Tag Archives: television

Book Review:  Rock Me on the Water: 1974: The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics by Ronald Brownstein

Whether or not its premise is entirely accurate, this book is brilliant. The premise is embodied in the subtitle. According to Brownstein, 1974 was the pivotal year in which Los Angeles became the epicenter of the entertainment industry and radically … Continue reading

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Life Is Entertaining

This essay came about because of a terrible commercial I’ve been seeing lately on various TV and internet sites.  In it, a certain A-list Hollywood actor walks around a city, and as he does, scenes such as those that appear … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Powers That Be by David Halberstam; Part One

“The Powers That Be” is the story of how media became an important shaper of events in the mid-twentieth century.  It was first published in 1975, when it was contemporary.  Now, of course, it is history.  It deals with newspapers, … Continue reading

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Book Review: Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour by David Bianculli

If I had to pick a decade that was germinal for me I would probably not pick the sixties but the seventies.  I was a teen in the sixties, true, but I was a late bloomer.  I didn’t really absorb … Continue reading

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