Watching TV: Six Decades of American Television, 2nd Edition

Television and Popular Culture

by Harry Castleman

A season-by-season survey capturing the essence of television from its inception to the present.

Genres: Nonfiction, Tv, Pop Culture

416 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

Reviews

[Alex Taft]

I recommend that you not read this entire book over the course of six weeks. It will make your brain explode.

[Chet Slonina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that will take you some Tim’s to read as it goes through six decades of television highlighting several different shows with interesting facts. There was a time where you got the T.V. Guide and planned the entire week as what you would or wouldn’t watch. The major television stations built strategies around staying on top with the ratings as well as trying to knock off the top rated shows. There is an expanded edition with 2009-2010 but this suited me just fine. It’s worth the time to even skim the book but I recommend taking a walk down T.V. Memory Lane where the choices were less than today.

[Kris Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love television history and Castleman does his homework...touching on why shows were popular and how it affected that network in particular.

Did you know that "Different Strokes" was literally NBC's only hit in 1979? Explains why that show lasted so long. NBC pumped money into guest stars like Muhammad Ali and Nancy Reagan & tried to replicate success with spin offs "Facts of Life" and ...uh, "Hello Larry".

Not for everybody but right up my alley.

[Phair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but a bit overwhelming. Both too detailed and not detailed enough. The book looks at each individual year of TV schedules and describes the trends, financial,political & legal developments that impacted TV and programming. Too much emphasis for me on the news & political aspects. Many shows that I recall fondly were given only passing nods or left out completely. Definitely a more serious work than the authors' "Harry & Wally's Favorite TV Shows".

We tend to look back on TV's past as the golden age with all sorts of great shows but when you break it down year by year you see that most years were filled with pretty lousy TV. It's only when you compress time that the cream rises to the top of memory and it leaves that satisfying taste. If you ask me, TV today has a far greater proportion of excellent programming on at one time than most of the preceding 60 years. Which is why I find myself spending hours lately in front of the tube (TiVo) while my reading suffers.