Description

Music composed for television had until recently never been taken seriously by scholars or critics Catchy TV themes often for popular weekly series were fondly remembered but not considered much more culturally significant than commercial jingles Yet noted composers like John Williams Henry Mancini and Jerry Goldsmith learned and/or honed their craft in television before going on to major success in feature films

Music for Prime Time is the first serious journalistic history of music for American television It is the product of thirtyfive years of research and more than 450 interviews with composers orchestrators producers editors and musicians Based on but vastly expanded and revised from an earlier book by the same author this wideranging narrative not only tells the backstory of every great TV theme but also examines the many neglected and frequently underrated orchestral and jazz compositions for television dating back to the late 1940s

Covering every series genre crime comedy drama westerns actionadventure fantasy and scifi it also looks at music for animated series news and documentary programming TVmovies and miniseries and how music for television has evolved in the era of cable and streaming options It is the most comprehensive history of television scoring ever published