There is a very specific kind of chaos that happens in a Hollywood pitch meeting when someone says the words "what if we made it a series." Sometimes that sentence launches something genuinely great. Sometimes it produces a cardboard cutout of Matthew Broderick getting sliced apart with a chainsaw in the first five minutes of … Continue reading From Big Screen to Small: Movies That Became Shows
Television History
The Isolation Booth Was a Lie: How 1950s Quiz Shows Nearly Destroyed America’s Trust in TV
There was a moment, right around 1956, when America genuinely believed that a mild-mannered Columbia University English instructor named Charles Van Doren was one of the smartest men alive. He stood in a soundproof isolation booth, sweat beading on his forehead under the studio lights, and wrestled aloud with questions about opera and literature and … Continue reading The Isolation Booth Was a Lie: How 1950s Quiz Shows Nearly Destroyed America’s Trust in TV
Central Perk Conspiracies: The Fan Theories Friends Never Asked For
There's a strange thing that happens to a show once it's been off the air long enough. The jokes stay funny, the outfits get rewatched ironically, and somewhere along the way the internet decides the show was secretly about something much darker than anyone intended. Friends has been out of first-run production for over two … Continue reading Central Perk Conspiracies: The Fan Theories Friends Never Asked For
The Game of Emmys: Analyzing the Success of Game of Thrones
There is something bittersweet about looking back at Game of Thrones through the lens of the Emmy Awards. For most of its run, the show was a phenomenon unlike anything television had seen before. It was prestige drama dressed in dragon scales, a fantasy series that made everyone — even people who swore they would … Continue reading The Game of Emmys: Analyzing the Success of Game of Thrones
More Than a Host: The Enduring Legacy of Alex Trebek
I've written before about my complicated relationship with Jeopardy! — how I dreaded it as a kid, how it became appointment television once I discovered I actually loved trivia, and how watching it with my dad became one of the great rituals of my adult life. But when I sit down and think honestly about … Continue reading More Than a Host: The Enduring Legacy of Alex Trebek
Come On Down! A Brief History of Game Show Phrases That Took Over the World
There's a particular kind of magic that happens when a television phrase escapes the confines of its original context and starts living rent-free in the broader culture. Politicians use them. Teachers use them. Your grandma uses them, possibly without knowing exactly where they came from. Game shows, more than almost any other television format, have … Continue reading Come On Down! A Brief History of Game Show Phrases That Took Over the World
