Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture (Media & Popular Culture) [Paperback]

David Marc (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0044452853 | ISBN-13: 978-0044452850 | Publication Date: September 1989

This study of the American television situation comedy combines historical analysis (beginning with the emergence of television and the development of the "sitcom") with interpretation and criticism. The book is one of a series which concentrates on studies devoted to various forms of contemporary culture with emphasis on media texts, audiences, and institutions, aiming to create a fruitful dialogue between recent strains of feminist, semiotic and marxist culutral study and older forms of humanistic and soical-scientific scholarship. Communication is conceived as a complex, ritualized experience in which meaning or significance is constituted by an intricate, contested collaboration among institutional, ideological and cultural forces.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Following his Demographic Vistas (1984), Marc continues to study the situation comedy as a major exponent of our existing social order. Isolating the sitcom from other comic forms it eclipsed on TV, he examines representative programs: from the middle suburban nuclear families of the 1950s, through the "stagflation-era designer social comedies" of the 1970s and beyond. Marc's scholarly stance falls between objective analysis and subjective experience, the high-cultural gourmet and fannish gourmand. The resulting gumbo--of thematic dissection spiced with sociopolitical context and connection and mass market realities--strives to evoke television's role in our cultural consciousness. Marc's work has yet to achieve this convincingly, but it is important groundwork in communications studies.
- Jeff Clark, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, Va .
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A new edition of David Marc's Comic Visions is grounds for rejoicing. His historical survey of TV comedy remains unrivalled, and new material on the cable era will be more than welcome." Francis Couvares, Amherst College.

"David Marc's Comic Visions is the outstanding book of its type: social and cultural analysis of the most popular and important comedic forms of television." Chad Gordon, Rice University.

"Recommended for all academic and large public libraries; all levels." A. Hirsh, emeritus, Central Conneticut State University. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 239 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty., Limited (Australia) (September 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0044452853
• ISBN-13: 978-0044452850
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,212,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Known principally for his writing on television, film, and popular culture, David Marc is currently at work on his seventh book. It concerns "The Syracuse Eight," a group of African American student athletes on the Syracuse University football team who, in 1970, protested racial bias at a school known for fostering such breakthrough stars as Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, and Floyd Little. Demographic Vistas: Television in American Culture, his first book, was published in 1984 and a second edition, containing added material, was brought out in 1998. Our Movie Houses, a collaboration with Norman O. Keim, was named "book of the year" for 2008 by the Theatre Historical Society of America. Reviews of David's books have appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London, on National Public Radio, and elsewhere. His feature articles, essays and reviews have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, The Village Voice, Television Quarterly and a long list of periodicals ranging from academic journals to airline magazines. He has contributed chapters to more than a dozen critical anthologies, including, most recently, Reading Mad Men (ed. Gary Edgerton). He has written more than 100 articles and biographical portraits for reference works, including Oxford's American National Biography (www.anb.org), Scribner's American Lives, Grolier's, and Microsoft Encarta. An experienced editor and ghost writer, he offers private tutoring in writing to business executives, scientists, and others interested in improving their skills. A graduate of Binghamton University, Marc holds a doctorate in American studies from the University of Iowa. He has taught at Brown, Brandeis, Cal Tech, USC, UCLA, UC-San Diego, and Syracuse University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars analytical, insightful and entertaining, March 10, 2003

By 

R. Krieger (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture (Paperback)

This is an excellent psychological, socio-historical overview and analysis of the behind-the-scenes casting and creation of many famous and not-so-famous sitcoms, that is not overly academic in style, but is in-depth in analysis, i.e., this book is for all levels of comprehension. An added bonus is the funny commentary and musings that the author adds (Bill Bixby is a "low-rent Alan Alda" etc.,A shortcoming though is the little analysis of big sitcoms like the Jeffersons and Seinfeld. The Last chapter especially needed more information on sitcoms of the 1990s. Overall a fantastic read, and David Marc is really nice and answers your email questions promptly.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Vision, February 20, 2002

By 

William E. Loges (Corvallis, OR, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture (Paperback)

Marc has a unique vision of American situation comedy. He sees it through the lens of classical criticism, seeking themes, genres, and other Greek-sounding nouns. He places American sitcoms in historical contexts. He does all of this so brilliantly and in such a readable yet erudite manner that a reader familiar with both "Bewitched" and "Beowulf" will find the book a treasure. I have never found a better book about American comedy in the post World War II era. So much of that comedy was televised that David Marc owns the patent on its intelligent criticism with this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars How we got this way, October 22, 2007

By 

Doktor Schoen (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture (Paperback)

Sure, I spent 6 hours a day in school as a kid. But while I hardly remember any of my class schedules from back then, I know that The Beverly Hillbillies was broadcast on Wednesday night at 9, and that Candid Camera and What's My Line? were my ticket to staying up late on Sundays. And while I was able to recite the Preamble to the Constitution on command for my 8th grade teacher, I knew the words to the theme from Pettitcoat Junction much better. Indeed, I could play it on the piano. (I would eventually spend many an evening in college in the 70's with friends singing TV show themes from the 60's.)

Anyone who is a child of television will find his (or her) roots here. "That's where I learned what a normal family is!" In the book, one encounters discussions of episodes and characters to which one nods and says, "Wow, I don't remember that as remarkable (or racy, or stereotypical, or subversive) but I guess it was!" It's a fun read, filled with revelations, at least for me (well educated, to be sure, but not so much in formal pyschology and sociology). And it's always amusing to read a treatment of Father Knows Best in a tone and at a level that was once reserved for Dickens. (I was once forced to read David Copperfield over my Christmas vacation. Never had sympathy for an English teacher since.)