The Jews of Prime Time

Abstract

How did it happen that in a time when networks were run by Jewish men, and many television shows were written by Jewish writers, there were so few identifiably Jewish characters on television? In this provocative book, critic Zurawik marshals compelling evidence to suggest that, during television's first 35 years, its primarily Jewish power brokers actively suppressed Jewish characters and Jewish themes from appearing on the small screen. Only when the moguls sold their interest in the networks and moved on did things begin to change--but in many of the programs that followed, Jewish characters fell into stereotypical roles. Based on more than one hundred interviews gathered over ten years with network executives, producers, and actors, Zurawik's book gives voice to these insiders--who reveal, for the first time, how and why the depiction of Jews on television has followed such a strange, unpredictable course.--From publisher description.

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