Sample Final Exams

Sample Final Exam #1

Identifications
I1. The politics of consensus
I2. Betty Friedan
I3. Larry Gelbart
I4. Operation 100
I5. Home of the Brave

Quotations
Q1. "It is hard to imagine a time when a critic could seriously claim that skits mocking the Revolutionary War or the first Trans-Atlantic flight were [offensive] because "insulting our heroes... was definitely over the edge." Yet it was over this and other issues of taste that one of American television’s most vehement struggles for control occurred."
Q2. "The phonograph-record field was producing anti-establishment successes--in folk-song, rock ‘n’ roll, and folk-rock styles--that were difficult to ignore. Stations vacillated between permitting and forbidding such songs as... "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" by Pete Seeger. In 1967 CBS, having decided to end its seventeen-year blacklisting of Seeger as a performer, permitted him to be booked on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. But the network felt new tremors when he decided to sing "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"."
Q3. "Watching television is an activity midway between the social isolation of reading and the social hyperboles of driving. Television demands only a share of attention. The text, with or without viewer collaboration, continues.... As members of a besieged, hardworking minority that is constantly forced to appreciate the scarcity of time and space, many readers regard television in much the same way as free-marketers regard welfare: each program is seen as a giveaway to people who neither pay for it nor earn it."
Q4. "ABC scored the one huge hit of the fantasy sitcom cycle in the same season that the Addamses premiered, but with a diametrically opposite point of view. [The show] was as antifeminist, antisexual, and procentrist as a sitcom could be. It was also, however, peculiarly ineffective in selling its own point of view. It was a visibly uneasy and phony show. Yet it struck an immediate chord; in its first season it was the highest-rated sitcom of the year."
Q5. "So too, [she] destabilizes the patriarchal structure of consumer capitalism. Since the 1920s advertisers have particularly targeted women, who they calculate are responsible for about 80 percent of the family’s purchases. Women thus are institutionalized consumers, and advertisers are eager to promote specifically female uses for products. As Judith Williamson has argued, a central way in which advertisements promote product use is through the promise of magical transformation--cold pills instantly stop symptoms... and dishwasher soap makes hands look younger. [The show] inverts this dynamic by giving a woman the power of transformation."   

Short Answer Questions
S1. Briefly describe how the representation of the family on American television changed from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. List three shows from the early 1960s that exemplify this changed vision of the family. In a few sentences, analyze in a bit more detail how one of these shows supports your claim.
S2. Briefly describe Fred Silverman’s programming strategies at ABC in the mid to late 1970s as discussed by Sally Bedell in her book, Up the Tube. List three of the key programs on which these strategies were tested. In a few sentences, analyze in a bit more detail how one of these programming strategies influenced one of these shows.
S3. Describe the features of Quality Television as presented by Walter in lecture and/or by Thomas Schatz in his essay on the subject. Is the episode of Charlie’s Angels ("Bullseye") that we watched in screening an example of Quality Television? Briefly explain why or why not.
S4. Both Walter in lecture and Ien Ang in her essay on Dallas describe the differences between series and serial episodic narrative television. Explain this difference. In general, is Dallas a series or serial narrative? Is the specific segment that we watched in screening ("Lessons") series or serial? Explain the relationship between your answers to these last two questions.
S5. Briefly summarize the plot of the episode of The Cosby Show that we watched in screening. How does this plot serve as evidence for Mark Crispin Miller’s argument in his essay, "Deride and Conquer?"

Essay Questions
2 questions worth 20 points each. Suggested time: 30 minutes each
Write a well-formulated, argumentative essay in response to each of the following two questions.
Each essay should be about 2 or 3 blue book pages, 5-10 paragraphs in length.
E1. The history of American broadcasting is usually presented with one of a number of forces being privileged. For example, Eric Barnouw presents the history from an industrial/economic perspective, while Walter considers a programming emphasis. Given what you’ve learned in readings and lectures for this course, present a history from a regulatory perspective. Periodize your history, pointing out the most important regulatory decisions which affected the development of radio and television. Be sure to describe what specific effects these decisions had on the history of programming.
E2. In considerations of television programming and its history, comedy (variety-comedy and the sitcom) tends to stand out as the privileged genre around which this history is constructed. Do you think this is appropriate? To answer this question, consider whether broadcast programming history is different when considering comedy versus longer format dramatic programming. By pointing to the significance of individual programs, sketch out a history of each genre. Then, decide whether these histories look significantly different. If they do look different, discuss what an attention to dramatic programming contributes to our understanding of the history of broadcast programming not revealed by a history emphasizing comedy. If they do not look different, discuss the similarities between the comedy and dramatic programs at three significant historical junctures.

Sample Final Exam #2

Identifications
I1. Sally Bedell
I2. Pete Seeger
I3. Intertextuality
I4. Spartacus
I5. Briefly describe the plot of the All in the Family episode we watched on Tuesday night.

Quotations
Q1. "Black, brown, yellow faces became common in drama, newscast, commercial, comedy, special event, panel. With richer ethnic mixtures came sweeping changes in clothing and hairstyles. In 1968 a young man with long hair, no tie, and a rumpled look was at once known by the audience to be a ‘hippie,’ probably a protester, and he was at once suspected of living ‘on welfare.’ A few years later such a person, whether in drama or news or round-table discussion, might be found to be a distinguished attorney, legislator, or professor. He might--as in Mod Squad or The Rookies--be a policeman."
Q2. "The made-for-TV movie has formed its own genre since 1966. This form seems to have fulfilled a particular cultural need: topical entertainment reaffirming basic values and beliefs. Here its function has resembled those Warner Bros.’ features of the 1930s so often utilized by historians to understand transformations in ideas and beliefs during the Great Depression. During the 1930s Hollywood had to struggle in a moral and political straightjacket to produce acceptable social dramas like I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)."
Q3. "Another quality that distinguished Lou Grant was socioeconomic rather than formal or dramatic. While the series was generally successful it never amassed a sufficient quantity of viewers to emerge as a genuine hit series. But still the series was renewed for several seasons largely because of the quality of viewers it attracted--namely, up-scale urbanites whose status as active consumers rendered them a desirable ‘target market’ for TV advertisers."
Q4. "Until now we have been describing the most important formal characteristics. . . Now I want to illustrate how important this formal structure is for the construction of the tragic structure of feeling. . . . There is a name for cultural genres whose main effect is the stirring up of the emotions: melodrama."

Short Answer Questions
S1. During his lecture on the 1960s, Walter argued that the consensus politics of the 1950s gradually collapsed in the midst of the social protest movements. Where does "The Mountain People" episode of The Rifleman fit within this history of American consensus politics? Is The Rifleman episode arguing for or against consensus? Briefly explain how the ending of the episode is pivotal in making this determination.
S2. In his lecture on television’s "Age of Relevance," Walter presented a genre by genre analysis of the period’s programming. Choose two of these genres to briefly compare and contrast how they each exemplify differently the aesthetic and ideological experimentation prominent during this period of television history.
S3. The differences between series and serial narrative has been a major focus in our history of broadcasting. Briefly define series and serial. Then, briefly describe how Quality Television works to break down this distinction. Cite a specific example of a Quality Television show to support your answer. Briefly describe how Dallas and Charlie’s Angels as "everyday" television respond differently to the series/serial problem.

Essay Questions
E1. Discuss the ways in which you would periodize the connections between gender and American broadcasting. Choose three distinct periods to analyze the gender politics of programming in detail. Use reading material pertinent to your three periods to support your answer. Be sure to analyze a specific episode of a program from each period in the course of your answer.
E2. Discuss the historical development of the funding structures for programming on network broadcasting from the formation of network radio through until television in the mid-1970s. Periodize this development by examining the specific debates over funding issues that occurred in the 1920s, the 1950s, and the 1970s. Be sure to discuss whether these debates resulted in reform or continuity in network economic practices.

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This page was last updated on January 8, 2001

Questions or comments?  Please phone me at (406) 994-6403 or send e-mail to:  metz@montana.edu

Walter Metz, Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Montana State University--Bozeman