Already a well-regarded producer of television specials and variety shows by 1967, George Schlatter pitched to NBC an idea that was a radical departure: a TV comedy special inspired by the hippie counter-culture, one which would take the idea of sit-ins, love-ins, and be-ins, and manifest that politicized, sexualized, consciousness-raising energy into comedic sketches. The special, Laugh-in, was so successful it became a regular television series. Soon, it was the...

"Jon Macks is one of the greatest comedy writers of all time."—Chris RockA hilarious, revealing look behind the history and culture of American late-night TV, by a longtime comedy writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.Ever since Johnny Carson first popularized the late-night talk show in 1962 with The Tonight Show, the eleven p.m. to two a.m. comedy time slot on network television has remained an indelible part of our ...

In 1967, producer George Schlatter pitched an idea for a quirky new television show: one inspired by the hippie counterculture, which would take the idea of sit-ins, love-ins, and be-ins, and manifest that politicized, sexualized, consciousness-raising energy into pure comedy. Much to the surprise of NBC executives, Laugh-In soon became the #1 show on American TV, and the careers of beloved stars like Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn were born.Still Laughing features n...

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An inspiring and riveting memoir from the most important woman in the history of television journalism.“A delightful tale of the golden age of television.... Juicy behind-the scenes details of the celebrities she’s interviewed, mixed in with stories of her own trials and tribulations.” —The Washington PostAfter more than fifty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murd...

Winner of the Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award, this debut novel is "as funny as The Office, as sad as an abandoned stapler . . . that rare comedy that feels blisteringly urgent." (TIME)No one knows us in quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the Chicago ad agency depicted in Joshua Ferris's exuberantly acclaimed f...

New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman delivers the definitive story of the life and artistic legacy of David Letterman, the greatest television talk show host of all time and the signature comedic voice of a generation.In a career spanning more than thirty years, David Letterman redefined the modern talk show with an ironic comic style that transcended traditional television. While he remains one of the most famous stars in America, he is a remote, ev...

On a November day almost forty-five years ago the first episode of Days of our Lives appeared on the NBC Network NBC's first color soap opera broadcast. Eleven thousand episodes later millions excitedly tune in every weekday to watch one of the 260 original one-hour episodes produced each year. What few know though is that the show started as the dream of one family the Corday family who still owns and runs the show to this day. These are the days of their lives. The Days of our Lives ...

The only comprehensive critical guide to the beloved sci-fi phenomenonA Dream Given Form provides an accessible, comprehensive, and critical look at Babylon 5, one of the most groundbreaking series of all time. Nearly 20 years after the show ended, this indispensable companion not only covers all five seasons of Babylon 5, but also the feature-length TV movies, the spinoff series Crusade (including three non-produced episodes), The Le...

As a software engineer, you recognize at some point that there's much more to your career than dealing with code. Is it time to become a manager? Tell your boss he’s a jerk? Join that startup? Author Michael Lopp recalls his own make-or-break moments with Silicon Valley giants such as Apple, Netscape, and Symantec in Being Geek -- an insightful and entertaining book that will help you make better career decisions.With more than 40 standalone stories, Lopp walks through a c...

While every new TV series has to face some problems, no show had to overcome greater obstacles than Gilligan's Island. In spite of that, no series has achieved greater success, as measured by the fact that Gilligan's Island has given rise to three TV movies, two animated series, and is the most rerun program in the entire history of television. Now, Sherwood Schwartz, creator, writer, and producer of Gilligan's Island, tells the life story of the show: from the labor pains of scripting, ca...

In the thirty years since viewers first visited Nelson Mandela House, Only Fools and Horses has won countless awards and is still Britain's most-watched and best-loved sitcom. Del Boy's overwhelming popularity has even inspired the Oxford English Dictionary to include a selection of his most famous words and phrases, such as 'lovely jubbly' and 'twonk'.In this fascinating, entertaining and meticulously researched book, acclaimed biographer Graham McCann goes behind the sce...

"A loving and breezy set of essays" on today's most addictive TV shows from "an incisive and hilarious critic" ( Slate).Television is not what it once was. Award-winning author and critic Clive James spent decades covering the medium, and witnessed a radical change in content, format, and programming, and in the very manner in which TV is watched.Here he examines this unique cultural revolution, providing a brilliant, eminently entertaining analysi...