1 Lecture 15: What is the thing called Quality? Chappelle’s Show (Comedy Central 2003-6) The Sopranos (HBO 1999-2007)
1 Lecture 15: What is the thing called Quality? Chappelle’s Show (Comedy Central 2003-6) The Sopranos (HBO 1999-2007)
Dec 27, 2015
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Lecture 15:What is the thing called Quality?
Chappelle’s Show (Comedy Central 2003-6) The Sopranos (HBO 1999-2007)
Daniel Bernardi
Every lecture/Power Points starts with this page. The title is 44 pt Arial red. Below the title should be a picture followed by a caption. Captions are in 14 pt Arial black. Every image MUST have a caption that includes, if approrpiate, its title and credits (copyright). If it's an artistic work, it should include the artist;s name as well. The art's name should be a hyperlink to his or her website or a website that provides greater detail about the artist.
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Lesson 15 Agenda
• The History of US Television & Culture
…So Far
• What is Quality?
• Let’s Watch Some TV– Satire & Contestable Quality– It’s Not Just Quality TV, It’s also
HBO
• Post Network or Post TV?
The Richard Pryor Show (NBC 1977)
Chappelle’s Show (Comedy Central 2003-6)
Daniel Bernardi
The third slide of every lecture/Power Point is "Lesson Agenda." I recommend dividing each lesson into three sections, so that there are three bullets on this slide - one per section of the lecture. I do not recommend including sub-bullets on this slide. Keep it simple. Here you are pointing students to the general outline of what they will be hearing and reading in this respective lecture.
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Section 1The History of U.S Television & Culture
…So Far
Daniel Bernardi
Once slide three is complete, you can divide your lecture according to the three bullets/sections listed in that slide (again, I recommend three). Each section has its own header slide. Under Section 1 (or 2 or 3), you'll add the title of that section. That title correspond to the respective bullet in slide three.
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The Nature of the Industry• TELEVISION IS, FIRST AND
FOREMOST, A COMMERCIAL MEDIUM—LIKE ITS PREDECESSOR RADIO, THE PROGRAMS EXIST TO MAKE AD REVENUE.
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Culture, Media & Industry
Television As
Cultural Artifact
Television As
Industrial Product
Television As
Creative Pursuit
Father Knows Best (CBS, 1954-55, 1958-60 and NBC 1955-58)
[Above] Jersey Shore (MTV 2009 - ); [Left] Six Feet Under (HBO 2000-5)
Daniel Bernardi
You can break up slides with bullets and text to include slides with single images, charts, etc.
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Reflecting & Refracting American Popular Consciousness
• Do Television programs reflect American Popular Consciousness providing a mirror image or “accurate” representation?
• Do Television programs are refract American Popular Consciousness–bend, distort, reconfigure—images when they pass through the medium?
YES & NO.
Daniel Bernardi
Each section can have as many slides as neccessary, though I recommend no less than 6 and no more than 9. This is because you want your lectures to run at least 30 minutes... ideally, depending on if you have students look at clips or do excersise, 45 minutes. And you never want too much info on any one slide. Don't overload the students with info. Use the bullets and sub-bullets as pointing divices. These divices will also trigger what you record for audio. In your audio, you will want to elaborate, of course, which means that the bullet is really a reference mark for both you and the student.You can also have as many or few bullets and subbullets on each slide. This one has three main bullets each with two subbullets by way of example.
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Section 2: What Is Quality?
Mad Men (AMC 2007 - )
Daniel Bernardi
Once slide three is complete, you can divide your lecture according to the three bullets/sections listed in that slide (again, I recommend three). Each section has its own header slide. Under Section 1 (or 2 or 3), you'll add the title of that section. That title correspond to the respective bullet in slide three.
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The Concept of Quality TV
• In “HBO & the Concept of Quality TV,” Jane Feuer states:
…there can never be a judgment of quality in an absolute sense… there are always judgments of quality relative to one’s interpretive community or reading formation.
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Commercial Quality
If It Delivers Audiences…
Does
That Make It
Quality
TV?
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Section 3: Let’s Watch Some TV!
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Insert Image Here
Add Image
Caption w/ Credits
Here
DownloadReading/Screening Sheet 15 from Learning Tasks
The Wire (HBO 2002-2008)
Daniel Bernardi
Once slide three is complete, you can divide your lecture according to the three bullets/sections listed in that slide (again, I recommend three). Each section has its own header slide. Under Section 1 (or 2 or 3), you'll add the title of that section. That title correspond to the respective bullet in slide three.
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• Case Studies– The Richard Pryor
Show– In Living Color– Chappelle’s Show
For Your Viewing Pleasure:Satire & Contestable Quality
Dying is Easy, Satire Is REALLY HARD
• Satire: Artistic form in which human or individual vices, folly, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to bring about improvement.
• Getting you to laugh AND to think…
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Satire & Contestable Quality 1970s
• Humor in Conversation with Race, Class & Cultural & Political Discourse
• Not Network Prime Time Friendly:
• Standards, Practices vs. Comic Vision
• Satire vs. Stand Up
The Richard Pryor Show (NBC, 1977)
Uncontainable
Daniel Bernardi
You can break up slides with bullets and text to include slides with single images, charts, etc.
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Satire & Contestable Quality 1990s
• Comedy in Conversation with Race, Class & Cultural & Political Discourse
• Do What You Want…(Netlet Freedom)
• Equal (?) Opportunity Offender
• Kicking it Old School: Sketch & Variety
In Living Color (Fox 1990-94)
Notoriously Un-P.C.
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• Comedy in Conversation with Multiple Constituencies, Race, Class & Cultural & Political Discourse
• Do What You Want…(Basic Cable Freedom)
• Multiple Audiences, Multiple Readings
• Exploding Stereotypes or Reaffirming Them?
Dancing Like Nobody’s Watching(until they were watching…millions of them)
Chappelle’s Show (Comedy Central 2003-6)
New Millennial Satire: Highly Contestable Quality
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Elements of Quality Drama: A Highly Subjective List
– Generic Hybridity
– Complex and/or Conflicted Characters
– Narratives that Play with Audience Expectations
– Cinematic or Distinctive Visual Style
– Exploits the Episodic Nature of Television
Dexter (Showtime 2006 - )
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It’s
Not Just
Quality
Drama…
• Verisimilitude and/or
Emotional Realism,
• Creative Freedom As HBO Brand?
• Televisual Moral Relativism
It’s Also HBO
Above: “Omar Little” (The Wire); “Silvio Dante” (The Sopranos);Below: “Bubbles” (The Wire);“Dr. Melfi (The Sopranos)
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• The Sopranos – Moral Ambiguity +Multi-Layered Characters +
Narrative Complexity=Quality
More Viewing Pleasure:It’s Not Just Quality Drama, It’s also HBO
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• The Wire – Moral Ambiguity +
Multi-Layered
Characters +
Narrative Complexity
=Quality
More Viewing Pleasure:It’s Not Just Quality Drama, It’s also HBO
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And In The End…• My Wish for my fellow
Media Babies
• Good Night & Good Luck.
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