This week join Andrew, Jonathan, and Steve as Andrew leads a deep dive discussion into the history of The History Channel. The guys discuss how programming on the channel has changed, who owns the channel, and what strategies they’ve employed to stay relevant to capture advertiser dollars. If you like History, history, or the history of History, you’ll dig this episode.
Join Jonathan as he weighs in on the recent argument that gained social media attention regarding how Martin Short is perceived by audiences.
Join Steve and Jonathan in conversation with Dr. Craig Coenen about the 1978 NBC mini-series Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss. Where does the mini-series fall within the context of Americans’ understanding of the Jewish Holocaust? How was the mini-series received? How does the late-1970s network context of big, prestige mini-series play into its creation? All this and a lot more in Part 01 of this two-part podcast story.
This week join Andrew as he leads a discussion with Steve and Jonathan about how TV was used not before, not after, but during World War II. Contrary to popular belief the then new medium was at least thought about as another technology to be harnessed during the war effort. We also discuss how the rudimentary uses of TV in the immediate post-war era is surprisingly similar to how we use it today.
Tune-in and listen to a brief history of the Time-Life Music line of releases and hear Jonathan’s theory about how and why we got to one of the best Time-Life Music releases – if you consider the TV commercial – CLASSICAL THUNDER!
Join us for the first episode of our brand new season! Jonathan and Steve sit down to discuss the prevalence of NFL high-scoring games and ask what role media has played in this current and evolving situation. They also provide historical context both for the game and the league’s relationship to TV and other media.
This week join Jonathan, Andrew, and Steve for a discussion of the AFL of the 1960s and how TV allowed the AFL to come – THIS CLOSE – to toppling the NFL. Also in this lengthier episode, listen as the guys discuss the “marriage” of US football and television and what that means for how we understand the sport today.
Jonathan discusses the current Hollywood labor strike and attempts to contextualize it through a historical lens.
This week join Andrew and Jonathan as they give you the hard sell on the history of TV pitchmen. We go a little into the history of salesmanship on television, the self-imposed and government regulations, and each of us discuss our favorite local and infomercial-based pitchmen. Be sure to act now; operators are standing by and supplies ARE limited.
How the heck did a 1950s comedy legend get a shot at usurping Johnny Carson some 23 years AFTER his career peak? Join Jonathan as he discusses the three incarnations of The Jerry Lewis Show and in particular the June 1984 5-episode test-run for the third, and final, incarnation.