Undergraduate Program
Unique No. 07345
Faculty: McLeland
Class Time: TTH 11-12:30
Room: BUR 224
Lab Time: M 5-7:30
Room: BUR 106
Writing Comp: No
Comm/Culture Req: No
Closing Limit: 78
Cross-listed: No
Prerequisites
Must be an RTF major with a UT GPA of at least 2.25 and have upper-division standing. The following coursework with a grade of at least C: RTF 305, either 314 or 316, and 6 additional semester hours of lower-division coursework in RTF.
Consent requirements
This course does not require consent. Registration is open via the online registration system to all RTF majors.
First class day policy
Students must attend the first class day or make prior arrangements with the instructor.
Course description
A recent promotion for the HBO pay cable network declares, "It's not TV...it's HBO." The cultural zeitgeist seems to support the assertion, as critics laud and viewers reserve their water-cooler talk for HBO original series like The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and celebrities like Tom Hanks, Matt Damon and Ron Howard bring pet projects to HBO for financing and distribution. The network dominates the prime-time Emmy awards, especially in the miniseries and made-for-TV movie categories. But if this isn't TV, what is it?
As part of the huge AOL-Time-Warner-Turner empire, HBO has grown from its inception in the 1970s as merely another pay-television distribution channel to become a major producer of television programming in original movies, series, miniseries, documentary, comedy/variety and sports genres, much of which is re-packaged for sale or rental on DVD. It also has become a recognizable brand name, known for its edgy yet high-quality experiments with television form and content that challenges the boundaries of taste which the FCC uses to constrain programming on the major broadcast networks.
This course will take a three-pronged approach to studying HBO, looking at the place it has carved out in the entertainment industry, the texts it creates or appropriates as its own, and the ways it constitutes and responds to its audience. By comparing HBO and its synergistic corporate structure to the traditional broadcast networks and alternatives such as PBS and the BBC, students will examine some of the ways that supposedly mundane matters like financing and regulation impact content. At the same time, students will watch and analyze many of the original shows that have worked to distinguish HBO from other pay-movie channels. Finally they will consider the nature of HBO viewers: while it is clear that one requirement for membership in the HBO audience is a consistent source of disposable income, the "edgy" or graphic shows themselves work to constitute their own audiences.