How to Watch Television brings together forty original essays from todays leading scholars on television culture, writing about the programs they care (and think) the most about.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: An Owner's Manual for Television - ETHAN THOMPSON AND JASON MITTELL
• I. TV Form: Aesthetics and Style
• 1 Homicide: Realism - BAMBI L. HAGGINS
• 2 House: Narrative Complexity - AMANDA D. LOTZ
• 3 Life on Mars: Transnational Adaptation - CHRISTINE BECKER
• 4 Mad Men: Visual Style - JEREMY G. BUTLER
• 5 Nip/Tuck: Popular Music - BEN ASLINGER
• 6 Phineas & Ferb: Children's Television - JASON MITTELL
• 7 The Sopranos: Episodic Storytelling - SEAN O'SULLIVAN
• 8 Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job!: Metacomedy - JEFFREY SCONCE
• II. TV Representations: Social Identity and Cultural Politics
• 9 24: Challenging Stereotypes - EVELYN ALSULTANY
• 10 The Amazing Race: Global Othering - JONATHAN GRAY
• 11 The Cosby Show: Representing Race - CHRISTINE ACHAM
• 12 The Dick Van Dyke Show: Queer Meanings - QUINN MILLER
• 13 Eva Luna: Latino/a Audiences - HECTOR AMAYA
• 14 Glee / House Hunters International: Gay Narratives - RON BECKER
• 15 Grey's Anatomy: Feminism - ELANA LEVINE
• 16 Jersey Shore: Ironic Viewing - SUSAN J. DOUGLAS
• III. TV Politics: Democracy, Nation, and the Public Interest
• 17 30 Days: Social Engagement - GEOFFREY BAYM AND COLBY GOTTERT
• 18 America's Next Top Model: Neoliberal Labor - LAURIE OUELLETTE
• 19 Family Guy: Undermining Satire - NICK MARX
• 20 Fox & Friends: Political Talk - JEFFREY P. JONES
• 21 M*A*S*H: Socially Relevant Comedy - NOEL MURRAY
• 22 Parks and Recreation: The Cultural Forum - HEATHER HENDERSHOT
• 23 Star Trek: Serialized Ideology - ROBERTA PEARSON
• 24 The Wonder Years: Televised Nostalgia - DANIEL MARCUS
• IV. TV Industry: Industrial Practices and Structures
• 25 Entertainment Tonight: Tabloid News - ANNE HELEN PETERSEN
• 26 I Love Lucy: The Writer-Producer - MIRANDA J. BANKS
• 27 Modern Family: Product Placement - KEVIN SANDLER
• 28 Monday Night Football: Brand Identity - VICTORIA E. JOHNSON
• 29 NYPD Blue: Content Regulation - JENNIFER HOLT
• 30 Onion News Network: Flow - ETHAN THOMPSON
• 31 The Prisoner: Cult TV Remakes - MATT HILLS
• 32 The Twilight Zone: Landmark Television - DEREK KOMPARE
• V. TV Practices: Medium, Technology, and Everyday Life
• 33 Auto-Tune the News: Remix Video - DAVID GURNEY
• 34 Battlestar Galactica: Fans and Ancillary Content - SUZANNE SCOTT
• 35 Everyday Italian: Cultivating Taste - MICHAEL Z. NEWMAN
• 36 Gossip Girl: Transmedia Technologies - LOUISA STEIN
• 37 It's Fun to Eat: Forgotten Television - DANA POLAN
• 38 One Life to Live: Soap Opera Storytelling - ABIGAIL DE KOSNIK
• 39 Samurai Champloo: Transnational Viewing - JIWON AHN
• 40 The Walking Dead: Adapting Comics - HENRY JENKINS
• Contributors