This collection of new essays examines how the injection of supernatural creatures and mythologies transformed the hugely popular crime procedural television genre.
Launched in 1977 by the Christian Broadcasting Service (originally associated with Pat Robertson), the ABC Family/Freeform network has gone through a number of changes in name and ownership.
Before award-winning director Dan Curtis became known for directing epic war movies, he darkened the small screen with the horror genre's most famous soap opera, Dark Shadows, and numerous subsequent made-for-TV horror movies.
Dark, dangerous and transgressive, Bram Stoker's Dracula is often read as Victorian society's absolute Other--an outsider who troubles and distracts those around him, one who represents the fears and anxieties of the age.
This is a complete revision of the author's 1993 McFarland book Television Specials that not only updates entries contained within that edition, but adds numerous programs not previously covered, including beauty pageants, parades, awards programs, Broadway and opera adaptations, musicals produced especially for television, holiday specials (e.
When the Television Food Network launched in 1993, its programming was conceived as educational: it would teach people how to cook well, with side trips into the economics of food and healthy living.
Squirrels have made numerous appearances in mass media over the years, from Beatrix Potter's Nutkin and Timmy Tiptoes, to Rocky the flying squirrel of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and to Conker and Squirrel Girl of video game fame.
Vampire characters are ubiquitous in popular culture, serving as metaphors for society's most sensitive subjects--sexuality, gender roles, race, ethnicity, class--and often channeling widespread fears of immigration, crime, terrorism and addiction.
As a wildly popular local dance show, Soul Train provided a venue for Chicago's soul singers and political activists and gave African American teenagers their first significant chance to see and identify with their peers on television.
For the major broadcast networks, the heyday of made-for-TV movies was 20th Century programming like The ABC Movie of the Week and NBC Sunday Night at the Movies.
When Kenneth Johnson's science fiction miniseries V premiered in 1983, it netted more than 40 percent of the television viewing audience and went on to spawn a sequel, a weekly series, novelizations, comic books and a remake.
The ongoing popularity of Leslie Stevens' 1960s television masterwork The Outer Limits, as well as later series creations Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, has kept his name familiar to television fans.
After they are pulled 70,000 light-years away from Alpha Quadrant, the captain and crew of Star Trek: Voyager must travel homeward while exploring new challenges to their relationships, views of others, and themselves.
Telling an American Horror Story collects essays from new and established critics looking at the many ways the horror anthology series intersects with and comments on contemporary American social, political and popular culture.
The Wire's provocative subject matter, layered narrative and explicit critiques of American socio-economic institutions make it one of the most teachable television series in recent years.
This collection of new essays focuses on The CW network's hit television series Arrow--based on DC Comic's Green Arrow--and its spin-offs The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl.
In January 1966, Alan Napier became a household name on ABC's hit series Batman (1966-1968) as Alfred Pennyworth, loyal butler to the show's title character.
Following on author Peter Rollins' motto "e;If it isn't popular, it isn't culture,"e; this collection of new essays considers Vince Gilligan's award-winning television series Breaking Bad as a landmark of Western culture--comparable to the works of Shakespeare and Dickens in their time--that merits scholarly attention from those who would understand early the 21st century zeitgeist.
A couple of generations ago, the movie industry ran on gut instinct--film schools, audience research departments and seminars on screenwriting were not yet de rigueur.
As television grew more enticing for both viewers and filmmakers in the 1950s, several independent film producers with knowledge of making low-cost films and radio shows transferred their skills to producing shows for the small screen.
