The Story of Viewers For Quality Television

The Story of Viewers For Quality Television PDF Author: Dorothy Collins Swanson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
Viewers for Quality Television (VQT) emerged from the successful grassroots campaign of founder Dorothy Swanson to save the series Cagney & Lacey. Eight months after the drama returned to the air-with the help of the show's producer Barney Rosenzweig-Swanson's group gained significant media attention and popular support. In 1984 she founded VQT and galvanized over 1500 advocates for innovative and enriching television programming. For the past 12 years, VQT has been the recognized and credible forum for discerning viewers. Prior to the formation of this group, there was no system in place where viewers could voice their opinions collectively to those responsible for the fate of programs. The organization, whose endorsements continue to be an important part of many programs' bids for survival, has succeeded in convincing network executives to reconsider shows such as Designing Women, Homefront, China Beach, I'll Fly Away, and most recently, The Practice, which were scheduled to be canceled. Documenting the efforts of one grassroots organization that made a difference, Swanson's story extends beyond the realm of television to demonstrate the rewards of making the voice of public opinion heard.

The Story of Viewers For Quality Television

The Story of Viewers For Quality Television PDF Author: Dorothy Collins Swanson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
Viewers for Quality Television (VQT) emerged from the successful grassroots campaign of founder Dorothy Swanson to save the series Cagney & Lacey. Eight months after the drama returned to the air-with the help of the show's producer Barney Rosenzweig-Swanson's group gained significant media attention and popular support. In 1984 she founded VQT and galvanized over 1500 advocates for innovative and enriching television programming. For the past 12 years, VQT has been the recognized and credible forum for discerning viewers. Prior to the formation of this group, there was no system in place where viewers could voice their opinions collectively to those responsible for the fate of programs. The organization, whose endorsements continue to be an important part of many programs' bids for survival, has succeeded in convincing network executives to reconsider shows such as Designing Women, Homefront, China Beach, I'll Fly Away, and most recently, The Practice, which were scheduled to be canceled. Documenting the efforts of one grassroots organization that made a difference, Swanson's story extends beyond the realm of television to demonstrate the rewards of making the voice of public opinion heard.

Complex TV

Complex TV PDF Author: Jason Mittell
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814738850
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
A comprehensive and sustained analysis of the development of storytelling for television Over the past two decades, new technologies, changing viewer practices, and the proliferation of genres and channels has transformed American television. One of the most notable impacts of these shifts is the emergence of highly complex and elaborate forms of serial narrative, resulting in a robust period of formal experimentation and risky programming rarely seen in a medium that is typically viewed as formulaic and convention bound. Complex TV offers a sustained analysis of the poetics of television narrative, focusing on how storytelling has changed in recent years and how viewers make sense of these innovations. Through close analyses of key programs, including The Wire, Lost, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Veronica Mars, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Mad Men the book traces the emergence of this narrative mode, focusing on issues such as viewer comprehension, transmedia storytelling, serial authorship, character change, and cultural evaluation. Developing a television-specific set of narrative theories, Complex TV argues that television is the most vital and important storytelling medium of our time.

Television and the Quality of Life

Television and the Quality of Life PDF Author: Robert Kubey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136691472
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Employing a unique research methodology that enables people to report on their normal activities as they occur, the authors examine how people actually use and experience television -- and how television viewing both contributes to and detracts from the quality of everyday life. Studied within the natural context of everyday living, and drawing comparisons between television viewing and a variety of other daily activities and leisure pursuits, this unusual book explores whether television is a boon or a detriment to family life; how people feel and think before, during, and after television viewing; what causes television habits to develop; and what causes heavy viewing -- and what heavy viewing causes -- in the short and long term. Television and the Quality of Life also compares the viewing experience cross-nationally using samples from the United States, Italy, Canada, and Germany -- and then interprets the findings within a broad theoretical and historical framework that considers how information use and daily activity contribute to individual, familial, societal, and cultural development.

The Adoring Audience

The Adoring Audience PDF Author: Lisa A. Lewis
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415078207
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

TV Creators

TV Creators PDF Author: James L. Longworth, Jr.
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815607021
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
This sequel provides yet another dozen of today's most acclaimed writers and producers an open, uncensored forum in which they discuss everything from their work ethic to the political, social, and economic issues affecting the television industry. The West Wing, C.S.I., and Judging Amy are just a few of the dramas that launched a new era of television at the turn of the millennium. TV Creators gives scholars and fans alike an exclusive, firsthand account of the lives, philosophies, and contributions of some of the best television scribes of the past two decades. TV Creators: Volume Two includes revelations such as Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) admitting that he is not a natural storyteller, and Martha Williamson (Touched by an Angel) announcing that "There is nothing more gender blind than an executive producer who desperately needs a good writer." Glenn Gordon Caron (Moonlighting, Now & Again) confesses, "I always think that disaster is an inch away," while Paul Haggis (Family Law) reveals, "I always like to do something that I think I can fail at." Also interviewed are: Aaron Spelling (Charmed, Beverly Hills 90210); Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer); Roy Huggins (The Fugitive); Clifton Campbell (Profiler); Barbara Hall (Judging Amy); Anthony Zuiker (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation); John McNamara (The Fugitive); and Don Bellisario (JAG, Magnum P.I.).

Beautiful TV

Beautiful TV PDF Author: Greg M. Smith
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292777841
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
During its five-year run from 1997 to 2002, the popular TV show Ally McBeal engaged viewers in debates over what it means to be a woman or a man in the modern workplace; how romance factors into the therapeutic understanding of relationships; what value eccentricity has and how much oddity society should tolerate; and what utility fantasy has in the pragmatic world. In addition to these social concerns, however, Ally McBeal stood out for being well-constructed, narratively complex, and stylistically rich—in short, beautiful TV. Starting from the premise that much of television today is "drop-dead gorgeous" and that TV should be studied for its formal qualities as well as its social impact, Greg M. Smith analyzes Ally McBeal in terms of its aesthetic principles and narrative construction. He explores how Ally's innovative use of music, special effects, fantasy sequences, voiceovers, and flashbacks structures a distinctive fictional universe, while it also opens up new possibilities for televisual expression. Smith also discusses the complex narrative strategies that Ally's creator David E. Kelley used to develop a long-running storyline and shows how these serial narrative practices can help us understand a wide range of prime-time TV serials. By taking seriously the art and argument of Ally McBeal, Beautiful TV conclusively demonstrates that aesthetic and narrative analysis is an indispensable key for unlocking the richness of contemporary television.

The Tabloid Culture Reader

The Tabloid Culture Reader PDF Author: Biressi, Anita
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
ISBN: 0335219314
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
The Tabloid Culture Reader provides an accessible and useful introduction to the field.

Quality TV

Quality TV PDF Author: Janet McCabe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857715992
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
In his seminal book "Television's Second Golden Age", Robert Thompson described quality TV as 'best defined by what it is not': 'it is not "regular" TV'. Audacious maybe, but his statement renewed debate on the meaning of this highly contentious term. Dealing primarily with the post-1996 era shaped by digital technologies and defined by consumer choice and brand marketing, this book brings together leading scholars, established journalists and experienced broadcasters working in the field of contemporary television to debate what we currently mean by quality TV. They go deep into contemporary American television fictions, from "The Sopranos" and "The West Wing", to "CSI" and "Lost" - innovative, sometimes controversial, always compelling dramas, which one scholar has described as 'now better than the movies!' But how do we understand the emergence of these kinds of fiction? Are they genuinely new? What does quality TV have to tell us about the state of today's television market? And is this a new Golden Age of quality TV? Original, often polemic, each chapter proposes new ways of thinking about and defining quality TV. There is a foreword from Robert Thompson, and heated dialogue between British and US television critics. Also included - and a great coup - are interviews with W. Snuffy Walden (scored "The West Wing" among others) and with David Chase ("The Sopranos" creator). "Quality TV" provides throughout groundbreaking and innovative theoretical and critical approaches to studying television and for understanding the current - and future - TV landscape.

Television and American Culture

Television and American Culture PDF Author: Jason Mittell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Television and American Culture: An Overview introduces students to the study of television by looking at American television from a cultural perspective. The book is written for intermediate undergraduate and beginning graduate students for a range of television studies courses. Specifically, Mittell discusses television within the following contexts: the economics of the television industry, television's role within American democracy, the formal attributes of a variety of television genres, television as a site of gender and racial identity formation, television's role in everyday life, and the medium's technological and social impacts. The topical arrangement and comprehensive scope of the book differs from other television textbooks, arguing that we must incorporate a range of economic, political, aesthetic, and sociological perspectives to fully comprehend the medium of television.

Television Program Master Index

Television Program Master Index PDF Author: Charles V. Dintrone
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786472456
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This work indexes books, dissertations and journal articles that mention television shows. Memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, and some popular works meant for fans are also indexed. The major focus is on service to researchers in the history of television. Listings are keyed to an annotated bibliography. Appendices include a list of websites; an index of groups or classes of people on television; and a list of programs by genre. Changes from the second edition include more than 300 new shows, airing on a wider variety of networks; 2000-plus references (more than double the second edition); and a large increase in scholarly articles. The book provides access to materials on almost 2300 shows, including groundbreaking ones like All in the Family (almost 200 entries); cult favorites like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (200-plus entries); and a classic franchise, Star Trek (more than 400 entries for all the shows). The shows covered range from the late 1940s to 2010 (The Walking Dead). References range from 1956 to 2013.