"Drawn to Television is a highly articulate interpretation of the plots and wider implications of television animation. Anyone interested in the whole story--from the banal Flintstones, to the intellectually supercharged Rocky and His Friends, to the culture-critiquing Simpsons and beyond--will want to look here, and look closely." -- Paul Buhle, Senior Lecturer, History and American Civilization, Brown University
ContentsContentsContentsIntroduction: A Very Brief History of Prime-Time Animation ix1Animation Comes to Prime Time: The Case of The Flintstones 12The Sixties Animation Explosion: The Flintstones Fallout 213Animation's New Age: Meet The Simpsons 474Family Guys from King of the Hill to American Dad 695Beyond the Family Sitcom: Prime-Time Animation Seeks New Formats 1036You Can't Do That on Television: The Animated Satire of South Park 1257Pushing the Animated Envelope 157Postscript: Prime-Time Animation in American Culture 185Index 187
M. Keith Booker is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of Arkansas. He is the author of many Greenwood and Praeger volumes, including most recently Science Fiction Television (2004), Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture (2006) and From the Box Office to the Ballot Box: The American Political Film.
Booker provides a detailed description of animated television shows
from the The Flintstones (which first aired in 1960) to Family Guy
(which appeared 1999). He focuses on prime-time television but
includes a history of all animated series, from morning shows to
late-night cable. Primarily descriptive, the book includes every
character, all the activities, and the history of the rise and fall
of each series….Booker makes a good case for the appeal of animated
television to viewers raised on animated programming and
advertising. He also points out that the animation format allows
for more critical irony and outrageous behavior than traditional
prime-time broadcast series can offer….This is a book for those who
need to know what happened in every animated series from 1960 to
the present.
*Choice*
Booker has taken on an ambitious topic in this book. Exploring the
progression of our most watched animated programs is a difficult
task, but Drawn to Television does an admirable job of surveying
the last 40 years or so of prime-time animation, while highlighting
how these programs have served as sounding boards for their
creators and reflections of society.
*Frames Per Second*
The history of prime-time animation from Flintstones to modern
times examines not only individual shows and their evolution and
influences, but the changing nature of childhood and the social and
political influences of children's programming as a whole. From the
technical specifications of how animated children's programming
differs from others to how it's used to impart social commentary,
this guide is key for university level Media Studies programs.
*Midwest Book Review - Internet Bookwatch*
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