The Lonely Nineties

Visions of Community in Contemporary US Television
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-3-319-93093-0
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, HC runder Rücken kaschiert, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 3168 g

This book examines the most popular American television shows of the nineties—a decade at the last gasp of network television’s cultural dominance. At a time when American culture seemed increasingly fragmented, television still offered something close to a site of national consensus. The Lonely Nineties focuses on a different set of popular nineties television shows in each chapter and provides an in-depth reading of scenes, characters or episodes that articulate the overarching “ideology” of each series. It ultimately argues that television shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order and The Simpsons helped to shape the ways Americans thought about themselves in relation to their friends, families, localities, and nation. It demonstrates how these shows engaged with a variety of problems in American civic life, responded to the social isolation of the age, and occasionally imagined improvements for community in America.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Arras, Paul

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Fernsehen & Rundfunk
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Watching TV after the Wall Came Down.- 2. Lonely Bowling and Other Critical Contexts.- 3. They Let You Just Sit There: The Failure of the Coffee Shop in Seinfeld, Friends, and Frasier.- 4. I’m Doing This My Own Way: Redeeming NYPD Blue’s Racist Hero.- 5. It Was a Different Time: Law & Order, White Rabbits, and the Decline of Sixties Radicalism.- 6. The Truth is Out There…and He Loves You: Depictions of Faith in The X-Files and Touched by an Angel.- 7. This Town Ain’t So Bad: Eternity in Heavenly Springfield with The Simpsons.- 8. TV after the Nineties.

Über Autor(innen)

Paul Arras is Lecturer in Communication Studies at SUNY Cortland, USA.