Now that television shows can live forever as DVD sets, the stories they can tell have changed; television episodes are now crafted as chapters in a season-long novel instead of free-standing stories. This book examines how this significant shift in storytelling occurred.
In 1981, NBC's Hill Street Blues combined the cop show and the soap opera to set the model for primetime serial storytelling, which is evident in The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. In 1963, ABC's The Fugitive showed how an anthology series could tell a continuing tale, influencing The X-Files, House, and Fringe. In 1987, NBC's The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd changed the situation comedy into attitudinal comedy, leading to Weeds, Nurse Jackie, and Entourage. The DVD Novel: How the Way We Watch Television Changed the Television We Watch not only examines how American television shows changed, but also what television artists have been able to create.
The book provides an alternate history of American television that compares it to British television, and explains the influence of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective on the development of long-form television and the evolution of drama shows and sitcoms. The work considers a wide range of network and cable television shows, paying special attention to the work of Steven Bochco, David Milch, and David Simon, and spotlighting the influence of graphic novels and literary novels in changing television.
eBook - PDF
The DVD Novel
How the Way We Watch Television Changed the Television We Watch
- 250 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Introduction: Because "Excuses" Sounds Too Defensive a Way to Start
- Chapter One: Television Is an Object and a Narrative Form
- Chapter Two: The Singing Detective and British Television
- Chapter Three: Steven Bochco and Too Many Stories, Not Enough Time
- Chapter Four: Stealing the Soap and Longform Network Television
- Chapter Five: Premium Blend Genre and Longform Network Television
- Chapter Six: Men Behaving Badly on Cable
- Chapter Seven: Comedy on Television
- Chapter Eight: Longform Comedy on Television
- Chapter Nine: Graphic Novels and DVD Novels
- Chapter Ten: David Milch and Television as Literature
- Chapter Eleven: David Simon and Fictional Nonfiction Television
- Chapter Twelve: Endings
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
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Yes, you can access The DVD Novel by Greg Metcalf in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Television. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.