Europe Un-Imagined examines one of the world’s first and only trans nationally produced television channels, Association relative à la télévision européenne (ARTE). ARTE calls itself the "European culture channel" and was launched in 1991 with a French-German intergovernmental mandate to produce television and other media that promoted pan-European community and culture.Damien Stankiewicz’s ground-breaking ethnographic study of the various contexts of media production work...

Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier, ER, Cheers, Law & Order, Will & Grace…Here is the funny, splashy, irresistible insiders’ account of the greatest era in television history -- told by the actors, writers, directors, producers, and the network executives who made it happen…and watched it all fall apart.Warren Littlefield was the NBC President of Entertainment who oversaw the Peacock Network’s rise from also-ra...

The New York Times bestseller about two guys who went out for coffee and dreamed up Seinfeld—“A wildly entertaining must-read not only for Seinfeld fans but for anyone who wants a better understanding of how television series are made” (Booklist, starred review).Comedians Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld never thought anyone would watch their sitcom about a New York comedian sitting around talking to his friends. But against all od...

An unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the rise and fall of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour -- the provocative, politically charged program that shocked the censors, outraged the White House, and forever changed the face of television.Decades before The Daily Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour proved there was a place on television for no-holds-barred political comedy with a decidedly antiauthoritarian point of view. In this fi...

Michael Palin's bestselling diaries of the 1980s.After a live performance at the Hollywood Bowl, The Pythons made their last performance together in 1983 in the hugely successful MONTY PYTHON'S MEANING OF LIFE. Writing and acting in films and television then took over much of Michael's life, culminating in the smash hit A FISH CALLED WANDA (for which he won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor), and the first of his seven celebrated television journeys for the BBC. He...

At the age of 87, Mike Wallace is a legendary figure in broadcast journalism. Now, after 60 years of reporting on important events around the world, he shares his personal stories about the incredible range of celebrities, newsmakers, criminals, and world leaders who have subjected themselves to his unique brand of questioning.Through Wallace's intimate observations about these figures, we experience afresh the pivotal events that have shaped our world. Here, we meet the guilt-rack...

As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, “queen of the B-pluses.” But on the small screen she was a superstar–arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy’s genius and places it in the context of her conflicted and sometimes bitter personal life.Ball of Fire gives us Lucy in all her contradictions. Here is the beauty who became a master of knock-down slapstick; the ...

Is The Wire better than Breaking Bad? Is Cheers better than Seinfeld? What's the best high school show ever made? Why did Moonlighting really fall apart? Was the Arrested Development Netflix season brilliant or terrible?For twenty years-since they shared a TV column at Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper-critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz have been debating these questions and many more, but it all ultimately boils down ...

Mad Men Carousel is an episode-by-episode guide to all seven seasons of AMC's Mad Men. This book collects TV and movie critic Matt Zoller Seitz’s celebrated Mad Men recaps—as featured on New York magazine's Vulture blog—for the first time, including never-before-published essays on the show’s first three seasons. Seitz’s writing digs deep into the show’s themes, performances, and filmmaking, examining complex an...

In Queers Dig Time Lords, editors Sigrid Ellis (Chicks Dig Comics) and Michael Damian Thomas (Apex Magazine) bring together essays by award-winning writers to celebrate the phenomenon that is Doctor Who, in the tradition of the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords.Tanya Huff (Blood Ties) wears bi-focals as she analyzes the Doctor’s fluid sexuality, former Doctor Who script editor Gary Russell explores the show’s effect on his teenage years, Paul Magrs (Hornets’ Nest) defends an...

The truth is, the nits are out there....What's weird about Samantha T. Mulder's birthday?(She has two of them: January 22 and November 21.)What's amazing about Mulder's cell phone?(It operates inside a metal boxcar, buried in a canyon, out in the deserts of New Mexico: anywhere!)Scully and Mulder, you have reason to be paranoid. Armed with keen detective sense, attention to detail, and a VCR, author Phil Farrand has done some forens...

Legitimating Television: Media Convergence and Cultural Status explores how and why television is gaining a new level of cultural respectability in the 21st century. Once looked down upon as a "plug-in drug" offering little redeeming social or artistic value, television is now said to be in a creative renaissance, with critics hailing the rise of Quality series such as Mad Men and 30 Rock. Likewise, DVDs and DVRs, web video, HDTV, and mobile devices have shifted ...