Sitcom - by Saul Austerlitz (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"Obsessively watched and critically ignored, sitcoms were a distraction, a gentle lullaby of a kinder, gentler America--until suddenly the artificial boundary between the world and television entertainment collapsed. In this book we track the growth of the sitcom, following the path that leads from I LOVE LUCY to THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW; from THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW to THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW; from M*A*S*H to TAXI; from CHEERS to ROSEANNE; from SEINFELD to CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM; and from THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW to 30 ROCK. In twenty-four episodes, SITCOM surveys the history of the form, and functions as both a TV mix tape of fondly remembered shows that will guide us to notable series and larger trends, and a carefully curated guided tour through the history of one of our most treasured art forms"--<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>A carefully curated tour through TV comedy series, this mixtape of fondly remembered shows surveys the genealogy of the form, the larger trends in its history, the best of what the genre has accomplished, and the most standard of its works. From "I Love""Lucy," "The Phil Silvers Show," and "M*A*S*H" to "Taxi," "The Larry Sanders Show," and "30 Rock," this guide presents the sitcom as a capsule version of the 20th-century arts--realism giving way to modernism and then to postmodernism, all between the hours of 8 and 10pm on weeknights. Each chapter springs from an individual representative entity, including "The Simpsons"' "22 Short Films About Springfield," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"'s "Chuckles Bites the Dust," "Seinfeld"'s "The Pitch," and "Freaks and Geeks"' "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers," where Martin Starr's nerdy Bill takes comfort in--what else--the pleasures of laughing at TV.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Austerlitz writes with a direct and punchy style... that makes for compelling reading." --"Paste"<br><br>"[A] smart new book" --"The New Yorker"<br><br>"[Austerliz] is capable of delightfully mischievous prose." --The New Republic<br><br>"A compulsively readable and often laugh-out-loud funny study of the American sitcom." --Starred review, "Library Journal"<br><br>"[...] Austerlitz ingeniously and persuasively uses the genre of situation comedy as an American Rosetta stone, showing it to be capable of decoding itself (thanks to its endless self-references) and of making intelligible an entire social archaeology, [...] Bottomless in its depth of research but as light in touch as the best of its subjects, "Sitcom" belongs in any home that has a sofa and a TV set." --Stuart Klawans, the" Nation"<br><br>"Astute and bursting with information--an entertaining treat for sitcom fans and a valuable contribution to TV history." --"Kirkus Reviews"<br><br>"An enthusiastic, well-observed, fresh look at old favorites that makes a compelling case for the genius of American film comedy." --"Kirkus Reviews" on "Another Fine Mess"<br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br>Saul Austerlitz is the author of "Another Fine Mess: A History of the American Film Comedy," named by "Booklist" as one of the ten best arts books of 2010, and "Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes." His work has been published in the "New York Times," the "Los Angeles Times," the "Boston Globe," "Slate," and elsewhere.
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