Children's television

nicks branding strategies

" "No rules," yet, in fact, the anarchic qualities Nickelodeon cultivates are highly structured, strictly governed (consider the brand's use of color, the strategic use of "green slime") " Chase and Flight: companies like Nickelodeon engage in "cool hunts," however, the closer they get, the more elusive the "edge" becomes "chase and flight"). Overcome through the use of: o Irony and self-reflexivity: indirect appeals and selling, a wink and nudge o Key words: "respect, power, cool, oppression" o Nickelodeon as a destination: its just on, "flow," a place for kids o Nickelodeon as community: belonging, the "in" crowd (members of the nation)

On the Overlap of "Cognitive Formations" of Kids' TV:

" "So I am left (and will leave my reader) with my anecdote of the little boy on Larchmont, impersonating and cross-referencing his beloved Power Rangers who enable him to morph into an empowered consumer, a transformation he apparently experiences as a pleasurable form of programming override." (Kinder, 202)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003):

" "The Body" episode " Plot: "a young woman is forced to fulfill her destiny of fighting vampires and demons with the help of her friends all the while struggling to live a normal teenage life of heartbreak and drama" (IMDB) " Characters: Buffy Summers, Xander Harris, Willow Rosenberg, Tara Maclay, Rupert Giles, Anya, Dawn Summers " Q: How do we see multiple subject positions explored in this episode? o The demon girl (Willow?) didn't really understand how to deal with death for humans o Targets people who like the supernatural stuff, as well as teen viewers o Multiple characters offer different points of identification for the viewers " Buffy is famous for exploring real issues affecting teens through supernatural metaphors. As Sophie Gilbert write in The Atlantic, "Here were metaphorical demons made literal." It takes teenage pain seriously, as a matter of life and death o Q: What is unique about this episode though? Do we see literal demons function to facilitate an exploration of teenage pain? " No music throughout episode í very serious and quiet " Q: What formal and stylistic devices are used to explore the subject of teenage pain? Consider: cinematography, sound o Episode quiet - no dramatic music o Flashback from Thanksgiving dinner - seemed out of place o Expression of surreal " Q: What themes are explored in this episode around death and dying? Consider: o The physicality of death í vampire body disappeared after dying, not permanent like the mom's body o The absence of the person o The psychology of grief " "The Body" is in many ways an outlier within the Buffy series, yet I chose to show it because it is one of the most famous examples of television that aims to take the experiences and emotions of teenagers serious (even those that fall outside the "norm" of teen life) o Q: Why has Buffy become an object of cult fandom (and of an entire sub-discipline in media studies)? " Teen drama but also horror movie stuff í older men enjoy it " Take characters seriopusly, depth to the characters " Referential to class horror styles í usually the "pretty one" dies in movies, but Buffy proves this isn't always true

Kinder's Four "Cognitive Operations" of Kids' TV:

" 1) Morphing: different from "mutating" (passive); to transform purposefully " 2) Serial imitation: playing with identity (of characters and series); drawing on shared cultural references, especially televisual references " 3) Cross-referencing: intertextual reading; following iconography, for example, across advertisements and series " 4) Overriding the programming: an active form of reading; "textual poaching"; active "viewsing" versus passive viewing í examples: historical revisionism and time-travel narratives; Beavis and Butthead; plots exploring digital interfaces o Textual poaching í memes good example; poaching content and mobilizing it for your own purposes

Heather Hendershot, "Hey, Hey, Hey! It's Good TV: Fat Albert, CBS, and Dr. William H. Cosby," in Saturday Morning Censors: Television Regulation Before the V-Chip

" 1974 Congressional Subcommittee on Communications: finds cartoons to be "empty and worthless entertainment." Fat Albert serves as a bulwark against network criticisms " Hendershot: Children's TV has little to do with children: "The impossibility of children's fiction" (and children's TV) o Don't have any say in it, are kind of neglected o Adults using the shows as a means to meet ends - disregard for kids and how they might actually engage with the show o Q: How do we see this exemplified in the case of Fat Albert?

Blue Skies and Cable's Utopianism:

" Cable was seen as "a possible remedy to all sorts of problems, such as racism and poverty, because it could 'narrowcast' and thus more accurately represent an audience " "Cable... had the potential to rehumanize a dehumanized society, to eliminate the existing bureaucratic restrictions of government regulation common to the industrial world, and to empower the currently powerless public" (Street, qtd. in Banet-Weiser, 43) o Shades of utopian rhetoric past and future

the flinstones 1960-66

" A Hanna-Barbera cartoon utilizing the domestic sitcom genres (what aspects of the sitcom genre did the show utilize?) o Laugh track - vitality of liveness even though animated so obviously not live " The Honeymooners an obvious reference (we watched a clip a few weeks ago): Barney as a rough equivalent to Ed Norton (Art Carney); Fred as a rough equivalent to Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), and the long-suffering wives in the background " Q: Where does The Flinstones fall in the history of TV animation that Mittell writes? Who was its audience, and when was it scheduled? o Very formulaic " Q: The Honeymooners offered a satirical sendup of emerging postwar familial dynamics and gender roles. Can the same be said of The Flinstones? o Violence, but different because it's a cartoon o Just very easy to follow the conventions

Saban Entertainment:

" Now BVS Entertainment, an American-Israeli company established in 1990 " Production company behind Power Rangers and the cartoon X-Men

Nickelodeon in the Multi-Channel Transitional Era:

" Channel premiere: April 1, 1979 í programming exclusively for kids; initial hours filled with programming largely derived from QUBE, Warner Cable Company's experimental interactive TV service " Early programming: Video Comic Books, Nickel Flicks (movie cliffhangers), By The Way (live action, informational); Pinwheel (a mix of puppets, live action, and cartoons designed to offer "pro-social, non-stereotypical children's TV programming") í benefitted from demand for educational content for children " By the early 2000s í 24/7, multi-platform and branded products; viewed by 2000 million children worldwide " Nickelodeon branding: "kids rule!" kid-centric yet not wholly oppositional to mainstream/parent culture; safely rebellious " Launch of Nicktoons: 1991; 3 animated series: Doug (1991-2002), The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991-1995), Rugrats (1991-2007) " Three events lay the groundwork for Nickelodeon: o The intro of satellite technology improving cable distribution " From cable as signal distribution system in hard-to-reach areas to the use of satellite technology to give homes access to channels beyond those licensed by broadcast stations o Growth of cable as a programming source " Rise of pay TV services: HBO and Showtime in 1979; premium TV growing at a rate of 30% as compared to 9% growth rate of basic cable " By the late 1970s, Nickelodeon competing with religious networks (CBN), news and info (CNN; C-Span), movie outlets (HBO), MTV o FCC regulation of the cable industry " In 1972 FCC requires cable companies to negotiate with communities to provide local government and public access programming. Intended to give communities greater control " Established climate where cable systems could offer public service programming (such as Nickelodeon) in exchange for a community's franchise

Hanna-Barbera and Limited Animation of the 1950s and 60s:

" Debut Hanna-Barbera cartoon Ruff and Reedy (NBC, 1957-64) produced by Screen Gems, the TV production arm of Columbia Pictures " William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were released from their 18-eyar contract with MGM in 1957 (animation arm shut down); subsequently formed H-B Enterprises " Barbera on the production process: "it was essential that we select only the key poses necessary to convincingly impart the illusion of movement in our cartoons" " Limited animation í a lot cheaper than the animated shorts that showed up before films

gerald mc boing boing

" Directed by Robert Cannon and produced by John Hubley of United Productions of America (UPA) " Adapted from a story by Dr. Seuss by Phil Eastman and Bill Scott " Won the Academy Award in 1950 for Best Animated Short " #9 of 50 Best Cartoons of All Time list produced by animation industry in 1994 " selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1995 " Q: How does the film make unique, artistic use of limited animation? o Colors, cheaply made, minimalistic artwork o Background - very simple o Showcases being different

teen tv early 2000s

" Emphasis on teen/young adult perspectives: cast as representative/points of identification/aspiration for viewers " Increasing emphasis on multiple perspectives in the narrative: achieved through ensemble casts " Serial plotting: long narrative arcs; "soap opera" storytelling (either melodrama or social realist) " Expansion of TV experience across platforms: also, organic invitations to "tele-participation" On the Multiplicity of Voices in Teen TV: " Lorraine Code (1995) and Carol Gilligan (1982) argue that storytelling strategies that invite viewers to adopt multiple points of identification prompt processes of "second-person knowing and epistemic negotiation" (i.e., understanding multiple points of view; negotiating different viewpoints) " Issues of teens and gender: Gilligan, in particular, argues that girls are socialized to take other's feelings and perspectives into account, sometimes at the expense of (developing) their own. Thus, these kinds of stories have particular appeal to girls (in Western society) " Q: Why else might this kind of storytelling (featuring an ensemble cast and serial plotting) appeal to teens (and perhaps teen girls specifically)? o Up to viewer to decide if they like the characters o Coalitional audience: increasingly niche demographics, but also trying to appeal to different demographics and a mass audience

Marsha Kinder on Fox's Saturday Morning Lineup in the 1990s:

" Establishment of Fox Kids: a now-defunct "programming block and branding slate" from 1990 to 2001. Kinder discusses Animaniacs, The Tick, X-Men, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? (a WGBH program) and The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers extensively " Televisual flow and Kinder's methodology: Derived from the work of Raymond Williams in the 1970s, a study of TV as "flow," including consideration of relationship between programs and advertisements.

Will Brooker's Ethnographic method:

" Ethnography: the systematic study of people and cultures o Designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study o A methodology derived from anthropology

audience address and critical/cultural hierarchies

" For Mittell, "these two industrial practices of scheduling and channel identity forge discursive associations within a genre, activating cultural hierarchies and values, mobilizing certain assumptions of 'proper' audience identity and pleasures, and policing the boundary of what texts are legitimate components on the genre" (57) " Mittell looks at program scheduling and channel identity to discuss transformations in the cartoon genre from the 1960s and 1970s to today o Cartoons í kids í bad quality and simple

Boy Culture: Games and Pastimes:

" Games: raucous, rowdy, physical, and competitive (sledding, skating, sport) " Imitation: the boy's contradictory relationship to the father (more on imitation in relationship to Kinder reading) " Q: if we understand boyhood as defined in marked distinction to the parent culture and, especially, the feminized domestic sphere of the 19th century, why might these types of games have been privileged? o Violence to express feelings - violence glorified o Boys socially conditioned to express emotions via violence o Femininity and masculinity defined as polar opposites " Q: How are these aspects of boyhood play still glorified in contemporary popular culture? How has consumer culture impacted the games boys play? o Consumer culture wants to commodify and monetize boy culture " Content produced by parent culture promotes violent play " External influences

Rugrats, "Touch-Down Tommy/The Trial" and Doug "Doug's Secret Admirer/Doug's on TV!":

" How do these episodes reflect Nickelodeon's brand? o Visually interesting, shows respect for kids " How do they reflect a specific construction of the child (different from that of either network TV or PBS)? o Networks think that kids will watch anything " How do both episodes depict parents/adults? o Parents are clueless o Depicts adults as unclool - but also addresses adult audiences " Both Simone and Tanner addressed the question of which age demographic(s) these shows were intended to appeal to. Thoughts? o Rugrats - not trying to identify with characters because viewers are all older than babies í kids watching feel smarter than the babies, feel savvy and cool because you get it o Doug - middle school age audience? Younger? " What a younger kid would expect middle school to be like í aspirational " Why do you think Arlene Klasky objected so resolutely to "The Trial" episode?

dogs and culture today

" Jenkins refutes the claim that 1994 (two years prior to Jenkins' writing) was "the year of the dog" o "Things are not the same. There is something annoyingly artificial, self-conscious, and even posing about these postmodern representations of the dog, as if we weren't supposed to take them all so seriously and, above all, weren't supposed to feel the tug of dog love (97)" " Over sentimentalized o He suggests that, whereas 19th century French bourgeois invested the dog with deep feeling to compensate for a sense of lost (wrought by modernity); today, however, we merely parody such supposed depth of feeling " Any kind of sentimentalization of dogs is seen through the lens of parody, harder to take seriously " No longer dealing with the sense of loss

The Birmingham School of British Cultural Studies:

" Key figures of the 1960s and 1970s: Stuart Hall, Dick Hebdige, Paul Gilroy (Black Biriths Cultural Studies), Angela McRobbie, Richard Dyer " Methodology: Marxist, and Althussarian, broadly speaking " Focus of inquiry: British subcultures; the rise and support of the Right by the British working class

Nickelodeon: "Kids Rule!":

" Laybourne and Nickelodeon innovated a new way of imagining the child and, relatedly, a new approach to children's TV (new, at least, within the world of kid's TV) o The child as superior/opposed to adults " Parents often depicted as out of it, not attentive, etc. " Kids more grounded, practical, street smart í parents buying into mumbo jumbo and made fun of " Distinct world from grown ups, disconnect " Adults important and integrated into universe on shows like Sesame Street í on Nickelodeon, parents aren't really o The child as needing a space to be "just a kid" o The child not as an object to be cultivated/educated o The child as a savvy consumer o The child as, nevertheless, needing Nickelodeon to be empowered

The Mickey Mouse Club and "Evolutionary Determinism":

" Linking evolutionary development of the child to the natural world: seen in documentary series "True-Life Adventures" " Concept of "Evolutionary Determinism": refers to the idea that both the child, and all the animals of the animal kingdom, featured in Disney's wildlife film series True-Life Adventures, are "free" to develop according to nature's prescribed plan o This idea central to Disney's conception of nature in it's "True-Life Adventure" series o Series commonly recut and recycled on Disneyland's "Adventureland" broadcasts o Coincided with the evolutionary-inflected theories of child-rearing popular in the day " Finally, moving form "This is You" to "This is What I Want to Be," The Mickey Mouse Club linked human biology and development, already linked to the natural world, to standard, highly gendered concepts of professionalization o In the first segment of "What I Want to Be," a boy and girl have the opportunity to try out careers, as a pilot and stewardess, respectively

Girl (Sub)Cultures and Media Production and Use:

" McRobbie and Garber ask if girls really are invisible within their subcultures, or if their neglect by researchers is due to something else. What possibilities do they cite for this possible neglect? o Lot of focus on male-dominated subcultures, where the girls were just peripheral figures o Perhaps there is a different culture among girls o Biases of (male) researchers reflected in their work

"Raising the Natural Child" from Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Making of the American Child by Nicholas Sammond:

" Mickey Mouse Club premiered October 3, 1955 on ABC o ABC wasn't as good as NBC or CBS back then, had more filmed content instead of live (which was viewed as worse), not as critically acclaimed o Struck deal with Walt Disney to produce the show Disneyland in exchange for investment in park - one of the first instances in which a TV network worked with Hollywood studio " Lasted through the 80s - showed different parts of the park, wildly successful, reliant on existent content " Sammond discusses in his chapter "Disney Maps on the Frontier" from his book Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Making of the American Child, 1930-1960 " Disney exploits adult anxiety around youth and media effects: o "Disney's genius lay in its (ability to recognize in discourses about media effects not a potential stumbling block to its operations, but an enduring cultural phenomenon, a node at which the contradictory imperatives of democratic capitalism - to create individuals in whom standard values inhered - produced anxieties and desires that could be temporarily assuaged through consumption"

cartoons today

" Mittell charts changing ideas about cartoons. These ideas came about as a result of changes in industrial practices and consumption patterns o Q: What are some more recent changes in the programming, scheduling, and consumptions of cartoons, and how have these shifts impacted the genre of "cartoons" as a cultural category? " Sub-genres within larger genre like anime " Rise of cable o Q: How was the advent of cable, narrowcasting, and time-shifting impacted the cartoon genre? " Cable - opportunities for increasingly niche content " More adult cartoons like Big Mouth and Bojack - can't make these live action " Meta humor about being cartoons o Q: How has the animated film industry impacted the cartoon TV genre? Any influence? o Q: Mittell suggests that shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle had "kidult" appeal, and, in fact, a dual address. Has there been a return to this more recently? " Cartoons able to get away with dark, adult content because it is a cartoon (like Big Mouth)

Jason Mittell, "From Saturday Morning to Around the Clock":

" Mittell is interested in discussing genres as "cultural categories" and "discursive formations" " Mittell is less interested in defining the absolutely necessary characteristics of a genre at a textual level (that is, at the level of the form and content of TV shows themselves) o Rather, he is interested in how genres are discussed, and how the presumption about the defining traits of certain genres that are held by viewers and by industry practitioners shape how genres are defined and mobilized

On Female Fandom and the Ideal Self:

" On being the same but different: "Recognizing oneself as different from, yet also similar to, a female ideal other producers the pleasure between femininities which ash been referred to (by Gillian Frith) as 'the intimacy which is knowledge." (Jackie Stacey qtd. in Murray, 230) " On the apparent conformity of teen girls: "The girl practice of dressing alike...is not just the form of adherence to a regime of feminine attire, but as a symbolic system that signifies female solidarity and female bonding. Dressing alike is frequently part of the signification system of girl friendships at the time in a woman's life before heterosexual desire is rigidly channeled." (Lewis qtd. in Murray, 229)

Hey Arnold: "Parents' Day":

" Parents have an important role (the fact that Arnold doesn't have any and his grandparents take that role) " Helga: plays different roles (bully v. in love with Arnold) o Complex relationship with her father o Explanation for her nastiness to Arnold " Thematic issues: parents and loss; interpersonal bullying " Target audience: Arnold is in 4th grade- seems a bit too mature for elementary schoolers o Meant for kids with parental approval " Phoebe was the winner: Arnold had a personal victory but wasn't "publicly" recognized " Solitary journey of grief " Meaningful empowerment: consumerism in the background; no magical elements- deals with mundane aspects of everyday life- but at the same time makes fun of magical universes with the grandpa's stories

the adventures of rocky bullwinkle 1959-64

" Produced by Jay Ward and Alex Anderson of Jay Ward Productions " Genre: variety format featuring Rocky and Bullwinkle segments; "Aesop and Son," "Dudley-DO Right of the Mounties" (melodrama parody), and villains Snidely Whiplash, Boris Badenov, Natasha Fatale o Cold war (Russian) " Example of a successful limited animation show " Mittell describes limited animation cartoons like Ruff and Reedy and Rocky and Bullwinkle as exemplifying shifts in animated form for TV: minimal visual variety, emphasis on dialogue and verbal humor, and repetitive situations and narratives o See Chuck Jones' criticism of the cartoons as "visual radio" " Q: In what ways does the episode we watched exemplify the shifts in animation that Mittell describes? (minimal visual imagery, emphasis on dialogue and verbal humor, repetitive situations and narratives)? o Voice acting - Bullwinkle's voice is annoying o Set up expectations of joke verbally rather than visually " Q: Does "good" animation necessarily emphasize the visual? Do you agree with Jones' critique? This is a medium specific argument o Rocky and Bullwinkle doesn't focus too much on visual appeal o All very innovative - format, type of humor, etc. " Q: Do you agree with Dan Abrams, creator of Rocko's Modern Life? o "There were jokes that I didn't get as a child that I now understand the references to. They were able to create shows that were funny to both groups without sacrificing anything. That is a hard job to do and we always strove to emulate that quality" " Q: Where does Rocky and Bullwinkle fall in Mittell's historical narrative? Just for kids, or "kidult?" "Filler of low cultural standing, or citically successful, if not acclaimed? o "Kidult" o Pre cartoons being defined as for kids and before Saturday morning cartoons emerged o Success - beginning of animation cycle that ended with Alvin and the Chipmunks not being successful " Q: Do we see the influence on animated series today?

Veronica Mars: Screening Discussion:

" Q: Buffy explored teen angst through the use of supernatural metaphors. How are the problems of average teens explored in Veronica Mars? Consider the show's genre as a mystery/detective show. o Flashbacks to her life "before" shows more normal teen problems vs. current life where she becomes more adult-like o Feels betrayal by parents, social ostracizing - explored through the criminal/detective aspect " Q: How does Angela's voiceover in MSCL differ from Veronica's in VM? What are their functions in relationship to narrative, character development? o Veronica's voiceover is directed at the audience and builds the relationship with viewers; telling a story past tense and telling a narrative; explains what is happening and offers a spin on the images o Angela's voiceover is almost like a diary/access to her thoughts - doesn't necessarily address the listener; more in the moment, doesn't propel plot, reflects on her life " The subject of class difference is at the center of VM. Is this anomalous in the world of teen TV? Is class difference signified at any level other than dialogue/narrative? o Talk about class difference - but they all dress "trendy" so it doesn't seem like there is a difference o SES struggles don't actually affect any parts of life

Heather Hendershot, "'We Call Our Company Motel': Looking for Sexism and Racism in the Children's Entertainment Industry:

" Q: Hendershot on the productivity of censorship: Censorship doesn't inhibit/cancel/cut; it produces o Those values are internalized by the producers o Censors are creative workers, they come up with solutions and suggest certain changes - animators resist the changes because they see them as restrictions in independence " Three main categories of animation workers: o Creative workers, rendering artists, technical workers o There is also, of course, the censor working for a network or in-house Standards and Practice Department o Hendershot explores how these roles are positioned within a labor hierarchy. This hierarchy is structured by differences not only in skill and pya grade, but also race and gender " Hendershot finds that animators, in discussing censorship, focus on Standard's policing of "imitable acts" (can be imitated by children). Thus, they must heavily police the depiction of acts of violence

Sarah Banet-Weiser, "The Success Story: Nickelodeon and the Cable Industry" - Blue Skies and Cable's Utopianism:

" Q: How did the public interest mandate of the FCC and the sense that broadcasters had failed to serve the public shape the programming strategies and branding efforts of cable channels (and for our purposes, specifically, Nickelodeon)? o Q: Relatedly, what could cable do that networks couldn't, and why? In other words, how was it different from broadcast networks (in terms of funding, regulation, etc.)? Consider Nickelodeon in the early days. o Different funding í Network TV was like an hour long commercial for toys í cable could avoid this and maybe make better programming because they were paid o Network: NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX í different from basic/premium cable stations o Cable not funding exclusively by advertisers, more freedom, more objectionable programming that may offend some people but others would pay for o Networks in the 80s í people are gonna watch anyway so we don't want to offend them í cable opposite, want to entice people and pull them in, can't rely on existing audience base o Less reliant on advertiser/sponsor o Cable audience base í more narrow casting í important shift in TV history " Narrow casting ≠ broadcasting í not appealing to a mass audience " Moving toward targeting niche demographics " Wider variety represented í certain people not addressed with broadcasting

Jeff's Collie, "The Well":

" Q: How does this episode mobilize certain dichotomies (rural vs. urban; childhood vs. adulthood; pre-modern vs. modern; feminine vs. masculine)? o Jeff has free reign, can do whatever he wants - not common o Mother disciplines both Jeff and the grandpa o Mother and Lassie as opposing maternal figures " Q: What are the apparent similarities and differences between Knights book, Lassie Come Home, and the television show Jeff's Collie? Consider the subjects of: nostalgia, class, gender, home. o Nostalgic: the rural America in Lassie is a romanticized idea of the past o Romanticized idea of childhood

My So Called Life, "Self-Esteem," S1, E12: Screening Discussion:

" Q: How is the subject of self-esteem explored in this episode through various characters? Consider: o Angela - the geometry class, making out in boiler room and Jordan Catalano doesn't wanna be seen in public with her o Rayann o Ricky (Enrique) - gay, didn't want the teacher calling him Enrique o Angela's mother and father, Patty and Graham - both seeing malice in comments toward each other; dad self conscious that mom makes more money than him o Mr. Katimsky o The geometry teacher - experiencing same emotions as teenager over Mr. Katimsky o Jordan Catalano - self esteem issues about admitting he likes someone who isn't "cool" o Brian Krakow - monologue about being in advanced math and the feeling of pressure to maintain good grades in advanced classes compared to being average and it being okay to do badly o Hallie (Graham's "friend" from cooking class and future business partner) " Topics for discussion: o The shows status as teen TV and its cross-generational appeal o Rebellion and identity - what made the show appealing to female fans? o Processes of identity formation - how are they modeled by the characters; how is the subject explored? o AOL online and teen identity formation - community, invisibility, otherness o Fashion and identity - how does MSCL differ from VM in the importance placed on clothing and personal style?

Boy Culture: Affection and Values:

" Q: How, according to Rotundo, did boys display affection toward one another? Why did (do) they eschew displays of warmth, feeling, and more typical forms of physical affection? o Show affection via violence - maintaining distance " Q: What qualities, skills, characteristics were (are) celebrated within boy culture? o Don't cry o Nature/survival skills " Explicit values and the nature of homosocial relations: o Mastery: skill, ability o Control over emotions: fearlessness, lack of sentimentality (boys don't cry) o Loyalty: homosocial relationships valued less for intimacy and more for steadfastness (accidental associations) o Exclusivity: not all boys allowed " Implicit values and the nature of homosocial relations: most importantly of all, independence (from family, from group, and from [adult] society at large) " Q: According to Rotundo, this contributed to boys' paradoxical relationship with their mothers. How did boys feel about mothers, and how do we see this paradox continue to play out in boy culture today? o Mother as the "conscious" of the boy o Heteronormative idea that when boys mature sexually, the women in their lies are the ones they have emotional relationships with (can't have emotional relationships with men)

Jenkins, "Her Suffering Aristocratic Majesty":

" Q: The Sacralization of Dogs and Children: Jenkins charts the transformation of the social status of dogs and children in the West in the 19th century. In what ways are these changes connected? o Dogs were transformed "from domesticated animals (whose value resided in their productive labor or exchange price) into 'pets' (whose value was primarily sentimental)." " Lassie - sort of in the middle because purebred but also collies usually do herding o Similarly, the birth of a child in the 19th century America was greeted as an expansion of the family's earning power; however, "reflecting middle-class security from want, a new conception of the child, based on sentimental rather than economic value, gained popular circulation by the century's end." " Children were assets, could use them for work " Strategically mobilized to do certain things for adults - seen as the future, can help bring American society and values to the world, preserve culture " Still an asset to be exploited but no longer in the traditional sense as laborers " Crises of loyalty and ownership: o One of Jenkins' primary interests is how, "the exchange of Lassie (starting with the 1954 pilot episode and moving through the 1964 shift from Timmy to Ranger Stuart) o "Since undying fidelity defines the ideal pet, these negotiations of ownership constitute potential crises where viewer loyalties must also be transferred between series' protagonists" (71) o Q: What did the loyal dog stand for (both in Knights' original book and in the series) that made these transfers particularly difficult to navigate? " Hard to transfer because loyal to her masters, but the show needs to do the transfers " Jeff got too old, so transferred to Timmy " Timmy to Ranger Stuart í less emphasis on being sentimental, more on action " Dog stays loyal even when families are pulled apart, etc.

The End of Boyhood:

" Q: When did boyhood end for young men in the 19th century? What two events (or changes) marked the transition from boy to men? o Getting a job, interested in a girl o Social responsibility o More feminine when they become interested in girls because they want access to that world " Q: How did differences of geography, ethnicity, and class impact boyhood? Consider activities, relationship to fathers, etc. o Class: lower class families may require children to get jobs earlier (affects age of transition), families with greater means can have a longer boyhood " Lower class families: boys enter into jobs that seem more masculine (farmer, trucker - dress more ragged and hold onto boyhood for longer) " Entering into business jobs require more attention to clothes/hair (more feminine attributes) o Being able to provide - attribute of masculinity (these factors may impact the ability to provide) " Q: Much of what Rotundo describes might be characterized as attributes of "toxic masculinity" (harmful to men and to society). What was/is potentially toxic about culture of boyhood Rotundo describes? o Boys express feelings through violence (leads to domestic violence or shootings) --> need to learn to deal with emotions other ways o Leads to misogynistic and homophobic ideas (the opposite of feminine is being idealized, so feminine is held in lower regard) " Gender roles serve to support social hierarchy- they promote and perpetuate these ideas

Cross-Referencing:

" Reading across advertisements and programming; drawing connections, identifying associative meanings, as with the Statue of Liberty as referenced by Carmen Sandiego, an X-Men promo, and The Tick " Evoking, if not imitating, other programs, films, franchises (The Little Mermaid, for example) " Example from our viewing: references to popular science fiction; Freaky Friday (1976 and subsequent remakes)

E. Anthony Rotundo, "Boy Culture," in The Children's Culture Reader, 337-362:

" Rotundo's objective: to examine the parameters of boyhood as it was defined in the 19th century; much of what he describes, however, remains recognizable in the culture of boyhood today (exception: rise of consumer culture) " Boyhood as subculture: "distinct, oppositional, but intimately related to the larger culture of which it was a part." (32) " From infancy to age 6: defined by the feminized, domestic sphere; after age 6, two worlds, home and the outdoors, private/domestic and public/city or nature " Differences between boy and girl culture: one independent, violent, antagonistic to the parent culture; the other communal, interdependent with the world of women, occupying the same (domestic) space

program scheduling

" Scheduling practices help organize programs for audiences and often communicate generic assumptions (like daytime versus late-night talk shows) " Certain shows are often lumped together in scheduling blocks, thus suggesting their shared generic identity (ex: Cartoon Network suggests, through programming, that all of the series featured on Adult Swim share certain generic attributes) " More important for networks and affiliates attempting to reach a mass audience than cable channels appealing to demographic niches: why? o Scheduling more important for like ABC, CBS, NBC for defining its content than a niche channel like Cartoon Network because they don't really have an identity o Need to appeal to mass audience and include multiple genres o NBC in 90s "Must See TV" had shows like Friends and Will and Grace, all of which had similar attributes (urban white sitcoms)

Sharon Marie Ross, "Managing Millennials: Teen Expectations of Tele-Participation" (2008):

" Subject: considers how teen television has responded at an industrial and programming/content level to "digital natives'" engagement with television across multiple media platforms, including cellphones and the internet " Two case studies: The O.C. (Fox, 2003-2007) and Degrassi: The Next Generation (CTV; MuchMusic: MTV Canada, 2001-2015) " The problem of "dated scholarship": scholarship on teen television and digital culture rapidly becomes "dated," yet the main ideas remain largely relevant. It's up to us to adapt Ross' work in thinking about the present context. At the same time, we can better understand the context of the early-to-mid 2000s by reading her work

Gillan, "Fashion Sleuths and Aerie Girls": Topics of Discussion:

" Televisual self-fashioning: trying to be like Veronica, in more ways than one (also: transcending age and real-life identities) " Industrial "invitations to fandom" and missing the mark: what went wrong with Veronica Mars? ("television overflow") o Making it easier to be a fan, but also work goes into it í being a sleuth " Veronica's closet and class identity: fan theories, fashion sleuthing, deal shopping, class disclosure " Insider/outsider: veronica's relation to the 09ers; UPN's relation to the TV landscape; the merger of UPN and the WB to form the CW (WB the home of Veronica's, "other," Dawson's Creek) " Technology and surveillance: its representation and parallels with the role of technology in the lives of fans

mittel's narrative

" The Paramount decisions: need to cut costs in Hollywood, 1947 o Vertical integration í due to anti-trust laws o Stopped making the animated shorts before the films " The selling of preexisting animated shorts to television: a new exhibition market for existing cartoons " The rise of limited animation: solution to problem of animation expense " Animation purists denigrate limited animation: however, this is largely in retrospect " Gradually, industry starts targeting children as consumers (discursive construction of the child viewer) o Davey Crockett in the 1950s - buying the caps " Animation boom, 1957: ABC and The Flintstones " Generic cycle: success-imitation-saturation: The Alvin Show is a no-go " Solution? Schedule it on Saturday mornings: Why was this move attractive to advertisers? o Not as many viewers but higher concentration of children viewers so more children per dollar " As a result, until the 1990s and the emergence of cable channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, the TV cartoon genre acquired certain defining attributes: o It appealed to children rather than adults o Therefore, cartoons at the level of production changed. Eschewed visual complexity and adult humor, which kids can't understand anyway, so the networks assumed " Mittell sees these assumptions (about who watches cartoons and the intellectual capacity of children) as resulting in a lowering of quality within the genre overall o 1990s - Simpsons and rebirth of Disney movies like the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King í for kids but great quality so also appeal to adults

presumed innocence- child as a cultural power

" The child as Tabula Rasa í a construct specific to industrialized societies; we can "write the culture" onto children " Childhood innocence í prior to the modern era, the child was thought to be born into sin; the idea of "childhood innocence" is largely a construction of the 18th and 19th centuries " From agrarian society to industrialized mass society í the child is no longer as integral to the economy as a labor source " The child and proto-feminism í both woman and child relegated to the domestic sphere; however, some women (e.g. National Congress of Mothers, 1897), exploit new sentimentality towards children to garner cultural power o Restrictive, but some women exploited children becoming the "prized objects" and being the caretaker of the next generation to improve social power, etc. " The child and the common good/normalizing childhood í Children's Bureau est. 1912, Boy Scouts est. 1910, Girl Scouts est. 1912 o Children's Bureau í responsibility of the state for children's welfare " The emergence of professional parenting advice í behaviorism in the 1920s; Dr. Spock in the 1930s o 20s - behaviorist í develop charts, etc. for when child should be walking, talking, etc. o 30s - more hands-off " Mass media and juvenile delinquency í postwar; attributed to absentee dads, domineering mothers (Generation of Vipers), and mass media (Sen. Kefauver Committee hearings on juvenile delinquency and the effects of mass media on youth) o Absentee dads í reaction to WWII; dads weren't always around when kids were young and grow up into troubled teens - push back against empowerment of women during 40s because they had to work while dads were away " Q: Why does Spigel spend several pages charting the transformation of childhood in the West? How does it contribute to her argument? o Children have always been constructed differently o The child is a social construct

you dumb babies schwartz

" Where does Rugrats fit within the history of animation charted by Mittell? Where does it fit in Lotz's periodization of TV history? o Limited animation? " What did Nick president Geraldine Laybourne hope to accomplish with Nickelodeon's programming in the late 1980s? o More experimental aesthetic o Cartoons were thought of as being low quality - wanted to produce this quality content for kids " Why did creator Arlene Klasky clash with her husband, Gabor Csupo, producer Paul Germain, and the show's animators? o Angelica as a bully/brats, able to communicate with both babies and adults o Divorce too lol " What was unique about Rugrats' depiction of both children (babies, toddlers) and adults? o Adults there but in the background, kind of goofy, self-absorbed o Babies always getting into trouble because parents not watching " What was unique about animation style? Engagement with gender roles? How does Swart explain this? o Claim that the female characters are more multi-dimensional- reflects the fact that there were a lot of powerful women working at Nick and the ongoing discussions about the portrayal of women on TV " Angelica: o Strongest female character on show, embodied bully characteristics o Her being mean to babies - sets a bad example o Embodies Nickelodeon's brand: safely rebellious - show as a whole fits the brand because kids were the center of the universe " Q: Swartz's assessment of Rugrats' later years? o Skeptical of the sentimental approach they took o Didn't like that Angelica became nicer

anarchic youth vs militarism

" The contradictory imperative of parenting in the 1950s: raise children "naturally." Raise them too strictly, and they will become servile and totalitarian (like Nazi youth or Soviet automatons); raise them without any guidance, and they will grow up to be revolutionaries o Different from the 30s - checkmarks and charts of when they should be doing what o 50s - every child is different, may develop differently " Beginning of Cold War, tensions with Russia - didn't want government to raise the kids like in Russia í America defining itself in contrast to the Soviet Union (and Nazi Germany in lesser extent) o Soviet Union values collective over the individual, children as asset of the state, will implement strict standards in terms of development because each child is just one of many that will contribute o US, in contrast, value individualism, allow children to develop at natural pace, etc. " Tension - we want children to develop naturally and don't want to have strict regulations, but we can't have anarchy í has to be some sort of governance happening by the parents so that the kids develop correctly into good American citizens " If you parent them right, they will grow up "correctly" and fall in line and accept American way as the best way " Q: How does The Mickey Mouse Club reflect this tension? According to Sammond... o "Weekend Blues" song - always has activities and parents are letting her explore, but also doesn't get any free time o Pearl Harbor - nationalism/patriotism o Tapping into nature the way the Soviet Union is not o Decolonization of Africa and Asia during this time - both US and USSR trying to appeal to these unaligned countries

Overriding the Programming:

" The maternal, feminized "Ship" (see also the Starship Enterprise, voiced by Gene Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett) " The plot: Beast overrides Apocalypse's security code. However, "an override may be overridden." Ship ultimately dies having experienced "free choice," according to Kinder, "the ultimate override"

Readings: "Understanding Television at the Beginning of the Post-Network Era" -Amanda D. Lotz; "'You Dumb Babies!' How Raising Rugrats Became as Difficult as the Real Thing," -Mimi Swartz PERIODIZATION

" The network era: what are its defining attributes? o 50s up to/through the 80s o ABC, NBC, CBS control TV - big three networks o No remote controls, made channel surfing a lot more difficult o Most Americans have one TV in living room (the "box" in the living room" o Local stations - successful local shows would go national í production o Ad agencies produced shows and made them available to the networks - working on behalf of a single sponsor o Created by ad agencies and film studios o Audience: families, mass America í had to be appropriate and enjoyable for everyone in the family bc usually only had one set in the house o TV as a broadcast medium (now about niches) o Some demographics in the 60s í Saturday morning cartoons but that's about it o "Boob tube" í passive audiences o Distribution: 3 networks o Advertising: from single sponsorship to the "magazine format" (30 second ads) o Audiences: mass/family audience; supposedly passive spectatorship; Nielsen ratings í feminized, associated with housewives " The multi-channel transitional era: o 80s to early 2000s (2006ish) o Technology: "timeshifting" (VCR) í more agency to watch what you want when you want, remote control led to channel surfing o Audiences: related to changes in technology, seen as having more agency/control o Rise of premium and basic cable in late 70s o No longer producing content for the big 3 networks - less restrictions o Analog cable (time shifting; real choice) o Creation: "Fin-Syn" (Financial Interest and Syndication Rules) prevents networks from owning programming they air; gives more agency to producers; end of this in the 1990s sees rise in media conglomerates o Distribution: cable as well as network o Advertising: subscription; exploring alternatives to 30 second ads (product placement) " The post-network era: o 2006ish - now o technology: increased individual engagement o has transformed so rapidly that it's difficult to pinpoint what it is o DVR, on-demand í increase audience agency to watch what you want when you want o Can create a library of content easily o Napster, illegal downloading í don't need space OR money o High production values, big budgets o Increasingly outsourcing our tastes and opinions to technology (shows recommended for you on Netflix, etc.) o Tech: DVR, VOD, portable devices, phones, digital cable o Creation: multiple, various, opportunities for amateur production o Distribution: content anywhere, anytime; streaming services, YouTube í TV-internet convergence o Advertising: multiple models co-exit; placement, integration, branded entertainment, sponsorship, subscription o Audiences/audience measurements: polarized; generational divide; "viewsing"; use of many platforms at once among "millennials" or "digital natives"

Media Convergence Televisual Overflow, and Ethnographic Study of Teen Fandom:

" The study: o 27 American viewers from Maine between ages 13-21; middle-to-upper-middle class; mostly white o 40 viewers from the UK between ages 12 and 18; working class; racially diverse " Q: How did these two groups differ in their fandom for Dawson's Creek? How does Broker explain these differences? Consider: o Socio-economic backgrounds o Gender and viewing habits (solo or group, for example) o Issues of national identity, as well as transnational media industries and varying distribution and marketing practices o Racial identity (does Brooker address?) " Q: what kinds of fan practices did individuals in both groups engage in? what kinds of fan practices did almost no one engage in? o Did not engage in: official website, writing fan fiction or producing original content o Should focus more on the habits of average fans, sometimes too much focus on the super fans

Defining the Teenager (and Teen TV):

" The teenager as a modern invention: we might note that the word "teenager" is not coined until Jan 7, 1945, when it appeared in the New York Times in an article/manifesto titled "A Teen-Age Bill of Rights" o The teenager was a unique social demographic, then, is also a social construct. Although we today take it for granted that teenagers occupy a unique social position (and constitute a unique consumer demographics), in the past, the dividing line between childhood and adulthood was less distinct " Also, the liminal stage of adolescence, defined as a period of transition between childhood and adulthood, is a relatively new concept " Marie Celeste Kearney on Buffy and teen tv: the category of the teenager is expanding. Youth are "reading up" and adults are "reading down" why are children of increasingly young ages aspiring to teendom? According to Kearney, it's because: o Children are physically maturing at an earlier age (better nutrition, decline in infectious diseases, preventative healthcare) o Also, our society calls on children to mature at a younger age (to adopt more familial responsibilities, for example) o Finally, the advent of "tweens" can be explained as a function of consumer culture: the desire to break down the consumer demographic into smaller and smaller, increasingly specific categories) " At the same time, adults are "reading down", clinging to the trappings of teendom. This is due to: o Consumer culture's celebration of youth o Faltering economy (see the deluge of "think pieces" on millennials that ignore the role that the faltering economy has playing in young people's failure to assume financial independene from their parents) " Q: How do these social (extra-textual) changes impact our understanding of teen TV as a genre? o Actors are older than the character's age: makes adult more comfortable watching teen shows and teens watching these shows aspire to be like the actors/characters

Raising the (Supervised) "Natural Child" on the the Mickey Mouse Club:

" Week highly structured: each day of the week had its own motif o Monday - fun with music day o Tuesday - guest star day o Wednesday - anything can happen day o Thursday - circus day o Friday - talent round-up day " Each program was further sub-divided and regulated: it began with a sing-along anthem (the Mickey Mouse March), and accompanying cartoon, then continued with segments, and other special reports on nature and science " No adult supervision, yet militaristic in ambiance: uniforms, anthems, drilling, role calls " "Talent Round-Up Day" episode: o How might we make sense of this episode in relation to the parenting discourses popular during this era? Consider: " The opening number, "Weekend Blues" " Issues of race, sexuality, and gender in the girls' performance " Annette Funiculi's tour of Hawaii and the Disney "reporters" on the scene " The Cold War context and reaching "Hearts and Minds" o All the Mouseketeers were white and then the guests were black or other races

Serial Imitation:

" When Carmen Sandiego's accomplice Page Turner pretends to be Mark Twain in one episode. Samuel Clemens shouts, "Stop, she's pretending to be me pretending to be Mark Twain!" " The parodying of the film Fatal Attraction: not only do the characters play at identity; the show Eek the Cat! Plays with its own mutable identity through imitation " Q: Other examples from our viewing? o Switching bodies in MMPR: actors imitating their portrayal of each other o Rugrats: super bowl imitation, court room

channel identity

" With the advent of channels like CNN and Cartoon Network, the industrial practice of scheduling and marketing of specific, explicitly generically identified channels take precedent " However, even networks have in the past been (less explicitly) identified with specific genres o For example, CBS was once identified with rural sitcoms like Green Acres and Petticoat Junction o NBC in the 1990s was identified with the genre of urban white sitcoms

On Female Fandom and the Ideal Self:

How is female fandom and same-sex desire explored through the show itself? o Angela is quiet but begins to get rebellious o Befriends Ray-Ann and there's somewhat of an emotional attachment " Q: Why does Angela serve as a particularly powerful point of identification for young girls? Note that Murray describes her alternately "pensive, intelligent, anxious, playful, and mercurial, vacillating between introverted and defiant" o Girls going through the same things as they are going through the show o Exhibits all these different personality traits - can identify with her at different points o Cult TV because cancelled after a season í fans felt personal loss What is the paradox of wanting to dress like Angela as an act of defiance? Who is being defied? o Falling into what the TV wants o Oppositional to identify with Angela - supportive when the show goes off the air but the show is produced by ABC to garner viewer engagement " On being the same but different: "Recognizing oneself as different from, yet also similar to, a female ideal other producers the pleasure between femininities which ash been referred to (by Gillian Frith) as 'the intimacy which is knowledge." (Jackie Stacey qtd. in Murray, 230) " On the apparent conformity of teen girls: "The girl practice of dressing alike...is not just the form of adherence to a regime of feminine attire, but as a symbolic system that signifies female solidarity and female bonding. Dressing alike is frequently part of the signification system of girl friendships at the time in a woman's life before heterosexual desire is rigidly channeled." (Lewis qtd. in Murray, 229)

Working within the System: Nickelodeon and ACT:

Laybourne disagreed with some of the positions of ACT and its co-founder, Peggy Charren. In what ways was ACT's philosophy/construction of the child contrary to Nickelodeon's? o Nick against certain advertisements: didn't think kids would enjoy watching an hour-long ad o Charren sees kids as victim of marketing and advertising o Nick's branding strategy is that they respect kids enough that they can deal with advertising í they can be consumers and citizens " However, in other ways, Nickelodeon and ACT shared core values, beliefs, and even methods of improving children's television. What were these? o ACT: consumer activist group; made of middle class consumers (housewives, etc.) o Liberal reformist group that wants to work within the system rather than bring it down o Similar ethos: rebellious, pushing back against certain norms, not radical, wants to work within the system

Sarah Banet-Wiser, "The Nickelodeon Brand: Buying and Selling the Audience":

The Merchants of cool" í today, brand identity often, arguably, matters more than the product. Why? How do we see this idea played out in the history of Nickelodeon? o "Affective economics": the brand as a way of life and an identity (even a politics, a place) " Way of getting you to tune in í if you like the channel you will watch o Children and the three tiers of selling: James McNeal " 1) children as a primary market " 2) children as "market influencers" " convincing their parents to buy them stuff " 3) children as future market o Selling the channel to the conglomerate: justifying its presence " putting ads in magazines that parents will see

On Female Fandom and Same-Sex Desire:

The identification with and fantasy of Angela may also be charged with a type of 'crush' that girls may harbor for such an ideal" " Murray cites psychoanalytic theory to explain (note the presumption of maturation into "normal" heterosexuality) " she also notes "the fluidity of female spectator" may bring with it the desire to "be" and to "have" o "I don't know if I want to be her, or be in her" -ILANA GLAZER

post network era

TiVO, streaming services, and TV-internet convergence. Continued proliferation of content. How has this affected the genre? o Present o Greater understanding of technology - generation gap, growing up knowing how to use this stuff o Living in an age when kids can produce their own content (on YouTube) and other kids watch it o TV blurring line between adulthood and childhood

Susan Murray, "Saving Our So-Called Lives: Girl Fandom, Adolesecent Subjectivity, and My So-Called Life":

What are the methodological similarities and differences between Brooker's and Murray's studies? o Murray - didn't interview any of these girls, went on chatrooms and saw what they were writing to get a sense of fan engagement online í GIRL CULTURE and how fan communities are formed on the internet " Q: How do the girl fans Murray cites seem to differ from the fans discussed by Brooker in terms of fan engagement? o Has much more to do with identity development, so a lot more of a loss o Some what darker í seem to be dealing with their own feelings of estrangement in relationship to the show o Really identified with Angela - died their hair red because of her " Q: How does MSCL's eschewal of melodrama and emphasis on verisimilitude shape fan engagement? o Played by an actress that is age appropriate - teens able to identify with her

Will Brooker, "Living on Dawson's Creek: Teen Viewers, Cultural Convergence, and Television Overflow":

What is media convergence? How does it relate to the concept of television overflow? o Media convergence í TV viewers are no longer passive, they are also users and are actively engaged with a show across media í text each other, online chat rooms, fan fiction, memes, etc. o Became its own space/fictional universe o For Henry Jenkins, media convergence relates to: " The migration of content across multiple platforms " The migration of audiences, who will go anywhere in search of the content they want (i.e., they are no longer loyal to one medium) " The cooperation of media industries; the merger of industries within larger, multinational media conglomerates " According to Brooker, media convergence implies cynical marketing strategies, cultural convergence a "creative poaching." What Jenkins elsewhere describes as participatory culture " Q: What happens when programs like Dawson's Creek elicit participation from fans? Is the show/WB network "effectively keeping fans in its own playground?" o If you do what the show wants you to do, is that less interesting than engaging with the show in ways outside of media influence? " Q: How does Dawson's Creek overflow the boundaries of the televisual text? Consider: fan sites, ancillary products like clothing. What is the appeal of "dressing like Joey" or wearing an American Eagle-produced Capeside High t-shirt? o Selling authenticity, making them feel like they are a member of Capeside High o Clothing: American Eagle produced t-shirt, comes as if it already looks worn, makes consumer of this shirt feel that they are a member of the show's high school; selling illusion of being a part of the Dawson's Creek world

action /adventure

conflict between good and evil; single hero (when addressed to boys). Comedic or mythical, from Smurfs to He-Man boys v. girls (ghostbusters vs my little pony)

episodic drama

contained storylines in each episode; few multi-episode narrative arcs o Ex: Saved by the Bell, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, Full House, o When targeting younger audiences (pre-teen), a focus on friendships more than romantic relationships

network era (1950s-1980s)

o "Big Three" control the market; local programs produced within the networks, many ultimately reaching a national audience (e.g., Kukla, Fran, and Ollie in Chicago) " Kukla, Fran and Ollie (NBC/ABC 1947-57) " The brain child of puppeteer Burr Tillstrom, the show premiered on Chicago station WBKB in 1947; later picked up for national broadcast by NBC " Starred Fran Allison and a dozen puppets, most notably Kukla and Ollie (a dragon) " Live and ad-libbed; also, self-reflexive and savvy (suggesting this has always been a feature of kids' TV) o Kukla doesn't realize he's a puppet and always talks about putting on puppet shows o Most TV at this time was live until like the 50s o 1950s TV - the rules were being made up as they went along with it - children's TV as a genre/entertainment medium was brand new í not the same clear-cut formulas and genres as today o In this era í everyone watching roughly the same stuff

Has Nickelodeon's branding been successful? What has it done to avoid the accusation of pandering?

o A self-fulfilling prophecy: Nickelodeon has defined what it means to be an empowered kids; and positioned itself as key to achieving this empowerment. It can't help but succeed o Consumer citizenship: What about empowering kids not as consumers or "brand citizens" o Promoting diversity and pro-social behaviors: Sandler is less critical than Banet-Weiser; believes the brand respects kids and celebrates social diversity (anti-racist, anti-ablest, anti-sexist, etc.)

Seducing the Innocent: Childhood and Television in Postwar America" by LYNN SPIEGEl

o Anxiety and concerns about the effects of TV on kids o Subject matter: how adults have tried to protect kids from TV over time o TV as main part of family life í gender roles, etc. í main form of entertainment o Children viewed as investment for future of society and was a form to instill values into children í no longer a source of labor, etc. o Vs. Instrumentalizing kids - get profits through ads for [products o A: parental discourse during the 1950s strived to preserve the fiction of a hard-and-fast distinction between childhood and adulthood o A discourse - the idea of childhood and what it means - wrapped in discourse of TV and media in general and how they affect kids and people in general o Not an assessment of facts, looking at cultural phenomenon and exploring it o Examining the image of the child that television, and the debates around it, have constructed

"Marina: Composing Images of Popularity and Sexual Power":" How does Marina form a sense of self in relationship to popular culture? Consider

o Aspirations for the future " Wants to be like Madonna and Marilyn o Sexual and gender identity o Role models and identity today o Talks about how shows that show real problems like violence and drugs í learning about it so she doesn't become part of it o Thinks TV often has a moral/is educating but doesn't feel manipulated by it o Will watch TV with her cousins or sisters so they have something to talk about, especially during winter o Doesn't want to be like the people around her, wants to go to college and emulate the people she sees on TV o Distinction between her lived reality and the reality she's accessing via TV o Sexual identity: her real life sexual identity is different from how it relates to popular culture " People at school thinks she's slutty because she can dance and wears red lipstick and talks to boys, curvy bc Latina and therefore suggestive " Plays and talks with boys " Aspects of her identity that she may not see as sexual are being sexualized by others due to pop culture and she's facing the consequences of that

How is Lassie "classed," both in Eric Knight's novel and once she's made her transition to American TV?

o Broadly drawn archetypes between city and country o In "The Well" the businessmen come to try to take over o Book - disdain for poor comes out in the concern about the "tainting" of bloodlines because they don't want Lassie to mate with any mutts o Workers' dog, yet is a purebred so that makes her aristocratic o The book was meant to be like a documentary featuring how the other half lives (written by a wealthy British man ) í was not carried over to the show

" Q: Mittell argues that, especially when thinking about TV genres, we need to focus less on production and more on other industry practices, like marketing and scheduling

o Can run for a long time o Attributes of given genre can change during that time " "All in the Family" starts out with certain sitcom trends, and tried to rehabilitate the genre by the end o Cartoons - schedule on Saturday morning to turn into children's TV o 1) Moment of production ongoing o 2) The reuse of previously produced material - defines TV, always need content " Two sites of TV industrial practices that help define genres: o Program scheduling o Channel identity " Cartoon Network, Comedy Central " More likely to define as such if on these channels

Pee Wee and the impossibility of childhood

o Childhood isn't this landscape that's uncorrupted and innocent by society - doesn't exist í filled with evils and danger o "The problem with Pee-wee is not so much his indecent exposure, but the fact that he exposes the fantasy of childhood itself..." childhood is a social construct o Q: How is childhood defined? What is it? " Childhood exists in order to define adulthood í has been romanticized as a place where all of the vices of adulthood can't be found, uncorrupted space " Necessary to have the other in order to define what adulthood is o Q: What did Pee-Wee "expose" (not literally)? Why was this unnerving to adults? " "Pee-wee, as a liminal figure somewhere between boy and man, is always on the verge of revealing the fact that children are not the pleasing projection of an adult imagination. He is always threatening to disrupt adult identities by deconstructing the myth of childhood innocence"

define children tv as a genre

o Comedic elements o Can't be bad for the audience to watch o Somewhat of a black and white moral universe o Episodic television (vs. serialized) o More innocent, simple - lacking in complexity o Younger main characters - presence of children o More demographic than there used to be - don't think anymore that 6 year olds and 14 year olds like the same stuff í word "teenager" wasn't coined until the 1960s and they weren't directly addressed until then

: In what ways is Lassie gendered? What spaces are gendered, and in what ways? How does this relate to the various spaces with which Lassie is associated? How does her status as a dog allow Lassie to subvert some gender norms?

o Disregard for girl dogs, less highly valued o Sort of a maternal figure for her human boy owners o Can still fight and claw at people because she is a dog - goes against being female o Can engage in transfers of ownership, constantly rescuing people and fighting other animals

" Q: What does Mittell argue about discussion of production in film genre study?

o Film - production determined genre, not for TV though o Mittell notes that many genre theorists have discussed the role that the industry plays in genre formation " Yet "nearly all accounts of the industry's role in constituting genres have been solely focus on the process of textual production as the primary way by which industries constitute genres, implying that genres are encoded into texts through production-the author (whether individual or institutional) draws upon some facets of a ...."

" Q: What is Kearney's intervention? In what ways is she critical of the work of McRobbie and Garber?

o Girls culture as production culture o Lot of emphasis on fandom and fan productions, rather than simply fandom as consumption o Need to focus on girls media production í what are they doing besides consuming the cultural works of others? o Practices of consumption and fandom rather than media production; girls lusting after male teen heartthrobs

" How does Nickelodeon define itself as a "place," and, more specifically, a "nation? What is a nation? Consider:

o Imagined community/belonging/citizenship (Benedict Anderson) o Policing national borders o Banal nationalism (Michael Billig) o The nation as refuge and resource o Not about waving the nickelodeon flag í more about everyday nationalism o Branding on things that aren't TV: mac n cheese, picture books, etc. o Nickelodeon vs. Disney = empowerment vs. enchantment o If you're not a Nick kid, you're an outsider o Nickelodeon nation promo í "I believe in Nick because it believes in me" " Cartoons, TV shows, real kids with no transitions í you are one of the kids, seamless identification " Putting all shows in one universe

" Examples not morphng cited by Kinder:

o MMPR: the physical morphing of the rangers; the morphing of a Japanese TV show into an American children's TV sensations o MMPR: the morphing of Tommy, the Green ranger, into the white ranger ("great white hope?") [See page 193] o Q: Examples of "morphing" in the episode we watched? " Switching bodies

" Q: Is girl's media "production" more worthy of study than media consumption?

o Maybe easier to look at production of girls than understand their consumption habits o Majority of people consume (more passive), only the intense fans produce (more active) í production aspect may not be representative of all fans o Researchers cannot truly understand young girls because they are not young girls o Bias within fan studies (silent majority that engages with content but doesn't produce it)

dr william h cosby

o Q: What was Cosby's star persona and how did CBS exploit this in its effort to define Fat Albert as "good TV?" " Comedian, somewhat raunchy, but also a father figure of sorts " First African American co-star on primetime network TV " Becomes associated with the cause of education " Got PHD when Fat Albert was on air " Invested in the cause of racial equality, but was also derogatory and offensive toward black middle class o Cosby wrote his dissertation on his own TV show, "An Integration of the Visual Media via 'Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids' into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning" (1976) " Q: What are some of the methodological flaws of the dissertation, according to Hendershot? " Unclear how much actual course time was going into it/how much research was actually going into it " Fat Albert and the Cosby Dissertation: methodological flaws and relevancy for adults o Pre-selected sample o What function did dissertation serve? " Not the cause of determining the educational merits of the show " Legitimizing networks as service the public good (not only PBS) " Assuage criticisms by activists groups like ACT (Action of Children's TV), which petition the FCC to require stations to provide more and better children's' TV " The racial politics of Fat Albert o One of the only shows aimed at black and inner-city youth, based off his own youth o "color blind"

" Q: How did the cartoon genre change from the 1950s to the 1960s and 70s and how can we explain this transformation?

o Recycling of old cartoons from 30s and 40s during the 50s, then started producing original content o Drop of quality in animation - lower costs of production " Limited animation - reuse of certain cells, minimalist aesthetic o Longer, 30 min sitcoms rather than shorts o Hanna-Barbera í Flintstones, Jetsons, etc. o Genre becoming exhausted - bombed in primetime so scheduled for Saturday mornings 1950s: o 1950s: ABC has no Saturday morning programming as of 1957. NBC and CBS have a variety of live-action children's shows, adventure shows, and one cartoon each o cartoons scattered throughout the TV schedule, with occasional primetime network entries like CBS's Gerald McBoing Boing Show (1956-58) o Cartoons defined as entertainment for a mass audience, but with particular appeal to children " 1960s-70s: o by 1967, all 3 networks have 3 and a half hour block of nothing but cartoon on Saturday mornings, nearly all produced originally for TV o cartoons now defined as a genre solely for children, not a legitimate form of entertainment for a mass audience

semiotics of slime weiser

o Slime = oppression of kids, helps them identify with the kids on the show o Kids don't really know what it means, but all they need to know is that parents don't like it and that's enough o Gross, signifies anarchy and rebellion o Gross, gets you messy and disgusting so parents don't like it, so kids like it " That which adults abhor: celebrated because parents dislike it; that's enough " Grotesquery: defined in opposition to refinement, more bodily than cerebral; might ruin clothes, prevent acceptable self-presentation " Color: the antithesis of sober, adult colors " Shape: anarchy, uncontrollable, and therefore a signifier of rebellion " Ironically, oppressive: at least early on, used to signify the struggles of being a kid (see You Can't Do That on Television and the seemingly captive child stars)

In the early days, Nickelodeon did not air standard, 30 second commercials; however, this changed. Why was it difficult for Nickelodeon to justify this move, and how did it do so?

o Treating kids with respect, but understanding them as powerful citizens and understanding their consumption power

" How would you describe Nick's brand How does Banet-Wiser characterize it?

o Us vs. them í kids vs. adults o Embracing diversity and difference o Getaway for kids o Kids participating í kids' choice awards o Appeal to multiple demographics o The commodification of rebellion (kids vs. adults) o The discourse of empowerment in a disempowering world; however, for Banet-Wiser, this only makes sense within the realm of the market (a network for kids, or even "Nick is kids")

What was the unique innovation of Nickelodeon Laybourne, who assumed the position in 1984? How did she define Nickelodeon as a purveyor of quality children's programming, yet different from PBS and the Children's TV Workshop (which produced Sesame Street)?

o Wanted to put the kids first and what they wanted, rather than what the parents wanted o Didn't emphasize the idea that children had to be educated, reformed, etc. í kids needed a space to just be kids and have fun o Programming not dictated by wants and desires of adults o PBS - overtly education and interested in the cause of uplift

" Q: Kearney seeks to update the work of McRobbie and Garber. How does she go about doing so? How might we update her work in turn? (Consider, for example, the kinds of girl's media production she focuses on).

o Young girls developing fan communities around male heart throbs but also figures like Madonna who can serve as role models, etc. o Magazines and quasi-professional filmmaking has been suspended by vlogs

comedy/variery

often borrowing the structure of the family sitcom or the adult variety/talk show program o Ex: Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Daria, Sesame Street (public broadcasting for kids)

multichannel transitional era 1980s and 1990s

regulatory changes allow for the rise of basic and premium cable channels (pay TV). Also, the advent of the VCR. How does this affect the children's TV genre? o A lot more channels - less control over what children are watching " TV is threatening to parental authority - increased in 80s due to proliferation of content o Class difference - being able to pay for more channels o Greater variety - overwhelming proliferation of content í era of the re-run, recycling content " Basic cable didn't have a lot of capital in beginning - cheaply made, play whatever they can - programming attached to toys " Some would argue decrease in quality of content bc they needed more o VCR - extension of market í lot of children's programming goes straight to VHS " Also makes it more likely that children choose what they watch o TV - facilitating mass education í pros and cons, relying too much on TV to educate children