Reaction to Chapter Five
Though it make sound odd, but I've never thought of what the abbreviated sitcom stood for. Now that I know, it seems blatantly obvious that it stands for situation comedy; however, I had no clue before this chapter. I learned how I Love Lucy was one of the first shows to be produced in California (where almost all network shows are now shot), as well as the first show to appear on film. I love the fact that I Love Lucy still plays today, and is a sitcom that is adored by countless people of ALL ages.I also love how recent this book is. I did not know why the WB seemed to randomly change into the CW network; this only happened maybe a year ago I found out that both Viacom (UPN) and Time Warner (the WB) lost one billion each, and therefore decided to merge the most popular shows from the two networks in fall 2006.
The statistic that about 90 percent of new shows are canceled each season because of low ratings or failure to reach the "right" demographic was very surprising to me. The new shows that I hear about usually survive for a while. I sort of feel bad for the people in charge of making and producing the show. It costs a lot of money to make a show and for the air time. Not only are the makers of the show losing out, but the network is losing as well. I was surprised at what a high number it was. I had no idea.
I felt very bad for PBS. PBS was created for people who can't afford costly channels; PBS tried to provide the type of educational programming. However, this was not attractive to advertisers. Thus meaning that the government did not give a lot of money to public television. PBS has had to seek more funding from corporate sponsors. This led more to programs promoting corporate concerns, and to the rejection of controversial programming criticizing business and industry. I love watching Arthur on PBS!
Vocabulary :
1. prime time: in television programming, the hours between 8 and 11 P.M (or 7 and 10 P.M. in the Midwest), when networks have traditionally drawn their largest audiences and charged their highest advertising rates
2. VHF: very high frequency; channels 2-13
3. UHF: ultrahigh frequency; channels 14-69
4. analog: see Chapter 4
5. digital: see Chapter 4
6. affiliate stations: radio or TV staions that, though independently owned, sign a contract to be part of a network and receive money to carry the network's programs; in exchange, the networ reserves time slots, which it sells to national advertisers
7. TV newsmagazines: a TV news program format that features multiple segments in an hour long episode
8. kinescope: before the days of videotape, a 1950s technique for preserving television broadcasts by using a film camera to record a live TV show off a studio monitor
9. sketch comedy: short television comedy skuts that are usually segments of TV variety shows
10. situation comedy (sitcom): a type of comedy series that features a recurring cast and set as well as several narrative scenes; each episode establishes a situation, complicates it, develops increasing confusion among its characters, and then resolves the complications
11. domestic comedy: a TV hybrid of the sitcom in which characters and settings are usually more important than complicated situationsl it generally features a domestic problem or work issue that characters have to solve
12. anthology drama: a popular form of early TV programming that brought live dramatic theater to television
13. episodic series: a narrative form well suited to television because main characters appear every week, sets and locales remain the same, and technical crew stay with the program; they feautyre new adventures every week, but a handful of characters emerge with whom viewers can regularly identify
14. chapter shows: in television production, any situation comedy or dramatic program whose nattative structure includes self-contained stories that feature a problem, a series of conflicts, and a resolution from week to week
15. serial programs: TV programs, such as soap operas, that feature continuing story lines from day to day or week to week
16. stripped (syndicated reruns): the showing of programs five days a week
17: network era: the period in television history, roughly from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, that refers to the dominance of the Big Three networks - ABC, CBS, and NBC - over programming and prime-time viewing habits
18: independent station: a TV stations that finds its own original and syndicated programming and is not affilicated with any of the major networks
19. videocassette recorders (VCRs): recorders that use a half-inch video formay known as VHS (video home system), which enables viewers to record and play back programs from television or to watch movies rented from video stores
20. time shifting: the process whereby television viewers tape shows and watch them later, when it is convenient for them
21. "black box" technologies: any of the newly emerging TV technologies - such as TiVo - that premits viewers to record and save TV programs by digital storage means rather than onto tape via older VCR formats
22. infotainment: a type of television program that packages human-interest and celebrity stories in TV news style
23. fin-syn: the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules created in 1970 by the FCC; it constituted the most damaging attack against the network TV monopoly in FCC history
24. deficit financing: in television, the process whereby a TV production company leases its programs to a network for a license fee that is actually less than the cost of production; the company hopes to recoup this loss later in rerun syndication
25. rerun syndication: in television, the process whereby programs that stay in a network's lineup long enough to build up a certain number of episodes are sold, or syndicated, to hundreds of TV markets in the US and abroad
26. O & Os: TV stations "owned and operated" by networks
27. evergreens: in TV syndication, popular and lucrative enduring network reruns such as the I Love Lucy
28. fringe time: in television, the time slot either immedialte before the evening's prime-time schedule or immediately following the local evening news or the network's late-night talk shows
29. off-network syndication: in television, the process whereby older programs that no longer run during prime time are made available for reruns to local stations, cable operators, online services, and foreign markets
30. first-run syndication: in television, the process whereby new programs are specifically produced for sale in syndication markets rather than for television
31. rating: in TV audience measurement, a statistical estimate expressed as a percentage of households tuned to a program in the local or national market being sampled
32. share: in TV audience measurement, a statistical estimate of the percentage of homes tuned to a certain program, compared with those sumply using their sets at teh time of a sample
posted by maggie @ 5:17 PM
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