Action TV: tough guys, smooth operators and foxy chicks

Collection of essays, edited by Bill Osgerby and Anna Gough-Yates, tracing the action series from its 1950s origins, exploring key shows from the genre and setting it against other forms of popular culture. Contents: Part 1 - Situating the action TV series: The business of action: television history and the development of the action TV series by Bill Osgerby, Anna Gough-Yates and Marianne Wells; 'So you're the famous Simon Templar': 'The Saint', masculinity and consumption in the early 1960s by Bill Osgerby; 'Who loves ya, baby?': 'Kojak', action and the great society by Paul Cobley; 'A lone crusader in the dangerous world': heroics of science and technology in 'Knight Rider' by Nickianne Moody. Part II - Representation and cultural politics in the action TV series: Angels in chains? Feminism, feminity and consumer culture in 'Charlie's Angels' by Anna Gough-Yates; 'Who's the cat that won't cop out?': black masculinity in American action series of the sixties and seventies by Elaine Pennicott; 'Kung Fu': re-orienting the television Western by Yvonne Tasker; 'Drop everything - including your pants!': 'The Professionals' and 'hard' action TV by Leon Hunt. Part III - Audiences reading and re-reading the action TV series: The games we play(ed): TV Westerns, memory and masculinity by Martin Pumphrey; 'The Persuaders!' A girl's best friends by Joke Hermes; King and queen: interpreting sexual identity in 'Jason King' by Andy Medhurst. Part IV - The cultural circulation of the action TV series: TV gets jazzed: the evolution of action TV theme music by Elizabeth Withey; The comics connection: low culture meets even lower culture by Roger Sabin; Of leather suits and kinky boots: 'The Avengers', style and popular culture by Marc O'Day; The sixties in the nineties: pastiche or hyperconsciousness? by John Storey.