Prime Times : Writers on Their Favorite TV Shows

by BAUER, DOUGLAS

• ISBN13: 9781400047543
• ISBN10: 1400047544
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-01
• Publisher: Crown Pub

Summary

The literary mind and the boob tube are often thought to have little in common, but the two have been trysting in dimly lit rooms since television's earliest days. To prove the point, Doug Bauer asked a number of the finest writers of our time to reveal their own forays into a medium that has been called everything from a vast wasteland to the electronic dream machine of the global village. The results are surprising, passionate, very personal, and often downright hilarious. From Nora Ephron on The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Nick Hornby on The West Wing, Susan Cheever on Father Knows Best to Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Amos 'n' Andy, the full range of televised fare is capturedsitcoms and soaps, police dramas and reality TV, the very new and the very old, and the much criticized and denounced and the truly iconic and beloved. Prime Times is an eclectic gathering of autobiography, memory, and blade-sharp observation, all bound by the commonand, after all, literaryexperience of watching other people's lives while trying to understand one's own. From the Hardcover edition.

Author Biography

DOUGLAS BAUER has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Playboy, and other national magazines. He is also the author of <b>Prairie City, Iowa</b>, a work of nonfiction, and three novels. He lives in Boston.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
PART ONE AT THE MOMENT	1	(42)
The West Wing	3	(8)
Nick Hornby
America, America, This Is You: A Complete Explanation of Why, Exactly, I Am Going on Record as Loving America's Funniest Home Videos	11	(6)
Elizabeth McCracken
Days of Our Lives	17	(7)
Susan Perabo
The Tribe Has Spoken: Why I Like Survivor	24	(19)
Phyllis Rose
PART TWO ROLE MODELS	43	(68)
Father Knows Best	45	(7)
Susan Cheever
The Great Ones	52	(8)
Barry Hannah
The Andy Griffith Show	60	(7)
Jill McCorkle
Beam Me Up, Scotty: Star Trek	67	(14)
James Alan McPherson
Bring Back Big Valley	81	(9)
Jayne Anne Phillips
The Wound and the Bow: Howard Cosell and Monday Night Football	90	(21)
David Shields
PART THREE THANKS FOR BEING THERE	111	(42)
Rob and Laura and the Little Garage	113	(8)
Richard Bausch
Like Robinson Crusoe	121	(10)
Lan Samantha Chang
The Mary Tyler Moore Show	131	(3)
Nora Ephron
Infomercials	134	(8)
Stephen McCauley
You Are Not Alone: MST3K, Lost in Space, and the Reality of Science Fiction	142	(11)
Douglas Rushkoff
PART FOUR GREAT ESCAPES	153	(40)
A Life of Danger	155	(6)
April Bernard
Prime Times: Masterpiece Theatre	161	(7)
Michael Gorra
Dreamhouse	168	(7)
Virginia Heffernan
Hawaii Five-O	175	(12)
Mark Leyner
The Twilight Zone	187	(6)
Alan Lightman
PART FIVE IN THE BEGINNING	193	(26)
The World in Black and White	195	(7)
Sven Birkerts
Amos `n' Andy and Civil Rights on TV	202	(6)
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Gracie and Me	208	(11)
Lloyd Schwartz
About the Contributors	219