How TV Can Make You Smarter
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Text copyright © 2020 by Allison Shoemaker.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written
permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Shoemaker, Allison, author.
Title: How TV can make you smarter / Allison Shoemaker.
Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020005664 | ISBN 9781452171784 (hardcover); ISBN 9781797203492 (epub,
mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Television programs--United States. | Television programs--Social aspects--United
States.
Classification: LCC PN1992.3.U5 S5455 2020 | DDC 791.45/ 70973--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005664
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INTRODUCTION 8
PART I: WHAT IS TV, AND WHY IS THERE SO MUCH OF IT? 12
WHAT’S TV ANYWAY, AND HOW IS IT NOT A MOVIE? 13
HOW TO SURVIVE PEAK TV 16
PART II: YES, TV CAN BE GOOD FOR YOU 22
A BRIEF, BUT IMPORTANT, NOTE ABOUT THE DREADED
“SPOILERS” 24
THE CONVERSATION STARTERS: LEARNING FROM LOST, EACH
OTHER, AND OURSELVES 25
THE GREAT SOFA DEBATE, OR THE PLEASURE OF ARGUING
ABOUT LOST WITH YOUR FRIENDS 28
SOCIAL MEDIA, OR A MILLION TINY WATERCOOLERS ALL
POURING AT ONCE 32
RECAPS ABOUND! 35
THE LENS OPENERS: LEARNING FROM ARTISTS AND
PERFORMERS 36
THE CAMERA: TRAVEL THE WORLD WITH ANTHONY
BOURDAIN: PARTS UNKNOWN 39
THE PEN: ONE DAY AT A TIME WRITERS OFFER INSIGHT AND
WARM FUZZIES 42
THE VOICE: THE QUEENS OF RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE SPEAK
THEIR TRUTHS 46
THE EMPATHY GENERATORS: HOW TV ALLOWS US TO LIVE
INSIDE SOMEONE ELSE’S HEAD 50
THE FISH OUT OF WATER: PEGGY OLSON, MAD MEN 52
THE BIG FINISH: HAWKEYE PIERCE IN THE M*A*S*H FINALE 56
THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF THE ANTI-HERO, OR THE
DANGERS OF WATCHING BREAKING BAD AND NOT THINKING
ABOUT IT MUCH 60
THE CREATIVE CHALLENGERS: THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
65
DOING A LOT WITH A LITTLE: DOCTOR WHO AND THE ART
OF THE BOTTLE EPISODE 70
COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES: BUFFY, THE GOOD PLACE, THE
SIMPSONS, AND OTHER RULE-BREAKERS 75
BRING YOUR OWN BOUNDARIES: CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND AND
OTHER BOLD SOULS 79
WOW, WHAT A STINKER: THE VALUE OF AN INTERESTING
FAILURE 85
THE CAROUSEL: PRESERVING CULTURAL HISTORY 86
PART III: TV CAN BE JUNK FOOD, AND THAT’S OK TOO 90
TO BINGE OR NOT TO BINGE? 95
CONCLUSION: HOW TO LOVE TV AND NOT BE TOTALLY
DAUNTED 103
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 109
BIBLIOGRAPHY 110
INTRODUCTION
You’ve done it. You picked up this book. You have, at least tentatively,
accepted the premise emblazoned across its cover. You have allowed for the
possibility that one of the great myths of the age is false: that what is
ubiquitous, or, worse still, popular, must be inherently bad for you.
Congratulations! The energy you might have wasted on feeling guilty about
what you like, judging yourself for how you spend your time, or denying
yourself what would bring your mind or heart pleasure, you can instead spend
on other things. Go for a walk. Listen to music. Make yourself a nice sandwich.
Or go ahead and do what, according to Nielsen, 95 percent of US households
do from time to time: Watch some television.
The idea that TV rots your brain is almost as old as the medium itself. When
Newton N. Minow, a chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
appointed by President Kennedy, addressed the National Association of
Broadcasters in 1961, he did exactly what a lot of people do nowadays: He
said that sure, there were good programs—important ones—but that TV was,
on the whole, a “wasteland.” (It’s commonly called the “Wasteland Speech.”)
But in his remarks, Minow praised the great live dramas of the 1950s, as well
as contemporaneous shows like Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, which
remains one of TV’s finest accomplishments. “When television is good,” he
said, “nothing—not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers—nothing is
better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse.”
Minow recognized the potential for greatness and for corruption alike in
television, praising trailblazers like Serling even as he decried laziness,
irresponsibility, and dishonesty. But if ABC’s Work It, a particularly lousy
sitcom, were a novel, we would never use it as an excuse to declare all fiction
worthless. Nor were Minow’s concerns limited to quality. He was focused on
“community responsibility” and the “advancement of education and culture”
and feared the accessibility of television—about the harm that could come
from every family having a wasteland at their fingertips, a universe of detergent
commercials and paint-by-numbers comedies. But if the bad stuff is a click
away, then so is all the brilliance, and never has that been more true than
now: If you have a TV, or a computer, or a phone for crying out loud, you
have access to some of the greatest art of the twentieth and twenty- first
centuries. So do countless others. That means that you’re equipped to discuss,
debate, and dissect what comes before you with an ease that Minow could
hardly have imagined. Wheels turn. Synapses fire. Opinions change. The mind
engages, stays engaged, and once that happens, what do you know: TV can,
and will, make you smarter.
You can choose to see a wasteland for one, or a wonderland for many. The
latter puts your brain to far better use—and it’s more fun, too.
PART I
WHAT IS TV, AND WHY IS
THERE SO MUCH OF IT?
