‘Entertainment’ Archives
Pirate Radio
Pirate Radio ‘Pirate radio’, as we know it, began at sea in 1958 with Radio Mercur broadcasting to Denmark from the ship Cheeta. Piracy hit Britain from Radio Veronica’s ship when the Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company made its first ever sea pirate broadcast in 1961. Ronan O’Rahilly hoisted the jolly roger from a converted ferry [...]
Fanzines
Fanzines Independently produced magazines written by fans for fans, fanzines have come a long way from the 1970s cut ‘n’ paste publications. Today, fanzines are found mainly in sport and music. The first sports fanzines started in the 1970s, notably Foul (1972), a satirical football magazine largely inspired by Private Eye. Both then and [...]
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Football Taken from an earlier American idea, fantasy football was introduced to Britain in 1992. The Daily Telegraph first ran a competition in 1993, allowing competitors to choose their own professional football team from any players within the English Premier League, within a certain spending limit. The competition’s success led to [...]
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television Black Entertainment Television or BET, a Washington, D.C.-based entertainment company that primarily targets black consumers by offering original programming on its three cable television channels, and through its magazine, clothing, and cosmetic ventures. Black Entertainment Television Holdings, Inc. (BET [...]
Radio DJs
Radio DJs The cult of the disc jockey, or DJ, grew up out of the transformation of radio stations in the years 1948–58 in America. Prior to these years, radio was a domestic medium, developed in the 1920s and aimed primarily at housewives. Radio programmes had previously been in-house productions by the major networks, which, because of its [...]
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby American entertainment personality, whose ability to appeal to a wide audience made him one of the biggest television stars of the late 20th century. Born William Henry Cosby, Jr., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was educated at Temple University and the University of Massachusetts. Cosby first became known to television audiences [...]
Tabloids
Tabloids “Tabloids” generally refers to any paper produced in the tabloid format, that is, relatively smaller than conventional “broadsheets” and without physically separate sections. For urban commuters, these features make the “tab” easier to read than the broadsheet. So too do a number of other characteristics associated with [...]
Superheroes
Superheroes Television in the 1950s gave us the image of a muscle-bound superman standing in front of the American flag, committed to “truth, justice and the American way.” In the late Depression, these comic-book superheroes reinvented and replaced strong men of earlier American folklore. Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman shared not only [...]
Comedy and Comedians
Comedy and Comedians Comedy resists definition. Some have argued that it is an adaptive strategy providing relief from the tragic or the mundane through laughter. To elicit this laughter, comedy assumes many forms. Types of comedy include slapstick, farce, black comedy wordplay burlesque, satire, vaudeville, situation comedy on television, [...]
Late-night Television
Late-night Television For nearly fifty years, the time slot between the 23:00 local news and station sign-off has been dominated by one format—the live talk show—and one show—NBC’s Tonight Show—under a succession of hosts. Other local stations generally fought back with movies and syndicated programming. CBS’ Tonight Show offshoot, [...]
