Down the Tube: My Week in TV Hell [Paperback]

Bill Brownstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

Imagine yourself at home on your couch, contractually obligated to remain in front of your satellite-rigged television for a period of seven days, at the end of which you will produce a funny but penetrating account of your journey-a virtual one-through the strange and culturally revealing landscape of the 200-channel universe.

Bill Brownstein did just that, and Down the Tube is his hilarious survival guide, complete with the expert testimony of a psychologist who kept tabs on the couch potato's mental state. The author of the riotous Sex Carnival charts his week on the couch in this latest odyssey with a cynical eye and relentless wit. Brownstein meditates on such important questions as: Should Pamela Anderson sue the doctor who botched her breast reduction? Are those people on Springer for real? Hey, do they still play reruns of The Waltons? Nobody is immune to Brownstein's wry wit, not even big-name celebrities like Oprah, Regis, and Jerry Seinfeld.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Bill Brownstein has been a columnist with the Montreal Gazette since 1983. He is the author of Sex Carnival and co-author and co-editor of The Great Canadian Character Anthology, a compendium of eccentrics inhabiting that landmass north of the U.S. He has written and produced two feature film documentaries: Skating on Thin Ice and Bill Lee: Profile of a Pitcher.

About the Author

Bill Brownstein has been a columnist with the Montreal Gazette since 1983. He is the author of Sex Carnival and the coauthor and coeditor of The Great Canadian Character Anthology, a compendium of eccentrics inhabiting that landmass north of the United States. He has written and produced two feature film documentaries: Skating on Thin Ice and Bill Lee: Profile of a Pitcher.

Product Details

• Paperback: 165 pages
• Publisher: ECW Press (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550224638
• ISBN-13: 978-1550224634
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,531,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Monotonous, February 19, 2002

By 

J. Gifford (Las Vegas NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Down the Tube: My Week in TV Hell (Paperback)

The premise of this book is fascinating: what happens to a man when he does nothing but watch television over a two-week period? I expected a fun narrative about how the author spun out, going deeper and deeper into his TV hell. Instead, the author gives a play-by-play, often at 10-minute intervals, of what he watched and what he thought of the show of the moment, which takes us inside his world but does not comment on it. The book could have been titled "Reports from the TV Front: An Examination of What's on TV at This Very Moment." This book would have been far better if Brownstein had sat back after compiling his diary and had written a more general description of what happened to him on his journey, rather than what was on the tube (because who really cares?). The diary entries would have worked best as add-on elements rather than as the core of the narrative.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Made me LOL, May 28, 2002

By 

Roger M Berg (Plymouth, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Down the Tube: My Week in TV Hell (Paperback)

This book is a book we all think we could write. Hey, it's only TV! However, Brownstein is very droll. He is everyman but more observant--and funny.

I am reminded of the old chestnut, "Tragedy is easy, comedy is hard". Dave Barry is funny 80% of the time and Bill Brownstein is funny 85% of the time. Nobody is 100%. Scott Adams' cartoons are 90+% funny but his prose is about 55%. I consider Brownstein to be a Dave Barry for the guy who went to college and doesn't move his lips when he reads.

I am a fan of his work. I'll buy anything he writes. If you like Montreal, read his columns in the Montreal Gazette.