This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Bodroghkozy, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Negotiating Civil Rights in Prime Time

A Production and Reception History of CBS's East Side/West Side

University of Virginia

This article examines a controversial 1963-1964 socially relevant drama series that engaged viewers, critics, and television industry personnel with issues around Kennedy-era liberalism. The article specifically looks at two celebrated episodes dealing with race—one about the plight of ghetto inhabitants, the other about white fears when blacks begin moving into an all-white suburban neighborhood. Using viewer mail in series producer David Susskind's collected papers, the article examines how mostly Northern, white viewers used the show to make sense of changes in race relations in the midst of the civil rights movement. Using internal production memos and other sources, the article also charts the difficulties encountered by the show's producers in getting a series about "urgent issues" onto the airwaves.

Key Words: African Americans and television • civil rights movement and television • race relations and television • liberalism and television • television audiences • television history

Television & New Media, Vol. 4, No. 3, 257-282 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1527476403253981


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?