A re-read of the second volume in a collection of polemical TV columns written for an independent newspaper, The Los Angeles Free Press, continuing from February 1970. This book contains the last batch of 52 columns up until May 1972. Ellison uses the medium of TV criticism to discuss the ills of contemporary society in the Vietnam War/pre Nixon impeachment era.

For those not familiar with his style, be warned that there is a lot of swearing and words that would these days be completely unacceptable, including derogatory ones about race, although the writer is not using them to be racist: quite the opposite. This volume shows a growing awareness also of the objectification of women, with criticism of a beauty pageant show about little girls, among other things.

An interesting feature for anyone interested in either the development of TV drama at that time, or Ellison's work in particular, is that he gives the complete script of an episode he wrote for a series about lawyers being made at the time, and as a follow-up his angry reflections on how it was hacked around and changed beyond recognition when actually made.

As with volume 1, The Glass Teat, some of the material in these columns is so of its time that it would have gone over my head even when I first read this as a teenager, as the TV shows or actors under discussion were long gone. However, there's enough of interest in Ellison's rancour, despair, occasional ray of hope that young people will be the saving of the USA, and the insight this collection gives about Americans of liberal views, despised as "intellectuals" at that period and probably also nowadays, to be worth a read. ( )

Scary stuff. Forty years down the road from Nixon, Kent State, Vietnam, a president demonizing the media and lying through his teeth. History repeats itself in such a shocking manner. ( )

Harlan Ellison had written successful TV Scripts and Magazine articles before doing this stint as a TV critic. Be prepared for the 1969-70 TV broadcast television series and ethos being slashed and burnt by a very severe critic and competent artist. For the social historian: this is what the demonstrators went home and watched. ( )

Rambling essays and rants on the evils of television. Some typically pithy Ellison wisecracking and occasional thoughtful discussion, but in general the tone is bad-tempered and negative. First published in 1969, and reissued with an introduction by Elllison in 1983, it feels very dated; this one has not aged particularly gracefully. ( )

Television: the Big Babysitter, both shaper of reality and reality itself, give us this day our daily bread and Rock on! ( )