Promotional Information

"Drawn to Television is a highly articulate interpretation of the plots and wider implications of television animation. Anyone interested in the whole story--from the banal Flintstones, to the intellectually supercharged Rocky and His Friends, to the culture-critiquing Simpsons and beyond--will want to look here, and look closely." -- Paul Buhle, Senior Lecturer, History and American Civilization, Brown University

Table of Contents

ContentsContentsContentsIntroduction: A Very Brief History of Prime-Time Animation ix1Animation Comes to Prime Time: The Case of The Flintstones 12The Sixties Animation Explosion: The Flintstones Fallout 213Animation's New Age: Meet The Simpsons 474Family Guys from King of the Hill to American Dad 695Beyond the Family Sitcom: Prime-Time Animation Seeks New Formats 1036You Can't Do That on Television: The Animated Satire of South Park 1257Pushing the Animated Envelope 157Postscript: Prime-Time Animation in American Culture 185Index 187

About the Author

M. Keith Booker is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of Arkansas. He is the author of many Greenwood and Praeger volumes, including most recently Science Fiction Television (2004), Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture (2006) and From the Box Office to the Ballot Box: The American Political Film.

Reviews

Booker provides a detailed description of animated television shows from the The Flintstones (which first aired in 1960) to Family Guy (which appeared 1999). He focuses on prime-time television but includes a history of all animated series, from morning shows to late-night cable. Primarily descriptive, the book includes every character, all the activities, and the history of the rise and fall of each series….Booker makes a good case for the appeal of animated television to viewers raised on animated programming and advertising. He also points out that the animation format allows for more critical irony and outrageous behavior than traditional prime-time broadcast series can offer….This is a book for those who need to know what happened in every animated series from 1960 to the present.
*Choice*

Booker has taken on an ambitious topic in this book. Exploring the progression of our most watched animated programs is a difficult task, but Drawn to Television does an admirable job of surveying the last 40 years or so of prime-time animation, while highlighting how these programs have served as sounding boards for their creators and reflections of society.
*Frames Per Second*

The history of prime-time animation from Flintstones to modern times examines not only individual shows and their evolution and influences, but the changing nature of childhood and the social and political influences of children's programming as a whole. From the technical specifications of how animated children's programming differs from others to how it's used to impart social commentary, this guide is key for university level Media Studies programs.
*Midwest Book Review - Internet Bookwatch*