Accompanies a Mass Media class at Montana Tech.

1. Television
Genre Studies
Further Reading: Creeber, Glen. Television Genre Book

2. Review
Hitchcock’s Safe Conduct
• Inciting Incident
• Plot Escalations
• Crisis Decision
• Climax
• Resolution

3. “Genre”
• In the 1950s Truffaud and other French filmmakers
believed that the genius of American cinema was its
repository of ready-made forms saying “The tradition of
genres is a base of operations for creative freedom.”
• As is the case with film, genre operates as an important
means of communicating information about television
programming to prospective audiences.

4. “Genre Conventions”
• Genre Convension are specific settings, roles, events and
values that define individual genres and their subgenres.
• Genres include Love Story • Horror • Modern Epic •
Western • War Genre • Maturation Plot • Redemption
Plot • Punitive Plot • Testing Plot • Education Plot •
Disillusionment Plot • Comedy • Crime • Social Drama •
Action Adventure • Historical Drama • Biography • Docu-
Drama • Mockumentary • Musical • Science Fiction •
Sports Genre • Fantasy • Animation • Art Film

5. The “Western”
• Perfect for episodic television as it provides both
narrative novelty and recurring characters and
situations.
• The GG, BG dynamics play out perfectly as
Aristotelean protagonist and antagonist conflicts
playing out a “Hero’s Tale” or Myth.

6. Sketch Comedy
• Derived from music hall in Britain and minstrel
shows, burlesque and vaudeville in America.
• These forms of theatrical entertainment contained a
mix of music, comedy and other specialised acts and
tpes of performance, magic acts, acrobatics, animal
acts etc.

7. The Lone Ranger, 1949 - 1956
The Lone Ranger was a fictional masked
Texas Ranger who, with his Native American
companion Tonto, fights injustice in the
American Old West. The character has become
an enduring icon of American culture.
The Lone Ranger never drinks or smokes, and
saloon scenes are usually interpreted as cafes,
with waiters and food instead of bartenders and
liquor.

8. The Lone Ranger’ Creed … I believe
• that to have a friend, a man must be one.
• that all men are created equal and that everyone has
within himself the power to make this a better world.
• that God put the firewood there, but that every man
must gather and light it himself.
• in being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to
fight when necessary for that which is right.
• that a man should make the most of what he has.
• that 'this government of the people, by the people, and
for the people' shall live always.
• that men should live by the rule of what is best for the
greatest number.
• in my Creator, my country, my fellow man.

9. Red Skelton Show 1952 - 1970
Writers included Johnny Carson. Format
was a comedy breakthrough that set the
groundwork for future shows such as
Rowan and Martin’s Laugh in and Saturday
Night Live.