Hello, Old Friend!

Review by Mike Gange

Dictionary of Teleliteracy
by David Bianculli
Continuum, $29.95, 416 pages

Sometimes, at parties or casual gatherings, it helps me solve disputes. Other times, it helps me amaze people. Sometimes it reminds me of some favorite old stories, gems long forgotten, but worth re-examining. And year after year, I go back to it for opinions and ideas. Truly, Dictionary of Teleliteracy is more like an old friend than just another dictionary.

Dictionary of Teleliteracy author David Bianculli watches television for a living. He is the TV critic for the New York Daily News, and has been a television critic since 1975. He also provides TV reviews for National Public Radio’s "Fresh Air." In his introduction to Dictionary of Teleliteracy, he points out how Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations contains only two references to television programs, while The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy includes a single reference to Star Trek, but ignores The Honeymooners. Bianculli took the slights personally, and with what he does for a living, why shouldn’t he? The result is this fun to read, fact-filled gem, a worthwhile addition to classrooms and libraries and a likely bedside companion for afficionados of the airwaves.

Omitting commercials and music videos, Bianculli writes about television programs from A to Z – from ABC World News Tonight to Zorro. Writing with intelligence, wit, insight and great research, Bianculli shares rich details from 500 TV programs. Some of the write ups about shows are brief, barely 100 words in length, and others are much longer, but all contain essential details such as networks, starting and ending dates, stars and other notable facts.

This is what he writes, in part, about M*A*S*H: "M*A*S*H 1972-83. CBS. If this book were organized by popularity, not by alphabet, the finale of M*A*S*H: would put this entry at the front of the list: its expanded concluding episode, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen," attracted 77 percent of all TV viewers that night and earned a Nielson rating of more than 60 – something no Superbowl has ever done...."

Two other random quotes from Bianculli show his affection for and interest in television. He writes, "The Flintstones was the first cartoon series in prime time – and along with The Jetsons and The Simpsons, one of the very few successful ones. The Flintstones was patterned as a stone age variation on a previous sitcom classic, The Honeymooners."

About CBS’ Beverly Hillbillies he said, "One statistic I unearthed about this show continues to amaze me. In the entire 50 year plus history of network television, the Beverly Hillbillies is the only series to wind up as a top rated show on television in its first season on the air."

With all the treasures he has created in this volume, I can only look forward to more of David Bianculli’s writings about television. Reading his work is like chatting with a long lost friend.

 

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism at Fredericton High.