AC902-3A: From I Love Lucy to Lost: Television and American Culture
Brown University Summer Studies Program 2009
Instructor: Melanie E.S. Kohnen; Melanie_Kohnen@brown.edu
Course Description :
In this course, we will study how television reflects and shapes American culture, from its
beginnings as focal point of family life in the suburban 1950s to its current status as interactive
experience. We will look at television as a business, as a medium, and as a cultural force.
Within that framework, we will analyze who decides which programs to put on the air, and how
they arrive at those decisions. We will also explore how people relate to TV and how it
influences their everyday lives. Moreover, we will watch a selection of programs from the past
decades to understand how television has changed over time, especially in regard to how it
represents specific segments of the population. Within this larger framework, readings and
screenings highlight how concerns about race, gender, class, family, and suburbia relate to
television.
Course Goals and Objectives :
i. Develop skills to critically think and write about the economic, cultural, and historical
aspects of the current media landscape
ii. Understand and manage the demands of a college classroom: Become proficient in
research, discussion and writing at the undergrad level
Assignments:
1. R e a d i n g s : You are expected to keep up with the readings, and come to class prepared
for discussion.
2. W r i t i n g J o u r n a l (Weeks 1 and 2): Daily reading responses (450 words). The
journal serves both as daily writing exercise and as building blocks for your final
project. You must post your journal entries to the class website by 2pm.
3. F i n a l P r o j e c t (Week 2 and 3): During weeks two and three, you will work in
groups to create a new concept for a TV show or a new TV network that would
hypothetically go on the air during the 2009 fall season. On the last day of class, you
will give a 10-15min presentation about your program or network and hand in a 10-page
description of your program/network.
Final Assessment:
Participation: 25%
Writing Journal: 25%
Final Presentation: 20%
Final Project: 30%
Required Books/Class Materials :
There are no required books for this class. Instead, we will be using a course reader that
comprises a wide selection of essays on television and American culture.
Course website: https://mycourses.brown.edu/
Screenings :
We will watch relevant TV programming during class. Selections include sitcoms, dramas,
documentaries, and reality TV.
If you'd like to watch more “classic television” in your free time, you can check out the “Net
Nights” hosted by the Museum of Broadcast Communications:
http://www.museum.tv/educationsection.php?page=325. The MBC offers five full nights of
programming, including commercials, from between 1955-1969 in the form of streaming video.
Week 1: The History of American Television, 1950-1990
Key Questions this w eek :
How has television changed over time? What role does it play in American society? What are
the characteristics of television as a medium? How do we study television?
June 22: Introductions and Overview of the course
i. Stark, Steven D. “Introduction.” In: Glued to the Set: The Sixty Television Shows
and Events That Made Us Who We Are Today. New York: The Free Press, 1997:
1-8.
Screening: “Channel Hopping”
June 23: The 1950s
i. Casey, Bernadette et al (eds). “Representation.” In: Television Studies: Key
Terms. London, New York: Routledge, 2002.”
ii. “I Love Lucy: The Woman as TV Superstar.” Glued to the Set: 26-31.
iii. “Leave it to Beaver and the Politics of Nostalgia.” Glued to the Set: 81-85.
Screening: I Love Lucy, “Ricky's Life Story;” Leave it to Beaver, “The Grass is
Always Greener”
June 24: The 1960s
i. Spigel, Lynn. “From Domestic Space to Outer Space: The 1960s Fantastic
Family Sitcom.” In: Welcome to the Dreamhouse: Popular Media and Postwar
Suburbs. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001: 107-141.
Screening: I Dream of Jeannie, “The Americanization of Jeannie;” Bewitched, “Which
Witch Is Which?”
June 25: The 1970s
i. “All in the Family and Sitcom 'Revolution'.” Glued to the Set: 162-167
ii. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show and America's Newest 'Families'.” Glued to the
Set: 167-172
iii. “The Miniseries as History: Did Roots Change America?” Glued to the Set: 199203
Screening: All in the Family, “Archie Gives Blood;” The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Pilot; clips from Roots
June 26: The 1980s
i. Excerpts from Holtzman, Linda. “Stories of Race in Popular Culture.” Media
Messages, 209-254.
ii. “The Forgotten Promise of The Cosby Show.” Glued to the Set: 254-258.
iii. Zoglin, Richard. “Cool Cops, Hot Show.” Time Magazine, September 16, 1985.
iv. Recommended : Abalos, Brenda. “Straightness, Whiteness, and Masculinity:
Reflections on 'Miami Vice.'” In: Spears, Arthur (ed). Race and Ideology:
Language, Symbolism, and Popular Culture. Detroit: Wayne State University
Press, 1999: 167-179.
Screening: 1984 Apple Commercial; The Cosby Show, “Theo's Holiday;” Miami Vice,
“Milk Run”
Week 2: The Construction of Race and Gender on Television
Key Questions this week :
How are race and gender represented on TV? Moreover, how does television influence how
Americans think of race and gender? Who is included in and excluded from TV programming?
What do we mean by "stereotypes" and "realistic" representation?
June 29: Race and Television I: Television in Black and White
i. Lipsitz, George. “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness.” In: The Possessive
Investment in Whiteness. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998: 1-23.
ii. Jhally, Sut and Justin Lewis. “White Responses: The Emergence of 'Enlightened'
Racism.” In: Hunt, Darnell M (ed). Channeling Blackness: Studies on Television
and Race in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005: 74-89.
Screening: Black/White (2006)
June 30: R A C E
REPRESENTATION
T E L E V I S I O N II: B E Y O N D B L A C K
LATINO/A AMERICANS
AND
OF
AND
WHITE: THE
i. Beltran, Mary. “Rooting for Betty.” <http://flowtv.org/?p=92>
ii. Akass, Kim, and Janet McCabe. “Not So Ugly: Local Production, Global
Franchise, Discursive Femininities, and the Ugly Betty Phenomenon.”
<http://flowtv.org/?p=74>
Harris, Cheryl. “Writer in Television.”
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/writerintel/writerintel.htm
Haenschen, Katherine. “Introduction to the Writers' Strike Issue.” May 22, 2008.
<http://flowtv.org/?p=1406>
Atkins, Dante. “The WGA Strike, the Internet and Media Decentralization.” May
22, 2008. <http://flowtv.org/?p=1390>
Giannini, Erin. “Fan Support and its Effect (or its Lack thereof) on the Strike.
May 22, 2008. <http://flowtv.org/?p=1389>
Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, comments on the strike:
http://whedonesque.com/comments/14650
Screening: Ugly Betty Pilot (2006); wiki fyi
July 1: Writers vs Network Executives Workshop // G E N D E R
T E L E V I S I O N II: B O Y S W I L L B E B O Y S (O R M A Y B E N O T ?)
AND
i. Casey, Bernadette et al (eds). “Gender.” In: Television Studies: Key Terms.
London, New York: Routledge, 2002.
ii. MacKinnon, Kenneth. “Masculinity and Television.” In: Representing Men:
Maleness and Masculinity in the Media. London: Arnold, 2003: 65-87.
iii. Articles on the current state of the TV industry (Wiki)
Screening: Supernatural, “It's A Terrible Life” (2009); “Women's Work” (2007)
July 2: Gender and Television I: From The Mary Tyler Moore Show to
Veronica Mars
i. Dejardins, Mary. “Gender and Television.”
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/G/htmlG/genderandte/genderandte.htm
ii. Braithwaite, Andrea. “'That girl of yours—she's pretty hardboiled, huh?':
Detecting Feminism in Veronica Mars.” In: Ross, Sharon Marie and Louisa
Ellen Stein. Teen Television: Essays on Programming and Fandom. Jefferson,
NC: McFarland, 2007: 132-150.
Screening: Veronica Mars Pilot (2004); “Martina” (2007)
5min pitches about your program or network in class today!
July 3: NO CLASS
Week 3: Audiences, Producers, and the Future of the Medium
Key Questions:
What are the most recent developments in TV programming? How does the emergence of the
Internet and other digital media change the television landscape, especially regarding the
relationship between viewers and producers?
July 6: TV Gets Lost: Audience Participation Required/Meetings to
discuss group projects
i. Mittell, Jason. “Television in Transition: Converging on the Digital.” In:
Television and American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009):
418-436.
ii. The Organization of Transformative Works (OTW). “Who We Are;” “What We
Believe” http://transformativeworks.org/about; FAQ: “What does
'transformative' mean”? http://transformativeworks.org/faq-4
iii. Jacobson, Craig. “Break Over.” http://flowtv.org/?p=186
iv. Kompare, Derek. “Producers, Publics, and Podcasts: Where Does Television
Happen?” http://flowtv.org/?p=210
Screening: Lost Pilot (2004)
July 7: Fandom, or, the Audience Strikes Back
i. Mittel, Jason. “Fan Cultures.” In Television and American Culture, 373-381.
ii. “OTW Represents Vidders And Other Remix Artists at DMCA
Anticircumvention Hearings.” http://transformativeworks.org/node/677/
iii. Hill, Logan. “The Vidder: Luminosity Upgrades Fan Videos.”
http://nymag.com/movies/features/videos/40622/
iv. Battlestar Redactica project
Screening: A Genealogy of Vidding: A Vid Show by Laura Shapiro and Francesca
Coppa (2008)
July 8: The "Gay 90s"?: TV Comes out of the Closet
i. Tropiano, Stephen. “Prime Time Closet Chronology.” In: The Prime Time
Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV. New York: Applause Books,
2002: ix-xi.
ii. “'The Gay 90s': Entertainment Comes Out of the Closet.” Entertainment Weekly.
Number 291. 09/08/1995 (on e-reserve).
iii. Walters, Suzanna. “The Love that Dares to Speak its Name: The Explosion of
Gay Visibility.” In: All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001: 3-29.
Screening: Ellen, “The Puppy Episode” (1997); Will&Grace, “Acting Out” (1998)
July 9: Queer TV
i. Becker, Ron. “Post-Closet Television.” http://flowtv.org/?p=939
ii. Various articles about American Idol Season 8 (2009) (online)
Screening: Brothers&Sisters, “Prior Commitments” (2008); AI clips and interviews
July 10: L A S T D A Y
OF
CLASS: FINAL PRESENTATIONS.