Author: Karal Ann Marling
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674735293
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346
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Book Description
America in the 1950s: the world was not so much a stage as a setpiece for TV, the new national phenomenon. It was a time when how things looked--and how we looked--mattered, a decade of design that comes to vibrant life in As Seen on TV. From the painting-by-numbers fad to the public fascination with the First Lady's apparel to the television sensation of Elvis Presley to the sculptural refinement of the automobile, Marling explores what Americans saw and what they looked for with a gaze newly trained by TV. A study in style, in material culture, in art history at eye level, this book shows us as never before those artful everyday objects that stood for American life in the 1950s, as seen on TV.
Author: Vincent Terrace
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442261048
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 225
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Book Description
Often regarded as the first golden era of television, the 1950s was a decade when many classic programs—from I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke to The Honeymooners and Perry Mason, among others—made their debuts. Even after these shows departed the airwaves, they lived on in syndication, entertaining several generations of viewers. Devoted and casual fans alike can probably remember basic facts about these shows—like the names of Lucy and Ricky’s neighbors or the town where Marshall Matt Dillon kept the law. But more elusive facts, like the location of the most successful defense attorney in Los Angeles (Suite 904 of the Brent Building), might be harder to recall. In Television Series of the 1950s: Essential Facts and Quirky Details, Vincent Terrace presents readers with a cornucopia of information about 100 programs from the decade. Did you know, for example, that the middle initial of Dobie Gillis’ friend Maynard G. Krebs, stood for Walter? Or that Ralph Kramden’s electric bill came to only 39 cents a month? Or that on I Love Lucy, Ricky originally performed at Manhattan’s Tropicana Club? These are but a few of the hundreds of fun and intriguing trivia facts contained within this volume. Shows from all four networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and DuMont)—as well as select syndicated programs—are represented here. This is not a book of opinions or essays about specific television programs, but a treasure trove of the facts associated with each of these programs. Readers will discover a wealth of fascinating information that, for the most part, cannot be found anywhere else. In some cases, the factual data detailed herein is the only such documentation that exists currently on bygone shows of the era. Television Series of the 1950s is the ideal reference for fans of this decade and anyone looking to stump even the most knowledgeable trivia expert.
Author: Christine Becker
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 9780819568946
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
An original study of Hollywood film stars and 1950s television
Author: Dr Alison Hulme
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1472447565
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185
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Book Description
Presenting case studies of well-known shows including Will and Grace, Birds of a Feather, Sex and the City and Absolutely Fabulous, as well as 'reality' television, this book examines the transformations that have occurred in consumer society since its appearance and the ways in which these have been constructed and represented in popular media imagery. With analyses of the ways in which consumerism has played out in society, Consumerism on TV highlights specific aspects of the changing nature of consumerism by way of considerations of gender, sexuality and class, as well as less definable changes such as those to do with the celebration of ostentatious greed or the righteousness of the ‘ethical’ shopper.
Author: C. Miller
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230377327
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 479
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Book Description
The fourteen essays featured here focus on series such as Space Patrol, Tom Corbett, and Captain Z-Ro, exploring their roles in the day-to-day lives of their fans through topics such as mentoring, promotion of the real-world space program, merchandising, gender issues, and ranger clubs - all the while promoting the fledgling medium of television.
Author: Sig Mickelson
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
The first president of CBS News gives an insider's account of the development of television news in the 1950s.
Author: Marsha F. Cassidy
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292782721
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 277
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Book Description
In this pathfinding book, based on original archival research, Marsha F. Cassidy offers the first thorough analysis of daytime television's earliest and most significant women's genres, appraising from a feminist perspective what women watched before soap opera rose to prominence. After providing a comprehensive history of the early days of women's programming across the nation, Cassidy offers a critical discussion of the formats, programs, and celebrities that launched daytime TV in America—Kate Smith's variety show and the famed singer's unsuccessful transition from patriotic radio star to 1950s TV idol; the "charm boys" Garry Moore, Arthur Godfrey, and Art Linkletter, whose programs honored women's participation but in the process established the dominance of male hosts on TV; and the "misery shows" Strike It Rich and Glamour Girl and the controversy, both critical and legal, they stirred up. Cassidy then turns to NBC's Home show, starring the urbane Arlene Francis, who infused the homemaking format with Manhattan sophistication, and the ambitious daily anthology drama Matinee Theater, which strove to differentiate itself from soap opera and become a national theater of the air. She concludes with an analysis of four popular audience participation shows of the era—the runaway hit Queen for a Day; Ralph Edwards's daytime show of surprises, It Could Be You; Who Do You Trust?, starring a youthful Johnny Carson; and The Big Payoff, featuring Bess Myerson, the country's first Jewish Miss America. Cassidy's close feminist reading of these shows clearly demonstrates how daytime TV mirrored the cultural pressures, inconsistencies, and ambiguities of the postwar era.
Author: Peter Lev
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520249660
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 404
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Book Description
Covering a tumultuous period of the 1950s, this work explores the divorce of movie studios from their theater chains, the panic of the blacklist era, the explosive emergence of science fiction as the dominant genre, and the rise of television and Hollywood's response with widescreen spectacles.
Author: William Boddy
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252062995
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 308
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Book Description
Just a few years in the mid-1950s separated the "golden age" of television's live anthology drama from Newton Minow's famous "vast wasteland" pronouncement. Fifties Television shows how the significant programming changes of the period cannot be attributed simply to shifting public tastes or the exhaustion of particular program genres, but underscore fundamental changes in the way prime-time entertainment programs were produced, sponsored, and scheduled. These changes helped shape television as we know it today. William Boddy provides a wide-ranging and rigorous analysis of the fledgling American television industry during the period of its greatest economic growth, programming changes, and critical controversy. He carefully traces the development of the medium from the experimental era of the 1920s and 1930s through the regulatory battles of the 1940s and the network programming wars of the 1950s.
Author: Patrick Lucanio
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
As Americans grappled with the real problems of the atomic age in the 1950s, the science fiction television series provided escapist fare. At first essentially fantasy and adventure, the shows reflected the progress of the decade, using in the late 1950s extrapolations from the theories and findings of true science. From Adventures of Superman to World of Giants, this reference work covers all science fiction television series of the 1950s. A lengthy essay details character development, technical innovations, critical commentary and other matters. The episode guides that follow first provide primary cast and production credits for the entire season and then coverage of each individual episode, with title, airdate, writer, director, and a plot synopsis. Much of the information was derived from actual viewing, and many errors from other works are corrected here.
