The B-TV collective is a forum for scholarship on global television aesthetics, production realities, historical periods, cultural traditions, genre, gender identity, sexuality, and race in genres and modes not generally considered in studies of prestige television
Series Editors, Erin Giannini & Kristopher Woofter
A NEW BOOK SERIES FROM BLOOMSBURY
A NEW BOOK SERIES FROM BLOOMSBURY
The book series B-TV: TELEVISION UNDER THE CRITICAL RADAR seeks to redraw—even to erase—the boundaries around what can be considered “important” or “influential” television across the globe. B-TV books offer scholars and interested fans a view “under the critical radar” of prestige television to see what lies beneath and beyond the high-low critical binary that continues to haunt Western media scholarship. Critical elitism—and particularly the rejection of mass audiences and mass tastes—along with academic publishing demands and issues of access to content too frequently determine what makes a TV text viable for study. B-TV titles open space for considering critical, political resonance in seemingly excessive, exploitative or reactionary televisual works, focusing on less examined or maligned genres and forms that yet are often wildly popular, including syndicated anthology programs, talk shows, game shows, true crime programs, and popular non-Anglophone programs. Eliminating the requirement for prestige or even “cult,” status as a primary reason for study allows B-TV scholars to examine characteristics and contradictions of (mass-)cultural trends and the (often elided) production realities typically seen as falling exclusively under the purview of prestige programming.
The B-TV Book Series is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusivity. We support scholarship on global subjects underrepresented in traditional Western scholarship, and encourage submissions by underrepresented and marginalized scholars based upon race, gender, sexuality, and employment status (e.g., graduate students and non-tenure track or unaffiliated/independent scholars).
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B-TV Editorial Advisory Board
Stacey Abbott, Eve Bennett, Simon Brown, Stephanie Graves, Matt Hills, Rebecca Janicker, Lorna Jowett, Cáel M. Keegan, Brett Mills, Samira Nadkarni, Isabel Pinedo, Helen Wheatley |
Erin Giannini Interview
Erin Giannini discusses her inspirations, research, and "love-hate" relationship with TV in this interview for the University of East Anglia. Read it here.
The B-TV Blog: Series Rewatches
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As part of the research for one of the proposed B-TV books, Mourning in America: Horror Anthology Television in the Reagan Era, co-authors Erin Giannini and Kristopher Woofter present a series of blog posts of our brainstorming process as we rewatch the various series that form the foundation of the study. First up is Friday the 13th: The Series (1987-90), followed by other rewatches of key 1980s horror series such as Cliffhangers (1979), Darkroom (1981), Tales from the Darkside (1983-88), and The Ray Bradbury Theatre (1985-92). We promise to be as entertaining (and organized) as we possibly can.
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DATES: Weekly, from Friday the 13th of November, 2020 to Friday the 23rd of July, 2021.
FORMAT: After an inaugural post of commentary on the pilot episode of the series, we'll be posting our thoughts on two episodes of Friday the 13th: The Series, every Friday until we've exhausted all 72 episodes of the series. After that, we'll round out our rewatch with an assessment of the best and worst of the series' episodes, and an overview of the series' key themes and tropes. |
SUBJECT: Friday the 13th: The Series, produced by Frank Mancuso, Jr., but otherwise having nothing to do with the long-running cinematic slasher series, ran from 1987 to 1990 in syndication. Its premise: a large number of cursed objects were sold by antique store owner Lewis Vendredi (get it?) to various buyers, some unwitting, some rather willing. Each object provides power and agency for the holder that requires a horrible deed (usually murder) in turn for its gifts. The show's protagonists Micki and Ryan are the niece and nephew of Lewis Vendredi, the original owner of the antique store, Curious Goods. Their bleak inheritance is to recover all of the objects before they cause chaos and mayhem, unleashing hell on earth. The series was shot in Toronto and featured episodes directed by the likes of David Cronenberg and William Fruet, and written by the likes of Jennifer Lynch, Brian Helgeland (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, L.A. Confidential), and Mark Scott Zicree (author of The Twilight Zone Companion). The show stars Montreal actor/singer/model Louise Robey (billed as 'Robey'), John D. LeMay, and Chris Wiggins, with an additional cast member Steve Monarque playing "Johnny" in the series' last third.
