![Turn Up the Contrast Turn Up the Contrast](/assets/2d92844/9780774802789-21476-510x590.jpg)
From Shakespeare to cop shows, sitcoms to docudramas, for over threedecades the CBC has presented viewers with every variety of televisiondrama and has become Canada's closest equivalent to a nationaltheatre. Turn Up the Contrast is the first book to explore thecontent of Canadian television drama and is both a critical analysisand a survey history of how Canadians have used the medium to tellthemselves their own stories.
As a part of her research, Mary Jane Miller watched thousands ofhours of television, sampling series and viewing in their entiretyshorter programs such as movies and mini-series. Asking a variety ofquestions, she selected a number of programs for detailed analysis, anddevotees of The Beachcombers, King of Kensington, Seeing Things,Cariboo Country, Wojeck or A Gift to Last will be pleasedto find their favourites among those discussed at length.
A University of British Columbia Press / CBC EnterprisesCo-Publication.
This book offers much more than a digest of review pieces; it stands on its own as valid and scholarly criticism.
Turn Up the Contrast will be the essential reference book for some time; it is full, informative, discussable, and well indexed.
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
I. Introduction
1. The Flowering of CBC Drama
II. Genres
2. Copshows and Mysteries: "Check your guns at theborder"
3. Family Adventure: "In every box, a prize!"
4. Sitcoms and Domestic Comedy: "But it's too cold to be amelting pot, mama!"
5. Other Series and Miniseries: "The best of tries and theworst of tries!"
III. The CBC (Proudly) Presents
6. Anthology to 1968: "Window on the world as the world looksin"
7. Anthology: 1968 to the present: "The focus narrows"
8. Docudrama: "To be seen is to seed"
IV. The Peripheral Is Central
9. Experimental: "The Seedbed"
10. Regional or "What Toronto doesn't know"
V. Conclusions
11. Wrapup: The View from Within -- Interviews with John Kennedy
12. The Harvest: The View from Outside
Appendices
A. Chronology of Series and Anthologies
B. Where to Find Material and a Cautionary Note
C. A Checklist of Programmes
Bibliography
Index