Cover -- Creating TelevisionConversations with the PeopleBehind 50 Years of American TV -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1 Introduction: Bringing Television Creators to Life -- Chapter 2 Individual Creativity in a Collaborative Medium -- Chapter 3 The Pioneers: Creating the First Decade -- Sid Caesar -- Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf -- Leonard Stern -- Steve Allen -- Fred deCordova -- Agnes Nixon -- David Levy -- Grant Tinker -- Lee Rich -- Carroll Pratt -- Chapter 4 Writer-Producers: Creating Breakthrough Television -- Susan Harris -- Matt Groening -- Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz -- Larry David -- Allan Burns -- Chapter 5 A Different Kind of Writer -- Arla Sorkin Manson -- T.S.Cook -- Jean Rouverol -- Bob Ellison -- Chapter 6 A Different Kind of Producer -- Gary Smith -- Marty Pasetta -- Dave Bell -- Bruce Sallan -- Chapter 7 Two Directors -- Jay Sandrich -- Walter Grauman -- Chapter 8 The Actors -- Ed Asner -- Betty White -- Henry Winkler -- Jason Alexander -- Aida Turturro -- Paul Petersen -- Chapter 9 The Agents -- Jeremy Zimmer -- Bill Haber -- Jay Bernstein -- Ray Solley -- Chapter 10 A Different Kind of Executive -- Frank Dawson -- Gerry Laybourne -- Chris Albrecht -- References -- Photo Credits -- Index.

Creating Television brings television and its creators to life, presenting fascinating in-depth interviews with the creators of American TV. Having interviewed more than 100 television professionals over the course of his 15 years of research, Professor Robert Kubey presents here the 40 conversations that provide the most illuminating insights about the industry and the people working in it. These interviews bring television's creators to life, revealing their backgrounds, work, and thoughts about the audience and the television programs they create. Each interview tells a compelling tale of an individual's struggles and successes within a complex collaborative and highly commercial medium, offering readers rare insights on the human component in television's development. Featured in this volume are actors, agents, writers, directors, producers, and executives, representing television's earliest days through to the present day. Spanning shows from I Love Lucy and The Tonight Show through to Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and The Sopranos, these creators share the stories of how they gained entry to the industry and built their careers, offering readers a rare opportunity to meet, up close, the people involved in creating many of the most famous and successful programs in the medium's history, and linking the creators' personal histories to the television programs they create. With its unique insights on the people responsible for making television, this volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers in television history, sociology of culture, human creativity, television production, media studies, and mass media ethics. It will also be a popular reader for undergraduate and graduate students in courses addressing television, mass culture, media and society, American Studies, creativity, television history, and media ethics.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.