Brooks Tim - The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present 8th Ed

Wait no more, here it isnearly 60 years of television at your fingertips. From I Love Lucy to Everybody Loves Raymond, Milton Berle to Malcolm in the Middle, Toast of the Town to Touched by an Angeldetailed information on all the shows you loved, whatever their era. Television shows never really die, you know, they just keep being rerun, on and on. So if you stumble into the middle of The X-Files or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, well help you untangle the plot. If youre a romantic, you can relive the love affairs on Moonlighting and Mad about You. For the historians weve exhumed information on the first network news programs, on Amos n Andy, and on the first major TV production, the now-forgotten Hour Glass (1946). And there are thousands of others, flickering through the yearsThe Lone Ranger, Arthur Godfreys Talent Scouts (who says American Idol is a new idea?), Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, Gomer Pyle, Rowan & Martins Laugh-In, All in the Family, Happy Days, Hill Street Blues, Dallas (about which we get lots of letters), Dynasty (not so many), The Cosby Show, ER, South Park, The Real World, The West Wing, Rugrats, Lizzie McGuire, Survivor, The Bachelor, and many more.

We both work, or have worked, in the TV industry, care about its history, and have done everything possible to get the facts correct. That doesnt mean there are no mistakes we will surely hear about them!but we hope not many. If you have an earlier edition of this book, there are thousands of additions and improvements, appearing on almost every page. The book has been carefully researched for the scholar, but it is also, like television itself, for your enjoyment (as well as for trivia quizzes, bet settling, and spouse pacifying on a birthday or holiday). Guard your copy, though. People get so interested in whats in here that the book might walk away. You can still watch many of these shows, on broadcast stations, cable networks, tape or DVD. We hope this book will help you enjoy them even more.

This encyclopedia lists regular series carried on the commercial broadcast and cable networks between 6:00 P.M. and roughly 3:00 A.M. eastern timein other words, prime time plus early evening and late-night programs. In addition, we have included all the top syndicated programs that have aired primarily in the evening hours. We cover the entire history of TV networking in the United States, from its inception on a regular basis in 1944 through April 15, 2003. Our definition of a series is a program that ran for at least four consecutive weeks in the same time slotor was intended to!

A few generic program types are found under general headings. Newscasts are summarized under News; sports events such as football, boxing, wrestling, etc., under the name of the sport; and feature film series under Movies. All other series are arranged by title in alphabetical order. There is a full index in the back to every cast member, plus appendixes listing the highest rated programs each season, network schedules for each season at a glance, major TV awards, and other information.

Network series are those that are fed out by broadcast or cable networks and seen simultaneously across most of the country. The following broadcast networks are covered, beginning with the year shown. Although individual program clearance information for the earliest years is anything but clear, well also indicate our best guess as to each networks first regular prime-time series.