Original call here.

Exploitation. Lowbrow. Cult. Underground. Trash. Poverty Row. Programmers. Pulp. Popular. Mass. … These descriptors of the “B” movie apply just as well to what we term “B-TV,” as they describe an aesthetics derived from the industrial realities that produced them. But while “cult” TV has gained some degree of respectability as a site where the aesthetics of trash and the avant-garde often blend (Sconce 1995, Hawkins 2000), scholarship has not sufficiently addressed the importance of television that falls outside the zone of cult or “prestige” programming.

“B-TV: Television Under the Critical Radar” is a new book series that looks into redrawing the boundaries around what can be considered “important” or “influential” television across the globe. What do we find when we go “under the critical radar” of prestige television? What lies beneath and beyond the high-low critical binary that continues to haunt Western media scholarship? Eliminating the requirement for prestige or even “cult,” status as a primary reason for study, we hope to examine characteristics and contradictions of (mass-)cultural trends and the (often elided) production realities typically seen as falling exclusively under the purview of prestige programming.

Do you have something to say about the study of popular, or even reviled forms of television that still might help us to understand ourselves and others within the context of mass art, mass culture, national or global community, and national or global production?

B-TV Editorial Board: Stacey Abbott, Eve Bennett, Simon Brown, Stephanie Graves, Matt Hills, Rebecca Janicker, Lorna Jowett, Cáel M. Keegan, Brett Mills, Samira Nadkarni, Isabel Pinedo, Helen Wheatley

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • “lowbrow” TV (and/or as opposed to cult or prestige TV)
  • “Curated” shows, US and Global  (USA Up All Night; TBS’s Dinner and a Movie; Svengoolie; The Last Drive-In)
  • Regional shows (US and Global; past and present)
  • global / non-Anglophone series (telenovelas, K-drama, Spanish and Egyptian drama). Topics can include (but are not limited to):    
    • Elements of production and distribution, past and present.
    • Regional programming, including regional production companies (eg, BBC Wales)
    • Transnational censorship, either in country or for global distribution (eg, US censoring of Japanese anime series Sailor Moon for violence and sexuality)
    • Lost in Translation? Culturally specific shows or formats 
    • We are the World: Globally used or distributed shows or formats (e.g., Egyptian or Indian series on Netflix)
    • International co-productions 
  • mass culture, aesthetics, reception, production in TV genres and modes such as:
    • gameshows (Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Hollywood Squares, Indian gameshows, etc.)
    • reality television (Family Karma, The Osbournes, Love Island, Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo, Indian Matchmaking, etc.); transnational reality TV formats (eg, Survivor/Expedition Robinson; Trump vs Sugar). 
    • pseudodocumentary series (In Search of …, Ancient Mysteries, Unsolved Mysteries, etc.)
    • talk shows (Regis and Kathie Lee, Rikki Lake, Ellen, Donohue, etc.)
    • daytime and primetime soap operas (Another World, Falcon Crest, La Reina del Flow, Señora Acero, etc.)
    • sitcoms, comedies, cringe comedy (The Comeback; Fleabag; Yo soy Betty, la fea; Pen15; etc.)
    • True crime (Cold Case Files, Snapped, Unsolved Mysteries, etc.)
    • variety shows (Laugh-In, Carol Burnett, Saturday Night Live)
  • the cultural politics and/or aesthetic identity of cable networks, streaming services and brands: Netflix, Shudder, HBOMax, Disney+, Crave, TLC, Discovery, A&E, Lifetime, Oxygen, Full Moon Features, etc.
  • other form(at)s, histories, and aesthetics (e.g., anthology, semi-anthology, and limited series), both US and global
  • other production and industry realities and mass-culture (e.g., syndication, streaming service original programming, cable-access TV), both US and global
  • erotica and softcore pornography, the concept of “late-night TV” in the US and as it “translates” to other global markets
  • distribution: streaming as releasing, syndication, non-commercial models (BBC, PBS)
  • children’s programming, Afterschool Specials, educational TV, cartoons/animated TV, both US and global
  • TV horror (especially syndicated or niche), and other niche genre TV (sci-fi, fantasy)
  • TV news services and networks, US and global
  • early US and global television (production history, aesthetics, genres, etc.)
  • transmediality and intermediality: YouTube series, blogs, video essays, websites, webseries
  • national, regional, and global TV histories
  • national, regional, and global TV fandoms

We are committed to equity, diversity, and inclusivity. We invite scholarship on global subjects underrepresented in traditional Western scholarship, and encourage submissions by underrepresented and marginalized scholars based upon race, gender, sexuality, and employment status (e.g., graduate students and non-tenure track or unaffiliated/independent scholars).

Book proposal form available here,

Send queries and book proposals to both Erin Giannini and Kristopher Woofter.

Learn more about the B-TV Initiative and Collective HERE.