Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television

by Lee Siegel

Overview

Television has taken firm hold of American life ever since the first flickering images replaced the disembodied voices innocently crackling from the radio. Ever present and evolving, television thrives at the crossroads of commerce, art, and entertainment. In Not Remotely Controlled cultural critic Lee Siegel collects his reportage and musings on this most hybrid medium. Whether chronicling the history of the "cop" drama, revealing the inherent irony in Donald Trump's character on "The Apprentice," or shedding light on those unheralded gems that Neilsen ratings swept away prematurely, Siegel gives each episode, series, or documentary the attention and respect usually reserved for high-art and dusty literature. Going far beyond mere pans and praise, Siegel has given long-overdue attention to America's most pervasive art form: television.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465008483
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/01/2007
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Lee Siegel is a renowned critic and essayist whose writing appears in Harper's, the New Republic, Time, the Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, among other publications. He received the 2002 National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism. He is the author of Falling Upwards. Siegel is a senior editor at the New Republic. He lives with his wife and child in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction     1
Why Cop Shows Are Eternal     4
The New Kojak     13
CSI: New York     17
Numb3rs     22
RENO 911!     26
Monk     32
Friends     40
Joey     45
My Name Is Earl     49
Everybody Hates Chris     54
Jon Stewart     58
Extras I     64
Extras II     68
Curb Your Enthusiasm     74
Weeds     82
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers     87
The Boondocks     92
SpongeBob SquarePants     96
Unforgivable Blackness     102
Lackawanna Blues     108
Joan of Arcadia     114
Revelations     121
Rescue Me     126
Deadwood     131
Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, Suburban Madness, and Desperate Housewives     137
Huff     142
The O.C.     147
Lost     154
Invasion     158
Alias     162
The Hamburg Cell and Dirty War     168
The Unit     178
Over There     183
Ghosts of Rwanda     190
The Children of Lenigradsky     196
Transgeneration     199
The Staircase     203
The History Channel's Crusades     208
UFOs     213
Morning News Shows     218
Tom Brokaw     226
Pope John Paul II     230
Reality in America     236
Family Bonds     248
Growing Up Gotti     252
Supernanny     256
Thirty Days     260
The Apprentice     264
Deal or No Deal     274
Iron Chef America     279
Stump the Schwab     283
The Winter Olympics     286
Tanner on Tanner     292
Jack and Bobby     297
Greta Garbo     304
Lauren Bacall     308
Steve McQueen     312
Elvis Presley     316
Charles Manson     320
Johnny Carson     326
Inside the Actors Studio     330
Oprah Winfrey     338
Acknowledgments     353

Editorial Reviews

Siegel's feisty writing makes for a provocative read. He writes with refreshingly little regard to fashion or reputation, and does not shy from strong opinions.

Financial Times

Siegel is a judicious observer of television as a tributary flowing into the ocean of mass American culture

Boston Globe

[Siegel] explores television's use as a lens through which to look at history, human nature, and American culture, you're going to find yourself surfing TV in a new and thrilling way, as Siegel ducks, bobs, and slaloms from concept to concept, tying together themes that seem unlikely to have many points of contact in common, and yet that snap together like puzzle pieces in Siegel's hands.

Edge

His is commentary that the world's most powerful medium deserves.

Buffalo News

renowned cultural critic and blog-fiasco creator Lee Siegel turns his sharp wit on the tube with this collection of essays.

Times Out Chicago

Siegel's pugnacious elegance runs through this collection of TV reviews for the Nation

The Guardian

Who is the audience for not-quite-current television reviews, none old enough to be historical and few new enough to seem fresh? We can leave that little problem to Lee Siegel's publisher, and note what this collection makes emphatically clear: Siegel's valuable role as a cultural provocateur, tossing off intellectual grenades about the social tyranny of money or the failures of the Bush administration while ostensibly defending the dumb sitcom Joey or skewering the hit My Name Is Earl…at their best, Siegel's scattershot observations offer a kind of drive-by brilliance.
—The New York Times

Caryn James

Hit-and-mostly-miss collection of 50-plus New Republic essays over-intellectualizing the boob tube's not particularly intellectual output. As the magazine's television reporter from 2003 to 2006, Siegel (Falling Upwards, 2006, etc.) was paid to spend hours parked in front of the TV (watching cop shows, game shows, made-for-TV movies, you name it), then preach about their virtues, or lack thereof. Many of the programs the New Republic asked Siegel to dissect-e.g., Joey, The O.C., Deal or No Deal-do not merit the author's time or energy, as the shows are A) mindless entertainment and B) will be soon forgotten. Another problem with this anthology is that Siegel spends too much brainpower on product that's created strictly as escapism. Writing about the goofy but entertaining food-as-sport show Iron Chef America, he notes that, "In Soviet Russia, revolution, counterrevolution, endurance, and dissent all were hatched in the kitchen." He might be right, but the pronouncement is misplaced and off-putting. Collection highlights include thoughtful articles on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras and Deadwood, providing a spotlight on shows that justify sharp analysis. Those interested in the modern television landscape should turn to Bill Carter's Desperate Networks (2006), a fine work of straight-up journalism that offers critical insight into today's television scene-and Carter wasn't even trying.

Kirkus Reviews