Customer Reviews

Watching TV: Six Decades of American Television, 2nd Edition (The Television Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The great risk in doing a book like "Watching TV," which both takes television history seriously and has fun with it, is that it may prove to be neither fish nor fowl -- too scholarly for those that want mere nostalgia, and with too much affection for its subject to please those who just want the facts.

Happily, "Watching TV" avoids this pitfall. In the end, the book leans more to the scholarly side than the trivial, but given the vital role the medium plays in our society, the balance feels right.

In this second edition of their 1982 book, Harry Castleman and Wally Podrazik take us up to the 2002-03 season, covering, in the updated material: NBC's return to respectability; cable's steady march to power, the emergence of Fox, the WB and UPN's debuts as broadcast networks, the regulatory shift that has concentrated ownership in a way not seen in decades; the beginnings of the reality show phenomenon, the launch of new technology that promises to change the medium forever, and more.

One of the remarkable aspects of the book remains its refusal to traffic in simple answers. If you're sure that Castleman and Podrazik are making a quick, easy generalization, keep reading: You'll soon see that they will articulate the issue's complexity.

The easiest temptation for two Baby Boomer authors would have been to write a lament for "the good old days" of television. But Castleman and Podrazik point out the good and the bad in every season, in artistic, commercial and social terms.

The season-by-season structure has several advantages. One is that you get the sense, moreso than in any other book about TV history, of how the networks have competed with one another. While it's fun to look at the various fall schedules, the text in each chapter often explains why certain shows were placed into certain slots, how another network sought to counterprogram that same slot, and the results of such moves.

ABC, which for many years was a perennial third-place finisher during the three-network days, is worth keeping an eye on throughout the book, because its desperation to get out of last place made it willing to take bold chances. We learn, for instance why CBS programming head James Aubrey was fired during the 1964-65 season, following some scheduling tactics by ABC that threatened the Tiffany Network's prime time supremacy (and set the precedent for a practice that is only now beginning to fade). And because the book is chronological, you already know from the previous chapter how ABC planted the seeds for its near-upset. If I'm making all of this sound like boring corporate infighting that no one could possibly care about today, that isn't the way it's presented in the book. The shows from that season are discussed in fun detail, but the added context of how the networks used them gives the book heft.

Another fascinating network vs. network storyline again involves ABC, this time concerning its challenge to the No. 1 spot in the 1975-76 season. Castleman and Podrazik explain how CBS' momentum was stopped by the new "family hour" that was mandated by the FCC (8-9 p.m.), as it allowed its program development to be hamstrung by the rule. ABC chief Fred Silverman recognized the opportunity and seized it, utilizing "Happy Days," "Welcome Back Kotter" and other now-fondly remembered shows to steer the network to ratings success. The authors have put themselves in a good position to sustain the drama inherent in Silverman's maneuverings, having explained ABC's self-sabotage in previous seasons. The '75-'76 chapter essentially ends on a cliffhanger, as Silverman is poised to take the lead, but hasn't quite gotten there. ABC does finish No. 1 in 1976-77, and Castleman and Podrazik know how to make that chapter pay off.

Another thing that works about the season-by-season approach is that the authors revisit shows and events along different points on a timeline. It's one thing to have a book that explains in a few paragraphs that "Gunsmoke" debuted in 1955 as a half-hour show, moved to an hour in 1961, was almost canceled in 1967, but was saved and became a big hit again. But in "Watching TV," you get a real sense of how different an atmosphere the show thrived in during its early years was from the one it basked in later.

Make no mistake, though, the book can be very funny. My personal favorite example of this is the authors' description of "Gilligan's Island." I won't spoil it here, but suffice it to say that Castleman and Podrazik have more than a few problems with the tale of those seven stranded castaways. As always, they put the show in full context, pointing out other escapist sitcoms that appeared around the same time.

The second edition of "Watching TV" is a very worthwhile purchase for devoted buffs who care about the past, present, and future of our most important medium.

Unlike most of the TV reference books, this is a season-by-season narrative of the history of television. One can pick up the book and turn to any chapter and, even if one is too young to remember that particular TV season, get the flavor of the events of that season and the major programs and trends. A good, informative read, with an objective, down-the-middle viewpoint.

The new 2nd revised edition takes the story up through 2009, using the same very readable approach to the increasingly-complex chronicle of the medium. Even if, like me, you don't watch much entertainment TV any longer, there's enough interesting material in even the last few chapters to give everyone something interesting to ponder. And, yes, following the up-and-down year-to-year fortunes of the major networks is quite fascinating.

The long-awaited update of this classic is finally here!

Castleman and Podrazik's original "Watching TV" is a meticulously researched, wittily-written history of the medium from 1940 to 1980. Filled with insider tidbits, network schedules and classic photos, it's a tv trivia buff's dream come true. The new, updated book is even better!

A definite must for the tv room coffee table.

This is the real deal.

While reading it my life flashed before me. Its graphic depiction of every TV season , going all the way back to 1944,

brought back a torrent of memories.

Nothing has been left out. Watching TV is best book written about this medium. A medium that touches each an every one of us.

If you love television you'll love this book.

Watching TV has been expanded to run through the 2009-2010 television season. A lot of important television trends and news events have taken place since the previous edition. Although I owned the prevision edition, I had no reservations towards buying the updated edition. The book starts with the dawn of television and moves forward with each subsequent television season (which generally starts in September of each year). If you read the book in cronological order, you get a fasinating overview of how the networks came to be and how televions was viewed by government and the press. A prime time grid is provided for each season listing all of the shows and the netwrok they appeared on. You learn about the federal government calling televiosn a wasteland in the early sixites as viewers tuned in sitcoms such as "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Green Acres." While the FCC may have looked down on such shows, they were truly funny. TV classics such as "The Twilight Zone," "The Prisoner," "M*A*S*H" are highlighted along side popular guilty pleasures. In addition to coverage of the best and worst TV had to offer for each season, the authors go through important news events and how they were covered by TV. The authors go through how JFK took advantage of the medium during his debate with Nixon and how television covered the his assasination. It's all there: the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Vietman, man's first steps on the moon, the birth of CNN, 911 and so much more. The book is well indexed, which makes it easy to get information on a particular television show. I was also delighted to learn that the most watched US TV show of all time is no longer the last episode of "M*A*S*H," but rather the New Orleans Saints victory over the Colts in the 2010 Super Bowl. As a Saints fan dating back to the team's first year in 1967, that bit of information alone made me glad I purchased the latest edition!

"Watching TV..." is an exceptional book. It is the followup to "Watching TV: Four Decades of American Television" that was published in the early eighties. This book contains two extra decades, the complete eighties, the nineties, and right up to the 2002-2003 TV season, alas you have the new title "Watching TV: Six Decades of American Television". The book is neatly written. Every single television season is listed, complete with schedule grids of the huge networks operating during a specific year. For example, the now defunct network Dumont is listed in the early chapters along with the shows it broadcast. It is great fun going through the different decades and seeing how much the television landscape has changed. From the 1950's with shows like "Donna Reed" and "Leave It To Beaver", to the turbulent sixties when shows like "Gilligan's Island", "Bewitched", and "The Munsters" enabled viewers escapist fare to forget the problems in America like the Vietnam War, to the early 2000's when reality fare overtook the networks, "Watching TV..." has everything one wants to know about broadcast television. This book is well-researched and the best book of its kind on all U.S. networks. The writers of this book also are not shy is discussing the ups and downs of CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX in their thirst for viewers, and in the process of making money from advertisers. My favorite part of the book is that time back in the 1970's when programming chief Fred Silverman came to ABC and made the then "third" network #1 with shows like "Laverne and Shirley" and "Three's Company". As one reads on you see what happens to Silverman when NBC spent a lot of money luring him to their network only to see a disaster when NBC fell to the bottom of the Nielsens and lost millions in advertising revenue, proving lightening doesn't strike twice, at least among the networks. "Watching TV..." is even used in colleges around the country in different media studies courses. In one word this book is exceptional.

Only a daft fool would disagree with the laudatory reviews that preceed this one, as the book IS, without doubt, one of the best histories of TV EVER. So, why give one less star than the others? Couple of things: First, the missed opportunities of developing the ways in which TV could create stars out of nowhere (Betty White in "Life with Elizabeth"; the George Gobel, well, "phenomenon" is the only word; The amazing smash of Joan Weber's recording of "Let me go, lover" after it was featured on a Studio One broadcast). And,second, and this is, admittedly personal from an old Theatre cat, the complete and, apparently deliberate, ignoring of the Broadway theater. Two examples: In commenting on the influence of TV plays, the authors state that the success of the TV plays "No Time for Sergeants" and "The Miracle Worker" led to their movie incarnations. BUT, between those events, both were smash hit Broadway Plays, each running for over a year or more. Anyway, it's those, admittedy minor, annoyances that lead to the "loss" of a star. Oh, and the "G" in Maynard G. Krebs? It stood for Walter, not William.