Very Special Episodes : : Televising Industrial and Social Change / / ed. by Jennifer Porst, Jonathan Cohn.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE Arts 2021
• MitwirkendeR: Alexander, Apryl,; Apryl, Alexander,; Becker, Christine,; Becker, Ron,; Cohn, Jonathan,; Copple Smith, Erin,; Diffrient, David Scott,; Giannini, Erin,; Gigge, Lindsay,; Giggey, Lindsay,; Lagerwe, Jorie,; Lagerwey, Jorie,; Mills, Brett,; Nygaard, Taylor,; Porst, Jennifer,; Scepanski, Philip,; Selznick, Barbara,; White, Mimi,; Wissner, Reba,
• HerausgeberIn: Cohn, Jonathan,; Porst, Jennifer,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (252 p.) :; 15 b-w images

Very Special Episodes examines how the quintessential “very special episode” format became a primary way in which the television industry responded to and shaped social change, cultural traumas, and industrial transformations. With essays covering shows ranging from the birth of Desi Arnaz, Jr. on I Love Lucy to contemporary examples such as a delayed episode of Black-ish and the streaming-era phenomenon of the “Very Special Seasons” of UnReal and 13 Reasons Why, this collection seriously and critically uses the “very special episode” to chart the history of American television and its self-identified status as an arbiter of culture.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- A Very Special Introduction -- 1 Listen to Save Lives: Music and the Atomic Bomb in Cold War Very Special Episodes -- 2 Blackface on a White Christmas: Bewitched’s “Sneaky Racism” -- 3 Conspicuous Morality: Very Special Episodes, the War on Drugs, and Broadcast Deregulation -- 4 “Due to Its Subject Matter”: Creating the Very Special Teen Sex Talk in 1980s Sitcoms -- 5 “Thanksgiving Orphans”: Cheers and Very Special Holiday Episodes of Television -- 6 Very Spooky Episodes: Roseanne, Working-Class Monsters, and the Playful Perversions of Halloween TV -- 7 A Very Special Visit to the “Old Neighborhood”: Containing the Los Angeles Uprising on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -- 8 The Night the Lights Went out at (Most of) NBC: Producing a Network with 1994’s Must See TV Blackout Stunt -- 9 Ellen, “The Puppy Episode,” and a Special TV Milestone? -- 10 “And Was There a Lesson in All This?”: Weaponizing— and Subverting—the Very Special Episode -- 11 Animating Entertainment, or Very Special Media Reflexivity -- 12 Liveness and the Live Episode in Television Comedy -- 13 Too black-ish?: Banned Very Special Episodes -- 14 Knife Crime and Passion: A Very Special Episode of EastEnders -- 15 UnREAL, Sexual Assault, and the Very Special Season -- Notes on Contributors -- Index