The Age of Melodramatic Miniseries

When Glamour Ruled on Television, 1980-1995
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4766-9162-6
Verlag: McFarland

Buch, Englisch, 277 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm

Glamour, power, champagne breakfasts in satin sheets--welcome to television's most dazzling and overlooked genre: women-centric melodrama miniseries of the 1980s and 1990s. Decades before Real Housewives, rags-to-riches fantasies depicting strong women overcoming tragedy to take charge of their destinies were a big hit with TV audiences.

Reflecting the "greed is good" ethos of the day yet encoded with subversive feminist messaging, these glitzy, often camp stories depicted statuesque superwomen facing off with square-jawed men in boardrooms and bedrooms. This book explores the shows that epitomized the prime-time soap era and gave us such memorable scenes as Stefanie Powers trading lovers with her twin sister, Joan Collins fighting Nazis in haute couture and Phoebe Cates demanding, "Which one of you bitches is my mother?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Fernsehen & Rundfunk

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One—Defining the Genre
- 1. Overview of the ­Female-Centric Melodramatic Miniseries
- 2. Novels for Television…. Lost in Adaptation?
- 3. Women of Substance: Character Types and Tropes
- 4. Reception of the Melodramatic Miniseries
- Part Two—Analyzing the Texts
- 5. A Woman's Place: Mother, Family, and Home
- 6. Lady Bosses: Work, Power, and Conflict
- 7. Lifestyles of the Rich and Vacuous
- 8. Melodrama, "Down Under"
- Afterword
- Appendix A: List of Cited Miniseries
- Appendix B: Methods for Reception Analysis
- Chapter Notes
- Bibliography
- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Scott Humphries is an aficionado of melodrama, especially the "trashy" kinds of popular literature, film and television from the 1980s. He has degrees in English literature and urban planning and lives in Canberra, Australia.