Very special episodes : televising industrial and social change / edited by Jonathan Cohn and Jennifer Porst.

Format:

• Book

Contributor:

• Porst, Jennifer, editor.
• Cohn, Jonathan, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Television programs--Social aspects--United States.
• Social problems on television.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2021]

Summary:

Very Special Episodes examines how the quintessential “very special episode” format became a primary way in which the television industry responded to and shaped social change, cultural traumas, and industrial transformations. With essays covering shows ranging from the birth of Desi Arnaz, Jr. on I Love Lucy to contemporary examples such as a delayed episode of Black-ish and the streaming-era phenomenon of the “Very Special Seasons” of UnReal and 13 Reasons Why, this collection seriously and critically uses the “very special episode” to chart the history of American television and its self-identified status as an arbiter of culture.

Contents:

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• A Very Special Introduction / JONATHAN COHN AND JENNIFER PORST
• 1. Listen to Save Lives: Music and the Atomic Bomb in Cold War Very Special Episodes / REBA WISSNER
• 2. Blackface on a White Christmas: Bewitched's "Sneaky Racism" / JONATHAN COHN
• 3. Conspicuous Morality: Very Special Episodes, the War on Drugs, and Broadcast Deregulation / PHILIP SCEPANSKI
• 4. "Due to Its Subject Matter": Creating the Very Special Teen Sex Talk in 1980s Sitcoms / BARBARA SELZNICK
• 5. "Thanksgiving Orphans": Cheers and Very Special Holiday Episodes of Television / JENNIFER PORST
• 6. Very Spooky Episodes: Roseanne, Working-Class Monsters, and the Playful Perversions of Halloween TV / DAVID SCOTT DIFFRIENT
• 7. A Very Special Visit to the "Old Neighborhood": Containing the Los Angeles Uprising on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air / LINDSAY GIGGEY
• 8. The Night the Lights Went out at (Most of) NBC: Producing a Network with 1994's Must See TV Blackout Stunt / ERIN COPPLE SMITH
• 9. Ellen, "The Puppy Episode," and a Special TV Milestone? / RON BECKER
• 10. "And Was Therea Lesson in All This?": Weaponizing-and Subverting-theVery Special Episode / ERIN GIANNINI
• 11. Animating Entertainment, or Very Special Media Reflexivity / MIMI WHITE
• 12. Liveness and the Live Episode in Television Comedy / BRETT MILLS
• 13. Too black-ish?:Banned Very Special Episodes / APRYL ALEXANDER AND JENNIFER PORST
• 14. Knife Crime and Passion: A Very Special Episode of EastEnders / CHRISTINE BECKER
• 15. UnREAL, Sexual Assault, and the Very Special Season / JORIE LAGERWEY AND TAYLOR NYGAARD
• Notes on Contributors
• Index.

Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-9788-2119-0

OCLC:

1265464277