It's Not TV
Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era
Preview
Book Description
Since first going on the air in 1972, HBO has continually attempted to redefine television as we know it. Today, pay television (and HBO in particular) is positioned as an alternative to network offerings, consistently regarded as the premier site for what has come to be called "quality television."
This collection of new essays by an international group of media scholars argues that HBO, as part of the leading edge of television, is at the center of television studies’ interests in market positioning, style, content, technology, and political economy. The contributors focus on pioneering areas of analysis and new critical approaches in television studies today, highlighting unique aspects of the "HBO effect" to explore new perspectives on contemporary television from radical changes in technology to dramatic shifts in viewing habits.
It’s Not TV provides fresh insights into the "post-television network" by examining HBO’s phenomenally popular and pioneering shows, including The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City as well as its failed series, such as K Street and The Comeback. The contributors also explore the production process itself and the creation of a brand commodity, along with HBO’s place as a market leader and technological innovator.
Contributors: Kim Akass, Cara Louise Buckley, Rhiannon Bury, Joanna L. Di Mattia, Blake D. Ethridge, Tony Kelso, Marc Leverette, David Marc, Janet McCabe, Conor McGrath, Shawn McIntosh, Brian L. Ott, Avi Santo, Lisa Williamson
Foreword by Toby Miller
Marc Leverette is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture and co-editor of Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead and Oh My God, They Deconstructed South Park! Those Bastards!
Brian L. Ott is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age.
Cara Louise Buckley is a lecturer at Emerson College.
Table of Contents
Foreword: It's Television. It's HBO, Toby Miller
Introduction: If It's Not TV, Then What?, Marc Leverette, Brian L. Ott, and Cara Buckley-Ott
Part I: Industry and Economics
Introduction: The Not TV Industry, Marc Leverette
1. Para-Television and Discourses of Distinction: The Culture of Production at HBO, Avi Santo
2. And Now No Word from our Sponsors: How HBO Puts the Risk Back Into Television, Tony Kelso
3. Will Yingshuiji Buzz Help HBO Asia?, Shawn McIntosh
4. It's Not TV, it's HBO's Original Programming: Producing Quality TV, Janet McCabe and Kim Akass
Part II: Text and Contexts
Introduction: The Not TV Text, Brian L. Ott
5. Carnivàle: TV Drama without TV Genre, David Marc
6. Challenging Sitcom Conventions: From The Larry Sanders Show to The Comeback, Lisa Williamson
7. "Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits," Marc Leverette
8. Baltimore on The Wire: The Tragic Moralism of David Simon, Blake D. Ethridge
Part III: Audiences and Identity
Introduction: The Not TV Audience, Cara Louise Buckley
9. K Street: "Raping HBO" or "What HBO is All About"?, Conor McGrath
10. Praise You Like I Should: Cyberfans and Six Feet Under, Rhiannon Bury
11. Fashion(able/ing) Selves: Consumption, Identity, and Sex and the City, Cara Louise Buckley and Brian L. Ott
12. "No Country for the Infirm": Angels in an Unchanged America, Joanna L. Di Mattia
Editor(s)
Biography
Marc Leverette is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture and co-editor of Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead and Oh My God, They Deconstructed South Park! Those Bastards!
Brian L. Ott is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age.
Cara Louise Buckley is Lecturer at Emerson College.
Reviews
"The ultimate question of this varied collection is not whether HBO is TV, but whether television today is the same as it once was: has TV not changed to take account of new forms of leisure, new social and sexual mores, new modes of electronic entertainment and so on? With verve, the authors approach the HBO phenomenon from multiple perspectives to make clear its important role in a new, complex media landscape."--Dana Polan, Professor of Cinema Studies, NYU, and author of The Sopranos
"If HBO represents the apogee of post-network programming, the essays collected here represent the new wave in television studies. Cutting through HBO's self-promotional hype, the authors closely examine industrial and economic issues, while also discussing specific programs and audience responses. This extremely informative book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the key issues in today's TV industry."--Heather Hendershot, author of Shaking the World for Jesus and editor of Nickelodeon Nation
"The editors have carefully assembled an in-depth investigation unlike any before, and are to be saluted for the breadth and depth of this important work. HBO has redefined modern television, and this book, has in its own way, helped to redefine the way we look at HBO."--Brian Cogan, Molloy College