The Talking Cure: TV Talk Shows and Women [Paperback]

Jane M. Shattuc (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415910889 | ISBN-13: 978-0415910880 | Publication Date: January 24, 1997 | Edition: 1st.ed.

The Talking Cure examines four nationally syndicated television talk shows--Donahue, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Geraldo and Sally Jessy Raphael--which are primarily devoted to feminine culture and issues. Serving as one of the few public forums where working-class women and those with different sexual orientations have a voice, these talk shows represent American TV at its most radical. Shattuc examines the tension between talk's feminist politics and the television industry, who, in their need to appeal to women, trades on sensation, stereotypes and fears in order to engender product consumption. However, this genre is not a one-way form of social interaction. The female audience complies and resists in a complex give-and-take, and it is this relationship which The Talking Cure aims to understand and reveal.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

By 1995, 15 daytime talk shows were aired in major U.S. TV markets, ending the 50-year reign of soap operas as the most popular daytime program format. In this cultural history, Shattuc distinguishes issue-oriented daytime talk shows from other talk shows: aimed at a female audience, these shows are produced by non-network companies for broadcast on network-affiliated stations. Trying to spur active audience participation, the hosts, sometimes with the help of "experts," mediate between guests and audiences on current social issues. Comparing 1994 TV themes with news of "crime and the uncommon" in Joseph Pulitzer's 1884 New York World, Shattuc traces the talk show's evolution from the 1950s late-night celebrity talk format and 1960s daytime celebrity talk shows to the National Enquirer and the "circuslike display" seen on more recent shows, which she describes as "part narrative melodrama and part public affairs." Daytime TV talk shows are allowed a "degree of tawdriness" not found on prime time, and they emphasize class inequities, defending "the little guy" against the reigning power. They provide, says Shattuc, a discourse, a debate for the disenfranchised. The book is structured to carry the reader through every aspect: authenticity, use of actors, the production process, topics and issues (feminism, race, gays), advertising, ratings and controversial confrontational tactics (the "ambush disclosure"), concluding with a look at messages found online in computer bulletin board debates. Nothing is omitted from this exhaustive, much-needed study, the result of numerous interviews and research over a four-year period, involving 240 hours of talk shows, hundreds of questionnaires and exploration of the Museum of Television & Radio archives.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Whether you see Jenny Jones--alleged accessory to the murder of a man who had appeared on her talk show--sympathetically or as another shallow media buffoon, take a look at Shattuc's examination of the TV talk show world. Shattuc might have settled for just a howlingly funny book, full of the day-time talk show fare (themes like "lesbian nuns in love with their grocers" and spectacles like Geraldo Rivera getting his nose broken during an on-screen fracas) that stand-up comics have made staples of late-night talk show mirth. But Shattuc eschews cheap shots and easy laughs in favor of content analysis and a chronicling of "the rise and fall of a participatory form of TV devoted to the public debate of everyday issues by women." In comparing the individual shows by approach, content, and audience, Shattuc offers the means to understand an often confusing or disturbing trend in popular taste. Perhaps next she will look at talk radio, the masculine counterpart to her subject here. Mike Tribby --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1st.ed. edition (January 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415910889
• ISBN-13: 978-0415910880
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,243,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting talk show book lacks excitement, December 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Talking Cure: TV Talk Shows and Women (Paperback)

The Talking Cure is a well researched and written book about talk shows and how they provide a platform for women's issues. Jane Shattuc does an excellent job using outside information and her own surveys and focus groups to provide the background and evidence that talk shows actually do more help than hurt to American society. Each chapter outlines a different aspect of a talk show, from the production to a study of who watches the programs. The book provides lots of information on talk shows in the early 1990's and Shattuc's critical analysis of the genre leaves the reader wondering what exactly he/she thinks about talk shows.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Critical Analysis of Daytime Talk, November 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Talking Cure: TV Talk Shows and Women (Paperback)

Jane Shattuc goes into detail analzying four major daytime talk shows of the early 1990's and how they reflect womens issues and ideas. She does extensive (not to mention exhaustive) research on how talk shows are made, who watches talk shows, and what talk show topics reflect in today's society. I found some of her analyzations a bit long (ex: a long chapter on Freudian psychology), but the undertones of each talk show topic (re: feminist ideals) and how talk shows were made did spark some interest. Shattuc's use of lots of quotes and facts does provide adequite information for one's own critical analysis of the talk show genre. The Talking Cure is a good book if you're looking for something that will make you think.