Adventures in a TV Nation (Paperback)

~ (Author), Kathleen Glynn (Author) "It is true that the best things that happen to you happen when you least expect them..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, United States, Nation Day (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A masterpiece...TV Nation goes where no TV magazine has gone before." -- -- Newsday

"Mr. Moore's breezy, irreverent, blithely biased excursions are generally refreshing, frequently hilarious."

-- -- New York Times

"Three cheers for Michael Moore and his snappy satire, TV Nation." -- -- The Nation

"TV Nation is as compelling and provocative as it is entertaining and hilarious." -- -- TV Guide

"A masterpiece...TV Nation goes where no TV magazine has gone before." -- Newsday

"A news magazine for Lettermaniacs, Michael Moore's TV Nation greets the apocalypse of our modern times with a deadpan shrug and a keen eye for the absurdities and hypocrisies we ignore at our peril...At last! News to amuse." -- USA Today

"Mr. Moore's breezy, irreverent, blithely biased excursions are generally refreshing, frequently hilarious." -- New York Times

"TV Nation is as compelling and provocative as it is entertaining and hilarious." -- TV Guide

"TV Nation may be the rarest of species, a television program both funny and important." -- The Wall Street Journal

Product Description

Imagine. . . waking up the CEO of a car alarm company with the sound of a dozen car alarms going off outside his home. . . sending someone in a chicken suit to volunteer his crime-fighting abilities to local authorities. . .hiring a chorus line to sing songs of tolerance to the KKK. . .

Michael Moore, creator and host of the Emmy Award-winning TV Nation series, did all that - and a lot more.Daring to turn this country on its ear with outrageous, irreverent stunts, Moore went in search of his own brand of gentle justice.

In Adventures in a TV Nation, he recounts some of the show's most memorable episodes, including the CEO Challenge - sure they can run huge corporations, but can the CEO of Phillip Morris roll a cigarette; has Baron Hilton ever made a bed; can the Chairman of Citibank use an ATM? Moore and Company set out to see if your average CEO really knows his product.

Also included on this audio are some of the ones that kissed the cutting room floor. Though TV Nation got a lot of leeway, there were some subjects the networks felt were too racy to air, like the man in search of “small” sized condoms, a re-enactment of the LA Riots (if Civil War fanatics do it, why can't we?), and a “where are they now?” segment on the key players in the Savings and Loan Scandal.

Always willing to question authority, confront ignorance, and lampoon societal mores, Michael Moore, Kathleen Glynn, and the TV Nation team will have you in stitches as they careen down the highways of America trying to make it a better'and a funnier'place to live.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 1st edition (October 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060988096
• ISBN-13: 978-0060988098
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #666,229 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and funny, November 29, 1999

By	Michael J. Gelfand (Jericho, NY United States) - See all my reviews

I never saw TV Nation despite the fact that I am a big Michael Moore fan so I gave this book a read. TV Nation was truly a unique show, and is probably the only show that has ever gone out of its way to insult its sponsors and bosses. The book gives detailed summaries of some of the more memorable episodes, including Haulin' Communism, The Invasion of the Private Greenwhich beach and many others. The show's esploits were controversial and I am sure many were enflamed by some of what was aired. However, it is a shame TV Nation did not last longer because it's commentary on social issues has yet to be matched. On a historic note, TV Nation was Buford Furrow's only TV appearance, as he was a Klansmen present when Moore gathered an interracial singing group to perform "Stop in the Name of Love" in front of several white supremacist organizations.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More & Moore Television, July 7, 2004

By	OverTheMoon ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

TV NATION is also written by Kathleen Glynn but this book is Moore through and through and is much easier on the brain than Moore's other publications and certainly a lot Moore fun. You can get TV NATION on VHS at the moment but the DVD release is on the way soon. Basically Moore and his production team got backing to do a television series about various topics in America that concern the average Joe Soap after he finished making Roger & Me. The result was the award winning TV NATION and this book talks about the shows and what they did. Here are some of things they got up too.

* Love night for the KKK - Moore goes around with minority groups to KKK meetings.
* The invasion of Greenwich Beach, Connecticut - The locals have hired security to keep people off this beach other than themselves.
* Payback - Setting off car alarms outside of a major car alarm manufacturer's house. Calling up the boss's of telemarketers all day long etc.
* Crackers - The corporate crime fighter chicken that goes around American exposing corporate crime.
* Getting CEOs to see if they know anything about the products they sell - Can they roll a cigarette?
* Brian Anthony - A black American who has been arrested and questioned hundreds of times even though he has a totally clean record.
* Black Vs White Taxi stopping - Who will the driver pick up? The black or the white guy?
* Kentucky Slaves! - In 1995 Kentucky decided to abolish slavery.
* 1.5 Million Lock-ups and growing - what to do when you are the one in eight sent to prison.
* Selling your country - How to band together and sell your country over to the next one and get rich quick.
* Solicitation - How Junk Mail works and what kind of can WE send to people around America.
* Corporate Sabotage - How to get even the REAL way.
* Yuri the KGB spy - who because he does not have a job after the Cold War goes working for Mike instead in America. Missions include - Who is buried in Nixon's grave.
* Flint Nukes - Mike goes to Russia in search of the Nuke that was targeted on his home town.
* Communism Across America - Mike buys a big truck, paints it red with a hammer and sickle and has it driven across America to see what will happen.
* Serial Killer Neighbours - White? Male? How much can you really get away with? Why not EXPERIMENT and see!
* Cobb County - How much tax money does that place get and for what?
* Peace in Bosnia - How Mike got the heads of the warring factions to sing Barney songs... I love you... you love me..
* Lobby Congress - for $5,000 Mike manages to buy a new congress bill calling for August 16th, 1994 to be known as TV NATION day... and gets it!

Mike then talks about what was CENSORED from the TV nation shows and why, including spots featuring anti-abortionists threatening to kill people. Following this interview two abortion clinic workers where murdered by an anti-abortionist who probably prefers the old days of $5 backstreet coat hanger jobs. The Savings and Loans scandal was never aired because most of the rich where never convicted. The story about a young boy who turns up at the funeral of AIDS victims with a big sign that say - God Hates Fags, was also cut from the series. They where not allowed to air segments on condoms nor where they allowed to recreate the LA riots like we do Civil War enactments nor where they actually allowed to reveal that CUBA has better MEDICAL CARE than America.

This is great fun and informative read. If you can get the series on DVD or VHS then it makes it the even more enjoyable. This is a great Moore book with the usual witty lines every paragraph or so. Certainly one for the Moore collection and it maybe even be a little better than Stupid White Men.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun read, once, I guess., April 11, 2003

By	E. R. Burgess "Boardgame Babylon" (San Dimas, CA United States) - See all my reviews

True fans of TV Nation will enjoy this book but you won't go back for quotes and lend it to friends like "Stupid White Men" and "Downsize This!" Just anecdotal details from the filming of the late, great "TV Nation", one of television's finest shows.