Quality TV
Subtitle: contemporary American television and beyond
By: edited by Janet McCabe and Kim Akass.
Contributors: McCabe, Janet; Akass, Kim.
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2007
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 292
ISBN-13: 9781845115111
Subjects: Television -- United States; Television programs -- United States -- History and criticism; Television broadcasting -- United States; Popular culture -- United States
Description: Dealing primarily with the post-1996 era shaped by digital technologies and defined by consumer choice and brand marketing, this book brings together leading scholars, established journalists and experienced broadcasters working in the field of contemporary television to debate what we currently mean by quality TV. They go deep into contemporary American television fictions, from The Sopranos and The West Wing, to CSI and Lost -- innovative, sometimes controversial, always compelling dramas, which one scholar has described as "now better than the movies!" But how do we understand the emergence of these kinds of fiction? Are they genuinely new? What does quality tv have to tell us about the state of today's television market? And is it quality? Original, often polemic, each chapter proposes new ways of thinking about and defining quality TV. There is a foreword from Robert Thompson, and heated dialogue between British and US television critics. Also included are interviews with W. Snuffy Walden (scored The West Wing among others) and with David Chase (The Sopranos creator).
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [271]-286) and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface / Robert J. Thompson; title: Introduction: Debating quality / Janet McCabe, Kim Akass; title: 'Quality TV' on show / Karen Fricker; title: Is quality television any good? generic distinctions, evaluations and the troubling matter of critical judgement / Sarah Cardwell; title: Quality TV: a US TV critic's perspective / David Bianculli; title: Quality TV drama: estimations and influences through time and space / Robin Nelson; title: As seen on TV: women's rights and quality television / Ashley Sayeau; title: Sex, swearing and respectability: courting controversy, HBO's original programming and producing quality TV / Janet McCabe, Kim Akass; title: Quality control: The daily show, the Peabody and brand discipline / Jimmie L. Reeves, Mark C. Rogers, Michael M. Epstein; title: Inside American television drama: quality is not what is produced but what it produces / Peter Dunne; title: Quality US TV: a buyer's perspective / Dermot Horan; title: CSI: crime scene investigation: Quality, the fifth channel and 'America's finest' / Ian Goode; title: The problem of quality television: television schedules, audience demographics and cultural policy in New Zealand / Geoff Lealand; title: HBO and the concept of quality TV / Jane Feuer; title: Seeing and knowing: reflexivity and quality / Jonathan Bignell; title: Quality and creativity in TV: the work of television storytellers / Máire Messenger Davies; title: Mark Lawson talks to David Chaase / Mark Lawson; title: Writing music for quality TV: an interview with W.G. 'Snuffy' Walden / Peter Kaye; title: Read any good television lately? television companion books and quality TV / David Lavery; title: Lost in transition: from post-network to post-television / Roberta Pearson.