Dreams in American Television Narratives From Dallas to Buffy

Dreams in Television Narratives is the first comprehensive analysis of one of American television's most frequently utilized tropes, the dream. From its beginning, television has been a storytelling medium. Whether delivered to a live audience or played out on a sound stage, narratives and those who write them have always been the crux of the television program. While film can claim a long history of scholarly inquiry into the connection between film and dreams, no comprehensive research exists on the subject of television dreams. Locating its primary function as narrative, the author uses examples from American sitcoms and dramatic programs, analyzing the narrative functions of dreams using, as its frame, Carl Jung's narrative stages of the dream: exposition, development, culmination, and conclusion. While television dreams are analyzed throughout, case studies of the television programs The Sopranos and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are included to show in detail how dreams function throughout a television series. Includes a compendium of over 1000 television episodes that include dreams, a valuable tool for any television scholar or enthusiast.

Cynthia Burkhead, Ph.D., is an English instructor at the University of North Alabama, US. She is the author of the Student Companion to John Steinbeck and the coeditor of Joss Whedon: Conversations and Grace Under Pressure: "Grey's Anatomy" Uncovered.

INTRODUCTION FILM AND DREAMS FILM DREAMS FILMING DREAMS DREAMING FILMS TELEVISION AND DREAMS CHAPTER I: DREAMS THAT BEGIN NARRATIVES CHAPTER II: DREAMS THAT DEVELOP NARRATIVES CASE STUDY: THE SOPRANOS CHAPTER III: DREAMS THAT CULMINATE NARRATIVES CASE STUDY: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER CHAPTER IV: DREAMS THAT END NARRATIVES CHAPTER V: TELEVISION CRITIQUES ITS DREAMS POST MORPHEUM WORKS CITED APPENDIX: TELEVISION DREAM EPISODES