Required Texts
Barnouw, Erik. Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 0195064844.
Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-present. 7th ed. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1999. ISBN: 0345429230.
Newcomb, Horace, ed. Television: The Critical View. 6th ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0195119274.
Selections:
- Alvey, Mark. “The Independents: Rethinking the Television Studio System.” pp. 34-52.
- Anderson, Christopher. “Disneyland.” pp. 17-34.
- Byars, Jackie, and Eileen Meehan. “Once in a Lifetime: Constructing the ‘Working Woman’ through Cable Narrowcasting.” pp. 144-169.
- Gray, Herman. “The Politics of Representation in Network Television.” pp. 282-306.
- Hirsch, Paul, and Horace Newcomb. “Television as a Cultural Forum.” pp. 561-574.
- Jenkins, Henry. “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching.” pp. 470-495.
- Marc, David. “What Was Broadcasting?” pp. 629-649.
- McGrath, Charles. “The Triumph of the Prime-Time Novel.” pp. 242-253.
- Spigel, Lynn. “Women’s Work.” pp. 73-100.
- Thorburn, David. “Television Melodrama.” pp. 595-609.
- Williams, Phil. “Feeding Off the Past: The Evolution of the Television Rerun.” pp. 52-73.
Additional Readings
Barthes, Roland. “The World of Wrestling.” In Mythologies. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1972.
Bennett, Tony. “Theories of the Media, Theories of Society.” In Culture, Society and the Media. Edited by Michael Gurevitch et al. London, UK: Methuen, 1982, pp. 30-55.
Carey, James. “A Cultural Approach to Communication.” In Communication as Culture. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
Esslin, Martin. “Aristotle and the Advertisers: The Television Commercial Considered as a Form of Drama.” In Television: The Critical View. 3rd ed. Edited by Horace Newcomb. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Gerbner, George, and Larry Gross. “Living with Television: The Violence Profile.” Journal of Communication 26, no. 2 (Spring 1976): 173-199.
Gitlin, Todd. “Make It Look Messy’: Striking a New Note with Hill Street Blues.” American Film (September 1981): 45-49, 76.
Gomery, Douglas. “Television, Hollywood, and the Development of Movies Made-for-Television.” In Regarding Television. Edited by E. Ann Kaplan. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1983, pp. 120-129.
Klein, Paul. “The Men Who Run TV Know Us Better than You Think.” In The Mass Media Book. Edited by Rod Holmgren and William Norton. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972.
Modleski, Tania. “The Rhythms of Reception: Daytime Television and Women’s Work.” In Regarding Television. Edited by E. Ann Kaplan. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1983.
Newcomb, Horace. “The Television Artistry of Norman Lear.” Prospects 2 (1976): 109-125.
Reeves, Jimmie L. “Rewriting Newhart: A Dialogic Analysis.” Wide Angle 10, no. 1 (1988): 76-91.
Reeves, Jimmie L., and Richard Campbell. “Misplacing Frank’s Place: Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?” Television Quarterly 24, no. 1 (1989): 45-57.
Rogers, Marc C., Michael Epstein, and Jimmie L. Reeves. “The Sopranos as HBO Brand Equity: The Art of Commerce in the Age of Digital Reproduction.” Chapter 6 in This Thing of Ours: Investigating The Sopranos. Edited by David Lavery. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Romano, John. American Dreams, “Act of Contrition.” (script).
Sohn, David, and Jerzy Kosinski. “A Nation of Videots.” In Television: The Critical View. 2nd ed. Edited by Horace Newcomb. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Thorburn, David. “Detective Programs.” and “The Name of the Game.” In Encyclopedia of Television. Edited by Horace Newcomb. Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
———. “Interpretation and Judgment: A Reading of Lonesome Dove.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 10, no. 2 (June 1993): 113-27.
———. “Television as an Aesthetic Medium.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 4, no. 2 (June 1987): 161-173.
———. “Web of Paradox.” The American Prospect 9, no. 40 (September/October 1998): 78-80.
Uricchio, William. “There’s More to the Camera Obscura than Meets the Eye.” Manuscript.
Recommended Texts
Reference Works and Collections of Essays
Adler, Richard P., ed. Understanding Television. New York, NY: Praeger, 1981.
Allen, Robert, ed. Channels of Discourse. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
Brown, Les, ed. The New York Times Encyclopedia of Television. New York, NY: Times Books, 1977.
Feuer, Jane, Paul Kerr, and Tise Vahimagi, eds. MTM: “Quality Television.” London, UK: BFI Pub., 1984.
Gurevitch, Michael, Tony Bennett, et al., eds. Culture, Society and the Media. London, UK: Methuen, 1982.
Kaplan, E. Ann, ed. Regarding Television. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1983.
Lazere, Donald, ed. American Media and Mass Culture: Left Perspectives. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.
McNeil, Alex. Total Television. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1996.
Modleski, Tania, ed. Studies in Entertainment. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986.
Newcomb, Horace, ed. Encyclopedia of Television. Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
O’Connor, John E., ed. American History/American Television. New York, NY: Ungar, 1983.
Critical and Historical Studies
Allen, Robert. Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
Anderson, Christopher. Hollywood TV. PhD Thesis. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin, 1988.
Ang, Ien. Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996.
———. Watching Dallas. London, UK: Methuen, 1985.
Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1972.
Boddy, William. Fifties Television: The Industry and Its Critics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1990.
Brunsdon, Charlotte, and David Morley. Everyday Television. New York, NY: Routledge, 1999.
Burke, Peter. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1978.
Carey, James. Communication as Culture. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
Cawelti, John. Adventure, Mystery and Romance. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Dayan, Daniel, and Elihu Katz. Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Ely, Melvin Patrick. The Adventures of Amos ’n Andy: A Social History. New York, NY: Free Press, 1992.
Fiske, John, and John Hartley. Reading Television. London, UK: Methuen, 1978.
Fiske, John. Television Culture. London, UK: Methuen, 1987.
Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1973.
Gitlin, Todd. Inside Prime Time. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.
Hilmes, Michele. Hollywood and Broadcasting: From Radio to Cable. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1990.
Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers. New York, NY: Routledge, 1992.
MacDonald, J. Fred. Blacks and White TV. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall, 1983.
———. One Nation Under Television: The Rise and Fall of Network TV. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1990.
Marc, David. Comic Visions. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1997.
———. Demographic Vistas. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.
Modleski, Tania. Loving with a Vengeance. New York, NY: Routledge, 1990.
Morley, David. Family Television. London, UK: Comedia, 1986.
Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989.
Newcomb, Horace. TV: The Most Popular Art. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1974.
Newcomb, Horace, and Robert S. Alley. The Producer’s Medium. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1983.
Palmer, Patricia. The Lively Audience: A Study of Children around the TV Set. Boston, MA: Allen & Unwin, 1986.
Spigel, Lynn. Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Streeter, Thomas. Selling the Air. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Thompson, Robert J. Television’s Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER. New York, NY: Continuum, 1996.
Tulloch, John, and Henry Jenkins. Science Fiction Audiences. New York, NY: Routledge, 1995.
Williams, Raymond. Television: Technology and Cultural Form. New York, NY: Schocken Books, 1975.
