Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) About TV [Paperback]

Tara Ariano (Author), Sarah D. Bunting (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Shut Up, TV!
 
In Television Without Pity, the founders of the popular TV-recap Web site TelevisionWithoutPity.com pay snarky tribute to 752 of the shows, characters, actors, clichés, plot devices, memorable moments, and catchphrases that make watching TV such a guilty pleasure.
 
Topics include:
 
     •  America’s Next Top Model
     •  Bad Sitcoms Starring Good Comedians
     •  Celebrity Poker Showdown
     •  Clichéd Portrayals of Senior Citizens
     •  “Denise Huxtable”
     •  Intrusive Neighbors
     •  Iron Chef
     •  Lifetime movies
     •  MasterCard “Priceless” Campaign
     •  MTV
     •  Musical Montages
     •  The People’s Court
     •  “Sha la la la!”
     •  Sitcom Reunion Movies
     •  Saved by the Bell
     •  Talking CGI Animals and Babies in Commercials
     •  TV Weddings
     •  “Urkel”
     •  and so much more!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ariano and Bunting, the brains behind Televisionwithpity.com, have assembled a wickedly funny encyclopedia of TV's people, plots, formulas and quirky phenomena, and loaded it with irreverent commentary. A typical entry, such as the one for Laverne & Shirley, begins with "Lord, what a terrible show," and only gets nastier from there, culminating in a list of cross-references both useful and shameful: "Bad Sitcom, Sure Signs of; Canned Laughter, Manipulation by/of; Marshall, Garry; Neighbors, Intrusive." Everyone who has hit stardom because of television is good-naturedly skewered, as in the case of "the ham that ate Pittsburgh," William Shatner, a subject so worthy he gets two helpings of barbs-one in his eponymous entry and one in "Shatner, William, Legendarily Awesome Saturday Night Live Appearance of." Other entries get more general (such as "Sexual Tension, Ruination of Show by Resolving") while others go delightfully specific (the very next entry, on the Family Ties theme song lyric "Sha La La La!"). Addictively entertaining, this book will make a compulsive treat for TV addicts, trivia enthusiasts and those who enjoy looking down their nose at America's chief pastime.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Tara Ariano (screen name “Wing Chun”) and Sarah D. Bunting (screen name “Sars”) are the founders of TelevisionWithoutPity.com. Tara is the coauthor of Hey! It’s That Guy! (Quirk, 2005), and more of Sarah’s work can be seen at TomatoNation.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Quirk Books (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594741174
• ISBN-13: 978-1594741173
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,163,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I was hoping for better, November 24, 2006

By 

juliannagirl (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) About TV (Paperback)

I am a longtime reader of the Television Without Pity website, so I expected the book to be snarky, occasionally irreverent, and a good read. And it was...to a degree. There's a fine line between snark, bitterness, and just plain meanness, and while the authors didn't cross that last line (often), they bounced between the first two a lot. Maybe watching television for a living makes it impossible not to be hyper-critical of everything coming across the screen. There were times when I wondered if the authors actually like television all that much. Still, if you're a fan of the site or just a TV buff, it's worth a read.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who love television and love making fun of television, October 26, 2006

By 

Joopiter (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) About TV (Paperback)

I'm a long-time fan of Television Without Pity - it's essential web-reading in my book. So buying this book was a no-brainer for me. I love the encylopedia format complete with what are truly the most important entries for any television addict - things like notorius "show killers," signs that you're watching a bad sitcom, and the answer to one question that's bugged the hell out of me for years: how to tell apart twin "actors" Jeremy and Jason London.

And, hey, any book that has entries for "Jack Bristow" and "Jem & the Holograms" on facing pages is a must-read for me!

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Reference Repository of Television Snarkiness, October 24, 2006

By 

George Buttner "Agent0042" (Dayton, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) About TV (Paperback)

I've been a member of the site Television Without Pity for a long time. I used to be an active forum poster --- these days, I mainly just lurk. But the site is still as good as ever and this book won't fail to delight readers of the site or television fanatics in general.

Ariano and Bunting (Wing Chun and Sars) have laid out "Television Without Pity: 752 Things We Love to Hate (And Hate to Love) About TV" rather like a traditional reference book. So you'll find entries such as "Brady Bunch, Musical Stylings Of" and "Police Videos, Shows Reliant Upon." This book can easily be read cover-to-cover, or depending on your tastes, you can start by looking up some of your favorite shows and people and reading what it has to say about them.

This book covers a wide range of material and there's no doubt there'll be stuff in there you probably won't be interested in, or just plain disagree with. For example, the book skims over "Star Trek: Voyager" as barely worth mentioning, but it's my personal favorite "Trek." And the authors also comment that they don't really mind the split-screening of closing-creidts on programs because people can look that stuff up on the Internet. Well, sorry, but somebody has to *enter* that stuff on the Internet first and for those doing that, those splits are a real pain.

But never mind that, though, within seconds, you'll soon be finding something to laugh at and that you can totally identify with. For example, the hilarious description of local television news broadcasts "News, Crappy Local --- ...something about local unions, about which nobody cares... and then the weather report (always overhyped, always inaccurate)" or something surprisingly touching about "Reading Rainbow ... just really, really cute."


"Televisin Without Pity" is no doubt a book you'll be coming back to often. And given how large this medium is, if this book sells really well, there's certainly more than enough material for something like "Television Without Pity 2 The Sequel: 1000 More Things..."