2020-21 Academic Catalog

This course is an introduction to television studies through examination of TV genres from early television to the present. Genres such as the Western, Cop/Detective drama, Soap Opera, Game Show, News/Sports, Reality TV, Situation Comedy, Animated Cartoons, and Advertising will be covered. The course will focus on how television genre categories are defined in theory, but often hybridized in practice. The course will also provide a historical perspective on these genres, and analysis of programs from visual, sound, and musical perspectives to observe how each has evolved over time.