Extra Credit--Counts as TWO Blog Posts

Extra Credit--Counts as TWO Blog Posts:

View one of the following films: Quiz Show (1994) OR Good Night, and Good Luck (2005).  Both are available at Askwith Media Center or on reserve at the Donald Hall Collection.

Keeping in mind that both of these films offer fictionalized renderings of historical circumstances, write a minimum of 400 words explaining how either the quiz show scandals (as depicted by Quiz Show) or Edward R. Murrow’s exposé of McCarthyism (as portrayed in Good Night, and Good Luck) had political results during the 1950s and shifted ideas about the medium of television and its specific genres (quiz shows or news programs). 

The Kovacs Way

Using this advertisement or the screening from class as an example, discuss how Ernie Kovacs’ artistic experiments with television sound (or silence), aesthetics, and timing dialogue with growing concerns about television’s noisiness and commercialism? 

NY vs HW, live vs telefilm

1950s television critics characterized New York-based live broadcasts as superior to Hollywood-based program forms for a variety of reasons.  Considering these reasons (discussed in lecture and in "Live Television"), compare a live program to one of the telefilms we've viewed in class, to make an argument with or against the critics. 

Amos 'n' Andy

Based on Thomas Cripps’ article and your viewing of Amos ’n’ Andy this Thursday, how did the television show portray middle class African Americans?  Discuss why the sitcom became the center of a hot public debate as well as the arguments offered by each side.  

On Liveness

What are some of the advantages of live television and why do you think it was the prevailing format during TV's first decade?  What are its disadvantages?  How is "liveness" (or the illusion thereof) used by TV today?

Consumerist Morals

What does George Lipsitz mean when he suggests that working class ethnic sitcoms of the 1950s put the borrowed moral capital of the past at the service of the values of the present?  Based on his essay and your viewings this Thursday, how did these sitcoms demonstrate how "wise choices enabled consumers to have both moral and material rewards"?  

Premodern Postmodernism

What stuck out to me about The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show was its seamless breaking of the fourth wall. The action didn't freeze to call attention to the break from form a la Martin Scorsese, but rather George Burns would fray into and out of the action seemingly on a whim. The technique struck me so that I even watched part of another episode on YouTube with a nerdy friend.

However, more than the unique way the show incorporated self-reflection, I find myself fascinated by its presence so early on in the TV game. It reminds me that Hollywood (entertainment in general) has always been obsessed with itself, perpetually raising its stars up and making the crowd feel as if they're in on something more private than just a TV show. A show like Community appears groundbreaking in its use of meta material, but here is the same idea (though admittedly played out in a much simpler way) more than fifty years earlier. There's something magical about a medium than can sell itself over and over again to great applause.

Advertising in a new age

One of the most interesting aspects of Spigel's essay was her exploration of early advertising. In the screenings from last week, we saw how series would use the characters or narratives in order to sell products, such as the condensed milk on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. In the essay, Spigel references The Goldbergs, and how its central character Molly would lean out her window and deliver her sponsor's commercial directly into the camera. In both of these series, the lines between the narrative and the advertisements were blurred, as if the audience were a part of the character's lives (for example, Molly's neighbor in The Goldbergs) or as if the characters themselves were endorsing the product. In many ways, these were the first instances of product placement, a technique that has become increasingly popular as television audiences become more intelligent and well-versed with the medium. In a modern day series like Scandal, while Olivia Pope might not turn to the camera and address the audience directly, it's clear that her Samsung phone (the subject of heightened focus and many closeups) serves the same purpose that condensed milk once did on The Burns and Allen Show. Despite the decades that separate these series, it is easy to detect the influence that early television shows, and more specifically their means of advertising, have on today's landscape.

Window on the World

How was television figured as a “window on the world” during the period of 1948-1955, according to Lynn Spigel?   Do you think television fulfills (or is portrayed as fulfilling) a similar role today? Take a look at this pre-war demonstration of British television and describe the aesthetics of this early experimentation with TV during the 1930s. How is the viewer positioned or addressed? How do the formal elements of this program compare to contemporary television?

Vaudeville and Television

We discussed how Vaudeville lost its popularity as broadcasting became central to American culture. Which genres of television seem most influenced by Vaudeville and how? How do you relate this week's screenings to the types of performances exhibited here?  Feel free to share a clip of a contemporary show that exhibits some of these influences and compare the two types of entertainment. 

Traces of the Past

In the last paragraph of Lynn Spigel’s “Installing the Television Set,” Spigel quotes historian Carlo Ginzburg, who writes: “Reality is opaque; but there are certain points—clues, signs—which allow us to decipher it.”  Why do you think Spigel closes her analysis of post-war television’s role in American domestic spaces with this quote?  How does she describe her historical approach/methodology? What types of “traces” of the past does she examine in this essay and how does she use them?  Do you agree with her approach to history?

Belly of the Beast

One of my questions about A Face In The Crowd focuses on humanity and character. Was Lonesome always a monster, or did he become one? What role did his television play in his development as a character? A psych student would have a heyday psychoanalyzing Lonesome's sociopathic (even psychopathic) personality. Did television enable this metamorphosis? Or is it the power that corrupted him? (Feel free to jump in anywhere-- I just wanted to get the discussion going). It is definitely a timeless piece-- ahead of its time, I'd say-- because it seems to be becoming increasingly relevant. Media and politics have never been more tightly intertwined.

"Let us not forget that in TV we have the greatest instrument for mass persuasion in the history of the world."