This is the first blog I’ve written for TVWW this year – because I just completed the rough manuscript on my next book, due to be published in November by Doubleday. And I need your help, because the book needs a new subtitle…
The title is fine: The Platinum Age of Television. But now that the marketing people and other folks are weighing in, both the tentative cover (shown here) and the tentative subtitle, An Evolutionary History of Quality TV, have been set aside. The search is on for new, improved ones – and so far as the subtitle is concerned, that’s where you may be able to help.
The gist of the book is this: It’s a look at the history and evolution of quality TV, not only genre by genre, but through fresh interviews with some of the artists who have pioneered quality TV though the history of the medium, from Carl Reiner and Carol Burnett to Vince Gilligan and Louis C.K.
It’s supposed to be informative, and intriguing, but it’s also supposed to be fun – which is why the current subtitle is considered a bit too… academic.
We already have some alternatives in the works, but nothing’s been settled on as yet. Among the ones we’re considering are these:
Terrific TV, and How It Got That Way
The Family Tree of Quality TV
Putting the Vision in Television
Tracing the Roots of Great TV
From ‘I Love Lucy’ to ‘The Walking Dead, How TV Became Great
So don’t suggest any of those – though please tell us if there’s any you like.
But if you come up with your own, please, please send them.
And if yours is the first email we receive with the subtitle we end up selecting, I’ll send a free signed copy of the book upon publication, by way of thanks. We’re a small, friendly group here, so let’s be sensible. First one writing in with the subtitle we choose, if we do, will be designated the winner. In the unlikely event of a same-minute tie with the exact same subtitle, each winner will get a book. But if you miss by a minute, that’s show biz.
You can send as many ideas as you like, and send multiple emails – so if you want to post one great subtitle for starters, then return later with more, have at it. And thanks for the help – after writing the book, I’ve got precious little brain left for stuff like this, crucially important though it may be.
If we close the contest without choosing a winner from your entries, don’t be angry. It’s up to my editor and sales guys at this point. My editors at the time called my first book, a 1992 defense of TV as an art form, Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously.
My original title was rejected, but I still consider it more fun: Why the Boob Tube Doesn’t Suck.
Have at it – and thanks! The contest will run about a week, and it starts... now!