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Reading Replay in “Live” Television Text
Author(s) -
Morris Barbra S.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
the journal of popular culture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.238
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1540-5931
pISSN - 0022-3840
DOI - 10.1111/j.0022-3840.1987.00147.x
Subject(s) - reading (process) , citation , composition (language) , computer science , library science , literature , art , linguistics , philosophy
On Sundays I find myself settled into a comfortable chair and Kyle, my 21-year-old son, stretched out on the couch, both of us ready to enjoy a day of “live” sports on our color TV. He is likely to be in possession of two favorite items: a piece of double crust pizza with mushrooms and the remote control channel switcher. Simultaneously, and with an equal degree of ease, he can eat pizza with one hand and play the switcher keyboard with the other. On this particular Sunday, i t is midway into an NCAA college basketball game, and while the CBS announcers are making their half-time predictions about game-winning strategies the two opposing coaches are likely to employ during the remaining period of play, Kyle decides he will switch to another sports event. In milliseconds the switcher transports us to professional big-time wrestling where an interview is in progress. The interview is “live”; we know this because the word LIVE is superimposed in the upperleft corner of the screen. Kyle and I, big-time wrestling devotees, are thoroughly familiar with television’s method of showcasing professional wrestlers scheduled for future matchups; in this particular “promo” for next week’s wrestling attraction, a beefy figure called Jimmy Superfly Snuka, wearing a jungle outfit, shouts threats and insults to an absent adversary-Rowdy Roddy Piper. Snuka alternately rages either in the direction of the camera or at a poker-faced commentator, Lord Alfred, decked out in a tuxedo; in a world of television wrestling, Snuka’s performance warrants tuxedo formality. Suddenly, via replay: