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Television and Popular Culture
Gen X TV: The Brady Bunch to Melrose Place
No generation eludes definition as much as Generation X. Rob Owens opens with a history of network and cable television since the birth of Generation X, but goes on to explore the symbiotic relationship between television and this largely misunderstood age group. From the first megahit The Brady Bunch to today's Friends, Owen unflinchingly describes the boob tube as the ubiquitous babysitter for millions of young people. Television, Owen maintains, consumes innocence as viewers encounter countless episodes of society's woes, from political strife and environmental decimation to everyday violence and crime.
225 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 21, 2018
I think this was a really strong book. I liked that it was written casually instead of formally. While I think some of the arguments made were a little bit of a reach, I admire the lengths he went to write about and research such a topic in the 90s. I think he truly did touch on a lot of shows, and even something that you don't consider a unique aspect of television (music, shorter scene length, pop culture references, sarcasm) has trickled down into the most basic of Cartoon Network shows. I wonder what an updated book or a sequel would look like. I think he was on point for predictions like nostalgia based programming. For a white man in the 90's, he definitely was socially aware of aspects like race, gender, class and even sexual orientation.
Favorite chapter: How he wrote about the memetic aspects of Melrose Place and its transformation from an earnest show into a night soap into a self aware one and the community aspects. I loved the My So Called Life interviews as well. It was interesting hearing about something like Viewers for Quality Television.
Cons: The Mentos commercial. The chapters could have been divided better.
Favorite chapter: How he wrote about the memetic aspects of Melrose Place and its transformation from an earnest show into a night soap into a self aware one and the community aspects. I loved the My So Called Life interviews as well. It was interesting hearing about something like Viewers for Quality Television.
Cons: The Mentos commercial. The chapters could have been divided better.
March 27, 2009
A research book for my 90's blog: Damn The Man, Save The Empire! at http://co-optingthe90s.blogspot.com/
This was the mother of all 90's TV research books. Chock full of info on shows you loved, shows that you've forgotten and shows that never existed (rejected pilots). You need this if you are doing any research on pop culture and TV.
This was the mother of all 90's TV research books. Chock full of info on shows you loved, shows that you've forgotten and shows that never existed (rejected pilots). You need this if you are doing any research on pop culture and TV.
February 21, 2018
I think the strengths and weaknesses of this book both lie in the fact that it was written in 1997. It was kind of premature to write about Gen X and TV, but at the same time, it was pretty unique to read about what people thought about some of these shows while they were still going on. I appreciated all of the cancelled shows that I've never heard of being written about in detail. I don't know if the author was reaching when he would try to explain how each random show was attempting to capture the zeitgeist, but I liked it nonetheless. I also enjoyed reading about pilots/developed shows that I never came across on Wikipedia or wherever.
I kind of dislike how much of the second half of the book was about the Internet and TV watching, but it still went by quickly.
That Rob Owen seemed to get so many interviews with TV executives was really commendable.
I kind of dislike how much of the second half of the book was about the Internet and TV watching, but it still went by quickly.
That Rob Owen seemed to get so many interviews with TV executives was really commendable.
May 2, 2019
I loved this book. I could relate to it in a big way. I'm not a Generation X but it made sense to me and was fun to read. Written with humor and not afraid to say he watched and enjoyed shows like Melrose Place Rob Owen brings an insight into the tube and what we choose to watch on it that I haven't seen before. Talking in depth about shows that you would normally say you don't watch....for fear of being shunned by your peers....bringing the true joy of these shows to light....showing what made them popular even if it was to laugh at in a group....this book has a lot of information on TV shows Gen X would have watched or at least known about. He also compared TV watching through different generations stating Gen X was raised on TV in a different way than the previous generations. Being the first latchkey kids many times TV was their babysitter. Previous generations watched TV as a family. Gen X youngsters watched alone and as they grew older watched with a group of peers discussing the shows, laughing at them, criticizing them or loving them together.
An interesting look into the way we watch TV, how TV impacts our lives. Also he gives information on the shows themselves..the way TV changed with the generation that was used to a faster pace, could process things quicker and demanded that their TV shows reflect that. No more slow drawn out "Murder She Wrote", instead fast cuts, music added for effect as part of the show, and scenarios that continued through the series not wrapped up in 30 minutes.
The coolest part of the book is how the computer and online access has value to TV viewers and the business itself. Referring to it as "the net" seems comical now but when the book was written in 1997 the internet was new and only few were online. I loved the writing about the future, the naivety of it. In the late 1990's you actually could influence what was aired on TV by going online to a newsgroup or bulletin board....outdated concepts now. Super fun and interesting to think back to what it was like when the internet wasn't commonplace, no facebook to air your opinions on. This book was enjoyable and informative if you have any interest in TV of generation X.
An interesting look into the way we watch TV, how TV impacts our lives. Also he gives information on the shows themselves..the way TV changed with the generation that was used to a faster pace, could process things quicker and demanded that their TV shows reflect that. No more slow drawn out "Murder She Wrote", instead fast cuts, music added for effect as part of the show, and scenarios that continued through the series not wrapped up in 30 minutes.
The coolest part of the book is how the computer and online access has value to TV viewers and the business itself. Referring to it as "the net" seems comical now but when the book was written in 1997 the internet was new and only few were online. I loved the writing about the future, the naivety of it. In the late 1990's you actually could influence what was aired on TV by going online to a newsgroup or bulletin board....outdated concepts now. Super fun and interesting to think back to what it was like when the internet wasn't commonplace, no facebook to air your opinions on. This book was enjoyable and informative if you have any interest in TV of generation X.
February 5, 2019
Eh. I'm a pop culture-loving, raised-by-TV Gen-Xer, so this should've been my thing. But it wasn't what it presents itself to be at all. I thought I'd get a lot more out of it than I did. It just... wasn't good. It was poorly written, poorly constructed, iffily researched, poorly edited (if it was edited by anyone at all), not very interesting, and riddled with a shocking amount of errors (spelling errors, punctuation errors [including frequent lack of necessary punctuation], grammar errors, factual errors, et cetera). It's not good. Rob Owen doesn't write particularly well - his sentences are clunky, poorly formed, occasionally repetitive, and they have no flow or interest to them at all - and all the errors (SO MANY) are just unforgivable in a book like this.
It's incredibly dated, which is inevitable, but I was in my 20s in the 90s and nobody will convince me that people actually sincerely used terms like "Netheads" or "cybernauts". No. And not only does Owen repeatedly refer to television as "the tube" - like, this was so outdated by the late '90s, are you a secret Baby Boomer, sir? - he also refers to the internet as "a tube". "The two tubes". NO.
It's just a big ol' paperback of meh. Definitely not worth the $5 interlibrary loan fee I had to pay to read it.
It's incredibly dated, which is inevitable, but I was in my 20s in the 90s and nobody will convince me that people actually sincerely used terms like "Netheads" or "cybernauts". No. And not only does Owen repeatedly refer to television as "the tube" - like, this was so outdated by the late '90s, are you a secret Baby Boomer, sir? - he also refers to the internet as "a tube". "The two tubes". NO.
It's just a big ol' paperback of meh. Definitely not worth the $5 interlibrary loan fee I had to pay to read it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews