The Lonely Nineties
Visions of Community in Contemporary US Television
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Beschreibung
This book examines the most popular American television shows of the nineties—a decade at the last gasp of network television’s cultural dominance. At a time when American culture seemed increasingly fragmented, television still offered something close to a site of national consensus. The Lonely Nineties focuses on a different set of popular nineties television shows in each chapter and provides an in-depth reading of scenes, characters or episodes that articulate the overarching “ideology” of each series. It ultimately argues that television shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order and The Simpsons helped to shape the ways Americans thought about themselves in relation to their friends, families, localities, and nation. It demonstrates how these shows engaged with a variety of problems in American civic life, responded to the social isolation of the age, and occasionally imagined improvements for communityin America.
This book examines the most popular American television shows of the nineties—a decade at the last gasp of network television’s cultural dominance. At a time when American culture seemed increasingly fragmented, television still offered something close to a site of national consensus. The Lonely Nineties focuses on a different set of popular nineties television shows in each chapter and provides an in-depth reading of scenes, characters or episodes that articulate the overarching “ideology” of each series. It ultimately argues that television shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order and The Simpsons helped to shape the ways Americans thought about themselves in relation to their friends, families, localities, and nation. It demonstrates how these shows engaged with a variety of problems in American civic life, responded to the social isolation of the age, and occasionally imagined improvements for community in America.
Puts into cultural context some of the most popular and significant US television shows of the nineties, including Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, The X-Files, Touched by an Angel, and The Simpsons Links popular culture to key social and cultural developments of the nineties, including the rise of coffee shop culture, the Rodney King beating, the memory of the sixties, and the culture wars Examines the representations of community that primetime TV offered to its American mass audiences in an increasingly fragmented national culture
Autor*in
Paul Arras
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“Arras’ use of clear and focused prose suggests a text appropriate for both graduate and upper-level undergraduate television and cultural studies courses.” (Adam Christian Clark, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 41 (1), 2021)
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“In this timely and well-researched book, Paul Arras explores American television of the 1990s, an innovative period when a number of successful and influential programmes appeared, such as Friends, Seinfeld and NYPD Blue. Throughout his analysis he argues that such programmes are a product of their time; they tell us some of the society and culture which produced and consumed them. While the 1990s is not forgotten and many of its programmes still appear on our screens, we sometimes forget what a turning point it was for quality television.” (Paul Rixon, Roehampton University, UK)
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