Critical Studies inTelevision
bit.ly/j311f18

This is an addendum to the full syllabus.

The instructor stipulates that a student's receipt of this addendum shall act as a contract between the instructor and the student. Receipt of this addendum presupposes that a student has read and understands the policies contained here and in the full online syllabus: bit.ly/j311f18s

Please contact the instructor (jbutler@ua.edu) if you have any questions about these policies. Confused about how to address UA professors? Here's a flow chart.

Date Topic/Screening Readings
8/23 Introduction to the Course
The Andy Griffith Show (1966) click for illustrations TV.com logo
:
  Make-a-Meme.org or create on your own
Batman slaps Robin.
meme
meme
8/28 TV Structure Screenpedia, Narrative Structure (Classicism) Screenpedia
Friends (1999) click for illustrations TV.com logo
Recommended: RBG (2018), Bama Art House, 7:30
Butler, chs. 1, 3 (pp. 24-34) click for illustrations click for illustrations
8/30 Narrative Structure (Series & Serial) Screenpedia
The Big Bang Theory (2008) click for illustrations TV.com link
Butler, chs. 2, 3 (pp. 34-51) click for illustrations click for illustrations
9/4 Characters, Actors, Stars click for illustrations Screenpedia Butler, ch. 4 click for illustrations
9/6, 11 Beyond and Beside Narrative Screenpedia
Cops (1989-) click for illustrations, CBS/NBC news click for illustrations,
The Daily Show
(1996-) click for illustrations
Storage Wars (2010-) click for illustrations
Who Wants to be a Millionaire (2005) click for illustrations
College Football (2016)
Rosh Hashanah
Butler, ch. 5 click for illustrations
recommended: Salon on Reality TV (local copy)
Storage Wars, "Concerns About Authenticity"
9/13 The Commercial Screenpedia
Old Spice Hawkridge, Chili's, AT&T, McDonald's, Best Buy, Subway, Little Ceasar's, Ford SYNC click for illustrations
Butler, ch. 6 click for illustrations click for video
9/18 Exam #1 -- exam preparation
Gillette Fusion commercial
 
9/20 Mise-en-Scene Screenpedia
Stranger Things (2016) click for illustrations click for video TV.com logo
Butler, chs. 7 and 8 click for illustrations click for illustrations
9/25 Cinematography/Videography Screenpedia click for illustrations click for illustrations
New Girl
(2011) click for video
He Said, She Said (1991)
CameraSim Exercise
Butler, ch. 9 click for illustrations
9/27 Editing: Single Camera Mode Screenpedia click for illustrations
Northern Exposure (1990-95) Northern Exposure clip TV.com logo
The Sopranos click for illustrations TV.com logo
Chevrolet ad click for illustrations click for illustrations
Butler, ch. 10 (pp. 257-274) click for illustrations
10/2 Editing: Multiple Camera Mode Screenpedia
Seinfeld (1990-98) click for illustrations click for illustrations TV.com logo
All My Children (1970-2011) All My Children
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) click for illustrations
Butler, ch. 10 (pp. 274-280) click for illustrations
10/4 Sound Screenpedia
Exercise: Dodge commercial click for illustrations
Butler, ch. 11 click for illustrations
10/9 Special Topics I: Music Television Screenpedia
The Buggles, The Replacements, Alanis Morissette,
Peter Gabriel, Guns N' Roses, Lauryn Hill, Lamp of Memoryclick for illustrations

Allan click for illustrations

10/11 Special Topics II: Animation click for illustrations Screenpedia
Steamboat Willie (1928) , Gerald McBoing-Boing (1951) ,
Crusader Rabbit (1949-51,'57-69) ,
The Flintstones (1960-66), The Simpsons (1989-)
Butler/Goldmark, "Animated Television" click for illustrations
10/16 Television Studies: An Overview Screenpedia
The Honeymooners (1955-56) click for illustrations
Scrubs (2001-10) click for video illustrations
Butler, ch. 12; Butler, Appendix II
Television Style password: telestylistics
10/18 Exam #2 Review
Select a question from a Screenpedia article.
Recommended: Submit Exam #2 preparation
 
10/19
Friday
Exam #2 preparation due
4:30 p.m., Dr. Butler's mailbox, JCM office (400 Phifer)
 
10/23 Exam #2 (excludes "Television Studies")
R.E.M. "Stand" (frame grabs)
 
10/25 Mid-Semester Study Break  
10/30 Style and Stylistics Screenpedia
The Mindy Project (2012-) click for illustrations TV.com logo
Butler, ch. 13, pp. 319-323;
Butler, "Televisuality and..." (PDF)
10/31 Last day to drop a course with a grade of "W".  
11/1 Genre Screening
Martin Kane, Private Eye (1949-54) click for illustrations
Dragnet (1951-59, 1967-70, 1989-91, 2003-04) click for illustrations
Detour (1945) click for illustrations
Butler, ch. 13, pp. 317-319 and 323-328 click for illustrations
11/6 Genre Study Screenpedia Mittell, "Policing Genres"
11/8 Semiotics Screening
Stranger Things (2016) [[WIKI]]
Fangface
(1980) click for illustrations
The Wonder Years (1991) click for illustrations TV.com logo
Butler, ch. 13, pp. 328-336 click for illustrations
11/13 Semiotics Screenpedia Seiter, "Semiotics, Structuralism..."
11/15 Ideological Criticism, Cultural Studies & Production Studies Screening
My So-Called Life (1994) Logo click for illustrations
Butler, ch. 14, pp. 339-352
11/20 View on your own:
Modern Family
(2010) TV.com logo click for illustrations click for illustrations
I Love Lucy
(1952) TV.com logo click for illustrations click for illustrations
The Wonder Years
(1988) TV.com logo click for illustrations
 
11/22 Thanksgiving Holiday  
11/27 Ideological Criticism, Cultural Studies & Production Studies Screenpedia Thompson & Mittell, How to Read Television
11/29 Discourse & Identity Screening
Designing Women (1991) TV.com logo click for illustrations
The Real World (1992) click for illustrations
Justify My Love (1990) click for illustrations
Butler, ch. 14, pp. 352-361 click for illustrations
12/4 Discourse & Identity I & II: Gender and Queer Theory Screenpedia
Girlfriends
(2000) TV.com logo click for illustrations click for illustrations
Fresh Off the Boat (2016) TV.com logo click for illustrations
 
12/6

Discourse & Identity III: Race and Ethnicity Screenpedia

black-ish (2015) TV.com logo click for illustrations
Smith-Shomade, "Laughing Out Loud"
  Course Summary / Exam Review  
12/7 Television Extra-Credit Due, 11:59 p.m.  
12/13 Final Exam Period, 7:00 p.m., Thursday
Exam #3
 

Reading List

Textbook:

Television coverJeremy 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.

  • 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
  • Gary Copeland, "A History of Television Style," from the third, out-of-print edition of Television
  • Jason Mittell, "Policing Genres," in Genre and Television: From Cop Show to Cartoons in American Culture (NY: Routledge, 2004).
  • 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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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Last revised: 27 August 2019 17:25:56

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