Rerun Nation: How Repeats Invented American Television [Paperback]

Rerun Nation is a fascinating approach to television history and theory through the ubiquitous yet overlooked phenomenon of reruns. Kompare covers both historical and conceptual ground, weaving together a refresher course in the history of television with a critical analysis of how reruns have shaped the cultural, economic, and legal terrains of American television. Given the expanding use of past media texts not only in the United States, but also in virtually every media-rich society, this book addresses a critical facet of everyday life.INTRODUCTION
1. Industrializing Culture: The Regime of Repetition in the United States, 1790-1920
2. Transcribed Adventures: Radio and the Recording
3. ? : Film on Early Television
4. Familiarity Breeds Content: Reconfiguring Television in the 1960s and 1970s
5. Our Television Heritage: Reconceiving Past Television
6. Old Wine in New Bottles: Broadcast Rerun Syndication since the 1980s
7. TV Land: Cable and Satellite as Boutique Television
8. Acquisitive Repetition: Home Video and the Television Heritage
CONCLUSION
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHYLong before TV Land, the Game Show Network, and Cartoon Network cornered the market, reruns had been a staple of American television for decades. In Rerun Nation, Derek Kompare looks at how the long tradition of rerun syndication has come to determine television's place in American history and culture, and framed our understanding of what defines American television. Derek Kompare is Assistant Professor of Cinema-Television at Southern Methodist University. He has published several articles on television history and genre, including his work on Nick at Nite, The Osbournes, and the television heritage of the 1970s.

In this compelling contribution to the field, Kompare argues that repetition, rather than liveness or presentn