NMAH copy purchased with funds from the S. Dillon Ripley Endowment.
Contents:
Introduction -- 1. Children's programs -- The Mickey Mouse Club -- Captain Kangaroo -- Mister Rogers' Neighborhood -- Sesame Street -- Pee-Wee's Playhouse -- 2. Animation -- Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show -- The Flintstones -- A Charlie Brown Christmas -- The Simpsons -- South Park -- Profile : Matt Groening -- 3. Variety/sketch -- Toast of the Town/The Ed Sullivan Show -- Your Show of Shows -- The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour -- The Carol Burnett Show -- Saturday Night Live -- Profile : Mel Brooks -- Profile : Carol Burnett -- Profile : Tom Smothers -- Profile : Amy Schumer -- 4. Soap operas -- Peyton Place -- Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman -- Dallas -- Desperate Housewives -- Empire -- 5. Crime -- Hill Street Blues -- NYPD Blue -- The Sopranos -- The Shield -- Breaking Bad -- Profile : Steven Bochco -- Profile : David Chase -- Profile : Kevin Spacey -- Profile : Vince Gilligan -- 6. Legal -- Perry Mason -- L.A. Law -- Boston Legal -- Damages -- The Good Wife -- Profile : David E. Kelley -- Profile : Robert and Michelle King -- 7. Medical -- Dr. Kildare -- St. Elsewhere -- ER -- House, M.D. -- Grey's Anatomy -- 8. Family sitcoms -- I Love Lucy -- All in the Family -- The Cosby Show -- Roseanne -- Modern Family -- Profile : Norman Lear -- 9. Workplace sitcoms -- Fawlty Towers -- Taxi -- Cheers -- The Larry Sanders Show -- The Office -- Profile : James L. Brooks -- Profile : Garry Shandling -- 10. Splitcoms -- The Andy Griffith Show -- The Dick Van Dyke Show -- The Bob Newhart Show -- Seinfeld -- Louie -- Profile : Carl Reiner -- Profile : Bob Newhart -- Profile : Larry David -- Profile : Louis C.K. -- 11. Single working women sitcoms -- The Mary Tyler Moore Show -- The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd -- Murphy Brown -- Sex and the City -- Girls -- Profile : Judd Apatow -- 12. Sci-fi/fantasy/horror -- The Twilight Zone -- Star Trek -- The X-Files -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- The Walking Dead -- 13. Westerns -- Gunsmoke -- Maverick -- Rawhide -- Lonesome Dove -- Deadwood -- Profile : David Milch -- 14. Spies -- The Avengers -- Mission: Impossible -- Alias -- Homeland -- The Americans -- 15. General drama -- Twin Peaks -- The West Wing -- Six Feet Under -- The Wire -- Mad Men -- Profile : David Simon -- Profile : Aaron Sorkin -- Profile : Matthew Weiner -- 16. War -- Combat! -- M*A*S*H -- China Beach -- Band of Brothers -- Generation Kill -- 17. Miniseries -- Roots -- The Singing Detective -- Lonesome Dove -- The Civil War -- Downtown Abbey -- Profile : Ken Burns -- 18. Topical comedy -- That Was the Week That Was -- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart -- The Colbert Report -- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver -- The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore -- Profile : Larry Wilmore -- Conclusion
Summary:
"Television shows have now eclipsed films as the premier form of visual narrative art of our time. This new book by one of our finest critics explains--historically, in depth, and with interviews with the celebrated creators themselves--how the art of must-see/binge-watch television evolved. Darwin had his theory of evolution, and David Bianculli has his. Bianculli's theory has to do with the concept of quality television: what it is and, crucially, how it got that way. In tracing the evolutionary history of our progress toward a Platinum Age of Television--our age, the era of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad and Mad Men and The Wire and Homeland and Girls--he focuses on the development of the classic TV genres, among them the sitcom, the crime show, the miniseries, the soap opera, the western, the animated series and the late night talk show. In each genre, he selects five key examples of the form, tracing its continuities and its dramatic departures and drawing on exclusive and in-depth interviews with many of the most famed auteurs in television history. Television has triumphantly come of age artistically; David Bianculli's book is the first to date to examine, in depth and in detail and with a keen critical and historical sense, how this inspiring development came about"-- Provided by publisher.
