Prime Times: Writers on Their Favorite TV Shows

by Douglas Bauer

The literary mind and the boob tube are often thought to have little in common, but the two have been trysting in dimly lit rooms since television’s earliest days. To prove the point, Doug Bauer asked a number of the finest writers of our time to reveal their own forays into a medium that has been called everything from a vast wasteland to the electronic dream machine of the global village. The results are surprising, passionate, very personal, and often downright hilarious. From Nora Ephron on The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Nick Hornby on The West Wing , Susan Cheever on Father Knows Best to Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Amos ’n’ Andy , the full range of televised fare is captured—sitcoms and soaps, police dramas and reality TV, the very new and the very old, and the much criticized and denounced and the truly iconic and beloved.

Prime Times is an eclectic gathering of autobiography, memory, and blade-sharp observation, all bound by the common—and, after all, literary—experience of watching other people’s lives while trying to understand one’s own.

Genres: Nonfiction, Tv

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 3, 2004

About the author

I’ve written three novels, Dexterity, The Very Air, and The Book of Famous Iowans, each of them set in small towns, in Upstate New York, in Texas, and in Iowa. Their subjects and interests are as varied as their settings, although reviewers have pointed out that they all concern themselves in some fashion with mothers’ unpredictable presences and absences and the effect of that unreliability on their sons.

I’ve also written two non-fiction books, Prairie City, Iowa and The Stuff of Fiction. The first covers a year of reunion with the tiny farm village of the title, where I was raised and to which I returned at the age of 30 in order to try to understand the place where I grew up and, not incidentally, some things about myself as I reached that critical age. The second is a series of essays devoted to the craft of fiction writing. The essays cover the elements of character creation, dialogue, narrative strategies, how to start and end a story, and many more. There are exercises accompanying the essays.

In addition to the books I’ve written, I’ve edited two anthologies, Prime Times: Writers on their favorite television shows; and Death by Pad Thai and Other Unforgettable Meals. These anthologies feature contributions from some of the most prominent writers of our time, including Sue Miller, Andre Dubus III, Aimee Bender, Richard Russo, Claire Messud, Nick Hornby, the late and very great Barry Hannah, and on and on.

My stories and essays have appeared through the years in The Atlantic, Harper’s, Esquire, Tin House, The New York Times Magazine and Sunday Book Review, The Massachusetts Review, Agni, and other publications.

I’ve received grants in both fiction and non-fiction from The National Endowment for the Arts.

I’ve taught at several colleges and universities, including Harvard, Smith, The University of New Mexico, Rice, and since 2005 at Bennington College. My courses there include literature classes in the works of Charles Dickens, my favorite author in the language, as well as Twentieth Century writers such as Willa Cather, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

Reviews

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting essays on TV, mostly remembrances of old favorites, or just family time, huddled around the flickering old black and white set. The pieces are mostly interesting, short and rather forgettable – others' childhood favorites are not always the best reading. Standout essays include Nick Hornsby’s excellent analysis of “The West Wing” (and by extension, a comparison of the American and British television industries that heavily favors the former); Mark Leyner’s bizarre, gonzo, erudite stream-of-consciousness “interview” with a (fictional) South Korean porn director on the greatness of “Hawaii 5-0;” or Stephen McCauley’s third-person deconstruction of infomercials as addictive self-help for the alienated and stalled.

[Hank Stuever · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good pieces here, but not enough of them.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few of the essays were great, some were a bit too literary. A fun book looking at my favorite past time.

[Trin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept is interesting: twenty-three writers discuss their favorite TV shows. The execution...sadly less so. Almost all the shows discussed were Before My Time; I think the only ones that had any personal relevance to me were The West Wing and Mystery Science Theater 3000 (with half a point each for The Twilight Zone and the original Star Trek). Also, a lot of the writers seemed to take this as a great opportunity to be windbags; nobody likes pretentiousness, but I especially dislike pretentiousness about pop culture. I am already on the side of people writing about pop culture—I do think it's an important topic, worthy of writing about! So please don't make yourself sound like an asshole by talking about the "oikos" of the Enterprise—or if you must do so, at least do so with a sense of humor. Some people did: I liked Nick Horby's West Wing essay, and April Bernard about Secret Agent; I even liked some of the more serious ones, like David Shields' discussion of Monday Night Football (really!) and Lan Samantha Chang writing about how growing up Chinese-American in Wisconsin was kind of like Gilligan's Island (no, really!). But there was a way-too-high percentage of windbaggery, or just dullness; too much, "My knowledge of Ancient Greek: let me show you it." Also, dear editors: please do not introduce your essay collection by summarizing all the essays therein. Thanks.

I feel like this same idea could be done in a much more interesting way. Maybe when fandom finally takes over the world?

[Beckie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I borrowed this book in hardcover from the library to read about MST3K. That part I loved. I breezed through a few other essays, but others I didn't read at all. This book was written by people older than me, so their memories of the shows are different from mine, and I just couldn't relate. But it is still a really neat book, and would make a great gift for someone in their 60s who remembers when TV first entered our lives.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't have Nick at Nite, so it was hard to get behind all of waxing nostalgic about Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. (No offense... I'm sure it was funny and brilliant and all, but I just haven't seen it.) Yay Nick Hornby for writing about The West Wing! Boo to the essayist who comes down so hard on The Simpsons for being a less-than-model family. And where's my Buffy essay?

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few clunkers in this collection but the Mark Leyner story alone, maybe his first published fiction in years (???), is worth the price alone. Mark--write more fiction please!

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring.

[David Bril]

This collection contains a bunch of essays written about TV shows. Nick Hornby has a write up here about The West Wing