The Age of Melodramatic Miniseries

When Glamour Ruled on Television, 1980-1995

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by Scott Humphries

Type

Studies

Subject

Genre > TV Series

Keywords

TV Series, 1980s, glamour

Publishing date

2023

Publisher

McFarland & Co

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 216 pages
7 x 10 inches (18 x 25.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4766-9162-6

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Book Presentation:
Glamour, power, champagne breakfasts in satin sheets--welcome to television's most dazzling and overlooked genre: women-centric melodrama miniseries of the 1980s and 1990s. Decades before Real Housewives, rags-to-riches fantasies depicting strong women overcoming tragedy to take charge of their destinies were a big hit with TV audiences.

Reflecting the "greed is good" ethos of the day and encoded with feminist messaging, these glitzy, often camp stories depicted statuesque superwomen facing off with square-jawed men in boardrooms and bedrooms. This book explores the shows that epitomized the prime-time soap era and gave us such memorable scenes as Stefanie Powers trading lovers with her twin sister, Joan Collins fighting Nazis in haute couture and Phoebe Cates demanding, "Which one of you bitches is my mother?"

About the Author:
Scott Humphries is an aficionado of melodrama, especially the "trashy" kinds of popular literature, film and television from the 1980s. He has degrees in English literature and urban planning and lives in Canberra, Australia.

Press Reviews:
"A deep literary dive into all those sumptuously over-ripened, over-the-top miniseries we can never forget…lyrical, deliciously witty, and backed-up with a myriad of good, solid facts."―John De Vito, co-author of Epic Television Miniseries: A Critical History

See the publisher website: McFarland & Co