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The Masters of Sitcom

Author: Christopher Stevens

Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books

Published: 2011-09-30

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 1843177730

Ray Galton and Alan Simpson are two of the most influential and celebrated television scriptwriters of our time. Praised for inventing the sitcom, their own seminal creations are still standing the test of time with modern audiences - Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son are two of the most successful sitcoms ever made. This book is a charming tribute to their career in comedy, written in collaboration with Galton and Simpson themselves and with exclusive access to their personal archive of scripts. Readers will discover the fascinating story of their progress from variety shows to television, and how they came to create characters and programmes that have captured the nation's heart for generations. Their insightful comments on their own writing, along with their first-class understanding of the television writers' craft, make this anthology unique, informative and incredibly entertaining.

Directing the Sitcom

Author: Joel Zwick

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2016-09-19

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1476665567

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This guided tour of the American situation comedy is given by one of the most prolific directors of the genre. Brooklyn native Joel Zwick began his career in the late 1960s at La MaMa, a New York experimental theater club, before moving to Hollywood to become a successful director during the sitcom's golden age. He describes the 10 steps of sitcom production and outlines the five-day process, from the early "table read" to the final shoot in front of a live audience. Behind-the-scenes anecdotes include personal and professional experiences with actors Tom Hanks, Penny Marshall, Robin Williams, Jamie Foxx, the cast of Full House and many more.

Sitcom Writers Talk Shop

Author: Paula Finn

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-09-22

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1538109190

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Behind every great television show is a group of professionals working at the top of their games—but no one is more important than the writers. And while writing comedy, especially good comedy, is serious business—fraught with actor egos, demanding producers, and sleepless nights—it also can result in classic lines of dialogue. Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy is a collection of conversations with the writers responsible for some of the most memorable shows in television comedy. The men and women interviewed here include series creators, show runners, and staff writers whose talent and hard work have generated literally millions of laughs. In addition to Reiner (The Dick Van Dyke Show) and Lear (All in the Family), this book features in-depth interviews with: James L. Brooks (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons) Al Jean (The Simpsons, The Critic) Leonard Stern (The Honeymooners, Get Smart) Treva Silverman (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) Ken Estin (Cheers) Matt Williams (Roseanne, Home Improvement) Dava Savel (Ellen) Larry Charles (Seinfeld) David Lee (Frasier) Phil Rosenthal (Everybody Loves Raymond) Mike Reiss (The Simpsons) From these conversations, readers will learn that the business of writing funny has never been all laughs. Writers discuss the creative process, how they get unstuck, the backstories of iconic episodes, and how they cope with ridiculous censors, outrageous actors, and their own demons and fears. Sitcom Writers Talk Shop will appeal to fans of all of these shows and may serve as inspiration to anyone considering a life in comedy.

The Sitcom Reader, Second Edition

Author: Mary M. Dalton

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2016-05-12

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 1438461313

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Updated version of an engaging overview of the television situation comedy. This updated and expanded anthology offers an engaging overview of one of the oldest and most ubiquitous forms of television programming: the sitcom. Through an analysis of formulaic conventions, the contributors address critical identities such as race, gender, and sexuality, and overarching structures such as class and family. Organized by decade, chapters explore postwar domestic ideology and working-class masculinity in the 1950s, the competing messages of power and subordination in 1960s magicoms, liberated women and gender in 1970s workplace comedies and 1980s domestic comedies, liberal feminism in the 1990s, heteronormative narrative strategies in the 2000s, and unmasking myths of gender in the 2010s. From I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners to Roseanne, Cybill, and Will & Grace to Transparent and many others in between, The Sitcom Reader provides a comprehensive examination of this popular genre that will help readers think about the shows and themselves in new contexts.

The 50 Most Influential Britons of the Past 100 Years

Author: Peter Pugh

Publisher: Icon Books Ltd

Published: 2016-03-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1785780352

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Peter Pugh presents his selection of – not the best, fastest, most successful or richest – but the 50 most influential British men and women of the modern world – for good or ill. Pugh discusses and ranks the influence of scientists and inventors such as Francis Crick, John Logie Baird and Alan Turing; lawmakers and leaders like prime ministers Attlee, Churchill and Thatcher; entrepreneurs including James Dyson, Mary Quant and Terence Conran; and cultural icons like J.K. Rowling, who, in the words of Lisa Simpson no less, ‘turned a generation of kids onto reading’. One of the most influential Britons in Pugh’s book achieved influence by saying nothing for over 60 years, and the top three places are held by an economist, a scientist and a civil servant ... In what amounts to a whistle-stop tour through recent British history, this undoubtedly contentious and wholly enjoyable book will spark countless debates across our sceptred isle.

A State of Play

Author: Steven Fielding

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2014-04-24

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1849669813

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A State of Play explores how the British have imagined their politics, from the parliament worship of Anthony Trollope to the cynicism of The Thick of It. In an account that mixes historical with political analysis, Steven Fielding argues that fictional depictions of politics have played an important but insidious part in shaping how the British think about their democracy and have helped ventilate their many frustrations with Westminster. He shows that dramas and fictions have also performed a significant role in the battle of ideas, in a way undreamt of by those who draft party manifestos. The book examines the work of overtly political writers have treated the subject, discussing the novels of H.G. Wells, the comedy series Yes, Minister and the plays of David Hare. However, it also assesses how less obvious sources, such as the films of George Formby, the novels of Agatha Christie, the Just William stories and situation comedies like Steptoe and Son, have reflected on representative democracy. A State of Play is an invaluable, distinctive and engaging guide to a new way of thinking about Britain's political past and present.

The Church on British Television

Author: Marcus Harmes

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 3030381137

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This book will be the first systematic and comprehensive text to analyze the many and contrasting appearances of the Church of England on television. It covers a range of genres and programs including crime drama, science fiction, comedy, including the specific genre of ‘ecclesiastical comedy’, zombie horror and non-fiction broadcasting. Readers interested in church and political history, popular culture, television and broadcasting history, and the social history of modern Britain will find this to be a lively and timely book. Programs that year after year sit enshrined as national favourites (for example Dad’s Army and Midsomer Murders) foreground the Church. From the Queen’s Christmas Message to royal weddings and Coronation Street, the clergy and services of England’s national church abound in television. This book offers detailed analysis of landmark examples of small screen output and raises questions relating to the storytelling strategies of program makers, the way the established Church is delineated, and the transformation over decades of congregations into audiences.

Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television

Author: Bob McCann

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2022-09-23

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 1476691401

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The first work of its kind, this encyclopedia provides 360 brief biographies of African American film and television acPER010000tresses from the silent era to 2009. It includes entries on well-known and nearly forgotten actresses, running the gamut from Academy Award and NAACP Image Award winners to B-film and blaxpoitation era stars. Each entry has a complete filmography of the actress's film, TV, music video or short film credits. The work also features more than 170 photographs, some of them rare images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Teacher TV

Author: Mary M. Dalton

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9780820497150

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Teacher TV: Sixty Years of Teachers on Television examines some of the most influential teacher characters presented on television from the earliest sitcoms to contemporary dramas and comedies. Both topical and chronological, the book follows a general course across decades and focuses on dominant themes and representations, linking some of the most popular shows of the era to larger cultural themes. Some of these include: - a view of how gender is socially constructed in popular culture and in society - racial tensions throughout the decades - educational privileges for elite students - the mundane and the provocative in teacher depictions on television - the view of gender and sexual orientation through a new lens - life in inner-city public schools - the culture of testing and dropping out Every pre-service and classroom teacher should read this book. It is also a valuable text for upper-division undergraduate and graduate level courses in media and education as well.