrated through a comparative study of three television case histories in Asia. Also illustrated are different approaches to providing television services...

Downton Abbey

by Kathleen Olmstead

The Untold History of Television provides an exciting glimpse behind the scenes of the groundbreaking series that have defined the landscape of popular culture.

Emmy Award-winning Downton Abbey brings to life...

Breaking Bad

by Kathleen Olmstead

The Untold History of Television provides an exciting glimpse behind the scenes of the groundbreaking series that have defined the landscape of popular culture.

Critically acclaimed for its writing, acting,...

The Walking Dead

by Kathleen Olmstead

The Untold History of Television provides an exciting glimpse behind the scenes of the groundbreaking series that have defined the landscape of popular culture.

Based on the wildly popular comic by Robert Kirkman,...