Description
Book SynopsisTelevision in the Antenna Age is a brief, accessible, and engaging overview of the medium's history and development in the US. Integrating three major concerns--television as an industry, a technology, and an artthe book is a basic primer on the complex, fascinating, and often overlooked story of television and its impact on American life.
-
- Covers the entire history of American television, from its urban, middle-class beginnings in the late 40s, to the contemporary impact of new technologies and consolidated corporate.
-
Includes interview segments with industry insiders, pictures, and sidebars to illustrate important figures, trends, and events
Trade Review“One could hardly ask for a more entertaining introduction to the history of entertainment media and its role in contemporary culture.”
Stephen O’Leary, Annenberg School for Communication, USCTable of ContentsForeword ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1 No Small Potatoes 1
Communication and Transportation: The Divorce 1
Water, Water Everywhere 6
Electrical Bananas 9
Here Comes the Judge 10
Say What? 11
2 A Downstream Medium 21
The Show Business 22
Radical Consumerism Occupies the Middle 27
Networking 31
Quality Control 34
3 A Burning Bush? 37
Broadcasting: Love It or Need It? 38
A Vertical System of Culture 44
Compatible Software 46
4 Staging and Screening 53
Sets 53
Getting with the Program 55
The Origins of ABC 58
5 Corruption and Plateau 66
Technology 66
Industry 67
Art 67
Scandals and Shake-Outs 70
6 Dull as Paint and Just as Colorful 76
TV Rules 76
Just Plain Folks 84
Television Gothic 86
7 A Myth is as Good as a Smile 89
When No News Was Good News . . . in Prime Time 91
Shows Without Trees 94
As Real As It Got 98
Regulation and Social Effects 103
Programming and the Television Industry 108
8 Oligopoly Lost and Found 111
The Train and the Station 114
The Shock of the News 121
The Third Mask of Janus 126
Index 131
