Assignment
Review questions - History of Television
If you review the readings, your notes on lectures, the slides, and your reading responses, (which are a good way to review readings), you will likely be well-prepared for the final exam. Specific details from the readings are less important than the overall arguments the authors are making: focus on the main ideas! I will provide a list of the reading titles and authors on the exam. Here are some questionsand terms that I think have been important to this class. Not every single thing that will be on the exam is necessarily on this page, but this covers the basics. (I am in the process of writing the exam now.)
Everything about television that we covered in class is fair game, including things like "affiliates" and "syndication" that originated in radio but that are important to television as well. The exceptions are material related to the technical side of television (microwave relay, coaxial, fiber optics, digital transmission), which I only mentioned in passing,the particular vocabulary of TV ratings, and the specifics of the Telecommunications Act, which we'll discuss in the final two classes (though you should be able to explain in general who benefited from the Telecom Act). Also, over the course of the quarter, we've spent significant time discussing each of these issues, which are all related: 1. the relationship between broadcasting and race & ethnicity; 2. the relationship between television and gender & sexuality; 3. the relationship between television and the nation (ie, the ways television programs addressed and spoke for the nation as a whole, or failed to do so); 4. live television; 5. the relationship between the FCC and the broadcast industry. You should be familiar with the broad outlines of these issues.
I also may ask you to draw upon your own experiences watching television. You should be able to discuss at least one program that you did not watch in class, whether on your own or for the at-home screening assignment.
1. In the early years of television, who pushed for VHF and who for UHF?
2. What is the FCC Blue Book? Why is it important in the history of public service television?
3. What was the most popular programming format/genre in television's early years? Why might that be the case?
4. According to Murray, how did "vaudeo" stars of the late 1940s and early 1950s perform "ethnic masculinity" on early television programs? (I know that you were required to read either the Murray essay or the Sterne one, so if there is a question about either of these essays on the exam, it will be one of several options.)
5. What are some factors that contributed to the decline of "variety" stars and the rise of the domestic sitcom? What are some of the differences between the two forms?
6. How did early television programs attempt to speak to, and for, national audiences? How did television in the 1950s cultivate ideas of nationhood or national identity?
7. How did early ideas about acting on television relate to ideas of immediacy and intimacy?
8. According to Berenstein, how did liveness serve to support the commercial nature of American television?
9. According to Sterne, what were some of the challenges that faced the early television industry as it attempted to transmit live, simultaneous signals to national audiences? (See note above, following question 4.)
10. What are some examples of "dual address" in television programming? Why might this have been more common in the past than in the present day?
11. What was the station freeze? What was its cause? How long did it last?
12. Who benefited from the station freeze? Who was hurt by it?
13. What types of programs did television critics (especially east coast critics like Jack Gould) prefer in the 1950s?
14. According to Spigel, how did television contribute to the construction of the suburban ideal in the 1950s?
15. In general, who controlled network schedules in the early 1950s?
16. What four groups or types of company made television programs? Which was/were most prominent in the early 1950s? In the 1970s? Which are most common in the present?
17. Why was liveness so celebrated in the 1950s? How do the readings challenge the claims about television liveness that were common in this period?
18. What was "magazine advertising"?
19. How did anthology dramas of the 1950s attempt to achieve intimacy with audiences?
20. What network aired Disney's show Disneyland? How did it contribute to changes in television production and distribution?
21. What network was most closely associated with filmed (not live) content in the 1950s?
22. What is an example of a station whose license was revoked due to Fairness Doctrine violations? Was this a common occurrence or not?
23. According to Classen, why didn't the FCC revoke WLBT's license until a court order forced it to do so?
24. How did the Civil Rights movement benefit the TV networks?
25. How did the networks benefit the Civil Rights movement?
26. How did TV coverage of the Civil Rights movement demonstrate the conflicts between local stations and national networks?
27. How is PBS funded?
28. What role did the Spanish International Network (and later, Univision) play in the creation of a pan-ethnic Hispanic identity?
29. How does SIN's and Univision's cultivation of a pan-ethnic Hispanic identity relate to English-language network television's attempts to speak to national audiences?
30. What is the difference between a station and a network?
31. How was cable television technology first used (in the 1950s)?
32. How did the depiction of African Americans on television change from the 1950s (when a TV versionAmos ‘n' Andy and a few other shows like it were on the air, as was news coverage of the Civil Rights movement) to the 1960s, when Julia and Room 222were on?
33. What is Phillip Brian Harper's main thesis about the 1960s' attempts to represent "the Black experience" on shows like I Spy and Room 222? How does Harper's thesis apply (if at all) to the Hispanic identity describe by Cristina Mora?
34. What is the difference between mimetic and simulacral realism, according to Harper?
35. How did CBS justify censoring The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour?
36. What was the crisis of authority that Bodroghkozy refers to in her chapter on the show? How did The Smothers Brothers threaten the idea that network television reflects and cultivates a national consensus?
37. What and when was the Classic Network Era?
38. How did The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour exploit ideas of live television, even though their show was taped in advance?
39. Why don't TV ratings accurately count the viewing audience as a whole?
40. Is the broadcast network share of total television viewership higher or lower now than it was in the 1950s?
41. What role did CBS's local owned and operated stations play in the turn toward relevance, according to Gitlin?
42. How did Tandem shows like All in the Family and MTM shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show succeed in addressing national audiences that had strayed away from television in the late 1960s?
43. What production company was most famous for "relevant" programming?
44. How is All in the Family's treatment of political issues different than The Mary Tyler Moore Show's?
45. Did the Fin/Synrulesincrease or undermine network dominance of the television industry?
46. What role did Monday Night Football play in ABC's programming strategy in the 1970s?
47. Why does Vogan say that Monday Night Football, Roots, and Brian's Song suppressed racial divisions in the 1970s?
48. What is the "slumpy" demographic? Which network was particularly dedicated to attracting this demographic in the 1990s?
49. According to Becker, what explains the surge in gay and lesbian-themed programming in the 1990s?
50. What was the major trend in regulatory policies in the 1980s and 1990s? What are some examples?
51. Did the Telecommunications Act of 1996 add regulations to the television industry, or eliminate them?
52. What industrial conditions led to the rise of reality TV in the 1980s?
53. How is the license fee/financing structure of reality TV shows different from the financing of most scripted programs?
54. What is the difference between a cable channel and a broadcast network?
55. How does the contemporary TV landscape differ from the classic network era in its attempts to reach and address national audiences?
56. How did the elimination of the Fin/Syn rules influence the relationship between networks and studios in the late 1990s and to the present day?
57. How do spectrum auctions complicate or undermine the idea that the airwaves are a public resource?
Additionally, you should be able to define and explain the following:
Affiliate
Anthology Drama
Burden of Representation
Cable - including its early uses, and how it changed in the 1970s and 1980s
Classic Network Era
Community Antenna Television
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Deficit Financing
Fairness Doctrine
FCC Blue Book
FCC Station Freeze
Fin/Syn Rules
Independent Production Company
Kinescope
License Fee
Magazine advertising
Media conglomerate
Niche broadcasting
Owned-and-Operated Station
PBS
Relevance
Subscriber Fee
Sustaining Program
Syndication
"Vaudeo" style
Vertical Integration
VHF and UHF.