Discuss Marty in relation to its aesthetics, material conditions of production, the history of television as a popular art and as an industry, and what you know about Marty as an ideological or cultural text fitted to its historical situation.First, choose ONE question from the following four choices. Graduate students must answer Question Four, but anyone may answer Question Four, if you choose. Then compose an essay of sufficient length to fully discuss the issues involved. Your essay should synthesize what you know, examples, and ideas from our readings, our lectures/discussions, and our screenings. I would expect you to spend approximately 2 hours composing and writing your essay after initial thought and research and reading and outlining. Only those essays that show evidence of familiarity with the issues, the readings, the discussions, and the screenings will receive a mark of “excellent.” Only those essays that cite and note supporting material from our readings, and present specific examples from our screenings will receive a mark of “good.” Other essays will receive marks of “average” to “failure.” Question 1: David Thorburn’s essay “Thorburn Melodrama” makes an argument for “television art” that seemingly has to do with the “fittingness” of the program to constraints of industry, nature of production, pre-existing genres of programs, and characteristics of audiences. In our discussions and screenings, we viewed the Goodyear Television Playhouse production of Marty as an exemplar of the “live drama anthology” programs which defined the so-called “Golden Age of Television” in the early 1950s. include sentence on Elvis Presley Using Thorburn’s idea of “television art,” discuss Marty in relation to its aesthetics, material conditions of production, the history of television as a popular art and as an industry, and what you know about Marty as an ideological or cultural text fitted to its historical situation.
