Lecture 01 Reading Television Reading Culture The Honeymooners

Lecture 01: Reading Television, Reading Culture The Honeymooners (CBS 1955 -56) Chappelle’s Show (Comedy Central, 2003 -6) 1

Lesson 01 Agenda Neil Patrick Harris in Doogie Howser M. D. (ABC, 1989 -1993) • Course Business • Why Study Television? • In The Beginning Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 2005 - ) – 1948: The Pivotal Year • Let’s Watch Some TV! – Television As Social Instruction – The Three “C’s” 2

Section 1: Course Business Insert Image Here Add Image Caption w/ Credits Here The Martha Raye Show (NBC, 1955 -56) 3

Course Objectives • Critical Thinking & Writing – Beyond Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down – Mobilizing Evidence to Support Your Ideas Great Critical Resource on Television, New Media And Beyond. http: //flowtv. org/ 4

Course Objectives cont’d • Reading Televisual Texts – Construction – Context – Taste Cultures Saturday Night Live (NBC, 1975 - ) – Socio-Historical Moment 5

Course Requirements • Required Texts: 6

Learning Tasks • Participation – Thought Questions E-Board Responses – Communication with Instructor • Individually Designed Topics – Paper Proposal – Final Paper • Tests – Multiple Choice – Short Answer 7

Section 2 Why Study Television Room 222 (ABC 1969 -74) & Cultural Studies? 8

What Is Cultural Studies? • Cultural studies: – Describes (and intervenes in) the ways that cultural forms and practices are produced within, inserted into, and affect people’s daily lives and social formations. – Explores how people—often existing within conditions not of their own making—within and through cultural practices—impact and are impacted by specific historical formations. * 9

What Do You Actually Study In Cultural Studies? Cultural Studies allows us to interrogate how the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves (and, about each other) are constructed and how they inform our senses of self and notions of identity. These stories, whether communicated through cultural practice or media texts, impact the possibilities of survival, resistance, and change. 10

Culture, Media & Industry • Reading Television: – Television As Cultural Artifact Father Knows Best (CBS, 1954 -55, 1958 -60 and NBC 1955 -58) – Television As Creative Pursuit Twin Peaks (ABC 1990 -91) – Television As Industrial Product American Idol (Fox, 2002 - ) 11

Television and American Culture • Imparting Ideologies: American Dreaming Leave It To Beaver (ABC, 1957 -63) Modern Family (ABC, 2009 - ) – “Although the American Dream was not invented for television, television appears to nourish and sustain it. ” –Sut Jhally and Justin Lewis Media Scholars & Cultural Theorists 12

Reflecting American Popular Consciousness • If television programs are reflecting and providing a mirror image or “accurate” representation then… – Was the ranch house suburbia ideal of the Cleaver family representative of the 1950 s American Dream? – Do the constructions of the three Modern Families speak to a more inclusive, new millennial American Dream? 13

Refracting American Popular Consciousness • If refracting, for our purposes, is referring to how an image can be bent or distorted (refracted) when passing through another medium, then how can television programs refract the image of the ideal American family or the American Dream? An image of the Golden Gate Bridge is refracted and bent by many differing three dimensional pools of water. Attribution: Mbz 1 at en. wikipedia 14

Reflecting and Refracting? Leave It To Beaver (ABC, 1957 -63) Modern Family (ABC, 2009 - ) – Was the mythic norm of suburban homogeneity on Leave it Beaver representative of the 1950 s American Dream for most Americans? – Does the heterogeniety of the televisual world of Modern Family allow for an American Dream that is both expansive and exclusive? 15

Congratulations, Media Babies! • You have been doing research for this class for most of your lives. • You are already a critical viewer. – You determine the verisimilitude of a text. – You express preferences regarding genre. – You acknowledge quality in myriad forms. • You are media savvy. – You engage television via multiple platforms. – You engage in the critique of visual texts. – You understand that all visual texts are constructed. 16

New Ways of Watching TV & New Forms of Analysis ASK YOURSELF: How Can I Examine These Series? Dark Shadows (ABC, 1966 -71) True Blood (HBO, 2008 - ) Buffy The Vampire Slayer (WB 1997 -2001; UPN 2001 -3) How do I start the analytical process? 17

New Ways of Watching TV & New Forms of Analysis ANSWER: By thinking about VAMPIRES, of course. But, there is so much more: Dark Shadows (ABC, 1966 -71) True Blood (HBO, 2008 - ) Buffy The Vampire Slayer (WB 1997 -2001; UPN 2001 -3) Issues of Genre, Representations of Gender, Sex and Sexuality, Race, Region, Class and Fandoms. 18

Section 3: In The Beginning Insert Image Here Add Image Caption w/ Credits Here The Electronic Hearth General Electric Ad, 1948 19

The Moment of Television: 1948 • Setting the Stage Historical – Post War Project on the Homefront – Reset of Everyday Life & Cultural Practices • Setting the Stage: Cultural – Birth of Ranch House Suburbia – Good-bye, Rosie. Hello, Organizational Man. Saturday Evening Post, 1943 The Man in The Grey Flannel Suit (Nunnally Johnson, 1956) 20

The Moment of Television • U. S. vs. Paramount (1948) – Paramount Decrees (a Justice Department action based on the Court’s decision against the Big Five major film studios and three minor studios) mandated that the production and exhibition functions of the film industry had to be separated—the end of vertical integration. – Block-booking of films was declared illegal and studios were forced to divest themselves of their studio-owned theatre chains. • The “Freeze” (1948 -1952) – FCC (formerly FRC) freezes the licenses for television stations (growing too fast)—protecting “our” airwaves. – Anti-trust violators need not apply. 21

The Moment of Television: Industrial cont’d • Radio Wins! – NBC and CBS set trajectory that mirrors radio in terms of programming and sponsorship. A new Big Three was born: David Sarnoff of RCA fame at National Broadcasting Company, William S. Paley at Columbia Broadcasting System and, in a lower tier, Edward J. Noble at American Broadcasting Company. – There were 4 Networks: ABC (formed from NBC Blue in 1943), CBS, NBC (NBC Red) and Dumont (owned by Dumont Laboratories) Despite a great start—due, in part, to CBS/NBC talent raid—Dumont was gone by 1955. On Cavalcade of Stars (Dumont, 1951) The Honeymooners (CBS, 1955) 22

Isn’t It Better To Stay At Home? • Marked decline in “going out” for entertainment. • The film industry’s revenue peak of $1. 692 billion (1946) would decline by nearly 23% over the next decade. • As attendance plummeted, ticket prices increased by nearly 40% -- giving the consumer yet another reason to stay home, listen to radio, or, even better, watch that “free TV. ” 23

The Nature of the Industry • TELEVISION IS, FIRST AND FOREMOST, A COMMERCIAL MEDIUM—LIKE ITS PREDECESSOR RADIO, THE PROGRAMS EXIST TO MAKE AD REVENUE. 24

Home & Electronic Hearth • 14, 000 sets in use in 1947 • 172, 000 in use in 1948, • By 1959, 90% of American homes had television sets. 25

Section 4: Let’s Watch Some TV! Insert Image Here Add Image Caption w/ Credits Here Mr. Television: Milton Berle in Texaco Star Theater (NBC 1948 -53), The Berle-Buick Hour (NBC 1953 -55 and The Milton Berle Show (NBC 1955 -56) Download Reading/Screening Sheet 1 from Learning Tasks 26

Television As Social Instruction • Domestic Medium – Nuclear Family & Electronic Hearth – Teaching new ideas as old ideas – Television Narratives as reset Button for American Popular Consciousness 27

The Three C’s: Consumerism • Consumerism – Capitalism is Patriotism – New Practices for A New Age – Differentiation from the Creeping Red Menace (Communism) SELLING THE AMERICAN DREAM 28

The Three C’s: Conformity • Conformity – Ranch House Suburbia – Assimilation – Creation of Mythic Norms The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (ABC, 1952 -66) and The Donna Reed Show (ABC, 1958 -66) 29

The Three C’s: Containment • Containment – Addressing Fears – Addressing Difference – Producing “Solutions” The Jack Benny Show (CBS, 1950 -65) Dragnet (NBC, 1951 -59) 30

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Texaco Star Theater • Milton Berle – – 1 st Television Icon Vaudeo Appointment TV The Whole Country Was Watching Pause Lecture & Watch 31

In The Episode • Sponsorship – Consumerism – Integrated Commercials • Crossover – Molly with Uncle Milty – Conformity (Amusingly Ethnic) – We Like Ike 32

More Viewing Pleasure: The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show • Burns & Allen – Vaudeville – Radio – Transitional Television Pause Lecture & Watch 33

In The Episode • Teaching About Television – Transition from Vaudeo to Sitcom – How It Works by George • Consumerism – Sponsorship – Gracie & Carnation • Containment – Gender – TV Stars Are Everyday People 34

Last but Definitely not Least… The Honeymooners • Ralph, Norton, Alice & Trixie – From Cavalcade of Stars to Classic TV Pause Lecture & Watch 35

In The Episode • Working Class Dreams – Change of Habit – “I Want to See Liberace!” • Ideological & Economic Reset – Why We Buy, How We Buy – Don’t Worry, Buy Happy • Learning to Watch – The New Everyman – Great Comedy Holds Up 36

Final Thoughts • Think about what series you watch today. – What do they say about the current historical moment? • Think about why you watch what you watch – What is your “pleasure in the text” ? • Think about what shows you might like to write about. 37

End of Lecture 01 Insert Image Here Add Image Caption w/ Credits Here Next Lecture: Back When Ethnic Was Funny 38