What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s

Louann Atkins Temple Women & Culture Series

by Marsha F. Cassidy

In this pathfinding book, based on original archival research, Marsha F. Cassidy offers the first thorough analysis of daytime television's earliest and most significant women's genres, appraising from a feminist perspective what women watched before soap opera rose to prominence. After providing a comprehensive history of the early days of women's programming across the nation, Cassidy offers a critical discussion of the formats, programs, and celebrities that launched daytime TV in America—Kate Smith's variety show and the famed singer's unsuccessful transition from patriotic radio star to 1950s TV idol; the "charm boys" Garry Moore, Arthur Godfrey, and Art Linkletter, whose programs honored women's participation but in the process established the dominance of male hosts on TV; and the "misery shows" Strike It Rich and Glamour Girl and the controversy, both critical and legal, they stirred up. Cassidy then turns to NBC's Home show, starring the urbane Arlene Francis, who infused the homemaking format with Manhattan sophistication, and the ambitious daily anthology drama Matinee Theater , which strove to differentiate itself from soap opera and become a national theater of the air. She concludes with an analysis of four popular audience participation shows of the era—the runaway hit Queen for a Day ; Ralph Edwards's daytime show of surprises, It Could Be You ; Who Do You Trust? , starring a youthful Johnny Carson; and The Big Payoff , featuring Bess Myerson, the country's first Jewish Miss America. Cassidy's close feminist reading of these shows clearly demonstrates how daytime TV mirrored the cultural pressures, inconsistencies, and ambiguities of the postwar era.

Genres: Nonfiction

276 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Alexandra Michaelides · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Women Watched has a great premise and interesting subject material. I really wanted to like this book. There were compelling sections, especially discussions on "misery shows," the debate over the larger vision for television programming, and men and women's competing representation on popular daytime shows. However, the writing was very dry and too academic. (I know this is an academic book, but I obviously prefer for academics to be engaging storytellers.)

The book reads very much like a dissertation--meaning that it provides minute details about a narrow set of subjects, but doesn't properly explain why this matters in the larger picture. What else was going on in the 1950s? How did these popular shows tie into the larger picture of white, middle class, gender roles?

Also of note is that race is almost entirely absent from this discussion. While I understand that 1950s television was predominately white, What Women Watched would have benefitted from a more nuanced exploration of how the subject matter was reflective and influenced white, middle class, gender roles.

If you're interested in women's history, gender roles, and early television, a much more engaging work is Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America.

[Celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting premise - and it delivers! I would advise, though, it gets a little wordy at points. It's more of a scholarly paper than a light nonfiction, so just be prepared for that! If the idea is something that sounds interesting to you, though, I cannot recommend this enough! It is incredibly informative and in-depth, and still very intriguing and interesting.

[LaShana Claude]

US Daytime Television
American culture
Just Read Chapter 2 or pick another if you like it.
kinescope

2. The Dawn of Daytime: Reaching Out to Women Across America