Televisual Shared Universes: Expanded and Converged Storyworlds on the Small Screen

✍ Scribed by CarrieLynn Reinhard, Vincent Tran

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 227
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book of empirical studies analyzes examples of televisual shared universes since the 1960s to understand how the nature of televised serial narratives and network corporate policies have long created shared storyworlds. While there has been much discussion about shared cinematic universes and comic book universes, the concept has had limited exploration in other media, such as those seen on the smaller screen. By applying convergence culture and other contemporary media studies concepts to television’s history, contributors demonstrate the common activities and practices in serial narratives that align older television with contemporary television, simultaneously bridging the gap between old media and new media studies. Scholars of film studies, media studies, and popular culture will find this book of particular interest.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1: Introduction: Televisual Shared Universes
The Framework
Transmedia Stories and Shared Universes
Chapter Overview
Note
References
Chapter 2: “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations”?: LGBTQ+ Representation and Diversity in Star Trek’s Shared Universe in the 21st Century
Diversifying Types of Spin-Offs
Correcting the Course of the Televisual Universe
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 3: Nostalgic Intertextuality and the Television Set: Happy Days and Its Shared Universe
Happy Days and Its Significance
Happy Days as Shared Universe
Laverne & Shirley
Mork & Mindy
Blansky’s Beauties
Out of the Blue
Joanie Loves Chachi
The Significance of Happy Days’s Televisual Shared Universe
Note
References
Chapter 4: From Television to Videotape and Back Again: Intellectual Property Laws in the TSU of Doctor Who
Defining the Shared Universe of Doctor Who
The Shared Universe of Doctor Who: A Quilt of Intellectual Properties
In the Wilderness Years, the Shared Universe Is Grown through Family
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 5: Where Everybody Stays the Same: Failures, the American Dream, and the Realism of the Boston-Nantucket-Seattle Flight Path
The Flyover Universe
Setting the Formula: Workplace Families, Cultural Conflict, and Tensions
Setting the Stage: Spaces, Tensions, and Dialectics
Leading Men, Failure, and the American Dream
Conclusion: Nostalgia and Cruel Optimism
Notes
References
Chapter 6: “What Ever Happened to the Disney Afternoon?”: Nostalgia, Remixes, and DuckTales Shared Universe
Toying with a Televisual Shared Universe
Ducks, Bears, Dogs All Together
Brands, Fans, and a Quasi-Televisual Shared Universe
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Women in the Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert Universe: Reflections on/of Feminism in History and Mythology
Comparing the Herc-Xenaverse to Greco-Roman Women
Comparing the Herc-Xenaverse to Women Beyond Greece and Rome
Religious Influences on Rami’s and Tapert’s Women
Conclusion
References
Chapter 8: Mighty Morphin’ Continuity: Shaping a Universe through Authorship and Nostalgia
A History of Power Rangers
Delineation, Phases, and Continuity
Genre of the Week
Legacy
Morphin’ Time or Serial Time?
References
Chapter 9: The CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Shared Multiverse as (Anti)Transmedia Storytelling
DC Shared Universes
Retroactive Intentionality in the CW Crisis
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 10: The Institutional Basis of the One Chicago Universe
The One Chicago Universe
The One Chicago Universe’s Institutional Basis
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 11: Wrestlers-as-Marks and Producers-as-Fans: BTE, AEW, and the Televisual Shared Universe of the Forbidden Door
WWE’s Walled Reality
Cracking Open the Forbidden Door
AEW’s Transmedia Storytelling
The Forbidden Door Universe
Importance of the FDU
Notes
References
Chapter 12: Conclusion: Extending the Shared Universe Concept
Index
About the Editors and Contributors