The Flip Wilson Show (TV Milestone) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

At long last, a book on the politics of 1970s television that moves beyond the well-known story of network struggles over relevance, a story in which the process of ideological containment often seems well nigh inevitable. This book is a tour de force of historical writing. Combining deep institutional research, stunning aesthetic analysis, and sophisticated theoretical framing, Sutherland paints a picture of the complex ambivalences, and political possibilities, enacted in the seemingly uncomplicated comedy-variety form. Her book gives us Flip Wilson in deep context, showing us his ties to old-school entertainments like minstrelsy and vaudeville while allowing us to wonder at his deep engagement with the future and the possibilities for political identity and its critique that television comedy makes possible. --Anna McCarthy, associate professor of cinema studies at New York University and co-editor of Social Text

Meghan Sutherland's The Flip Wilson Show is a refreshing study that re-situates the post civil rights variety show genre in relation to a broad genealogy of racial performances in American culture. Sutherland's original analysis examines the intersections of social identity formation, black performance, and television culture. Following in the footsteps of Herman Gray and other scholars, Sutherland's book convincingly breaks open the historicity of black performance in relation to televisual discourse. --Daphne A. Brooks, associate professor of English and African American studies at Princeton University and author of Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910 and Jeff Buckley's Grace<br /><br />At long last, a book on the politics of 1970s television that moves beyond the well-known story of network struggles over relevance, a story in which the process of ideological containment often seems well nigh inevitable. This book is a tour de force of historical writing. Combining deep institutional research, stunning aesthetic analysis, and sophisticated theoretical framing, Sutherland paints a picture of the complex ambivalences, and political possibilities, enacted in the seemingly uncomplicated comedy-variety form. Her book gives us Flip Wilson in deep context, showing us his ties to old-school entertainments like minstrelsy and vaudeville while allowing us to wonder at his deep engagement with the future and the possibilities for political identity and its critique that television comedy makes possible. --Anna McCarthy, associate professor of cinema studies at New York University and co-editor of Social Text

Product Description

When The Flip Wilson Show debuted on NBC in 1970, the major legislative victories of the civil rights movement had been won, but the broadcast airwaves were far from integrated. A handful of shows featured black leading characters, but none had quite reached the top spot of the Nielsen ratings. By 1971, however, Wilson's old-fashioned comedy-variety hour was a bonafide hit, and in January 1972 Time magazine declared Wilson TV s First Black Superstar. In this volume, Meghan Sutherland examines how The Flip Wilson Show succeeded in the volatile racial and economic milieu of the early 1970s and how its success shaped the prevailing codes of black performance and political discourse on television.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 130 pages
• Publisher: Wayne State Univ Pr (January 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814332528
• ISBN-13: 978-0814332528
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,826,796 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)