Customer Reviews

Short-Lived Television Series, 1948-1978: Thirty Years of More Than 1,000 Flops

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

For a book that costs nearly $40 I expected (somewhat realistically, I think) that between the pages of this book I would find information not found anywhere else. This is not the case. A brief look was enough to tell me that the back cover is very inaccurate when it states that the book will "provide brief descriptions of the shows" as well as cast information, networks, and dates. There are no brief descriptions. For the majority of the shows chronicled in this book all the information given is easily found in one of the two major television encyclopedias currently available, either The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows or Total Television.

The only reason I've given this book one star is because of the 100 interviews it contains; the only original information it has. On the one hand these interviews can be somewhat enjoyable and halfway informational. On the other hand only 100 of the 1000+ shows have interviews. That means that only about 1/10th of the book is information that you probably couldn't find anywhere else. But is it worth paying $40 for 1/10th of a book? If you ordered a mystery novel that promised "100% Intrigue!" and only got 10% would you be satisfied? Probably not.

I am not satisfied with Wesley Hyatt's Short-Lived Television Series 1948-1978. Just the fact that it has a bibliography with over twenty-six entries should be enough to convince anyone that the book is hardly original. I'm almost curious as to how it got published considering the fact that the only original aspects are the interviews. I plan on returning this book and finding something more worthy of my money. I suggest anyone with an interest in short-lived television shows NOT purchase this book unless they want to be disappointed.

Can't completely disagree with the other reviewer -- if you're looking mainly for facts about cast members, etc., there are better sources to consult.

However, I found this book a lot of fun to browse. Hyatt did an amazing number of interviews, and while not every show I wanted to read about was covered in detail, I still thought the book was worthwhile. For those who enjoy reading television history, this is definitely worth a look.

I enjoy the book very much. I got it

on time. I like that I can track the

item on my computer. I am very

satisfied with the transacion.

This is a major misstep--a book that supposedly details TV series that lasted under one year, yet has almost no details about most of the shows and provides limited information based on a few interviews the author did with a couple people in the industry. It's a huge fiasco and, like the shows it covers, should have been "cancelled" before publication!

The criteria were that the program had to be on the air less than a year--which means a number of 51 and and half week series made the cut. The author also includes Saturday morning shows, daytime game shows, talk shows, etc. All of these are mixed together and it's all very confusing. Then, to make it even worse, he randomly decides to cut them off at 1978 (with no logical explanation)! A book written in 2003 should have focused on the many series from the recent decades there were short-lived (and much more interesting than 1949 series that only 1% of the homes in America could watch!).

He then decides not to include animated series and summer series. He also cut out "dozens of variety shows with no recurring cast members and anthology series that had only a single host." Then he goes on to break that rule in a couple instances. Namely, this guy set up all sorts of restrictions. It makes for a deceptive book--even the subtitle "30 years of more than 1,000 flops" is a misnomer since he admits there are only 950 series in his book!

The idea of doing a book on the subject is admirable, but this isn't the book--it's pretty much a waste of money. For most series listed all you get are the dates the show aired, what it was programmed against and a short cast list--not even a plot summary or related information or the number of episodes! Absolutely no descriptions about what the series were about! Of the 950 shows in the book, only one-fourth have more than that paragraph--and even when you get a longer description it doesn't usually tell plot details but instead focuses on strange minor aspects of production like how a writer disliked a director. Who cares what some unknown writer remembers about shooting a six-episode series that no one remembers, especially when the book doesn't describe the plot!?! (Some of these same interviews were later used by the same author in his next book on Emmy-winning series!)

This pretty much is a perfect example of how not to write a book about television history. It's shocking that it was even published--I blame the publisher and editor for not properly pushing the author to come up with more material. It's not even worthy of reference libraries because it contains little insight into the subject--it ends up basically being a list that could have been published online for free.