Competition talent shows have been among the most popular on television in the 21st century. The producers of these shows claim to give ordinary people extraordinary opportunities to change their lives by showcasing a specific skill leading to a new career trajectory. Most participants will claim that they entered to get a big break and to develop a career they have always dreamed of. To what extent do these shows deliver on such promises?Following through what happens to leading contestants in...
The Sci-Fi Channel Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction
by Roger Fulton
From My Favorite Martian to 3rd Rock from the Sun, this guide features virtually every sci-fi series in the past five decades, making this the definitive volume on televised science fiction entertainment. 2 photo inserts.
Packed with a wealth of interesting stories, anecdotes, facts and trivia on "Only Fools And Horses", this book is aimed at fans of the BBC comedy show. It delves into the history of the hit BBC comedy series, with background on the characters from the show and the actors who played them; how they landed their roles; tells behind-the-scenes tales involving cast and crew; details filming locations, wardrobes and props; and draws on the personal experiences that inspired scriptwriter John Sullivan...
Broadcasting in the UK and US in the 1950s
In an age of digital communications, where radio, satellite, television and computing have come together to allow instant access to information and entertainment from around the globe, it is sometimes easy to overstate the break with the recent past that these developments imply. However, from a historical perspective, it is important to recognise that the national dimensions of communications, including broadcasting, have always been framed within different sets of international political, econ...
At the end of World War II, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, fearing that retreating Germans would consolidate large numbers of troops in an Alpine stronghold and from there conduct a protracted guerilla war, turned U.S. forces toward the heart of Franconia, ordering them to cut off and destroy German units before they could reach the Alps. Opposing this advance was a conglomeration of German forces headed by SS-Gruppenfuhrer Max Simon, a committed National Socialist who advocated merciless resistance...
Covering the five centuries from Shakespeare's Bankside playhouses to today's West End, Paul Ibell's Theatreland explores the history and current state of the London stage, taking the reader through the streets and alleyways of the theatre capital of the world. London's theatre district is quite literally built on the past. Although the book celebrates this, and the artistic achievements that still resonate today, it also emphasises that theatre is an art form that can only survive and flouris...
In his second collection, Michael J. Arlen explores diverse topics such as Howard Cosell's sports-announcing style and Tom Snyder's abrasive news delivery. He discusses the combination of anger and comedy that animated "All in the Family", as well as the buried eroticism in certain TV commercials.A passionate critic of the evasions and insufficiencies of television news, Arlen writes with a fresh viewpoint on the presence of violence in television programs, but in "The Holiday Dinner" he reveals...
An electrifying new study that investigates the challenges of the Bard’s inconsistencies and flaws, and focuses on revealing—not resolving—the ambiguities of the plays and their changing topicality A genius and prophet whose timeless works encapsulate the human condition like no other. A writer who surpassed his contemporaries in vision, originality, and literary mastery. A man who wrote like an angel, putting it all so much better than anyone else. Is this Shakespeare? Well, sort of. But it...
Alice's Wonderland dives down the rabbit hole and looks at the dazzling ways that Wonderland has been imagined by artists, filmmakers, writers, and more. Get a behind-the-scenes looks at how the books were created, meet Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the fictional Alice, and view the original manuscript copy of Alice in Wonderland, illustrated in Carroll's own hand. The fantastical world imagined by Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) - where a white rabbit carries a pocket watch, a crying b...
The story of Czechoslovak television is in many respects typical of the cultural and political developments in Central Europe, behind the Iron Curtain. Martin Štoll, with unprecedented access to the Military Historical Archives in Prague, provides contextual insights into the issues of introducing television in the whole Socialist Bloc (save China, Mongolia and Cuba), from the introduction of television broadcasting in Czechoslovakia in 1921 through to the 1968 occupation and the Velvet revolut...