Same Time, Same Station: Creating American Television, 1948-1961

by James L. Baughman

Overview

Outstanding Academic Title for 2007, Choice Magazine

Ever wonder how American television came to be the much-derided, advertising-heavy home to reality programming, formulaic situation comedies, hapless men, and buxom, scantily clad women? Could it have been something different, focusing instead on culture, theater, and performing arts?

In Same Time, Same Station, historian James L. Baughman takes readers behind the scenes of early broadcasting, examining corporate machinations that determined the future of television. Split into two camps—those who thought TV could meet and possibly raise the expectations of wealthier, better-educated post-war consumers and those who believed success meant mimicking the products of movie houses and radio—decision makers fought a battle of ideas that peaked in the 1950s, just as TV became a central facet of daily life for most Americans.

Baughman’s engagingly written account of the brief but contentious debate shows how the inner workings and outward actions of the major networks, advertisers, producers, writers, and entertainers ultimately made TV the primary forum for entertainment and information. The tale of television's founding years reveals a series of decisions that favored commercial success over cultural aspiration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801879333
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/26/2007
Pages:	460
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.43(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James L. Baughman is a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His previous books include Henry R. Luce and the Rise of the American News Media and Same Time, Same Station: Creating American Television, 1948–1961.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Opening Number
2. "The Mother of Television"
3. The Marionette and the Cross-Dresser
4. The Regulators
5. "Mr. Spectacular"
6. Paley's Choice
7. "We Just See That It Isn't Lousy"
8. The Patrons
9. "Informed without Being Ponderous"
10. Shooting the Wounded
11. Signing Off
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

What People are Saying About This

Steve Whitfield

A fascinating, engrossing work that seamlessly traces how an object of curiosity became a medium that is both indispensable and inescapable. Baughman's scholarship is astonishing, his writing vivid and engaging.

— Steve Whitfield, Brandeis University

From the Publisher

Baughman, a gifted historian and scholar, provides the reader with deep insight into television in the 1950s. Same Time, Same Station explains clearly how the roots of yesterday's television led to what we all see today. Baughman's balanced perspective illuminates our understanding of this most powerful voice in America.
—Newton N. Minow, former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, former Chairman, Public Broadcasting Service

A fascinating, engrossing work that seamlessly traces how an object of curiosity became a medium that is both indispensable and inescapable. Baughman's scholarship is astonishing, his writing vivid and engaging.
—Steve Whitfield, Brandeis University

Newton N. Minow

Baughman, a gifted historian and scholar, provides the reader with deep insight into television in the 1950s. Same Time, Same Station explains clearly how the roots of yesterday's television led to what we all see today. Baughman's balanced perspective illuminates our understanding of this most powerful voice in America.

Steve Whitfield

A fascinating, engrossing work that seamlessly traces how an object of curiosity became a medium that is both indispensable and inescapable. Baughman's scholarship is astonishing, his writing vivid and engaging.

Editorial Reviews

Baughman's study is interesting from a policy point of view . . . it is also evocative as a spin through the index will show.
—History Wire

Baughman tells a familiar story—commerce crushes cultural aspiration—but he adds fresh and fascinating details from behind the scenes at the television networks. And he avoid nostalgia for a 'golden age' of television that never was.
—Philadelphia Inquirer

The period that Baughman covers is the 'golden age of television'—the much mourned era of dramas by Paddy Chayefsky and documentaries by Edward R. Murrow . . . Although Baughman is scrupulously respectful of the achievements of Weaver, Murrow, and other heroes of fifties television, he never misses a chance to offer up contrarian material.
—Nicholas Lemann, New Yorker

Though not the first study of this period, this is surely one of the more readable and insightful — and well documented.
—Chris Sterling, Communication Booknotes Quarterly

This book is full of interesting stories and facts. Summing Up: Essential.
—Choice

College-level collections strong in media history will find this an attractive addition . . . accessible even to lay readers.
—Midwest Book Review

The most thorough, well-researched, and broad-ranging history of television we have to date . . . Baughman's achievement is a major one.
—Business History Review

Readers of Journalism History . . . are urged to read this book.
—Alexander Russo, Journalism History

A thought-provoking book . . . Does a masterful job of engaging the academic discourse and media theory.
—Andrew J. Falk, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

Same Time, Same Station is a scholarly pleasure to explore and should be in every university library where media studies are taken seriously.
—Peter C. Rollins, Journal of American History

From the Publisher

College-level collections strong in media history will find this an attractive addition . . . accessible even to lay readers.

Midwest Book Review

The period that Baughman covers is the 'golden age of television'—the much mourned era of dramas by Paddy Chayefsky and documentaries by Edward R. Murrow . . . Although Baughman is scrupulously respectful of the achievements of Weaver, Murrow, and other heroes of fifties television, he never misses a chance to offer up contrarian material.

New Yorker - Nicholas Lemann

The most thorough, well-researched, and broad-ranging history of television we have to date . . . Baughman's achievement is a major one.

Business History Review

A thought-provoking book . . . Does a masterful job of engaging the academic discourse and media theory.

Register of the Kentucky Historical Society - Andrew J. Falk

Same Time, Same Station is a scholarly pleasure to explore and should be in every university library where media studies are taken seriously.

Journal of American History - Peter C. Rollins

Baughman's study is interesting from a policy point of view . . . it is also evocative as a spin through the index will show.

History Wire

Readers of Journalism History . . . are urged to read this book.

Journalism History - Alexander Russo

Baughman tells a familiar story—commerce crushes cultural aspiration—but he adds fresh and fascinating details from behind the scenes at the television networks. And he avoid nostalgia for a 'golden age' of television that never was.

Philadelphia Inquirer

This book is full of interesting stories and facts. Summing Up: Essential.

Choice

Though not the first study of this period, this is surely one of the more readable and insightful — and well documented.

Communication Booknotes Quarterly - Chris Sterling

"The period that Baughman covers is the 'golden age of television'—the much mourned era of dramas by Paddy Chayefsky and documentaries by Edward R. Murrow... Although Baughman is scrupulously respectful of the achievements of Weaver, Murrow, and other heroes of fifties television, he never misses a chance to offer up contrarian material."

New Yorker - Nicholas Lemann

Same Time, Same Station is a scholarly pleasure to explore and should be in every university library where media studies are taken seriously.

— Peter C. Rollins

Journal of American History

A thought-provoking book... Does a masterful job of engaging the academic discourse and media theory.

— Andrew J. Falk

Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

Readers of Journalism History... are urged to read this book.

— Alexander Russo

Journalism History

Though not the first study of this period, this is surely one of the more readable and insightful — and well documented.

— Chris Sterling

Communication Booknotes Quarterly

The period that Baughman covers is the 'golden age of television'—the much mourned era of dramas by Paddy Chayefsky and documentaries by Edward R. Murrow... Although Baughman is scrupulously respectful of the achievements of Weaver, Murrow, and other heroes of fifties television, he never misses a chance to offer up contrarian material.

— Nicholas Lemann

New Yorker