Pop Culture

Exhaustively researched and cross-referenced, the "Star Trek Encyclopedia" features main and supporting characters, detailed pop illustrations, a starship recognition chart, alien races, Starfleet uniform chart, phaser evolution chart, weapons and tools, medical equipment, inside jokes, and much more -- for a total of more than 5,000 entries worthy of study by Trekkers everywhere.

Praise for Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia

“Very important. Fresh insights. The most detailed—and most enjoyable—book available on Lucille Ball. A must-have.”
—Laura Wagner, Classic Images

“As we are producing the I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special, [Lucy A to Z] has been a godsend.”
—Lucie Arnaz, 2001 letter to author

“[Lucy A to Z is a] compound of insight, fact, and trivia.”
—Stefan Kanfer, author, Ball of Fire

“This new Fourth Edition of Lucy A to Z is a wonderful read and I’m very pleased to recommend it to everyone.”
—Wanda Clark, Lucille Ball’s personal secretary

“If you need any ‘splainin’ about Lucy’ life and career, you’ll find it here!”
—Craig Hamrick, author, The TV Tidbits Classic Television Trivia Quiz Book

AMERICA'S #1 BESTSELLING TELEVISION BOOK--
NOW REVISED AND UPDATED!

The biggest and best television reference ever published, this is the guide you'll turn to again and again for information on every nighttime network series ever telecast and all the top syndicated and cable series! From The Ed Sullivan Show, The Honeymooners, and Happy Days to Party of Five, The X-Files, and Dharma & Greg, this comprehensive directory lists every program alphabetically and includes the complete broadcast history, cast list, and plot summary, along with exciting behind-the-scene stories about the shows and stars.

EXTENSIVE ORIGINAL CABLE COVERAGE with more than XXX entries, from Larry King Live to Talk Soup and South Park.

MORE THAN 350 NEW NETWORK AND SYNDICATED SERIES, including Ally McBeal, The Practice, Will & Grace, and Sports Night.

UPDATED LISTINGS OF CONTINUING SHOWS, including Frasier, The Simpsons, and 60 Minutes.

BRAND-NEW APPENDIX listing network Web addresses.

SPECIAL FEATURES!
- Annual program schedules at a glance for the past fifty-three years - Top-rated shows of each season - Emmy Award winners - Longest running series - Spinoff series - Theme songs - Fascinating history of the "Seven Eras" of TV programming - More than fifty entries for the leading cable networks - And much, much more!

More than 150 million Americans were born after the post-World War II years. Almost all of them know, remember, and hold dear to their hearts the numerous memories that stretch From ABBA to Zoom.

Take a walk . . . down memory lane, you Boomers and Gen Xers! From ABBA to Zoom is sure to grab anyone born in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, or '80s. Whether you grew up watching The Huckleberry Hound Show, Johnny Quest, or Sesame Street, this cultural encyclopedia is sure to draw you into a nostalgic and fun-filled read that you just can't put down.

American pop culture aficionado David Mansour spent 18 years accumulating an extensive collection of dolls, lunch boxes, board games, TV memorabilia, and other items from the 1960s through the '90s. That fascination, along with his lifelong lists--from "best toys" to "all-time coolest singers"--were the genesis for this wide-ranging volume of Boomer and Generation X treasures.

Readers will relish the mere mention of some of their greatest childhood and adolescent connections, then rush to learn the well-researched details behind those icons. Farrah Fawcett's feathered hair, James Bond movies, Lost in Space, Woodstock--it's all here! In page after page, more than 3,000 references arranged alphabetically make this a true trip through the Boom Times. Totally groovy!

In the West, Japanese culture comes in the form of Power Rangers, Godzilla movies, and Sanrio products, but of course the indigenous pop culture is much richer. Rather than focus on what the rest of the world has already encountered, Mark Schilling provides an encyclopedic compendium of books, movies, music, comedians, and cultural scandals that have had the greatest impact in Japan. Thus, for the outsider, The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture is an insider's guide to post-war Japan. Not content to simply catalog his entries, Schilling provides real depth and analysis in his articles, opening up Japan's rich pop heritage to the world at large.

A brilliant combination of visual-book glamour and meticulous scholarship, the most comprehensive study of Marilyn Monroe ever published

Marilyn Monroe's status as one of the most recognizable icons of the twentieth century is undisputed--her life was both glorious and tragic, and her legacy is still pondered by everyone from film scholars to pop culture mavens. Now, with The Marilyn Encyclopedia, Adam Victor has assembled all the information a Marilyn fan could ever want, and written a virtual Encyclopedia Britannica of Marilyn's extraordinary legend and legacy. Fans and scholars finally have easy access to specific information on Marilyn's life and times, including complete information about her films, quotes from reviews, anecdotes, gossip, and famous sayings; entries touching on all of Marilyn's relationships (husbands, lovers, family members, directors, co-stars); catalogs of her clothing; and complete information on her recordings. Times, dates, and places; surgeries, Kennedys, and conspiracy theories--simply everything is here.

Through astute research and crisp writing, Victor traces Marilyn's inexorable path to iconhood, creating a compelling anatomy of fame in our century. The book also includes an up-to-date bibliography, a list of fan clubs, web sites, and--of course--hundreds of photos and illustrations, many of them rare, some simply never seen before. Marvelously stylish and incomparable in scope and depth, The Marilyn Encyclopedia will satisfy even her most ravenous fans.

Which Marilyn do you know?

Clark Gable on Marilyn:

"She's a kind of ultimate, in her way, with a million sides to her, each one of them fascinating, completely feminine, and femininity without guile. Everything Marilyn does is different from any other woman, strange and exciting, from the way she talks to the way she uses that magnificent torso."

Jean Negulesco, directing Marilyn in How to Marry a Millionaire

"Marilyn, don't try to sell this sex thing, you are sex! You are the institution of sex."

Milton Greene (photographer) on Marilyn:

"I thought I'd seen them all. . . . But I'd never seen anyone with that tone of voice, that kindness, that real softness. . . . Later I was to find out that she was schizoid--that she could be absolutely brilliant or absolutely kind, then, the total opposite."

Betty Grable on Marilyn:

"Why, Marilyn's the biggest thing that's happened in Hollywood in years. The movies were just sort of going along, and all of a sudden, Zowie, there was Marilyn. She's a shot in the arm for Hollywood."

Marilyn on Sex:

"No sex is wrong if there's love in it. But too often people act like it's gymnasium work, mechanical."

Marilyn on Clark Gable:

"The place was full of so-called men, but Clark was the one who brought a chair for me between the takes."

Now long out of print, John Dunning's Tune in Yesterday was the definitive one-volume reference on old-time radio broadcasting. Now, in On the Air, Dunning has completely rethought this classic work, reorganizing the material and doubling its coverage, to provide a richer and more informative account of radio's golden age.
Here are some 1,500 radio shows presented in alphabetical order. The great programs of the '30s, '40s, and '50s are all here--Amos 'n' Andy, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Lone Ranger, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour, and The March of Time, to name only a few. For each, Dunning provides a complete broadcast history, with the timeslot, the network, and the name of the show's advertisers. He also lists major cast members, announcers, producers, directors, writers, and sound effects people--even the show's theme song. There are also umbrella entries, such as "News Broadcasts," which features an engaging essay on radio news, with capsule biographies of major broadcasters, such as Lowell Thomas and Edward R. Murrow. Equally important, Dunning provides a fascinating account of each program, taking us behind the scenes to capture the feel of the performance, such as the ghastly sounds of Lights Out (a horror drama where heads rolled and bones crunched), and providing engrossing biographies of the main people involved in the show.
A wonderful read for everyone who loves old-time radio, On the Air is a must purchase for all radio hobbyists and anyone interested in 20th-century American history. It is an essential reference work for libraries and radio stations.