Small screens, big ideas : television in the 1950s / edited by Janet Thumim.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Thumim, Janet, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Television--History--20th century.

Television.

Television--Social aspects.

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 262 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : I. B. Tauris, 2002.

Summary:

"Small Screens, Big Ideas" brings together specially commissioned writings from British and American contributors to explore themes of diversity in the formative period of the 1950s. With radical changes taking place in terrestrial television, this is a timely moment to revisit the decade when television's very novelty was its most striking feature. Discussing television's role in the construction of national and gender identities and its relation to other media such as theatre, film, and radio, this fresh exploration is based on detailed case-studies of this complex era.

Contents:

Introduction: Small screens, big ideas / Janet Thumim 1

1. I've Seen This One Before: The construction of 'classic TV' on cable television / Derek Kompare 19

2. Selling Soap: Post-war television soap opera and the American housewife / Kristen Hatch 35

3. Study of a Mad Housewife: Psychiatric discourse, the suburban home and the case of Gracie Allen / Allison McCracken 50

4. Lessons from Uncle Miltie: Ethnic masculinity and early television's vaudeo star / Susan Murray 66

5. Nothin' Could be Finah: The Dinah Shore Chevy Show / Lola Clare Bratten 88

6. Re-Made for Television: Hedy Lamarr's post-war star textuality / Diane Negra 105

7. Maureen O'Hara's 'Confidential' Life: Recycling stars through gossip and moral biography / Mary Desjardins 118

8. Matinee Theater: Difference, compromise and the 1950s daytime audience / Matthew Murray 131

9. The BBC and the Birth of The Wednesday Play, 1962-66: Institutional containment versus 'agitational contemporaneity' / Madeleine MacMurraugh-Kavanagh 149

10. Mystery and Imagination: Anatomy of a Gothic anthology series / Helen Wheatley 165

11. Exploiting the Intimate Screen: The Quatermass Experiment, fantasy and the aesthetic potential of early television drama / Catherine Johnson 181

12. This Week in 1956: The introduction of current affairs on ITV / Victoria Wegg-Prosser 195

13. Women At Work: Popular drama on British television c1955-60 / Janet Thumim 207

14. Cracking Open the Set: Television repair and tinkering with gender 1949-1955 / Lisa Parks 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

1860646824

1860646832

OCLC:

47636468