The Platinum Age of Television
From I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific
1 of 1 copy available
Darwin had his theory of evolution, and David Bianculli has his. Bianculli's theory has to do with the concept of quality television: what it is and, crucially, how it got that way. In tracing the evolutionary history of our progress toward a Platinum Age of Television—our age, the era of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad and Mad Men and The Wire and Homeland and Girls—he focuses on the development of the classic TV genres, among them the sitcom, the crime show, the miniseries, the soap opera, the western, the animated series and the late night talk show. In each genre, he selects five key examples of the form, tracing its continuities and its dramatic departures and drawing on exclusive and in-depth interviews with many of the most famed auteurs in television history.
Television has triumphantly come of age artistically; David Bianculli's book is the first to date to examine, in depth and in detail and with a keen critical and historical sense, how this inspiring development came about.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
November 15, 2016 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780735285231
- File size: 677184 KB
- Duration: 23:30:47
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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NPR's "Fresh Air" guest host and TV critic narrates his less-than-entertaining look at television's programming quality over the years. The author's plodding narration strangely parallels what too often seems like endless lists of series cast members. Bianculli arbitrarily identifies examples of television's evolving quality without convincing or thoughtful discussion. He often sounds like press releases for many of the television series discussed. Brief interviews with key players such as Mel Brooks pepper the work. Overall, there is insufficient interpretation, insight, and critical perspective in this book, and the workmanlike narration is congruent to it. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
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