Watching TV: Six Decades of American Television

"Watching TV..." is an exceptional book. It is the followup to "Watching TV: Four Decades of American Television" that was published in the early eighties. This book contains two extra decades, the complete eighties, the nineties, and right up to the 2002-2003 TV season, alas you have the new title "Watching TV: Six Decades of American Television". The book is neatly written. Every single television season is listed, complete with schedule grids of the huge networks operating during a specific year. For example, the now defunct network Dumont is listed in the early chapters along with the shows it broadcast. It is great fun going through the different decades and seeing how much the television landscape has changed. From the 1950's with shows like "Donna Reed" and "Leave It To Beaver", to the turbulent sixties when shows like "Gilligan's Island", "Bewitched", and "The Munsters" enabled viewers escapist fare to forget the problems in America like the Vietnam War, to the early 2000's when reality fare overtook the networks, "Watching TV..." has everything one wants to know about broadcast television. This book is well-researched and the best book of its kind on all U.S. networks. The writers of this book also are not shy is discussing the ups and downs of CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX in their thirst for viewers, and in the process of making money from advertisers. My favorite part of the book is that time back in the 1970's when programming chief Fred Silverman came to ABC and made the then "third" network #1 with shows like "Laverne and Shirley" and "Three's Company". As one reads on you see what happens to Silverman when NBC spent a lot of money luring him to their network only to see a disaster when NBC fell to the bottom of the Nielsens and lost millions in advertising revenue, proving lightening doesn't strike twice, at least among the networks. "Watching TV..." is even used in colleges around the country in different media studies courses. In one word this book is exceptional.

This is the real deal. While reading it my life flashed before me. Its graphic depiction of every TV season , going all the way back to 1944, brought back a torrent of memories. Nothing has been left out. Watching TV is best book written about this medium. A medium that touches each an every one of us. If you love television you'll love this book.

The great risk in doing a book like "Watching TV," which both takes television history seriously and has fun with it, is that it may prove to be neither fish nor fowl -- too scholarly for those that want mere nostalgia, and with too much affection for its subject to please those who just want the facts. Happily, "Watching TV" avoids this pitfall. In the end, the book leans more to the scholarly side than the trivial, but given the vital role the medium plays in our society, the balance feels right. In this second edition of their 1982 book, Harry Castleman and Wally Podrazik take us up to the 2002-03 season, covering, in the updated material: NBC's return to respectability; cable's steady march to power, the emergence of Fox, the WB and UPN's debuts as broadcast networks, the regulatory shift that has concentrated ownership in a way not seen in decades; the beginnings of the reality show phenomenon, the launch of new technology that promises to change the medium forever, and more. One of the remarkable aspects of the book remains its refusal to traffic in simple answers. If you're sure that Castleman and Podrazik are making a quick, easy generalization, keep reading: You'll soon see that they will articulate the issue's complexity. The easiest temptation for two Baby Boomer authors would have been to write a lament for "the good old days" of television. But Castleman and Podrazik point out the good and the bad in every season, in artistic, commercial and social terms. The season-by-season structure has several advantages. One is that you get the sense, moreso than in any other book about TV history, of how the networks have competed with one another. While it's fun to look at the various fall schedules, the text in each chapter often explains why certain shows were placed into certain slots, how another network sought to counterprogram that same slot, and the results of such moves. ABC, which for many years was a perennial third-place finisher during the three-network days, is worth keeping an eye on throughout the book, because its desperation to get out of last place made it willing to take bold chances. We learn, for instance why CBS programming head James Aubrey was fired during the 1964-65 season, following some scheduling tactics by ABC that threatened the Tiffany Network's prime time supremacy (and set the precedent for a practice that is only now beginning to fade). And because the book is chronological, you already know from the previous chapter how ABC planted the seeds for its near-upset. If I'm making all of this sound like boring corporate infighting that no one could possibly care about today, that isn't the way it's presented in the book. The shows from that season are discussed in fun detail, but the added context of how the networks used them gives the book heft. Another fascinating network vs. network storyline again involves ABC, this time concerning its challenge to the No. 1 spot in the 1975-76 season. Castleman and Podrazik

Unlike most of the TV reference books, this is a season-by-season narrative of the history of television. One can pick up the book and turn to any chapter and, even if one is too young to remember that particular TV season, get the flavor of the events of that season and the major programs and trends. A good, informative read, with an objective, down-the-middle viewpoint. The new 2nd revised edition takes the story up through 2009, using the same very readable approach to the increasingly-complex chronicle of the medium. Even if, like me, you don't watch much entertainment TV any longer, there's enough interesting material in even the last few chapters to give everyone something interesting to ponder. And, yes, following the up-and-down year-to-year fortunes of the major networks is quite fascinating.

The long-awaited update of this classic is finally here!Castleman and Podrazik's original "Watching TV" is a meticulously researched, wittily-written history of the medium from 1940 to 1980. Filled with insider tidbits, network schedules and classic photos, it's a tv trivia buff's dream come true. The new, updated book is even better!A definite must for the tv room coffee table.