Heartland TV: Prime Time Television and the Struggle for U.S. Identity

Victoria E. Johnson

Published by New York University Press 2008

Heartland TV

Prime Time Television and the Struggle for U.S. Identity

Victoria E. Johnson

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814743621.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Winner of the 2009 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award
The Midwest of popular imagination is a "Heartland" characterized by traditional cultural values and mass market dispositions. Whether cast positively —; as authentic, pastoral, populist, hardworking, and all-American—or negatively—as backward, narrow–minded, unsophisticated, conservative, and out-of-touch—the myth of the Heartland endures.
Heartland TV examines the centrality of this myth to television's promotion and development, programming and marketing appeals, and public debates over the medium's and its audience's cultural worth. Victoria E. Johnson investigates how the "square" image of the heartland has been ritually recuperated on prime time television, from The Lawrence Welk Show in the 1950s, to documentary specials in the 1960s, to The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s, to Ellen in the 1990s. She also examines news specials on the Oklahoma City bombing to reveal how that city has been inscribed as the epitome of a timeless, pastoral heartland, and concludes with an analysis of network branding practices and appeals to an imagined "red state" audience.
Johnson argues that non-white, queer, and urban culture is consistently erased from depictions of the Midwest in order to reinforce its "reassuring" image as white and straight. Through analyses of policy, industry discourse, and case studies of specific shows, Heartland TV exposes the cultural function of the Midwest as a site of national transference and disavowal with regard to race, sexuality, and citizenship ideals.

Author / Editor information

Johnson Victoria E. :

Victoria E. Johnson is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Visual Studies, and African American Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

Reviews

Michael Curtin,author of Playing to the World’s Biggest Audience:
&%8220;Network chieftains, advertising executives, and primetime performers generally fly over the heartland with barely a glance, but it's never far from their thoughts, or ours. In this remarkable analysis of American television, Victoria Johnson cogently explains why Middle America matters: on the screen, in the home, and in public life.

Johnson shows how the opposition of “heartland” and various urbane, coastal foils went through a series of permutations, alternately deprecating and valorizing middle America through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: TV, the Heartland Myth, and the Value of Cultural Populism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 “Essential, Desirable, and Possible Markets”: Broadcasting Midwestern Tastes and Values Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
2 Square Dancing and Champagne Music: Regional Aesthetics and Middle America Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
3 “Strictly Conventional and Moral”: CBS Reports in Webster Groves Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
4 “You’re Gonna Make It After All!”: The Urbane Midwest in MTM Productions’ “Quality” Comedies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
5 “There Is No ‘Dayton Chic’ ”: Queering the Midwest in Roseanne, Ellen, and The Ellen Show Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
6 Fertility Among the Ruins: Reconstituting the Traumatized Heartland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
Epilogue: Red State, Blue State, Purple Heartland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Illustrations
- Other: 7 black and white illustrations
Keywords: Through; analyses; policy; industry; discourse; case; studies; specific; shows; Johnson; exposes; cultural; function; Midwest; site; national; transference; disavowal; with; regard; race; sexuality; citizenship; ideals

eBook

Published: January 1, 2008
ISBN: 9780814743621