television

Hardcover. London, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 304 pages illustrated in b&w and some color. In just a few years, what used to be an immobile piece of living room furniture, which one had to sit in front of at appointed times in order to watch sponsored programming on a finite number of channels, morphed into a glowing cloud of screens with access to a near-endless supply of content available when and how viewers want it. With this phenomenon now a common cultural theme, a writer of David Thomson's stature delivering a critical history, or "biography" of the six-decade television era, will be a significant event which could not be more timely. With Television, the critic and film historian who wrote what Sight and Sound's readers called "the most important film book of the last 50 years" has finally turned his unique powers of observation to the medium that has swallowed film whole. Over twenty-two thematically organized chapters, Thomson brings his provocatively insightful and unique voice to the life of what was television. David Thomson surveying a Boschian landscape, illuminated by that singular glow-always "on"-and peopled by everyone from Donna Reed to Dennis Potter, will be the first complete history of the defining medium of our time. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 412 pages illustrated in color and b&w. In just a few years, what used to be an immobile piece of living room furniture, which one had to sit in front of at appointed times in order to watch sponsored programming on a finite number of channels, morphed into a glowing cloud of screens with access to a near-endless supply of content available when and how viewers want it. With this phenomenon now a common cultural theme, a writer of David Thomson's stature delivering a critical history, or "biography" of the six-decade television era, will be a significant event which could not be more timely. With Television, the critic and film historian who wrote what Sight and Sound's readers called "the most important film book of the last 50 years" has finally turned his unique powers of observation to the medium that has swallowed film whole. Over twenty-two thematically organized chapters, Thomson brings his provocatively insightful and unique voice to the life of what was television. David Thomson surveying a Boschian landscape, illuminated by that singular glow-always "on"-and peopled by everyone from Donna Reed to Dennis Potter, will be the first complete history of the defining medium of our time. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Dey Street Books, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, color illustrations. The Art of Archer is a true fan's guide to everything behind the scenes of the award-winning FX series. Featuring 240 pages of concept art, interviews with cast and crew, script excerpts, and the original pitch for the series, this collection offers a rare view of the Archer creative process. Commentary from the crew details how squiggles became the gorgeous final pictures fans saw, and exclusive interviews with the Emmy-nominated cast offer insights to their beloved characters and their favorite moments on the show. Storyboards, costume and set designs, reference photographs, immaculate background paintings, and more, this visually arresting collection is the ultimate guide to TV's greatest animated spy comedy. Clean copy.

Softcover. Philadelphia, Quirk, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 270 pages. The man. The movies. The life. The legend. Hes played a deranged grounds keeper, a bellowing lounge singer, a paranormal exterminator, and a grouchy weatherman. He is William James Bill Murray, Americas greatest national treasure. From his childhood lugging golf bags at a country club to his first taste of success on Saturday Night Live, from his starring roles in Hollywood blockbusters to his reinvention as a hipster icon for the twenty-first century, The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray chronicles every aspect of his extraordinary life and career. Hes the sort of actor who can do Hamlet and Charlies Angels in the same year. He shuns managers and agents, and he once agreed to voice the lead in Garfield because he mistakenly believed it was a Coen Brothers film. Hes famous for crashing house parties all over New York Cityand if he keeps photo bombing random strangers, he might just break the Internet. Part biography, part critical appreciation, part love letter, and all fun, this enormous full-color volume, packed with color film stills and behind-the-scenes photography, chronicles every Murray performance in loving detail, recounting all the milestones, legendary Murray stories, and controversies in the life of this enigmatic performer. Like-new condition.

Softcover. London, Carlton Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 128 pages. "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" is one of the better "Supermarionation" series that came from the hands of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, known by Americans as well as those in the UK for their many classic puppet series "Supercar", "Fireball XL5", "Stingray", and especially "Thunderbirds"- and their classic live action "UFO" and "Space Precinct".The Captain Scarlet series also was shown in the USA, but in a limited market originally and with wider exposure via compilation films on Showtime and HBO and later on SciFi Channel. Captain Scarlet marked one of the first Supermarionation series to have a truly dark and serious storyline, with an invisible alien race, the Mysterons, seeking revenge for an attack made in error on their cities on Mars. The Mysterons then declared war on Earth. Chris Bentley presents a complete production history and guide to all 32 episodes of the Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons series, plus information about voice artists, merchandising and spin-offs. PLEASE NOTE: the book is clean and tight, but was once owned by a smoker and has a smoke odor.

Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly sunned dust jacket. Covers 11 seasons and 251 episodes of Korean War TV comedy. Profusely illustrated in color and b&w, 240 pages. Introduction by Larry Gelbart. Light paper clip mark to front endpapers, otherwise clean. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, W.W. Norton , 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket. 318 pages, A veteran producer provides an inside view of television, combining anecdotal discussions of agents, performers, and sponsors with detailed information on network organization and business activities. A good overview of the TV broadcasting business in the 1970s. No markings.

Hardcover. NY, Rutledge/Scribners, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, dust jacket with mild fading to spine. Over 260 illustrations (64 in color) are accompanied by details of your favorite NBC television and radio stars: Groucho Marx, Liza Minelli, Jimmy Durante, Johnny Carson, George Burns, and many more. Foreword by Bob Hope. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Workman Publishing, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 223 pages, b&w illustrations. Detailed summaries of the Lost Episodes that are now on TV and descriptions of some that are still lost. The long-awaited, definitive guide to the earliest Honeymooner skits, hidden away by Jackie Gleason himself for more than 30 years. Plot synopses of The Lost Episodes pack as many surprises as Ralph himself, including the origins of the racoon hat and "pow----right in the kisser! " Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Doubleday, Revised Ed., 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, yelow pictorial wrappers, 422 pages illustrated in b&w. Everything you ever could hope to know about 'I Love Lucy'. Behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show. Cast listings, ratings and original air dates. Dialogue and interviews with the stars, writer, directors, producers and more. Mold shelf wear, clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, reprint, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 470 pages. On January 10, 1999, a mobster walked into a psychiatrist's office and changed TV history. By shattering preconceptions about the kinds of stories the medium should tell, The Sopranos launched our current age of prestige television, paving the way for such giants as Mad Men, The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. As TV critics for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, New Jersey's The Star-Ledger, Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz were among the first to write about the series before it became a cultural phenomenon. Sepinwall and Seitz have reunited to produce The Sopranos Sessions, a collection of recaps, conversations, and critical essays covering every episode. Featuring a series of new long-form interviews with series creator David Chase, as well as selections from the authors' archival writing on the series, The Sopranos Sessions explores the show's artistry, themes, and legacy.

Hardcover. Insight Editions , 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial cloth with red cloth spine. The Sopranos is widely regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time. Now, in honor of its 25th anniversary, this expansive volume explores the seminal series and the stories behind the stories through a plethora of photographs, archival materials, and exclusive one-on-one interviews with show creator, David Chase, key crew members, and cast, including Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco, Steven Schirripa, and many more. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Softcover. NY, Pocket Books, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 253 pages. Collects the sketches of the artists responsible for the costumes, sets, and aliens from the original Star Trek series, offering insight into the creative talents that contributed to the show's success and the time and budget constraints they overcame. Matt Jefferies created meticulous sketches of every aspect of the Starship Enterprise and the worlds she visited. The energetic illustrations of William Theiss depicted some of the most lavish costumes ever worn in this or any other galaxy. Fred Phillips designed makeup that actualized whole new races, with just humans underneath. Wah Chang created props and hardware that are still the basis of futurist design. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 176 pages. The official companion book to the feature-length documentary Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, featuring previously unpublished photographs from the first season of Sesame Street and interviews with cast and crew. The Unseen Photos of Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street expands on the film's exploration of the origins and legacy of Sesame Street with exclusive interviews and previously unpublished photographs from the first season of the globally beloved children's series. Author and filmmaker Trevor Crafts, who was given unprecedented access to archival footage and photography, presents more than 150 of photographer David Attie's behind-the-scenes images of Jim Henson, Will Lee, Loretta Long, Bob McGrath, Frank Oz, Matt Robinson, Caroll Spinney, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, and dozens of other pioneering puppeteers, animators, actors, and Sesame Street Muppets. Crafts uses Attie's remarkable photos and additional interviews from the film to dive deeper into the story of how show creator Joan Ganz Cooney, along with Sesame Workshop cofounder Lloyd Morrisett, director Jon Stone, and Muppet creator Jim Henson, took the values and goals of the civil rights movement and revolutionized children's television. Clean, no dj issued.

Softcover. NY, Blood Moon, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 752 pages, b&w illustrations. Born in Central Europe during the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, three "vonderful vimmen"--Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda Gabor--transferred their glittery dreams and gold-digging ambitions to Hollywood. They supplemented America's most Imperial Age with "guts, glamour, and goulash," and reigned there as the Hungarian equivalents of Helen of Troy, Madame du Barry, and Madame de Pompadour. More effectively than any army, these Bombshells from Budapest conquered kings, dukes, and princes, always with a special passion for millionaires, as they amassed fortunes, broke hearts, and amused sophisticated voyeurs on two continents. With their wit, charm, and beauty, thanks to training inspired by the glittering traditions of the Imperial Habsburgs, they became famous for being famous. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 293 pages, in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A collection of television reviews and criticism that appeared in The New Yorker during the mid-70s. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Atlantic Monthly Press , 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In 1911, famed cartoonist Winsor McCay debuted one of the first animated cartoons, based on his sophisticated newspaper strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland," itself inspired by Freud's recent research on dreams. McCay is largely forgotten today, but he unleashed an art form, and the creative energy of artists from Otto Messmer and Max Fleischer to Walt Disney and Warner Bros.' Chuck Jones. Their origin stories, rivalries, and sheer genius, as Reid Mitenbuler skillfully relates, were as colorful and subversive as their creations-from Felix the Cat to Bugs Bunny to feature films such as Fantasia-which became an integral part and reflection of American culture over the next five decades. Pre-television, animated cartoons were aimed squarely at adults; comic preludes to movies, they were often "little hand grenades of social and political satire." Early Betty Boop cartoons included nudity; Popeye stories contained sly references to the injustices of unchecked capitalism. "During its first half-century," Mitenbuler writes, "animation was an important part of the culture wars about free speech, censorship, the appropriate boundaries of humor, and the influence of art and media on society." During WWII it also played a significant role in propaganda. The Golden Age of animation ended with the advent of television, when cartoons were sanitized to appeal to children and help advertisers sell sugary breakfast cereals.

Hardcover. NY, Harpercollins , 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 509 pages, color photos. Woke Up This Morning is the definitive behind-the-scenes history of the groundbreaking HBO series that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, ushered in a new Golden Age of Television, and to this day continues to be one of the most binged shows of all time. Michael and Steve tell all the incredible stories that The Sopranos fans have been waiting to hear for over twenty years. The book covers the entire history of The Sopranos series from the original concept pitch and casting to the infamous cut to black. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harpercollins , 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 509 pages, color photos. Woke Up This Morning is the definitive behind-the-scenes history of the groundbreaking HBO series that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, ushered in a new Golden Age of Television, and to this day continues to be one of the most binged shows of all time. Michael and Steve tell all the incredible stories that The Sopranos fans have been waiting to hear for over twenty years. The book covers the entire history of The Sopranos series from the original concept pitch and casting to the infamous cut to black. Clean copy.

Softcover. University of Pennsylvania Press, reprint, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 238 pages. Women's inclinations to identify with television characters varies with their assessment of the realism of these characters and their social world.

Softcover. Prima Publishing, 3rd pr., 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 239 pages, b&w illustrations. The campy, quasi-classical, pun-intended orgy for the eyes is the top-rated action hour on syndicated TV. But did you know that Xena star Lucy Lawless is a woman of many talents in her own right? Author Nadine Crenshaw tells all about the star and the show. Xena X-Posed reveals everthing you want to know about Xena, including: Biographies of Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor, and others from the Xena clan - A behind-the-scenes look at the origins and production of the show - A complete episode guide to the first two seasons. Clean copy.