The Persistence of Television examines more than 60 years of television to identify the elements that have entertained and informed viewers from the beginning of mass broadcasting to the present day, proposing that most television viewing is rooted in traditional programming that is still largely received in conventional ways. The book includes the discussion of popular shows such as Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and David Attenboroughs nature documentaries. On-screen faces, programmes and genres drawn from British, American and Australian television services are examined to demonstrate how continuity persists in the face of change. There's no denying the excitement or the value of the new, but the authors of this book argue that it runs in tandem with enduring aspects of the already existing.
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Explores the persistence of television forms, genres, and personalities into a post broadcast age.
Introduction
Section A: The set-up
1. What television means
2. Familiarity and liveness
a. Familiarity
b. Mundane liveness
c. Special event liveness
3. The faces on screen
a. Analyzing the face
b. Different professions
c. The ageing face
d. The voice
Section B: Non-fictional persistence
4. Light entertainment
a. Game and panel shows
b. Talk shows
5. Natural history
a. The development of the genre
b. Discovery and other global channels
c. David Attenborough
d. Springwatch
Section C: Fictional persistence
6. Reboots, remakes and revivals
a. The significance of the different terms
b. Sitcoms
c. Twin Peaks
d. Doctor Who
7. Adaptation
a. P.G. Wodehouse
b. John le Carre
8. Crime
a. Dennis Franz: becoming Sipowicz
b. New Tricks: the culmination of long careers
c. Gerard Kennedy: an Australian variant.
9. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Jason Jacobs is Head of School, School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland, Australia. He has an international reputation as a historian of television drama, its institutions, technology and aesthetics. His books include The Intimate Screen (2000), Body Trauma TV (2003), Deadwood (2012) and a forthcoming study of David Milch.
Frances Bonner is Honorary Research Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland, Australia. Her research focuses on non-fiction television, celebrity and adaptation. Her books include Fame Games (with Graeme Turner and P. David Marshall, 2000), Ordinary Television (2003) and Personality Presenters: Televisions Intermediaries with Viewers (2011).
