Date	During-Class Discussions & Screenings	Before-Class Readings, Screenings, and Illustrations
8/20	Introduction to the Course Schitt's Creek, "Honeymoon" ep (season 1, episode 10; 2015) click for illustrations Make a syllabus meme with Frinkiac or another app.
	More Student Memes
8/25	TV Structure The Andy Griffith Show (1966) click for illustrations Narrative Structure (Classicism)	Butler, chs. 1, 3 (pp. 24-34) click for illustrations click for illustrations Recommended, not required: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
8/27	Hurricane Day Narrative Structure (Series & Serial) The Big Bang Theory (2008) click for illustrations	Butler, chs. 2, 3 (pp. 34-51) click for illustrations click for illustrations Recommended, not required: Friends (1999) click for illustrations
9/1	Narrative Structure (Series & Serial), Continued
9/3	Characters, Actors, Stars click for illustrations	Butler, ch. 4 click for illustrations
9/8, 10	Beyond and Beside Narrative Cops (1989-2020), CBS/NBC/Fox news click for illustrations The Daily Show (1996-) Storage Wars (2010-) Who Wants to be a Millionaire (2005) College Football (2019)	Butler, ch. 5 click for illustrations Recommended, not required: Salon on Reality TV (local copy) Storage Wars, "Concerns About Authenticity"
9/15	The Commercial	Butler, ch. 6 click for illustrations click for illustrations click for illustrations click for illustrations
9/17	Critical Analysis #1 Due 11:59 p.m. Via TurnItIn on Blackboard Zoom Office Hours, But No Class Session
9/22	Mise-en-Scene Stranger Things (2016) click for illustrations Northern Exposure (1990-95)	Butler, chs. 7 and 8 click for illustrations click for illustrations
9/24	Cinematography/Videography click for illustrations click for illustrations Young Sheldon (2017) Stranger Things	Butler, ch. 9 click for illustrations
9/29	Editing: Single Camera Mode click for illustrations Scrubs (2005) The Sopranos (1999) Chevrolet ad click for illustrations click for illustrations click for illustrations	Butler, ch. 10 (pp. 257-274) click for illustrations
10/1	Editing: Multiple Camera Mode Seinfeld (1990-98) click for illustrations click for illustrations click for illustrations All My Children (1970-2011) As the World Turns (2008) click for illustrations Days of Our Lives (2017) click for illustrations click for illustrations The New Adventures of Old Christine (2006-10)	Butler, ch. 10 (pp. 274-280) click for illustrations
10/6	Sound Exercise: Dodge commercial click for illustrations	Butler, ch. 11 click for illustrations
10/8	Music Television The Buggles, The Replacements, Alanis Morissette, Peter Gabriel, Guns N' Roses, Lauryn Hill, Lamp of Memoryclick for illustrations	Recommended, not required: Allan click for illustrations
10/13	Animation click for illustrations Steamboat Willie (1928), Gerald McBoing-Boing (1951), Crusader Rabbit (1949-51,'57-69), The Flintstones (1960-66), The Simpsons (1989-)	Recommended, not required: Butler/Goldmark, "Animated Television" click for illustrations
10/15	Television Studies: An Overview Screening: Style and Stylistics The Honeymooners (1955-56) Scrubs (2001-10) The Office (US 2005): Two episodes--US pilot (2005) and "Casino Night" (5/11/2006) Recommended, not required: The Office, UK pilot Office Ladies podcast, "Casino Night", w/Ken Kwapis (2020)	Butler, ch. 12; Butler, Appendix II
10/16 Friday	Critical Analysis #2, Supporting Materials Due 11:59 p.m. Via TurnItIn on Blackboard
10/20	Critical Analysis #2 Due 11:59 p.m. Via TurnItIn on Blackboard Zoom Office Hours, But No Class Session
10/22	Style and Stylistics The Mindy Project (2013) click for illustrations	Butler, ch. 13, pp. 319-323 Butler, Television Style (password: telestylistics)
10/26 Monday, 4:00-5:00	Ken Kwapis online at Blount Convocation (See Zoom link on Blackboard)
10/27	Screening: Genre Study Martin Kane, Private Eye, first 10 minutes only (1949-54) click for illustrations Dragnet, entire episode (1951-59, 1967-70, 1989-91, 2003-04) click for illustrations click for illustrations The Naked City (1948), at least first 30 minutes click for illustrations click for illustrations
10/29 5:00-6:00	No Zoom Class Session Ken Kwapis online at Ernest & Hadley, 5:00 p.m. Free, but you must register in advance here.
11/3	GO VOTE TODAY! Screening: Semiotics No in-class screening. Watch on your own: Stranger Things, season 1, episode 2, "The Weirdo on Maple Street" (2016) [[Wikipedia: plot description]] Fangface (1980) click for illustrations
11/5	Genre Study	Butler, ch. 13, pp. 317-328 click for illustrations Mittell, "Policing Genres"
11/10	Semiotics The Wonder Years (1991)	Butler, ch. 13, pp. 328-336 click for illustrations Seiter, "Semiotics, Structuralism..."
11/11	Last day to drop a course with a grade of "W". Note: changed from original date of 10/28.
11/12	Screening: Ideological Criticism and Cultural Studies (Claire Danes Double Bill!) My So-Called Life (1994) Master of None (2015) click for illustrations	Butler, ch. 14, pp. 339-352
11/17	Ideological Criticism, Cultural Studies Screening: Production Studies Modern Family (2010) I Love Lucy (1952) Recommended, not required: The Wonder Years (1988)	Mehta, "Master of None: Negotiated Decoding"
11/19	Production Studies Screening:Discourse & Identity Designing Women (1991)	Banks, "I Love Lucy: The Writer-Producer" Sandler, "Modern Family: Product Placement" Recommended, not required: Marcus, "The Wonder Years: Televised Nostalgia"
11/24-26	THANKSGIVING WEEK! No Zoom sessions.
12/1	Discourse & Identity I & II: Gender and Queer Theory Screening:Discourse & Identity The Real World (1992) Justify My Love (1990)	Butler, ch. 14, pp. 352-361 click for illustrations Recommended, not required: Butler, "Redesigning Discourse: Feminism, the Sitcom and Designing Women."
12/3	Discourse & Identity III: Race and Ethnicity Screening:Discourse & Identity Girlfriends (2000) click for illustrations	Smith-Shomade, "Laughing Out Loud"
	Course Summary
12/10	Final Exam Day, Thursday, 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.

Reading List

Textbook:

Jeremy G. Butler, Television: Visual Storytelling and Screen Culture, 5th ed. (New York: Routledge, 2018). Online resources.

Additional Readings (Alphabetical Order):

PDFs of the readings are posted on Blackboard Learn.

• Miranda J. Banks, "I Love Lucy: The Writer-Producer," in Ethan Thompson & Jason Mittell, eds., How to Watch Television first edition (NY: NYU Press, 2013), 244-252
• Blaine Allan, "Music Television," from the third, out-of-print edition of Television
• Jeremy G. Butler, "Televisuality and the Resurrection of the Sitcom in the 2000s," in Television Style (NY: Routledge, 2010), 173-222.
• Jeremy G. Butler and Daniel Goldmark, "Animated Television: The Narrative Cartoon," from the third, out-of-print edition of Television
• Daniel Marcus, "The Wonder Years: Televised Nostalgia," in Ethan Thompson & Jason Mittell, eds., How to Watch Television first edition (NY: NYU Press, 2013), 223-231.
• Ritesh Mehta, "Master of None: Negotiated Decoding," in Ethan Thompson & Jason Mittell, eds., How to Watch Television, second edition (NY: NYU Press, 2020), 144-152.
• Jason Mittell, "Policing Genres," in Genre and Television: From Cop Show to Cartoons in American Culture (NY: Routledge, 2004).
• Kevin Sandler, "Modern Family: Product Placement", in Ethan Thompson & Jason Mittell, eds., How to Watch Television first edition (NY: NYU Press, 2013), 253-261.
• Ellen Seiter, "Semiotics, Structuralism and Television," in Robert C. Allen, Channels of Discourse, Reassembled, second edition (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992).
• Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, "Laughing Out Loud: Negras Negotiating Situation Comedy," in Shaded Lives: African-American Women and Television (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002), 24-68.
• Selections from Ethan Thompson & Jason Mittell, How to Watch Television (NY: NYU Press, 2013).

Copyright © 1994-2024 Jeremy G. Butler.
Email contact: jbutler@ua.edu

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Last revised: 01 December 2020 16:28:10
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