Customer Reviews

Total Television: Revised Edition

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Like author/critics from Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael to Joel Whitburn and Fred Bronson, TV historian Alex McNeil has a fun but never-ending job. He charts the myriad of programs that have appeared on broadcast networks (including those, like Dumont, which no longer exist), cable, and in syndication. His fun comes in praising the praiseworthy, trashing the deserving, goreing sacred Hollywood cows and keeping a critical expert's eye on important pop culture strands and shifts.

"Total Television" is exhaustive, enjoyable, fun and fact-filled reading from any page it's read. McNeil generously shares facts, transporting you to time, channel, cast (sometimes literally in hundreds) and summaries of thousands of familiar and long-forgotten TV shows. TV's giants (from Walt Disney and Captain Kangaroo to Oprah Winfrey and "Monday Night Football") receive their fair space, while McNeil also chronicles changes in TV daytime dramas, game, talk, and sports shows.

McNeil's consistent irreverence and historical perspective is remarkable. He salutes Walt Disney for creating TV's first mini-series (the wildly popular "Davy Crockett") while also creating TV's first "synergy" (TV show promotes park and films, which promote movies and TV show).

McNeil also gives long-running, non-cult classics like "Gunsmoke," "Knots Landing," and "Wagon Train" their proper respect while chronicling the knotty, behind-the-scenes problems plaguing stars from Nat Cole to Judy Garland to Jerry Lewis to Sammy Davis, Jr., and the respective failures of their 50s-60s variety shows. (He recalls failed sitcoms like "Family Dog" and "The Waverly Wonders" with especially sweet relish). McNeil also features sections on landmark TV moments (which decrease in number and size from the mid-70s), full TV schedules, and Emmy winners.

This is NOT a book read cover to cover, even by diligent TV fans. Series' with same or similar titles, long paragraphs retelling old tales of Roseanne Barr and 1992's "Tonight Show" fiasco (in an otherwise fascinating entry on that TV staple) are redundant one after another. But in preferably small portions, "Total Television" is a refreshingly unobjective reference book of the best, worst, longest and least TV's omnipotentence has presented.

Alex McNeill's "Total Television" is one of those reference works which is useful both for settling trivia arguments at parties and for helping those engaged in serious scholarly study of television programs and their impact upon popular culture. As of this review, "Total Television" is in its fourth edition.

The book is basically an alphabetical encyclopedia of thousands of television programs in every possible genre: dramas, sitcoms, game shows, cartoons, and more. Each entry lists the series' air dates, principal performers, and other relevant data.

In addition to the main body of encyclopedic entries, the book includes a wealth of supplemental features: lists of Emmy winners, a chronological gathering of one-shot specials, and more. Particularly interesting are the programming grids, which show the nightly lineups on each network for each night of the week. You can turn to a season (say, 1951-52) and see what choices the American TV viewer had each night! This feature is great for historians.

Although most of the entries on each series are brief, McNeill spends more time and space on certain series of outstanding impact. These extended articles on "All in the Family," "CBS Evening News," "Dallas," "The Ed Sullivan Show," and more are truly fascinating.

TV has been derided by many with such epithets as "the Boob Tube" and "The Idiot Box." On the other hand, it was praised in an episode of "The Simpsons" as "teacher, mother. . . secret lover." McNeill captures TV in all of its facets: from the depths of inanity to the heights of cultural significance. This book is a great achievement whose reputation, I believe, will increase with future editions.

Alex McNeil's "Total Television" is the Mother of all TV reference volumes. If you can't find it here, it ain't worth knowin' about. How he was able to compile all this information covering 50+ years of TV is beyond me. Crack open this book at any page and you will be reading for hours, probably days.

With the explosion of available networks on cable television, this book becomes more than just another reference work for professionals in the media. It's instantaneous information on any show that might happen to pop up on TV Land, Nick at Nite, A&E, PAX, Game Show Network, Soap Opera Network, or the multitudinous other outlets for yesterday's programming. And once you've dipped in, the information MacNeil gives (along with the occasional opinion)is like salted peanuts -- you'll keep dipping your hand in the jar. A comprehensive index of performers, a listing of notable TV movies and specials, and a chance to go back in time with prime-time network grids for every year up through the publication date, all make "Total Television" impossible to resist. You'll be counting the days until the fifth edition as soon as you've spent a week with this one (which takes us into the age of "Must See TV").

I own a LPTV station in Colorado..I have always wanted this book..So for many weeks I have spent time reading this book..So I put it to the test of shows I remeber by gosh they were all there.It is a winner when I do trivia at parties.I think it is the best Television source I have read.I have a hard time putting it down...

I am a Tv fiend I love all aspects of it thats why when I picked up my copy of Total Television I was drawn into the wealth of information. Any show I could think of was listed I looked In the prime time scheduling portion of the book I never knew that Dallas was after Dukes Of Hazzard. I Was drawn into the book at the first glance of the well desighned cover. All information is easy to find listed alphabettically and if you can't remember the name go to the helpfull index. This book will make you a trivia expert about all aspects of television. If you Are a TV fiend buy this book if you arn't become a tv fiend and buy this book..

This reference is superb in it's completeness. Anything you want to know about any program broadcast from 1948-1996 is in this 1251 page book. The 88 page index of names of performers appearing during those years is unbelievable. It includes specials, miniseries and the top 20 rated shows for each of those years. I use this reference at least 2 to 3 times a week.

First, we might note that "... To the Present," in the book's title, means through late 1995. So nothing in the last ten years is included. For years, I have enjoyed "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present" by Brooks and Marsh. I prefer the format of the Brooks and Marsh book to that of the NcNeil book--e.g., the cast is in list form, which makes for easier and quicker reading; the showing time is also included. The chief advantage of the McNeil book is that it includes daytime TV, which the Brooks and Marsh book does not.

Where this book is not as easy to use as Brooks and Marsh's "Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows"(see my review for this one), it offers more-as far as the addition of daytime shows and more explanation of the entries. I like the other guide mainly because it's a good quick reference for prime time. However, if I'm really interested in detail or, again, a daytime program-like some Saturday morning cartoon of my childhood-then this is the one to get. I have both books, actually-for reasons specified here.

I was given the 3rd Edition (1948-1990) as a Christmas gift four years ago by my sister. It has become a true godsend when it comes to answering questions and settling bets. I am a TV fiend also and keep the book by my bed...