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DOWN THE TUBE

Name: DOWN THE TUBE
Author: William F. Baker
ISBN: 0-465-00722-8

AN INSIDE ACCOUNT OF THE FAILURE OF AMERICAN TELEVISION

by William F. Baker & George Dessart ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 29, 1998

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Two television veterans address the decay of a medium but cannot come up with clear, substantive solutions to its problems. Baker, who has been a top-level executive in both public and commercial TV, and Dessart, an academic and former vice president at CBS, attempt to tie the decline of the quality of American television to the cycles of government regulation and deregulation that occur in our oscillating political environment. The deregulation of the 1980s, they write, led to rampant commercialism and the rise of saturation-style advertising that has lent itself to such excesses as cartoons designed after already existing toys and, much earlier on, the rise of sales of toy guns and Barbie dolls thanks to Mattel’s early investment in the new medium. They point to the BBC’s lack of commercials as a counterpoint. They also discuss the slow but steady ruin of children’s television that sprang from deregulation and lost funds. (This destruction of children’s television is linked to what German sociologists call Kinderfeinlichkeit—or hostility toward children.) If all this sounds like a bit much for one volume, it is. This is all notwithstanding a seemingly needless digression on world television’s past, present, and future that does nothing but break the continuity between chapters on children’s television and the “underfunded afterthought” of public television—areas that are intrinsically related. Indeed, there’s too much background material in this volume. As a result, the vapidity of much of what is offered today on television is given short shrift—only the E channel’s Talk Soup is offered as an example of the trash television of the 1990s. Unfortunately, though they make a few salient points, Baker and Dessart fail at their ultimate goal: The problems of television remain poorly identified, and the solutions offered seem unrealistic.

Pub Date: April 29, 1998

ISBN: 0-465-00722-8

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Basic Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1998

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.