Television

During the Must See TV 1990s, Americans enjoyed such immensely popular sitcoms as Friends, Seinfeld, Home Improvement and The Drew Carey Show. S...

On December 31, 1939, nationwide radio audiences listened as 17-year-old Josephine Owaissa Cottle, a Texas schoolgirl, won Gateway to Hollywood'...

Jackie Gleason once said, Television critics are men who report traffic accidents to eyewitnesses. But aren't we all TV critics? It's a question th...

Fictional war narratives often employ haunted battlefields, super-soldiers, time travel, the undead and other imaginative elements of science fi...

Anne Bancroft (1931-2005) was an American film, television and stage actress, stage producer and film director. Respected for her acting prowess...

Launched in 1977 by the Christian Broadcasting Service (originally associated with Pat Robertson), the ABC Family/Freeform network has gone thro...

Peplum or sword-and-sandal films--an Italian genre of the late 1950s through the 1960s--featured ancient Greek, Roman and Biblical stories with ...

Over the past half-century Doctor Who has defined science fiction television. The women in the series--from orphans and heroic mothers to seduct...

Game of Thrones has changed the landscape of television during an era hailed as the Golden Age of TV. An adaptation of George R.R. Martins epic fan...

Clear all moorings, one-half impulse power and set course for a mare incognitum... A popular culture artifact of the New Frontier/Space Race ...

British author and essayist George Orwell shot to fame with two iconic novels:the anti-Stalinist satire Animal Farm and the dystopian masterpiec...

Over fourteen seasons, the television series Supernatural has developed a devoted following of both fans and scholars. The show has addressed some ...

Though it lasted just two seasons, Twin Peaks (1990-1991) raised the bar for television and is now considered one of the great dramas in TV hist...

The Wire (2002-2008) was a searing exploration of post-9/11 America. It detailed the struggles of those living in America's disintegrating industri...

Doc Savage is the prototype of the modern fictional superhero. The character exploded onto the scene in 1933, with the Great Depression and the ...

Television comedy traces its roots to vaudeville, radio and film, from which it developed its own unique forms to make the audience laugh. These...

Starting in 1996, U.S. television saw an influx of superhuman female characters who could materialize objects like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, d...

This is a complete revision of the author's 1993 McFarland book Television Specials that not only updates entries contained within that edition,...

Following on author Peter Rollins' motto If it isn't popular, it isn't culture, this collection of new essays considers Vince Gilligan's award-w...

From the French and Indian War to the Civil War, well over a hundred years of American history is reflected through the lives of six bold and fa...

Emma Peel wearing her kinky boots. Amanda King and her poppy seed cake. Julie Barnes at her hippie pad. Honey West with her pet ocelot. Televisi...

L. Frank Baum's novel, The Wizard of Oz, has spawned 39 official sequels, over 100 unofficial sequels, well nearly 40 films, several TV series, mus...

While many fans remember The Lone Ranger, Ace Drummond and others, fewer focus on the facts that serials had their roots in silent film and that...

This book finally casts a spotlight upon some almost forgotten, short-lived sitcoms--those which aired for a single season. Many books have already...

From The Real Housewives of Atlanta to Flavor of Love, reality shows with predominantly black casts have often been criticized for their negative r...

Since the early 2000s, zombies have increasingly swarmed the landscape of popular culture, with ever more diverse representations of the undead ...

Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart of Finding Your Roots, the companion book t...

The Paramilitary Hero on Turkish Television: A Case Study on Valley of the Wolves explores the representation and reception of nationalism and masc...