Television: A Biography

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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 10/25/2016
ISBN: 9780500519165
Pages: 304
Weight: 2.90lbs
Size: 10.10h x 7.40w x 1.60d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 07/04/2016
Library Journal 08/01/2016 pg. 92
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001
Kirkus Reviews Fall Preview 08/15/2016 pg. 37
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2016
Shelf Awareness 11/08/2016
Booklist 12/01/2016 pg. 9
Choice 04/01/2017