Description
Book Synopsis
Part of Praeger's Media and Society Series, this contributed volume is the only collection of essays on television authorship. It includes work of some of the most prominent scholars in television studies. Rather than assigning one author to individual television texts, the contributors probe the relationship between the various authors at work within the institutional, cultural, and economic settings that characterize the television industry. This book analyzes and defines the unique methods of television authorship and suggests numerous candidates for authorial accountability allowing the medium to enter the realm of contemporary criticism.
The first part of the volume provides a case study in four chapters on authorship issues surrounding Frank's Place, the short lived but compelling situation comedy. This is followed by three chapters focusing on issues of authorship in international television. The book then probes the studio's role as author, in
Table of Contents
Introduction Authorship Case Study: Hugh Wilson Television Authors: The Case of Hugh Wilson by Richard Campbell and Jimmie L. Reeves Interpreting Television: A Closer Look at the Cinematic Codes in Frank's Place by Bernard Timberg and David Barker The Sense of Place in Frank's Place by Horace M. Newcomb Black Music and Television: A Critical Look at Frank's Place by Joe Moorehouse International Authorship Studies Television Authorship in France: Le Réalisateur by Susan Boyd-Bowman Authorship Conflict in The Prisoner by Tony Williams Program Production for Export and the Domestic Market: British Television Film Series of the 1960s by Jonathan David Tankel The Studio As Auteur Negotiating the Television Text: The Transformation of Warner Bros. Presents by Christopher Anderson Desilu, I Love Lucy, and the Rise of Network TV by Thomas Schatz The Screen Gems Division of Columbia Pictures: Twenty-Five Years of Prime-Time Storytelling by David Marc Individual Authorship Studies Rewriting Culture: A Dialogic View of Television Authorship by Jimmie L. Reeves Television Production as Collective Action by Cathy A. Sandeen and Ronald J. Compesi Authorship and Point-of-View Issues in Music Video by Gary Burns The Comic and Artistic Vision of Lorne Michaels and the Production of Unconventional Television by George M. Plasketes Selected Bibliography Index
