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TV: A Novel [Hardcover]

Brian Brown (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)


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Book Description

August 14, 2001
Caesar Fortunato is the greatest sports director ever. If you're not sure about that, just ask him. He'll tell you that he invented the instant replay. The blimp shot. The ”up close and personal“ feature. In fact, if you asked him, Caesar Fortunato would tell you that without him sports broadcasting would be a wasteland, not worth watching. And he might be right.

Caesar has directed Super Bowls, NBA championship games, Wimbledon, the Olympics. When he's hot, Caesar can make the worst game look like a spectacle and a good game look like art. The problem is that he is as arrogant about his abilities as he is good at his job. And he believes that entitles him to be as unkind to network presidents as he is to lowly production assistants.

So, when Caesar finally makes a mistake, all the little people he's screamed at and all the suits he's snubbed over the years get their revenge. He quickly finds himself on the street and then on the run when creative differences with a Hollywood A-list actor get physical. Before he totally self-destructs, though, Caesar gets one last chance to transform chaos into broadcast beauty. It'll be live, global, and impossible to pull off. Maybe.

In TV, Emmy Award-winning television writer, producer, and director Brian Brown offers the truest story yet told about what goes on behind the cameras in the television industry, as reflected in the rise, fall, and redemption of broadcasting's ultimate insider. In telling Caesar's story, Brown turns a revealing lens on the media's madness and madmen, as well as the power and all the possibility inherent in the medium that so pervades our lives. It's a riveting inside look at some of the most ephemeral, idiotic art ever created and the modern spectacle that is sports in all its brute, heartbreaking beauty.

Sometimes you can only tell the truth by resorting to fiction....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Television industry veteran Brown takes the reader behind the cameras and into the booth at major televised sporting events over several decades from the Olympics to the Super Bowl depicting a hostile, high-pressure environment where egos and tempers clash perhaps even more fiercely than out on the field. At the center is acclaimed director Caesar Fortunato, who got into television when the medium was young. Caesar, an innovator credited with changing TV forever by inventing the instant replay, is finding it increasingly tough to fit in with the representatives of the corporate-driven media behemoths of the '90s, who seem not to understand or appreciate his craft. And Caesar's own dissolute lifestyle has brought chaos to his personal life, and finally to his work. Gambling becomes perhaps his most dangerous compulsion and threatens to wipe him out financially. A fateful battle of wills results as Caesar strives to get fired and force the network to buy out his contract, and the network attempts to make his job so unpleasant that he will quit on his own and let them off the hook. Brown's episodic narrative jumps back and forth in time, tracing Caesar's progress from his boyhood in Philadelphia and early local TV jobs in the late '50s, on through four more decades of a bumpy ride to wealth and fame. There is, at times, a Hunter Thompson quality to Brown's rendering of Caesar's wild living and conflicts with authority. And while the desultory timeline is occasionally awkward, the insider's view of TV is captivating, as is the portrait of Fortunato, a colorfully flawed, larger-than-life protagonist. (Aug.)Forecast: Blurbs by Brown's colleagues Tom Brokaw and Bob Costas will make media mavens sit up and take notice. This isn't the definitive industry satire, but it's a good one, and sales should reflect that.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Brown pulls off quite a trick here, making us sympathize with even like a monster named Caesar Fortunato, the legendary producer of Super Bowls and other live broadcasts. In this first novel, Fortunato is an inventive perfectionist who remorselessly uses and abuses everyone. But when he curses out his new boss, even bigger jerk than he is, Fortunato is driven out of television. With nobody to abuse but himself, he gambles away everything he owns yet somehow pulls back from the brink and builds a life. Flashbacks show us how Caesar, a young boy with a gift for music and sports, became a television genius. The author, a TV writer, producer, and director, knows the business intimately and treats us to some great stories (true, if disguised) about sports and broadcasting. Recommended for popular fiction collections. Marylaine Block, "Librarian Without Walls," Davenport, IA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (August 14, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0609606158
  • ISBN-13: 978-0609606155
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,832,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Reality TV yet..., August 22, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: TV: A Novel (Hardcover)
This book is unlike any other I've read. It is a one of a kind look into a world that is rarely considered- the producers and staff behind TV shows and the one man who seemed to do it all. Fast paced behind-the-scenes action puts the reader in the moment. Historical references give the book the feel of non-fiction, making it all the more intriguing as you're left to wonder..."Did this really happen?" Great Descriptions. TV has something for everyone, not just sports fans or television insiders. The main character is one you hate to love...or love to hate. Reading TV is a lot better than watching it- here you're part of the action.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Insider View of Sports TV, August 20, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: TV: A Novel (Hardcover)
This book is one of the easiest, quickest reads I have had the pleasure to enjoy. Brian Brown has created a world that paints a very realistic picture of the high pressure, intense world which goes on behind the camera and when commercials air. But the best thing about "TV" is the gripping story of a man who lives his life at the extremes. A man who must confront his own demons while being confronted himself by the changing landscape of the business that he helped create. Highly recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for all television lovers!, December 19, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: TV: A Novel (Hardcover)
I found TV to be a compelling, hilarious, and even insightful look at the televison industry. Brown's character descriptions had me begging for more. Each page held my attention from start to finish. I recommend TV to all entertainment lovers...you'll never watch a televised sporting event the same!
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