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.