1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910821149803321

Autore

Grindstaff Laura

Titolo

The money shot [[electronic resource] ] : trash, class, and the making of TV talk shows / / Laura Grindstaff

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2002

ISBN

1-282-73842-9

9786612738425

0-226-30908-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (331 p.)

Disciplina

791.45/6

Soggetti

Television talk shows - United States

Nonfiction television programs - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-299) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Word about Names -- The Principal Cast -- Prologue. Setting the Stage -- CHAPTER ONE. Airing Dirty Laundry -- CHAPTER TWO. The Genre Goes Hard-Core: A Brief History -- CHAPTER THREE. Talk as Work: Routinizing the Production Process -- CHAPTER FOUR. Talk as Show (a Show of Emotion) -- CHAPTER FIVE. The Other Side of the Camera: Motives and Misgivings -- CHAPTER SIX. Inside the Fun House -- CHAPTER SEVEN. Will the Real Expert Please Stand Up? -- CHAPTER EIGHT. Trash, Class, and Cultural Hierarchy -- EPILOGUE. Airing Another Kind of Dirty Laundry: Confessions of a Feminist Fieldworker -- REFERENCES -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

He leaped from his chair, ripped off his microphone, and lunged at his ex-wife. Security guards rushed to intercept him. The audience screamed, then cheered. Were producers concerned? Not at all. They were getting what they wanted: the money shot. From "classy" shows like Oprah to "trashy" shows like Jerry Springer, the key to a talk show's success is what Laura Grindstaff calls the money shot-moments when guests lose control and express joy, sorrow, rage, or remorse on camera. In this new work, Grindstaff takes us behind the scenes of daytime television talk shows, a genre focused on "real" stories told by



"ordinary" people. Drawing on extensive interviews with producers and guests, her own attendance of dozens of live tapings around the country, and more than a year's experience working on two nationally televised shows, Grindstaff shows us how producers elicit dramatic performances from guests, why guests agree to participate, and the supporting roles played by studio audiences and experts. Grindstaff traces the career of the money shot, examining how producers make stars and experts out of ordinary people, in the process reproducing old forms of cultural hierarchy and class inequality even while seeming to challenge them. She argues that the daytime talk show does give voice to people normally excluded from the media spotlight, but it lets them speak only in certain ways and under certain rules and conditions. Working to understand the genre from the inside rather than pass judgment on it from the outside, Grindstaff asks not just what talk shows can tell us about mass media, but also what they reveal about American culture more generally.