NBC - American's Network

List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi PART ONE Broadcasting Begins, 1919-38 Introduction to Part One Michele Hilmes 3 1 NBC and the Network Idea: Defining the "American System" Michele Hilmes 7 2 "Always in Friendly Competition": NBC and CBS in the First Decade of National Broadcasting Michael J. Socolow 25 3 Programming in the Public Interest: America's Town Meeting of the Air David Goodman 44 4 Regulating Class Conflict on the Air: NBC's Relationship with Business and Organized Labor Elizabeth Fones-Wolf and Nathan Godfried 61 PART TWO Transitional Decades, 1938-60 Introduction to Part Two Michele Hilmes 81 5 Breaking Chains: NBC and the FCC Network Inquiry, 1938-43 Christopher H. Sterling 85 6 Why Sarnoff Slept: NBC and the Holocaust David Weinstein 98 7 Employment and Blue Pencils: NBC, Race, and Representation, 1926-55 Murray Forman 117 8 NBC, J. Walter Thompson, and the Struggle for Control of Television Programming, 1946-58 Mike Mashon 135 9 Talent Raids and Package Deals: NBC Loses Its Leadership in the 1950's Douglas Gomery 153 PART THREE NBC and the Classic Network System, 1960-85 Introduction to Part Three Michele Hilmes 171 10 NBC News Documentary: "Intelligent Interpretation" in a Cold War Context Michael Curtin 175 11 What Closes on Saturday Night: NBC and Satire Jeffrey S. Miller 192 12 The Little Program That Could: The Relationship between NBC and Star Trek M e Messenger Davies and Roberta Pearson 209 13 Sex as a Weapon: Programming Sexuality in the 1970's Elana Levine 224 14 Saturday Morning Children's Programs on NBC, 1975-2006: A Case Study of Self-Regulation Karen Hill-Scott and Horst Stipp 240 PART FOUR NBC in the Digital Age, 1985 to the Present Introduction to Part Four Michele Hikes 259 15 Must-See TV: NBC's Dominant Decades Amanda D. Lotz 261 16 Creating the Twenty-first-Century Television Network: NBC in the Age of Media Conglomerates Christopher Anderson 275 17 Life without Friends: NBC's Programming Strategies in an Age of Media Clutter, Media Conglomeration, and TiVo Kevin S. Sandler 291 18 Network Nation: Writing Broadcasting History as Cultural History Michele Hilmes and Shawn VanCour 308 NBC Time Line 323 Bibliography 331 Notes on Contributors 343 Index 347