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<p>Foreword ix</p> <p>Preface xi</p> <p>Acknowledgments xiii</p> <p><b>1 No Small Potatoes 1</b></p> <p>Communication and Transportation: The Divorce 1</p> <p>Water, Water Everywhere 6</p> <p>Electrical Bananas 9</p> <p>Here Comes the Judge 10</p> <p>Say What? 11</p> <p><b>2 A Downstream Medium 21</b></p> <p>The Show Business 22</p> <p>Radical Consumerism Occupies the Middle 27</p> <p>Networking 31</p> <p>Quality Control 34</p> <p><b>3 A Burning Bush? 37</b></p> <p>Broadcasting: Love It or Need It? 38</p> <p>A Vertical System of Culture 44</p> <p>Compatible Software 46</p> <p><b>4 Staging and Screening 53</b></p> <p>Sets 53</p> <p>Getting with the Program 55</p> <p>The Origins of ABC 58</p> <p><b>5 Corruption and Plateau 66</b></p> <p>Technology 66</p> <p>Industry 67</p> <p>Art 67</p> <p>Scandals and Shake-Outs 70</p> <p><b>6 Dull as Paint and Just as Colorful 76</b></p> <p>TV Rules 76</p> <p>Just Plain Folks 84</p> <p>Television Gothic 86</p> <p><b>7 A Myth is as Good as a Smile 89</b></p> <p>When No News Was Good News . . . in Prime Time 91</p> <p>Shows Without Trees 94</p> <p>As Real As It Got 98</p> <p>Regulation and Social Effects 103</p> <p>Programming and the Television Industry 108</p> <p><b>8 Oligopoly Lost and Found 111</b></p> <p>The Train and the Station 114</p> <p>The Shock of the News 121</p> <p>The Third Mask of Janus 126</p> <p>Index 131</p>

“One could hardly ask for a more entertaining introduction to the history of entertainment media and its role in contemporary culture.” <i>Stephen O’Leary, Annenberg School for Communication, USC</i>

<b>David Marc</b> is a writer and editor who teaches at Syracuse University and Le Moyne College. He is the author of <i>Demographic Vist</i>as (1984; 1996), <i>Comic Visions</i> (1989; Blackwell, 1997) and <i>Bonfire of the Humanities</i> (1995).<br /> <br /> <p><b>Robert J. Thompson</b> is a Professor at Syracuse University, where he heads the Center for the Study of Popular Television at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. His books include <i>Adventures on Prime Time</i> (1990) and <i>Television’s Second Golden Age</i> (1996).</p>

<i>Television in the Antenna Age</i> is an accessible, engaging, and straightforward overview of the medium’s history and development in the United States. Integrating three major concerns – television as technology, industry, and art – the book introduces the complex, fascinating, and often overlooked story of television and its impact on American life. It ends with a provocative meditation on the effect since the 1980s of competing technologies, the consolidation of media ownership, and the emerging aesthetics of twenty-first-century programming. <br /> <p><br /> </p> <p>Written by the two prominent experts on American television, this book includes several illustrative features on leading figures in TV’s development. It is the most compact and authoritative history of the medium to date.</p>

“One could hardly ask for a more entertaining introduction to the history of entertainment media and its role in contemporary culture.” <i>Stephen O’Leary, Annenberg School for Communication, USC</i>

GB