Television Talk
Subtitle: A History of the TV Talk Show (Texas Film and Media Studies Series)
Contributors: Horace Newcomb (Foreword)
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: May 15, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 416
ISBN-13: 9780292781757
Subjects: Television; Popular Culture; Television Plays And Programs; Performing Arts; Pop Arts / Pop Culture; Performing Arts/Dance; USA; Television - History & Criticism; Performing Arts / Television / History & Criticism; Talk shows; Television talk shows; United States
Description: "Bernard Timberg's work on talk shows reminds us all of how intimately we have been connected to this delightfully complicated form of television. It is difficult to imagine America in the twenty-first century without the talk show, and now it is difficult to imagine the talk show without Timberg's rich historical perspective."--Horace Newcomb, editor of Encyclopedia of Television Flip through the channels at any hour of the day or night, and a television talk show is almost certainly on. Whether it offers late-night entertainment with David Letterman, share-your-pain empathy with Oprah Winfrey, trash talk with Jerry Springer, or intellectual give-and-take with Bill Moyers, the talk show is one of television's most popular and enduring formats, with a history as old as the medium itself. Bernard Timberg here offers a comprehensive history of the first fifty years of television talk, replete with memorable moments from a wide range of classic talk shows, as well as many of today's most popular programs. Dividing the history into five eras, he shows how the evolution of the television talk show is connected to both broad patterns in American culture and the economic, regulatory, technological, and social history of the broadcasting industry. Robert Erler's "A Guide to Television Talk" complements the text with an extensive "who's who" listing of important people and programs in the history of television talk. -- Publisher.