The exams for this course will include in-class essays on TV programs you choose. They will require you to apply the analytical principles presented in class and in Television.
In specific, Exam #1 will cover chapters 1-5 in Television--including concepts such as flow, narrative/nonnarrative structure and commercials. There will be short-answer questions, but a large part of the exam will be an essay on a television program you have chosen in advance.
Preparation
Choose a fictional, scripted, narrative television program ahead of time. Do not select a nonfiction, nonnarrative program such as a game show, sports program, or reality program (e.g., The Bachelor or Big Brother). Also, you may not select a program discussed in detail in Television, in class or on TVCrit.com -- including The Andy Griffith Show, All My Children, As the World Turns, The Cosby Show, Designing Women, Friends, Roseanne, The Simpsons, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place.
Before the exam, prepare the following in word-processed format:
- A scene-by-scene description of a single episode. If you watched it with commercials, indicate where the commercial breaks occur and a list of all the commercials.
- The episode's credits: producer, production company, director, writer, principal cast (actors' and characters' names). This must be the credits for the specific episode you're analyzing. Remember, The Internet Movie Database (us.imdb.com) and TV.com contain most of this information.
The scene-by-scene description and credits must be turned in at the exam and will be worth 5% of the exam score.
It would also be a good idea to think through the analytical principles we've discussed as they apply to your particular program (see Television, Appendix I). You might even outline some thoughts along these lines, but you should not prepare a formal essay.
