1st Edition
Television Directors, Race, and Gender Written Out of the Story
Introduction
Part I: Directors from Other Mediums
1. “Marty”: Delbert Mann, Paddy Chayefsky, and Live Television Direction
2. Martin Scorsese: The Blues, Boardwalk Empire, Vinyl, and Celebrity Filmmakers as TV Auteurs
Part II: Television Directors from Marginalized Backgrounds
3. Hill Street Blues: Randa Haines, Gabrielle Beaumont, and Women Directors in Television History
4. NYPD Blue: Paris Barclay, Blackness, Whiteness, and the Cop Show
5. The Sopranos: Lorraine Senna vs. David Chase and Pilot Episode Directors
Conclusion: Included in the Picture
Biography
Jonathan J. Cavallero is Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies at Bates College and the Founding Director of the Bates Film Festival. He is the author of Hollywood’s Italian American Filmmakers: Capra, Scorsese, Savoca, Coppola, and Tarantino (2011) and the co-editor (with Laura E. Ruberto) of Italian American Review’s special journal issue on “Italian Americans and Television” (2016). His scholarship has appeared in a number of journals including Cinema Journal/Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Journal of Film and Video, Journal of Popular Film and Television, The Journal of Popular Culture, MELUS, and Diasporic Italy.
"Cavallero's book is not only a welcome addition to his previous scholarship, but also an insightful and novel method for examining the aesthetics of television. Hopefully, this book will serve as the impetus for future works in the field of television studies."
-- William J. Lorenzo, Independent scholar
"Cavallero has produced a timely and significant contribution to television studies. It is a book designed, and well deservedly destined, to appear on module syllabi imminently."
-- Rebecca Pearce, Brunel University, UK
"Through meticulous research, supported by interviews and production notes, [Cavallero] offers a valuable counter-history that decenters the White male canon of U.S. television. This act of recovery is not merely additive; it is reparative, revealing how television's aesthetics and ideologies have been shaped, often subversively, by those whom the industry has historically marginalized."
-- Clara Ramazzotti, The Graduate Center, CUNY
"Cavallero's exemplary case studies demonstrate how television directors' artistic contributions challenge the field's often myopic focus on white male television showrunners and writers, and their presumed authorial control in television production."
-- Nathan Workman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
