Television Comedy Series: An Episode Guide to 153 TV Sitcoms in Syndication (Library Binding)

by Joel Eisner (Author), David Krinsky (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"monumental...exhaustive index" -- American Libraries

"prodigious amount of research" -- Booklist/RBB

"thorough...excellent.... Any public or academic library interested in popular culture should purchase it" -- Choice

"useful" -- Library Journal

Product Description
A first: episode-by-episode titles, dates, writer, director (when available), producer, music, syndication credits, guest stars, plot line. Background data for each series.

Product Details

• Library Binding: 880 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (March 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899500889
• ISBN-13: 978-0899500881
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,985,248 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This volume is a must for TV writers and avid TV comedy fans, August 7, 1997

By A Customer

As a TV Sitcom writer/producer I was particularly enthralled by this labor-intensive work. It has excellent "TV-Guide-style" synopses of the most popular syndicated shows, and even some cult favorites we may never see again. Not only is it an excellent record, often reflecting "the signs of the times", and superior single-volume reference work, going through the various story lines is a great springboard for ideas for new sitcom stories. My only wish is if they were a) more thorough with the credits for writers of episodes in particular, and b)they churned out a new edition. It's been over 10 years, boys

4.0 out of 5 stars Relevant in its day, but "is now quite dated". , January 29, 2007

By	Michael E. Keough "spiritof66usa" (Easthampton, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Is now quite dated" is how these Mork & Mindy generation authors refer to most of the series that pre-date their viewing era. At the time this book was published there probably wasn't anything else available with this information, but now just about all the contents of this book can be easily found on the internet (on websites that most likely took their info from this book.) If you can find a copy for a few bucks, go for it. Otherwise save your money.

3.0 out of 5 stars Leaves much to be desired, August 9, 2003

By	Darcio R. M. Rodrigues (Sao Paulo, SP Brazil) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While this may be an useful quick reference book for TV fans or researchers, the information it provides is far from complete. Episode synopsis are too brief (often just a couple of lines), helpful only if you already know and remember very well the plot of the episodes you've seen and want to identify them by title. Directors and writers of each episode are in most cases not listed. The lists of guest actors are usually incomplete, and the names of the characters played by each actor are not listed. No airdates are given, and the episodes are not even separated by season -- you just can't tell which season each episode belongs to! In many cases it is very easy, today, to gather all that information from fan sites in the internet. Considering, however, that this book was written in the 80's, when there was no internet, some credit must be given to its authors for what must have been a painstaking research. But now it is badly in need of revising and enlarging.