Although there are different opinions about where cable television actually began, a great deal of the ingenuity that developed cable into today's multibillion dollar industry came from Pennsylvania.
Whether they graphically depict an individual's or a community's beliefs, express the defiance of authority, or brand marginalized groups, tattoos are a means of interpersonal communication that dates back thousands of years.
Written by international experts from a range of disciplines, these essays examine the uniquely British contribution to science fiction film and television.
This analysis of how filmmakers have portrayed England's Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), and the audience's perception of Elizabeth based upon these portrayals, examines key representations of the Tudor monarch in various motion pictures from the Silent era on and in television miniseries.
From The Prisoner in the 1960s to the more recent Heroes and Lost, a group of television series with strong elements of fantasy have achieved cult status.
A compelling and innovative television writer, David Chase has created distinctive programs since the 1970s, each reflecting his edgy humor and psychological realism.
This book traces the development and popularity of the sportscast highlight--the dominant news frame in the crowded medium of electronic sports journalism--as the primary means of communicating about sports and athletes.
Essays in this work examine treatments of history in science fiction and fantasy television programs from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives.
Originally broadcast on American television between 1952 and 1969, the 30 situation comedies in this work are seldom seen today and receive only brief and often incomplete and inaccurate mentions in most reference sources.
Fame, the hugely popular 1980 musical film inspired by New York's High School of the Performing Arts, was adapted as a weekly NBC television series in 1982.
Created in 2006 as a spinoff of Doctor Who, the internationally popular BBC television series Torchwood is a unique blend of science fiction and fantasy, with much more of an adult flavor than its progenitor.
Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond made its television debut in 1959, nine months before Rod Serling's classic The Twilight Zone, and paved the way for a generation of television programs devoted to paranormal topics such as the occult, ESP, and ghost stories.
Starring internationally renowned actors Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Barry Morse and Catherine Schell, the British-made Space: 1999 was the only truly original space adventure of the mid-1970s.
Before the unprecedented televised presidential debates of 1960, most Americans were able to relate to their leaders in little more than an historical context.
If the made-for-television movie has long been regarded as a poor stepchild of the film industry, then telefilm horror has been the most uncelebrated offspring of all.
This book explores the mechanisms that have driven the evolution of televisual comedy from the classic sitcom, a genre deeply rooted in its theatrical origins, toward a more mature stage of television's history.
The heroes, villains, and monsters portrayed in such popular science fiction television series as Heroes, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Doctor Who, and Torchwood, as well as Joss Whedon's many series, illustrate a shift from traditional, clearly defined characterizations toward much murkier definitions.
The fictionalized Los Angeles of television's Angel is a world filled with literature--from the all-important Shansu prophecy that predicts Angel's return to a state of humanity to the ever-present books dominating the characters' research sessions.
The object of much debate, attention, and scholarship since it first aired more than 20 years ago, The Simpsons provides excellent, if unexpected, fodder for high school and college lesson plans.
This is a comprehensive sourcebook on the world's most famous vampire, with more than 700 citations of domestic and international Dracula films, television programs, documentaries, adult features, animated works, and video games, as well as nearly a thousand comic books and stage adaptations.
This book combines the academic and practical aspects of teaching by exploring the ways in which Buffy the Vampire Slayer is taught, internationally, through both interdisciplinary and discipline-based approaches.
A powerful, behind-the-scenes look at some of America's all-time favorite television programs during their darkest hours, this study examines how various hit series have absorbed the death of a lead actor during production.
This work examines the Gilmore Girls from a post-feminist perspective, evaluating how the show's main female characters and supporting cast fit into the classic portrayal of feminine identity on popular television.
Studying the Star Trek myth from the original 1960s series to the 2009 franchise-reboot film, this book challenges frequent accusations that the Star Trek saga refuses to represent queer sexuality.
Perhaps best known for his highly acclaimed, short-lived Comedy Central program Chappelle's Show, Dave Chappelle is widely regarded as one of today's most culturally significant comedians.
This book analyzes the evolution of film and television comedy from the 1930s through the present, defining five distinct periods and discussing the dominant comedic trends of each.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer transcended its cult-comic roots to achieve television success, spawning the spinoff series Angel and an academic movement along the way.
This book addresses the pervasive representation of women with unique visionary abilities in postfeminist television series and films from the 1990s to the present.
This work provides a detailed account of lead character Tony Soprano's psychological journey through all episodes of all six seasons of the popular HBO show The Sopranos.
