Put ’Em in a Box
Put ’Em in a Box
This chapter considers the ongoing, complicated relationship between musical film and television. By appropriating and borrowing from musicals in the 1950, TV contributed mightily to their downfall: seeing stars free on The Ed Sullivan Show, or in televised productions like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, could trump paying to seem such shows in movie theaters. Yet television also propagated musicals when they began to run (in black and white, with commercials) on the home screen. The Carol Burnett Show was especially astute in its musical parodies, while MTV and VH1 rechanneled old styles into flashily edited new forms. Later, Glee and Smash would both celebrate and distort movie musicals through a web of homage, skill, imitation, and frequent misunderstanding.
Keywords: television history, Ed Sullivan Show, Candid Camera, Snader Telescriptions, The Carol Burnett Show, Glee, Smash, MTV, music videos
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