Who shot the Sheriff? : the rise and fall of the television western / J. Fred MacDonald.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacDonald, J. Fred.

Series:

Media and society series

Media and society series.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Western television programs--United States.

Western television programs.

United States.

Physical Description:

xiii, 158 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Praeger, 1987.

Summary:

This intriguing book is a study of the rise and fall of an American genre of entertainment and communication whose symbols and rhetoric helped define American society for decades. Flourishing in the 1950s and 1960s, the television Western has deteriorated to the point where it is now irrelevant and meaningless. Tracing the evolution of the Western from the late 1940s to the 1980s, the author ties the genre to the political innocence and confidence of the Cold War years and suggests that the social reevaluations that began in the 1960s undermined the believability of Westerns and their entertainment value. Seeking to understand the demise of the TV Western, the book offers an analysis of the interrelationships between popular culture, television, and sociopolitical development in the United States during the past four decades.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 139-145.

ISBN:

0275923266

OCLC:

14128692