The History of the Present

It's always difficult to write the history of the present. However, if you were attempt to look at television today through the lenses used in this course, how would you describe it?  Take one example of a current trend in television and analyze it.  

Convergence Television

Discuss how you see two of John Caldwell’s five elements of convergence television (outlined on page 46 of his essay) applying to the television you consume today. 

Webisodes & Clips

Please post a webisode or youtube video that's entertained you lately.  Don't worry about commenting much on it in introduction, but please use your 200 words to comment on a clip that another class member uploads.  Last blog post due anytime before course final exam.

CONVERGE: Section Prompt Dec. 4

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-may-16-2011/well--that-was-fast---comcast-nbc-merger

Hello,

This week please come to section prepared to discuss the following questions about Caldwell's "Convergence Television" essay:

1. What is convergence TV? 
2. How do you define Caldwell's 5 "protodigital"/convergence industrial and aesthetic changes? What changes in industrial and programming practice did they entail (ie what were their effects)?
   HINT: the five changes are:
   -ancillary textuality, repurposing/migrating content
   -conglomerating textuality, convergence texts
   -marketing textuality, branding
   -ritual textuality, pitching, committee writing
   -programming textuality, stunting, sweeps
3. Why did syndication rights become more important in convergent TV? 
4. What is an example of convergence TV that you can think of and easily demonstrate on a computer (come to section prepared to share)? 

Thanks! Welcome back from the holiday!

Josh

Effect of the Telecommunications Policy of 1996 (due by section meeting Wed.)

Discuss one or more of the major effects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 on technology, content, or industrial policy.  Why do you think the FCC enforced more regulation on content at the same time that they ushered in less regulation on media corporations?  

Every Single Week (due by section meeting Wed.)

According to Anna McCarthy, ABC’s president, Robert A Iger, said of Ellen that it “became a program about a character who was gay every single week, and… that was too much for people.”  McCarthy describes this perspective as maintaining the “fantasy of queer identity as something that can be switched on for special occasions” along with a “fear of a quotidian, ongoing lesbian life on television.”  Since Ellen’s coming out episode in 1997, a number of queer characters, generally secondary characters, have appeared on both broadcast and cable television.  Choose a program with a queer character from the 2000s that you are familiar with and examine whether or not that character’s relationship to their sexuality is truly serialized or only focused on during “special occasions,” whether to play up a particular stance on sexual identity or for eroticizing reasons.

Take-aways

Now that we're near the end of the semester, what have you learned or taken away from the study of Television History?  Feel free to focus on one topic or provide a short summary of various points. 

The Sexy 90's: Section Prompt Nov. 27

Hello!

For this Wednesday, please come prepared with a definition/understanding of the terms "postnetwork" TV, cumulative narrative, and world building. (Hint: we are discussing the Sconce essay assigned for last week.) Also, be prepared to watch some kickass TV.

Over and out, and happy essay writing.
Josh

And Now for Something Completely Different: Section Prompt Nov. 20

Hello all!

Please come to section this week ready to discuss Caldwell’s Trash TV article. With regards to my questions below, please be ready to provide page numbers referencing your answers or places you have questions about to go into the text. This will help us keep the conversation moving so we also have time to talk about editing your papers at the end of section. 

1. How does Caldwell define postmodernism? (hints: modernism and postmodernism not being set up as a dichotomy, spectacle, specularity, empty signs/signifiers, pastiche)
2. How does Pee-Wee’s Playhouse have an oppositional look and mainstream attitude according to Caldwell? 
3. How does Pee-Wee’s Playhouse work through social issues as a process of stylization and conflate the social into the psychological (hint: page 211-onward). 

Here are key terms/lists that Caldwell includes that will help you answer these questions. In a class I took on postmodernism and performance with Dr. EJ Westlake in the theatre department (shout out!) I learned that the best way to learn PoMo anything is to enact it, so in our discussion we will go to the terms from this list that people are drawn towards, and use them to link to others in whatever random chain our discussion follows. It may feel chaotic, but it will help us practice the theory that’s being discussed. Each list has the term that Caldwell uses, then one key phrase I picked out that helps explain that term. (Also, you can use this chart as a study guide for this dense article down the road!)

(Radical) Modernist Forms	PoMo Ideologies and Styles	Stylization and Conflating the Social and Psychological
Narrative intransivity (textual fragmentation)	Reality into Images (world as pictures)	Interior vs. exterior (home as psychological barrier)
Estrangement (objectification)	Perpetual presents (temporal and atemporal oddity)	Extreme specularity (primacy of visual, ways of watching/spectatorship)
Foregrounding (form over content)	Pastiche (retrostyled blank/empty parody with historical amnesia)	Extremely mediated communications (distancing)
Multiple diegesis (subplots with multiple narrators)	Schizophrenia (incoherent signifiers)	Reversals of Race, Class, Gender (ambiguity, perpetual anxiety)
Aperture (irresolution and openness)		Commodities, consumption (celebration of consumption, learning to be a good consumer)
Displeasure (pain and art)		Pee-Wee as Recombitant Bricoleur (bricolage, repurposing items to have endless meanings)
Reality (direct address)		Site of extreme intertextuality (characteristics of other media/arts inside the TV text)
		Social-to-Psychological: Pee-Wee as Therapeutic Discourse (forever socially alienated, constant escape/retreat)

I know this is a lot of information: don’t freak out! This article is dense, and you don’t have to master it! The key to reading theory well is to engage with it, ask questions, have a conversation, and take from it what you can! See if you can feel confident about one or two key concepts, then let it rest until section. 

See you Wednesday, and happy writing!

Josh

PS: I have posted my writing tips powerpoint on CTools for you to look at if you like. It includes the diagram for the research and writing process that I talked about last week.

PPS: And now for something completely different:

PPPS: The larch.

Deconstructing the Simpsons

Analyze two examples of postmodern style in the Simpsons episode "The Front" (April 15, 1993; available on Paley) using terms from John Caldwell's essay.  (Responses of 200 words will count as one blog post, 400 words as two blog posts; due 11/25):

https://www-paleyicollection-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/Library.aspx#/Details/T:45330

Synergetic Practices (Extended Deadline--Due before Section 11/20)

What is synergy?  How does it operate within a contemporary media environment primarily run by large conglomorates?  Give one example of synergy (you can use an example from the present if you wish). 

Yuppie Guilt in Contemporary TV

After reading "Yuppie Envy Vs. Yuppie Guilt" by Jane Feuer and from our screenings of "thirtysomething", "Moonlighting", and "Miami Vice", we have seen that yuppie guilt is characterized by glorification of consumption, but a nagging conscience of an idealistic past. Is the portrayal of a yuppie limited to just the 1980s, or can we find examples of it in modern TV? In which genres is it most prevalent? How might this new version of the yuppie be different from the one explained by Feuer? (Also, post YouTube clips of the shows you're discussing! YouTube clips are fun.)

Guilt and Reaganomics in the Postmodern Age - Section Prompt Nov. 13

Hello!

Here are the things I'd like you to consider for section this week:

1. According to Feuer, what are some important characteristics 80’s TV as a medium and in its relationship to the government, Reaganism, and postmodernism (key terms: complicitous critique, MTV, art/commerce, cable flow, authoritarian populism)? 
2. What is a yuppie? What is yuppie guilt, how is it integral to being a yuppie, and how does Feuer argue it was portrayed on TV in the 80’s? How are yuppies tied to her larger argument about TV in the 80’s? What are some examples from our screenings that expound yuppie culture and yuppie guilt? How do they appeal to both leftist and rightist viewers through giving multiple subject positions to identify with/through?
3. Please bring with you any questions you have about the final essay that pertain to the class (ie more general issues about writing, argumentation, narrowing your topic, etc. -please bring individual questions about your particular project for office hours). Over the next few weeks I’ll be taking some of each section to talk about tips for writing research essays.

And here are two videos to get you in the postmodern mood: 

Blondie's "Rapture" (Please note the goat: the running joke in the class I took last year on PoMo theory/performance was that it isn't truly postmodern without a goat.)

And, of course, "Safety Dance." Because awesome. 

Cheers!

Josh

Class in 1980s TV (Worth 2 Blog Posts!)

Watch one of the three 1980s television episodes linked below and write 400 words on the representations of class within Roseanne, LA Law, or COPS.  This post will count as two blog posts.  

LA LAW, s.1, ep.1

Roseanne, s.1, ep. 1

COPS, pilot (please watch all of the parts on youtube)

Yuppie Guilt

Based on your viewing of our screening of Thirtysomething as well as Feuer's analysis of the program--what role do you think yuppie guilt plays on the show and how is it represented?  

MTM vs. Lear

From your viewings of All in the Family, Good Times, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show and your reading of Kirsten Lentz’s essay, how do you think Norman Lear’s shows differed from MTM’s?  Why do you think the term “quality” was often used to refer to MTM’s shows and “relevance” to label Lear’s programs?  How does Lentz see these productions as differing?  

Changes to Josh's Section and Office Hours Week of Nov. 5-8

Dear Students,

This week I will be unable to attend section and my normal office hours time due to an event series I'm running of the intersections of Queer Theory, Film Theory, and French Cinema (flyer here, you should come out if you're interested in these topics!)

As such, you will be combining your section with Nathan's, who will teach both simultaneously. Section will be held in Studio A in the basement of North Quad in the production wing. If you don't know where this is I suggest you head over a few minutes early as it can be weird to locate. If you go down either set of stairs or the elevator that are near Space 2345 and the two accessible bathrooms on the ground floor of the academic (not residential) tower you'll be in the right area.

Also, my office hours this week will be Thursday from 9-11am (rather than 11-1). Please note this if you need to see me, and if you can't make those times, email me to set up an alternate appointment.

Thanks for your flexibility everyone.

Josh

Smothering TV

Why did CBS censor The Smothers Brothers? How did The Smothers Brothers respond to CBS’s attempts at censorship?  How did questions of what constitutes appropriate content for network TV play out in the late 1960s and early 1970s and how do they play out today?  

Group 1 Amanda, Terry, and Kelsey

            Lentz introduces the idea of “quality” television and “relevant” television which grew out the 1970’s industrial changes occurring in the television industry. With the rise of independent production studios,  the fall of this “network hegemony” where the network would control the messages output by the television shows, and narrow casting and segmentation first showing up, these two ways of looking at television began to be discussed in literature about television. Often times, they would discuss “quality” and “relevant” television together and discuss their similarities, but Lentz’s argument is focusing on the differences between the two discourses. Mary Tyler Moore and the production company behind the show was seen as “quality” television and focused on feminism and improving images of females on television, but delivered this through a self-reflexive critique of the medium of television. As Lentz discusses in her article, the most apparent critique of this is the fact that Mary was an associate producer of a news station that always seemed to have something going wrong. While the production company for the MTM show wanted to present a more “modern” show of womanhood on television, they also wanted present television as a more “modern” medium and leave behind the old scandals of the 60’s. Mary works for an old-style news program that often has a bumbling man in front of the camera, making mistakes. As Mary advances through the television industry, she is putting a female face in power and creating something “new” and “modern” which is exactly the image of television that Mary Tyler Moore was trying to advance.

            “Relevant” on the other hand, wanted to ground its portrayal in the actual. Rather than a critique of the medium, shows like All in the Family paid more attention to racial issues situated in actual situations. But shows like All in the Family didn’t handle them quite as sensitively, and often showed controversial issues. Relevant shows weren’t as high quality, often grainy, but attempted to treat other issues rather than the hegemonic viewpoint on race, but too often divided these issues into the “right” and “wrong.”

For our clips, they are the more contemporary representation of “quality” television, like the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Liz Lemon also is single and works in the television industry, much like Mary. But 30 Rock has more of a normalization that a single woman in her 30’s has a job of power and also explores her dating life more than the MTM show. It’s not weird that a woman is single on this show because of the different time frames and different context around feminist issues. In the longer clip, Liz Lemon brings up the idea of women dressing a certain way in order to make others feel comfortable and being uncomfortable with  the way a woman dresses and how that impacts her image, which is a very debated topic among feminists today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkdRfbN6eew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ZFv6jsUMg

Blue Skies and Relevant Quality(?) - Section Prompt Oct. 30

Hello section!

For this Wednesday, please prepare to discuss the following:

1) What is Streeter's argument in "Blue Skies and Strange Bedfellows," especially regarding the discourse around cable television in the late 60's and early 70's? How does his piece fit into the history of cable/CATV that Dr. Moore discussed in lecture last week? How does Streeter deploy discourse analysis to make his case?

2) What is Lentz's argument about quality vs. relevant TV? How does it connect to the larger issues about the representation of race, gender, and sexuality that we have been discussing throughout the term? How do our screenings of All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, and Good Times explain, explore, or contend with the arguments of this essay?

3) Come prepared with a YouTube/internet-accessible video 2-4 minutes in length that relates to one or both of the questions above from our contemporary moment and be ready to explain why you think it is relevant to our discussion.

Also, please note, we will be doing group work that requires that each group have a laptop, so please bring yours along if it is convenient.

See you Wednesday!
Josh

Midterm Pre-party: Section Prompt Oct. 23

And by pre-party, I mean review session! Huzzah!

This Wednesday we will spend about 40 minutes of section reviewing for the mid-term exam on Thursday.

This review session will not involve me lecturing you on the material, or me answering every question. It will be run as a group review session where you bring both your notes on the review material and your questions. Then you ask your questions, and your peers answer them. Then, when your peers ask questions, you can answer them from your work. As such, I am expecting to see written study notes and for everyone to participate.

On Thanksgiving Television History Will Be Made.

Gaga. Muppets. RuPaul. Elton John. Joseph Gordon Levitt. That is all.
Holiday Madness Special. That will likely be full of glitter and feathers.

Responses to Julia

Discuss the range of viewer responses to Julia described by Bodrohkozy's article.  Based on your viewing of the pilot and our discussion of television and race in the 1960s, why do you think the show was interpreted so many different ways? Why, for example, would some critics refer to the show or the character Julia as “white?”

Blue Skies

Why do you think that Thomas Streeter titles his essay the way he does?  What do “blue skies” and “strange bedfellows” have to do with 1960s discussions about the possibilities of cable television?  Does the language used around cable at that time sound similar to the way new media technologies are discussed today? Explain. 

Stuff I Play Before Section: Contemporary Engagements with Race in the US

Hello sections,

Last week I had a fair amount of interest in the videos I was playing before class. I chose them when thinking about the role of TV in portraying race relations and tensions in American society for our discussion of Crisis etc., and how they evoke the ways that things (haven't) changed since then. Also, they're great music.

Kanye West, "Love Lockdown." I am not a huge Kanye fan, but this video, apparently his response to the book/film American Psycho, is extremely complicated in how it deals with black subjectivity/identity, the sexualization and fetishization of black (female) sexuality, and stereotypes of savagery in conflict with class aspirations and negative racial stereotypes. This video defies straightforward interpretation and analysis, and for that alone is worth watching with a critical eye.

Janelle Monae, "Cold War."

Janelle Monae, "Tightrope."

Janelle Monae feat. Erykah Badu, "Q.U.E.E.N."

Janelle Monae, "Dance Apocalyptic."

This suite of videos by Janelle Monae (who everyone should know) represent an overview of the story she has been telling across her three albums about race in our increasingly cybernetic society. Monae's videos explore contemporary cultures of attrition and resilience, and how racial resistance is tied to madness and social stereotyping, while also promoting the continued expression of minority cultures in art and an artistic form of (perhaps) nonviolent resistance that resonates with what we've been learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement.

Persia "Google Google Apps Apps" This song explores the relationship between race, gentrification, and queerness in contemporary San Francisco. Blatantly political, it make an unapologetic critique of the ways that queer of colour neighbourhoods are being systematically destroyed in modern urban centres.

Have Analysis, Will Think - Section Prompt October 16, 2013

Get out yer critical thinkin’ skills gunslingers, this week is the Western!

(It's film, I know, but this is my favourite western theme out there, and truly a classic.)

For the Newcomb piece and our screening of Have Gun, Will Travel:

1. Newcomb outlines the conventional argument about Westerns, then proposes a counter argument about its social significance. What are these two arguments? Do you buy his use of Have Gun to support his position? 
2. How does Newcomb position the TV western as engaging with social issues of its time? How do the generic and medium specific differences between TV and film westerns support the TV western making a different kind of social commentary than filmic westerns?
3. How does Newcomb construct and support his argument? (hint: you should address his method, evidence, and strategies of argumentation)
4. What problems did you see in Newcomb’s argument, analysis, or writing? How would you have improved them? 

See you Wednesday. Cowboy boots and hats strongly encouraged. 

Josh

Stuff I Play Before Section

For those of you who wonder how/why I choose the videos I play before section, or are interested in seeing them again, I'm starting this thread for you. I usually choose things to play that relate to what we're discussing, but in a more contemporary context, so on this thread I will give you an idea of why I chose what I did. Feel free to respond, and we can have a conversation about what themes from TV history we see playing out in these clips. (Though please note that this thread is not one for credit/blog post grades -it's a space for exploration if you get excited about something and want to talk about it in a broader context.)

Terrifying and Totalizing TV: Section Prompt Oct. 9

Hello Section,

Thanks for all your hard work on your papers; I am looking forward to reading them!

For section this week I’d like you to think about what connections you can draw between Sconce’s piece on The Outer Limits and Spigel’s essay “White Flight.” Themes you might consider include: difference and alienation, the politics and allegories of outer space, surveillance culture, the changing family and social structure of the 1960’s, or the fear and uncertainty of the in-between. 

Please come to section prepared to talk about these two pieces and their connections. There’s more linking them together than you might expect. 

Cheers,

Josh

'Low Brow' Genres

How does Horace Newcomb's essay complicate Newton Minow’s assessment of television as a “vast wasteland”? Why does he believe that 'low brow' genres such as the western can be more complicated than they seem?  Do you agree?  Perhaps give an example of a contemporary 'low brow' show and explain why it might or might not have social relevance. 

Socially Relevant Coverage in the 1960s

Why did the networks begin to lengthen their news coverage, broadcast presidential debates, and program more socially-relevant documentaries like Crisis during the 1960s?  How did this material illuminate civil rights issues and inflect the way that people understood national politics? 

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

We can see subculture beginning to be featured in Dobie Gillis. How was this evidenced in the episode we viewed?  How might either Dobie's or Maynard's masculinities be considered non-normative? Feel free to compare the two characters.

Intense Anxieties

Based on your viewing of The Outer Limits episode “The Bellaro
Shield” and understanding of Jeffrey Sconce’s essay on the show,
explain how The Outer Limits expresses and potentially
intensifies particular anxieties prevalent during the early 1960s.

The Sound of Silence: Section Prompt Oct. 2

Hello Section!

Here are some questions for discussion this week that focus primarily on Spigel’s “Silent TV” article and our screenings. 

1.) What different definitions of “noise” does Spigel give us? What about definitions of “silent”? What are these words actually referring to with regards to the political/cultural context surrounding TV in the late 50’s and early 60’s? 

2.) How did Ernie Kovacs (supposedly?) create TV art? How is the “Silent Episode” artistic? What about our other screenings? Make a case for and/or against Kovacs or another screening as artistic. 

3.) How was TV art still enmeshed within commercial interests? 

Please keep in mind that this week is our last section and set of office hours before your first paper is due! Be prepared with any questions you have about the essay topics and writing for Wednesday. I’m going to leave time for them in section, but if you don’t come with questions, then we won’t have anything to talk about. 

Cheers,

Josh

Watch out for Communists!

Hello sections,

Here's a fun video that one of your peers shared with me that is a great anti-"communist" propaganda piece from the '60's. If you're interested in the time period, check it out.

Extra Credit--Counts as TWO Blog Posts

Extra Credit--Counts as TWO Blog Posts:

View one of the following films: Quiz Show (1994) OR Good Night, and Good Luck (2005).  Both are available at Askwith Media Center or on reserve at the Donald Hall Collection.

Keeping in mind that both of these films offer fictionalized renderings of historical circumstances, write a minimum of 400 words explaining how either the quiz show scandals (as depicted by Quiz Show) or Edward R. Murrow’s exposé of McCarthyism (as portrayed in Good Night, and Good Luck) had political results during the 1950s and shifted ideas about the medium of television and its specific genres (quiz shows or news programs). 

The Kovacs Way

Using this advertisement or the screening from class as an example, discuss how Ernie Kovacs’ artistic experiments with television sound (or silence), aesthetics, and timing dialogue with growing concerns about television’s noisiness and commercialism? 

NY vs HW, Live vs Telefilm

1950s television critics characterized New York-based live broadcasts as superior to Hollywood-based program forms for a variety of reasons.  Considering these reasons (discussed in lecture and in "Live Television"), compare a live program to one of the telefilms we've viewed in class, to make an argument with or against the critics. 

TV (mis)remembers - Section Prompt Sept. 25

Hello Sections!

This week I’d like you to come to section prepared to discuss these questions, along with any other questions you have about our readings or screenings. 

1.) What are the differences and similarities between Cripps’ and Lipsitz’s discussions of Amos ‘n’ Andy? Using them and your own observations from screening, what arguments can you make both for and against the show as a vehicle for African-American inclusion in television, American culture, and consumer culture? 

2.) How is class depicted in the various ethnic sit coms we watched and the readings discussed? What tensions do we witness between class position, ethnic and class identity, and consumerism? 

3.) How is tradition both upheld and subverted in Mama? What does this reveal about the role of sentimentality and ideology in 1950’s television and consumer culture? (Hint: Lipsitz will be helpful to this discussion...)

Finally, be sure to review the prompts for the first essay before section, and bring any questions you have about them to section. 

Happy reading,

Josh

PS: Did anyone recognize Mama from a more famous movie role?

Amos 'n' Andy

Based on Thomas Cripps’ article and your viewing of Amos ’n’ Andy this Thursday, how did the television show portray middle class African Americans?  Discuss why the sitcom became the center of a hot public debate as well as the arguments offered by each side.  

On Liveness

What are some of the advantages of live television and why do you think it was the prevailing format during TV's first decade?  What are its disadvantages?  How is "liveness" (or the illusion thereof) used by TV today?

Consumerist Morals

What does George Lipsitz mean when he suggests that working class ethnic sitcoms of the 1950s put the borrowed moral capital of the past at the service of the values of the present?  Based on his essay and your viewings this Thursday, how did these sitcoms demonstrate how "wise choices enabled consumers to have both moral and material rewards"?  

Mugging for America - Section Prompt Sept. 18

Section Prompt September 18

Hello!

Here are some questions I’d like to you think about while you prepare for section this week:

1. What are some key ways that our readings so far have shown the ways that early TV was integrated into the social fabric of American life in the 40’s and 50’s, especially in the home and in relation to gender norms? (clue: Spigel and Mann will help you a lot with this question)
2. What was happening in this moment in American history that influenced the development of TV networks and programming? (clue: think about commercialism and business interests)
3. What did you notice in our screenings so far that reflects the historical and social context of the time? Do these screenings connect/relate to any contemporary TV shows that you watch? 
4. What techniques for engaging the audience did you notice in the screenings this week? How were they similar or different from Hollywood/filmic conventions? (clue: lecture and Hilmes could supplement your own observations here)

I am looking forward to seeing you all in section this Wednesday!

Cheers,

Josh

Window on the World

How was television figured as a “window on the world” during the period of 1948-1955, according to Lynn Spigel?  Do you think television fulfills (or is portrayed as fulfilling) a similar role today?