The Essential Hbo Reader

Author : Gary R. Edgerton,Jeffrey P. Jones
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2013-07-24
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780813143712

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The Essential HBO Reader by Gary R. Edgerton,Jeffrey P. Jones Pdf

The founding of Home Box Office in the early 1970s was a harbinger of the innovations that transformed television as an industry and a technology in the decades that followed. HBO quickly became synonymous with subscription television and became the leading force in cable programming. Having interests in television, motion picture, and home video industries was crucial to its success. HBO diversified into original television and movie production, home video sales, and international distribution as these once-separate entertainment sectors began converging into a global entertainment industry in the mid-1980s. HBO has grown from a domestic movie channel to an international cable-and-satellite network with a presence in over seventy countries. It is now a full-service content provider with a distinctive brand of original programming and landmark shows such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City. The network is widely recognized for its award-winning, innovative and provocative programming, including dramatic series such as Six Feet Under and The Wire, miniseries such as Band of Brothers and Angels in America, comedies such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Def Comedy Jam, sports shows such as Inside the NFL and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, documentary series such as Taxi Cab Confessions and Autopsy, and six Oscar-winning documentaries between 1999 and 2004. In The Essential HBO Reader, editors Gary R. Edgerton and Jeffrey P. Jones bring together an accomplished group of scholars to explain how HBO's programming transformed the world of cable television and how the network continues to shape popular culture and the television industry. Now, after more than three and a half decades, HBO has won acclaim in four distinct programming areas—drama, comedy, sports, and documentaries—emerging as TV's gold standard for its breakout series and specials. The Essential HBO Reader provides a comprehensive and compelling examination of HBO's development into the prototypical entertainment corporation of the twenty-first century.

Author : David Lavery,Douglas L. Howard,Paul Levinson
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2011-07-29
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813140179

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The Essential Sopranos Reader by David Lavery,Douglas L. Howard,Paul Levinson Pdf

The Sopranos is recognized as the most successful cable series in the history of television. The Washington Post has called the popular series, winner of twenty-one Emmys and five Golden Globes, "the television landmark that leaves other landmarks in the dust." In every aspect -- narrative structure, visual artistry, writing, intertextuality, ensemble acting, controversial themes, dark humor, and unflinching examinations of American life -- The Sopranos has had few equals. Offering a definitive final assessment of the series, The Essential Sopranos Reader aims to comprehensively examine the show's themes and enduring cultural significance. Gender and ethnicity, the role of dreams, the rebirth of HBO, the series' controversial finale, and other topics come under scrutiny in this highly accessible, engaging collection. The book concludes with an interview with Dominic Chianese, who played Uncle Junior in all six seasons of the show.

Author : Gary R. Edgerton,Brian Geoffrey Rose
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2005-01-01
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0813171725

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Thinking Outside the Box by Gary R. Edgerton,Brian Geoffrey Rose Pdf

Thinking Outside the Box brings together some of the best and most challenging scholarship about TV genres, exploring their genesis, their functions and development, and the interaction of disparate genres. The authors argue that genre is a process rather than a static category and that it signifies much about the people who produce and watch the shows. In addition to considering traditional genres such as sitcoms, soap operas, and talk shows, the contributors explore new hybrids, including reality programs, teen-oriented science fiction, and quality dramas, and examine how many of these shows have taken on a global reach. Identifying historical continuities and envisioning possible trends, this is the richest and most current study of how television genres form, operate, and change.

Author : David Lavery
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 406 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2011-07-29
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813130149

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The Essential Sopranos Reader by David Lavery Pdf

The Sopranos is recognized as the most successful cable series in the history of television. The Washington Post has called the popular series, winner of twenty-one Emmys and five Golden Globes, “the television landmark that leaves other landmarks in the dust.” In every aspect—narrative structure, visual artistry, writing, intertextuality, ensemble acting, controversial themes, dark humor, and unflinching examinations of American life—The Sopranos has had few equals. Offering a definitive final assessment of the series, The Essential Sopranos Reader aims to comprehensively examine the show’s themes and enduring cultural significance. Gender and ethnicity, the role of dreams, the rebirth of HBO, the series’ controversial finale, and other topics come under scrutiny in this highly accessible, engaging collection. The book concludes with an interview with Dominic Chianese, who played Uncle Junior in all six seasons of the show.

Author : Felix Gillette,John Koblin
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2022-11-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780593296202

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It's Not TV by Felix Gillette,John Koblin Pdf

“A read so riveting, it's not hard to imagine watching it unfold on Sunday nights.” —The Associated Press “An incisive account that is more than a rosy victory lap for one of TV’s most influential channels.” —Eric Deggans, NPR’s “Books We Love” The inside story of HBO, the start-up company that reinvented television—by two veteran media reporters HBO changed how stories could be told on TV. The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Game of Thrones. The network’s meteoric rise heralded the second golden age of television with serialized shows that examined and reflected American anxieties, fears, and secret passions through complicated characters who were flawed and often unlikable. HBO’s own behind-the-scenes story is as complex, compelling, and innovative as the dramas the network created, driven by unorthodox executives who pushed the boundaries of what viewers understood as television at the turn of the century. Originally conceived by a small upstart group of entrepreneurs to bring Hollywood movies into living rooms across America, the scrappy network grew into one of the most influential and respected players in Hollywood. It’s Not TV is the deeply reported, definitive story of one of America’s most daring and popular cultural institutions, laying bare HBO’s growth, dominance, and vulnerability within the capricious media landscape over the past fifty years. Through the visionary executives, showrunners, and producers who shaped HBO, seasoned journalists Gillette and Koblin bring to life a dynamic cast of characters who drove the company’s creative innovation in astonishing ways—outmaneuvering copycat competitors, taming Hollywood studios, transforming 1980s comedians and athletes like Chris Rock and Mike Tyson into superstars, and in the late 1990s and 2000s elevating the commercial-free, serialized drama to a revered art form. But in the midst of all its success, HBO was also defined by misbehaving executives, internal power struggles, and a few crucial miscalculations. As data-driven models like Netflix have taken over streaming, HBO’s artful, instinctual, and humanistic approach to storytelling is in jeopardy. Taking readers into the boardrooms and behind the camera, It’s Not TV tells the surprising, fascinating story of HBO’s ascent, its groundbreaking influence on American business, technology, and popular culture, and its increasingly precarious position in the very market it created.

Author : J.P. Telotte
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 303 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2008-05-02
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780813138732

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The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader by J.P. Telotte Pdf

“A richly detailed and critically penetrating overview . . . from the plucky adventures of Captain Video to the postmodern paradoxes of The X-Files and Lost.” —Rob Latham, coeditor of Science Fiction Studies Exploring such hits as The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost, among others, The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader illuminates the history, narrative approaches, and themes of the genre. The book discusses science fiction television from its early years, when shows attempted to recreate the allure of science fiction cinema, to its current status as a sophisticated genre with a popularity all its own. J. P. Telotte has assembled a wide-ranging volume rich in theoretical scholarship yet fully accessible to science fiction fans. The book supplies readers with valuable historical context, analyses of essential science fiction series, and an understanding of the key issues in science fiction television.

Author : Dean J. DeFino
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2013-11-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781623561277

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The HBO Effect by Dean J. DeFino Pdf

No advertisers to please, no censors to placate, no commercial interruptions every eleven minutes, demanding cliffhangers to draw viewers back after the commercial breaks: HBO has re-written the rules of television; and the result has been nothing short of a cultural ground shift. The HBO Effect details how the fingerprints of HBO are all over contemporary film and television. Their capability to focus on smaller markets made shows like Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, and even the more recent Game of Thrones and Girls, trigger shows on basic cable networks to follow suit. HBO pioneered the use of HDTV and the widescreen format, production and distribution deals leading to market presence, and the promotion of greater diversity on TV (discussing issues of class and race). The HBO Effect examines this rich and unique history for clues to its remarkable impact upon television and popular culture. It's time to take a wide-angle look at HBO as a producer of American culture.

Author : Brett Martin
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2013-06-27
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781101617793

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Difficult Men by Brett Martin Pdf

The 10th anniversary edition, now with a new preface by the author "A wonderfully smart, lively, and culturally astute survey." - The New York Times Book Review "Grand entertainment...fascinating for anyone curious about the perplexing miracles of how great television comes to be." - The Wall Street Journal "I love this book...It's the kind of thing I wish I'd been able to read in film school, back before such books existed." - Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad and co-creator of Better Call Saul In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the landscape of television began an unprecedented transformation. While the networks continued to chase the lowest common denominator, a wave of new shows on cable channels dramatically stretched television’s narrative inventiveness, emotional resonance, and creative ambition. Combining deep reportage with critical analysis and historical context, Brett Martin recounts the rise and inner workings of this artistic watershed - a golden age of TV that continues to transform America's cultural landscape. Difficult Men features extensive interviews with all the major players - including David Chase (The Sopranos), David Simon and Ed Burns (The Wire), David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood), Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), and Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) - and reveals how television became a truly significant and influential part of our culture.

Author : David Lavery
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 507 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2021-09-15
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780813181493

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The Essential Cult TV Reader by David Lavery Pdf

The Essential Cult TV Reader is a collection of insightful essays that examine television shows that amass engaged, active fan bases by employing an imaginative approach to programming. Once defined by limited viewership, cult TV has developed its own identity, with some shows gaining large, mainstream audiences. By exploring the defining characteristics of cult TV, The Essential Cult TV Reader traces the development of this once obscure form and explains how cult TV achieved its current status as legitimate television. The essays explore a wide range of cult programs, from early shows such as Star Trek, The Avengers, Dark Shadows, and The Twilight Zone to popular contemporary shows such as Lost, Dexter, and 24, addressing the cultural context that allowed the development of the phenomenon. The contributors investigate the obligations of cult series to their fans, the relationship of camp and cult, the effects of DVD releases and the Internet, and the globalization of cult TV. The Essential Cult TV Reader answers many of the questions surrounding the form while revealing emerging debates on its future.

Author : Edited By David Lavery
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 6000009097

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Reading the Sopranos by Edited By David Lavery Pdf

Author : Andrew Patrick Nelson
Publisher : Scarecrow Press
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-10
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780810892576

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Contemporary Westerns by Andrew Patrick Nelson Pdf

This collection of original essays investigates film and television westerns of the last 25 years. It offers the first substantial account of the trends and transformations in this under-explored period, arguing for the continued relevance and vibrancy of the western as a narrative form.

Author : Jonathan Gray,Jeffrey P. Jones,Ethan Thompson
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2009-04
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780814731994

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Satire TV by Jonathan Gray,Jeffrey P. Jones,Ethan Thompson Pdf

This work examines what happens when comedy becomes political, and politics become funny. A series of original essays focus on a range of programmes, from 'The Daily Show' to 'South Park'.

Author : Marsha F. Cassidy
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2020-01-15
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781315282633

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Television and the Embodied Viewer by Marsha F. Cassidy Pdf

Television and the Embodied Viewer appraises the medium’s capacity to evoke sensations and bodily feelings in the viewer. Presenting a fresh approach to television studies, the book examines the sensate force of onscreen bodies and illustrates how TV’s multisensory appeal builds viewer empathy and animates meaning. The book draws extensively upon interpretive viewpoints in the humanities to shed light on a range of provocative television works, notably The Americans, Mad Men, Little Women: LA, and Six Feet Under, with emphasis on the dramatization of gender, disability, sex, childbearing, and death. Advocating a biocultural approach that takes into account the mind sciences, Cassidy argues that interpretive meanings, shaped within today’s dynamic cultural matrix, are amplified by somatic experience. At a time when questions of embodiment and affect are crossing disciplines, this book will appeal to scholars and students working in the fields of television, film, and media studies, both in the humanities and cognitive traditions.

Author : Ronald Kidd
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2009-06-09
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781416958925

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The Year of the Bomb by Ronald Kidd Pdf

It's 1955, and Paul and his friends are excited when filming of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" begins in their small California town. But they soon become involved in a conspiracy that puts them in real danger.

Author : Shawna Kidman
Publisher : University of California Press
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2019-04-30
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780520297555

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Comic Books Incorporated by Shawna Kidman Pdf

Comic Books Incorporated tells the story of the US comic book business, reframing the history of the medium through an industrial and transmedial lens. Comic books wielded their influence from the margins and in-between spaces of the entertainment business for half a century before moving to the center of mainstream film and television production. This extraordinary history begins at the medium’s origin in the 1930s, when comics were a reviled, disorganized, and lowbrow mass medium, and surveys critical moments along the way—market crashes, corporate takeovers, upheavals in distribution, and financial transformations. Shawna Kidman concludes this revisionist history in the early 2000s, when Hollywood had fully incorporated comic book properties and strategies into its business models and transformed the medium into the heavily exploited, exceedingly corporate, and yet highly esteemed niche art form we know so well today.