This essay collection explores the phenomenon of "teen TV" in the United States, analyzing the meanings and manifestations of this category of programming from a variety of perspectives. Part One views teen television through an industrial perspective, examining how networks such as WB, UPN, The CW, and The N have created a unique economic framework based on demographic niches and teen-focused narrowcasting.
Part Two focuses on popular teen programs from a cultural context, evaluating how such programs reflect and at times stretch the envelope of the cultural contexts in which they are created. Finally, Part Three explores the cultures of reception (including the realms of teen consumerism, fan discourse, and unofficial production) through which teens and consumers of teen media have become authors of the teenage experience in their own right.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction: Watching Teen TV
Part I-The Industrial Context of Teen TV 27
1. TV Teen Club: Teen TV as Safe Harbor
Jeff Martin
2. Teen Television and the WB Television Network
Valerie Wee 43
3. Defining Teen Culture: The N Network
Sharon Marie Ross 61
4. Rocking Prime Time: Gender, the WB, and Teen Culture
Ben Aslinger 78
Part II-Teens on TV
5. "Normal is the watchword": Exiling Cultural Anxieties and Redefining Desire from the Margins
Caralyn Bolte
6. Riding the Third Wave: The Multiple Feminisms of Gilmore Girls
Francesca Gamber 114
7. "That girl of yours-she's pretty hardboiled, huh?": Detecting Feminism in Veronica Mars
Andrea Braithwaite
8. The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Fan: Consumption and Queer Inspiration in Six Feet Under
Barbara Brickman 150
9. "They stole me": The O.C., Masculinity, and the Strategies of Teen
Sue Turnbull 170
Part III-Cultures of Reception
10. Fashion Sleuths and Aerie Girls: Veronica Mars'
Forums and Network Strategies of Fan Address
Jennifer Gillan 185
11. The Adventures of a Repressed Farm Boy and the Billionaire Who Loves Him: Queer Spectatorship in Smallville Fandom
Melanie E.S. Kohnen 207
12. Pushing at the Margins: Teenage Angst in Teen TV and Audience Response
Louisa Ellen Stein 224
Contributors
Index
