Description
Book SynopsisIn this witty and candid perspective on American television, the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Howard Rosenberg traces a disturbing pattern: TV's relentless pursuit of the mundane in its seeming quest to dumb-down America. And, he writes, it may be succeeding. How else to interpret the onslaught of look-alike, deceptively titled "reality" shows that have transformed much of prime time into a cratered moonscape? The longer mediocrity endures, Mr. Rosenberg advises, the greater the chance we will become permanently desensitized to it—and seduced by it—making third-rate the standard. He finds occasional heroes but more often rogues. Many of his essays in Not So Prime Time relate to television news, which the author charges has failed dismally in its shrilly self-proclaimed role as a Bethlehem star of enlightenment, its influence continuing to widen in circles that value tabloid over truth. He finds it hard to say, in fact, whether there is more "reality" in Survivor or in a typical newscast on CNN, the Fox News Channel, or MSNBC. News and entertainment now mingle on TV as intimately as singles snorting up together at a cocktail party, becoming interchangeable, with newscasts cross-dressing as theater, and vice versa. Not So Prime Time records how this has happened—not overnight; the crud has been creeping forward for years. Oh the horror.
Trade ReviewHe wants nothing less than for all of us to become TV critics. * Virginian-Pilot *
…Rosenberg plumbs the depths of the sewer with grim levity, wryly chronicling the highlights of the mediocre…. He really shines… * Booklist *
...Rosenberg…explores…the still too infrequent peaks of TVland in nimble and often provocative style. * Toronto Globe and Mail *
Eloquent and witty, Rosenberg provides refreshingly sensible commentary on an increasingly maddening media circus. * San Francisco Bay Guardian *
…We need his voice and one wishes there were many more like his. * Rainelle, Wv Post-Report *
Marvelously written...more than a simple critique…. Rosenberg gives readers a reason to care about what will happen during the second half-century of television. * Foreword Reviews *
The prose is often witty and the satiric hits are sharp… * CHOICE *
...This collection [is] a welcome antidote for the medium’s [TV's] excesses. -- Daniel M. Kimmel, Author of
The Fourth Network
Anything Howard Rosenberg writes about television is superior to almost anything that’s on television. -- Linda Ellerbee, Journalist, Television Producer
No mere television critic, Howard Rosenberg is the conscience that the medium seems so sadly to have misplaced. -- Larry Gelbart
This collection of a decade’s worth of observation is crisp, smart, furious, and funny. -- Tyne Daly
Read this and you’ll see why the Pulitzer jurors said Howard is the best. -- Bill Moyers
Rosenberg is the real thing. Newton Minow may have been the first to call TV a "vast wasteland," but no one has mapped its terrain more thoroughly and starkly than Rosenberg. * Kirkus *
Rosenberg's collection of essays traces the key stepping-stones on the descent from news to infotainment… -- Brian Lowry * Variety *
...Rosenberg loves television…. It's this love that...gives Not So Prime Time its pleasant and tangy bite. * The Washington Times *
Table of Contents
Part 1 Preface xiii Part 2 I. NEWS ON A HIGH WIRE: CLOWNS WITHOUT SAFETY NETS Chapter 3 Team Coverage of Breaking News 9 Chapter 4 Poor Richard's Almanac of Horrors 12 Chapter 5 Obsession, Not Proportion, Drives Television News 16 Chapter 6 Her Nose Makes News 19 Chapter 7 Private Lives and Prying Public 23 Chapter 8 First Amendment, Shmendment 26 Chapter 9 When Ride-alongs Take the Public for a Ride 29 Chapter 10 Foreign News? It's All Alien to the Networks 32 Chapter 11 Let's Hear it (Again) for Old Glory 36 Chapter 12 A Lox Named Fox 39 Chapter 13 If You're Not for Yourself, Who Will Be For You? 43 Chapter 14 The Blurred Lines of Today's "Reality" 46 Chapter 15 Celebrating Ficition as Fact 49 Chapter 16 Paul Goes Home 53 Chapter 17 Propping Up the Berlin Wall 56 Chapter 18 Out of the Anchor Chair, Into the Fray 60 Chapter 19 The Russian Roulette of Live News Coverage 64 Chapter 20 To Air is Human, Especially When It's Live 68 Chapter 21 Live From Iraq, Ready or Not 71 Chapter 22 Publicity, They Name is Schwarzenegger 74 Chapter 23 The Day the World Shattered 77 Part 24 II. TRASH, YOU ROCK. . . SOMETIMES Chapter 25 Ratinng on Bill Was Her Duty 83 Chapter 26 Wanna Confess? Call Montel 86 Chapter 27 How Was Poor Jenny to Know He Was a Ticking Time Bomb? 90 Chapter 28 Communing With Nature by Destroying It 94 Chapter 29 Transgressing All the Way to the Bank 98 Chapter 30 The Art of Rebounding 101 Chapter 31 When Crummy Acting and Writing Equal Fun 105 Chapter 32 In "Ark," Noah Plays Friars Club 109 Chapter 33 A Tale of Two Miniseries 113 Chapter 34 The Face That Launched a Thousand Cliches 116 Part 35 III. THE POLS, PREZ, PROPS OF WAR, AND OTHER PHENOMENA: READY FOR THEIR CLOSE-UPS? Chapter 36 Infomercials Disguised as Conventions 127 Chapter 37 Judging Political Parties by Their Stagecraft 131 Chapter 38 And Now, For My Next Rehearsed Ad Lib. . . 135 Chapter 39 Do Great Moves Make Great Presidents? 138 Chapter 40 When His Presence is the Message 142 Chapter 41 Our President: Man or Mannequin? 145 Chapter 42 Bush's Image Fails to Fill the Screen 148 Chapter 43 When No News is Big News 151 Chapter 44 White Meat or Dark? 155 Chapter 45 D-Day and the resonance of War. . .Now and Then 158 Chapter 46 Looking to the Past to See the Present 162 Chapter 47 A New War, but the Same Old Tube 166 Chapter 48 War as a Sales Tool 170 Chapter 49 Seeking Symbolic Moments in the Tides of History 174 Chapter 50 Talking the Talk Before Taking the Walk 177 Chapter 51 Ultimate Reality 181 Chapter 52 Timothy MecVeigh: The Closed Circuit 185 Chapter 53 Let's Bring Camera's to Death's Door 188 Chapter 54 O.J. on Trial 191 Chapter 55 The Year of Simpson 194 Chapter 56 The Case for Cameras in Courtrooms 198 Chapter 57 Give bin Laden His (Televised) Day in Court 201 Chapter 58 One Picture Can Be Worth a Thousand Clips 205 Chapter 59 The Death of Challenger Recalled 209 Chapter 60 Columbia Freeze Frame 213 Chapter 61 High Noon in Television's High Court 216 Chapter 62 TV Keeps the Dreams—and Dross—Alive 220 Part 63 IV. BURYING THE HYPE: TRUE HEROES AND DEITIES UNMASKED Chapter 64 Big Man, Big Laughs, Big Legacy 227 Chapter 65 Excellence, from "Marty" to the Mafia 231 Chapter 66 I Confess! I Did Watch Perry Mason! 234 Chapter 67 A Toast for Kuralt and One for the Road 238 Chapter 68 Contemplating Cosell 242 Chapter 69 The Life of a National Hero Has Its Perils 246 Chapter 70 A "Masterpiece Theatre" of Pomp and Puff 250 Chapter 71 When the Coverage Is as Senseless as the Tragedy 253 Part 72 Index 257
