Advanced Search
Print - Close Window
www.greenwood.com/catalog/C8331.aspx
All Greenwood Products
Christmas on Television
Book Code: C8331
ISBN: 0-275-98331-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-98331-4
272 pages, photos
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 12/30/2005
List Price: $39.95 (UK Sterling Price: £22.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • [I]ndispensable for anyone--viewer, fan, or fanatic--who wants a complete catalogue of the medium's yuletide output over the past sixty years or so.
    —Television Quarterly
    2007
  • For those who think the best holiday shows were the ones they watched as a kid.
    —The Kansas City Star
    November 28, 2006
  • Bing Crosby and David Bowie sang duets in a 1977 Christmas show. Collie star Lassie may have outdone them for weirdness nearly 20 years earlier munching fake candy canes. Bony actors have donned the red suit with varying results, most series with more than 13 episodes in the can have cranked out a Christmas project, and the sensitive can rejoice in that both Kwanzaa and Hanukkah have had their time on the tube, with Hanukkah celebrants including an armadillo. Journalist Werts treats all this with the appropriate seriousness, covering early television, alternate holidays (Festivus for the rest of us!) and tips on how to create a holiday show. Particularly interesting are her comments on Christmas specials, ranging from family warmth, revered traditions, perverse Santas, miracles, social statements, dance numbers, cartoons, impressions of Dickens and lots and lots of people wishing they had never been born.
    —Reference & Research Book News
    May 2006
  • The line between obsession and expertise can be a fine one, but thanks to Werts' new book, Christmas on Television, the Newsday TV columnist has made it safely over to the expert side, with a detail-rich exploration of television's long love affair with Christmas....With commentary on everything from "The Sopranos' " Christmas episode _ remember the Big Mouth Billy Bass Meadow gave Tony? _ to "South Park," she's also kept faith with the Ghost of Christmas Present.
    —Philadelphia Daily News/Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
    December 13, 2005
  • Newsday TV critic and friend Diane Werts is onto something with her new book, Christmas on Television, which explores "the nakedly visceral emotions stirred by Christmas shows." She also looks back at how television began to acknowledge Christmas with specials in the 1960s and then followed with series episodes in the 1970s and after.
    —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Scripps Howard News Service/The Buffalo News
    December 16, 2005
  • It revisits classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas while, invaluably, offering a critical reading of themes in Christmas episodes from sitcoms to Westerns up to The O.C.'s 'Chrismukkah.'"
    —TV Guide
    December 19-25, 2005
  • Werts, a full-blown Christmas fanatic, covers most of the heights and depths of TV's love affair with holiday fare....[i]t's a yeoman effort.
    —Aberdeen American News/The Bradenton Herald/The Dallas Morning News/Ventura County Star
    December 11, 2005
  • Endorsement From Lee Goldberg
    Television writer and producer
    author of Successful Television Writing:
    Christmas on Television is the ultimate stocking-stuffer for anyone who loves television. Just about every TV series has celebrated the holidays in its own special way, giving us some of the most memorable, touching, and truly surreal moments in television history. In this book Diane Werts covers holiday celebrations from almost every show, from the obscure (Something So Right and Martial Law) to the cultish (The Man from UNCLE and Xena Warrior Princess), and from classics (I Love Lucy and Twilight Zone) to recent popular hits (The West Wing and Everybody Love Raymond). Her thorough, engaging, and surprisingly touching examination of yuletide television makes for fascinating reading that reveals the surprisingly deep and emotional connection that exists between viewers and the television characters they invite into their homes--especially during the holidays.
Description: Christmas just isn't Christmas without Christmas on TV. Whether it's the made-for-television specials of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman," a "M*A*S*H*" Christmas in Korea, Kramer playing Santa on "Seinfeld," or the annual holiday disaster on "The Simpsons" or "South Park," television's many representations of this beloved holiday have become as essential a part of our holiday season as lights, gifts, or mistletoe. In this entertaining chronicle of television and the Christmas season, former Television Critics Association President Diane Werts weaves discussion of the many programs that have appeared during holiday seasons throughout the years with interviews with writers, producers, and stars. Not only are readers given a chance to re-live their favorite holiday moments on TV, but also to gain illuminating cultural insights into the increasingly strong bond that unites these two American traditions. Diane Werts's book is the first to cover the entire history of the depiction of Christmas on television, and includes a discussion of programs that celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and the winter solstice. An introductory overview helps readers to understand the basis on which television's success with the holidays is based, and chronological chapters go on to consider the many different ways in which the season has been celebrated in variety shows, sitcoms, specials, and dramas of the past six decades.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • TV Waits in the Wings
  • The First (TV) Noel
  • White Christmas
  • The 12 Kinds of TV Christmas
  • I'll Be Home for Christmas
  • (Not) Home for the Holidays
  • Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
  • Here Comes Santa Claus
  • All I Want for Christmas
  • An "Old-Fashioned" Christmas
  • O Come All Ye Faithful
  • Christmas with a Conscience
  • A Christmas Carol and It's A Wonderful Life
  • Hark the Herald Angels Sing
  • Run Rudolph Run
  • The 12 Other Kinds of Christmas TV
  • (A Baker's Dozen) We (Don't) Need a Little Christmas
  • That Christmas Feeling
  • TV's Christmas Essentials
  • Bibliography
  • Index
PDF Catalogs:
All rights reserved. Copyright © 1999-2008 Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
88 Post Road West, Westport CT 06881, (203) 226-3571