Sitcom

A History in 24 Episodes from I Love Lucy to Community

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Television, History & Criticism
Cover of the book Sitcom by Saul Austerlitz, Chicago Review Press
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Author: Saul Austerlitz ISBN: 9781613743874
Publisher: Chicago Review Press Publication: March 1, 2014
Imprint: Chicago Review Press Language: English
Author: Saul Austerlitz
ISBN: 9781613743874
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Publication: March 1, 2014
Imprint: Chicago Review Press
Language: English

A carefully curated tour through TV comedy series, this mixtape of fondly remembered shows surveys the genealogy of the form, the larger trends in its history, the best of what the genre has accomplished, and the most standard of its works. From I Love Lucy, The Phil Silvers Show, and M*A*S*H to Taxi, The Larry Sanders Show, and 30 Rock, this guide presents the sitcom as a capsule version of the 20th-century arts—realism giving way to modernism and then to postmodernism, all between the hours of 8 and 10pm on weeknights. Each chapter springs from an individual representative entity, including The Simpsons’ “22 Short Films About Springfield,” The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” Seinfeld’s “The Pitch,” and Freaks and Geeks’ “Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers,” where Martin Starr’s nerdy Bill takes comfort in—what else—the pleasures of laughing at TV.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A carefully curated tour through TV comedy series, this mixtape of fondly remembered shows surveys the genealogy of the form, the larger trends in its history, the best of what the genre has accomplished, and the most standard of its works. From I Love Lucy, The Phil Silvers Show, and M*A*S*H to Taxi, The Larry Sanders Show, and 30 Rock, this guide presents the sitcom as a capsule version of the 20th-century arts—realism giving way to modernism and then to postmodernism, all between the hours of 8 and 10pm on weeknights. Each chapter springs from an individual representative entity, including The Simpsons’ “22 Short Films About Springfield,” The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” Seinfeld’s “The Pitch,” and Freaks and Geeks’ “Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers,” where Martin Starr’s nerdy Bill takes comfort in—what else—the pleasures of laughing at TV.

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