I got my grade back for my Identity Theft project, referencing Cass and Nicole on Another World. I got an 80; I wish I had received a better grade.

As a college sophomore (in 1992), for my final project in a course that I think was just called Humanities, I wrote a script for Growing Pains in which Carol tried drugs, with several collages interspersed to represent commercials. I was outraged by the inaccuracy of the VSE in which Mike was offered cocaine at a party, so my point was that it was much more likely that poor insecure Carol would be the one to try drugs and it would probably be pot, not cocaine. I got an A+ (who knew such a grade existed in college?) and my professor wrote on the paper that he only wished we had time to perform it. We also had to do a 10 minute oral presentation. I recall doing a few bong hits and then wandering off to class and rambling for several minutes about drugs and freedom and parents that just don't understand, maaan, and my face is getting hot just thinking about it.

Can I mention a paper I intended to write here? For my abortive master's thesis in English, I intended to talk about similarities between postmodern theory and Buddhism. I intended to write it in 5 sections, with a TV-interlude between each of them, in which I'd write a scene script for a TV show dealing with some aspect of the thesis. In one, Chris-in-the-morning from Northern Exposure was going to be doing one of his radio monologues; in another, Wilson and Tim would be talking over the fence in Home Improvement; and in the third, it'd be Frasier from Frasier.

Sound cheesy? It actually made sense, in terms of what I was trying to say and some of the strange genre-breaking things that postmodern lit does. My chief advisor liked it. Too bad he started being both manic-depressive and gradually going blind -- it meant I never wrote it after all. Darnit.

Love this thread... Can't believe i've missed it until now!
I teach at the college level & actually encourage folks to write about tv.

Some of my favorite student projects have included:
Constructions of race in Thundercats;
Dr. Quinn and Indian captivity narratives;
a brilliant paper about MadTV's Mrs. Swan character;
and the list goes on...
I have written about narrative formula in the original Law & Order franchise. Not very well, but hey...

Writing about TV is good. TWoP is veryveryvery good.


That rocks, StuntedDiva!

In my Pre-College Comp. class, we were assigned to write a critical review. It was supposed to be on an art form. I convinced the teacher that TV works. I reviewed CSI and got a A-, thanks to the FAQ of the characters and sobell's recaps.

Wrote a paper on the character relationship dynamics in King Of The Hill in a media class. Got an A.

Dedicated a year to writing my senior honors project on the sitcom Father Ted, and hope to continue the research I began on the representation of Roman Catholicism in the media now that I'm in grad school. It gives me an excuse to watch American Dreams and think back on stuff like Just the Ten of Us. Catholic kitsch is at its finest in television shows, but there's definitely something more beneath the surface. I did well with my project despite making the choice to do something rather unconventional--won a monetary prize for outstanding project. Don't let anyone tell you overanalysis of a popular culture phenemenon won't get you anything concrete.

Other TV papers:
--the juxtaposition of high and low comedy in Up Pompeii.
--determinist class ideology in Hancock's Half Hour.
--the construction of Germany in Are You Being Served?, Dad's Army, and Fawlty Towers.
--a paper on the what is literature question that was mentioned upthread that defended the Nickelodeon show Fifteen as a potential text for critical inquiry.
--Party of Five and the Dickensian orphan narrative.

I hate it when the New Critics try to argue none of this has any real worth and we're all just degrading our universities.

A little embarrased to admit this, but I am in the process of writing not one, but 2 papers on The OC (actually if you want to be technical I just finished one). The one I just finished was comparing The Great Gatsby to The OC- thank you genius OC thread for the idea, you got credited at the end! The other I am in the process of doing for psychology, and it is going to involve looking at how aspects of your childhood can affect the way your personality develops. There is going to be some MAJOR Ryan vs. Seth going on in there...I can't believe I am actually excited for school work!

I have many, many other papers of my own to tell about here. However, the one that stands out in my mind is the essay that I quoted verbatim from a movie. In my senior HS English class final essay on Hamlet I wrote: " Hamlet was tormented by his mother's incestuous relationship with his uncle." ( Grease 2). Is that plagarism? Well worth it for promoting that special movie.

How about a bachelor's thesis about TWoP itself? No, I didn't write it; just found it posted here: TWoP thesis.

(Hope the link works -- my first time trying it!)

Last year my extension english (which is a study of genre and its values) class spent a term studying the links between Bram Stoker's Dracula and Buffy. I wrote a creative essay in which Stoker and Whedon discussed their views on the role of women in the horror genre. I aced that class as nobody else had even watched Buffy before we studied it, let alone had copies of the Watchers Guide, the scriptbook and owned most of the dvds.

This year we are watching LOTR as part of our sci-fi/fantasy unit. I would love this class more if there wasn't so much work and it wasn't so goddam difficult.

For my Sophmore (college) comp class we had to write a paper about Plato's alleghory of the cave and what we thought it was represented by in the modern world. For my paper I wrote about how the media influences us to believe that we should be in relationships. I sighted the episode of Friends where Rachel turns thirty and figures out that with her the plan she's laid out that if she wants to have a kid at 35 that she has to be dating the man she's going to marry at that point in time. It was one of the best papers ever. I got an A. I also referenced the E! true hollywood story of Fast Times at Ridgemont High for a paper I wrote for my American Political Thought class in which we had to analyze the aspects of american political thought in the movie. I got an A on that one too.

For the essay in the AP US Government exam this past May, I wrote something about how, since 9/11, many Americans will vote for or support anything that is any way related to the military. I used Josh from AI2 as an example. I don't remember what that topic was, but I got a 3 on the exam and college credit, so I was happy.

Last semester in my Honors English class, I wrote my final about reality shows. One of my main points was how it makes people famous who really have no reason being famous. I talked about The Simple Life, The Real World, and Survivor. If I was allowed to go over 5 pages I could have talked about more. I haven't gotten my grade back, but since I got a B+ in the class and the average of all my other papers was probably a C+/B-, I'm thinking I did pretty well.

Not TV related per se, but for the same Honors English class, I wrote a paper about how mix tapes are a lost art form, relating it back to some essays we read in class. I used High Fidelity as one of my sources. B+. I've never been more excited about writing a paper in my life.

I love this thread--lots of these papers sound like great reading!

The most interesting paper I did in grad school was about how late-night TV has become a required campaign stop for political figures (i.e., being entertaining is now a requirement for holding public office). I taped a week's worth of Letterman and Leno, then did a rhetorical analysis of the jokes told by the hosts and the "humor" brought forth by the political types appearing on the shows.

One of the highlights for me was transcribing Dave's interview with John Ashcroft, in which Ashcroft attempted to talk about the issues of the day while Dave tried to get the AG to sing his wonderful composition, "Let the Eagle Soar." Ashcroft refused to sing, but he did agree to play "Can't Buy Me Love" on the piano. Maybe this is why I can't take politics seriously...

I went to that thesis link a page back and (this is how much I need to get a life) read that thesis. No, I did. I'm writing my own thesis right now and I just wanted to see one that was done. I wonder if forum posters and recappers know that they were quoted in it?

It's pretty funny to read about our beloved TWop analyzed in that fashion. Not that there was anything there that I wasn't already aware of, but still. Kinda cool!

All of these papers/projects sound really interesting.

I'm in art school, and don't write papers very frequently, but television has had a major role in numerous projects throughout undergrad and grad school.

Currently I'm working with material from National Geographic specials.
I've worked on presentations for seminar classes analyzing Roseanne and Pee Wee's Playhouse.
And my thesis exhibition for undergrad included photographs of people watching tv. I do remember specifically that one of the images from that series was shot during the broadcast of Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire.


edited to thank Vermicious Knid for the link in the following post. Thanks!

pradolimon, I'm not sure exactly what what your National Geographic project is, but are you aware of Reading National Geographic?

My SAT II: Writing essay this time mentioned the Loud family and Al and Marcie from One Life To Live, as I had to analyze the statement "Nothing perfect is interesting; it is the flaws that fascinate."

I've been reading this thread for so long, wishing I'd had the chance to write a paper about TV, when suddenly I remembered that I did!

It was for some writing test in 9th grade. The topic was: "If you could trade places with any person - alive or dead, real or fictional - for one day, who would it be and why?" Ugh. We had an hour to expound on this ridiculous thesis. First I thought of the kiss-ass answers like "Mother Teresa" or "My Mom" or "You, Mr/Ms. Writing Test Reader." But then I got real. And picked Ginger from Gilligan's Island.

Seriously. She lives the life. Every guy on that island dotes on her, dropping Mary Ann like a bad habit as soon as Ginger cries, "Oh, this heat!" No one makes her do anything because of her delicate condition: being a high-maintenance beeyotch. Anyway, it was Minnesota in the middle of the winter, and nothing sounded sweeter than a deserted island with people (especially the Professor... ROWR!) waiting on me hand and foot for a day.

I ended up getting the highest possible score and my essay was passed along to the national something-or-other. Thank you, GI!

Update: Said essay focusing on the Louds and Marcal helped me get a 760 this time round on the SAT II Writing.

Way to go, Custom!

I was a communications major in college so I was always watching and writing about tv for a grade. And they say it's a fluff major! One of my favorites was an assignment where we were required to pick a new show from the fall lineup then write about it. I wrote a paper on Freaks and Geeks and the lack of realistic images of teenagers throughout tv history and how this was the most honest brilliant show ever. I think for that same class we once had to write papers on Scooby Doo and semiotics. I just remember sitting in the library rewinding the opening scene where the eyes pop out on the black screen and scribbling notes about how that was a visual signifier of ominous surroundings or something silly.

For a class on children's media our final project was an ethnographic study of kid's viewing habits. We each had to find some children and sit in on them watching tv then ask questions. Luckily they boy I had just started seeing had a younger brother and sister and I showed up at their house one day to just sit and watch them look at The Simpsons before dinner. That was awkward. But the paper turned out good and I got an A. But dumped the boy soon after.

We had an essay in AP Composition where we had to discuss invasion of privacy and whether it was right in any circumstance to record people or their private conversations.

It was supposed to mainly be about the government recording people, but obviously I tied it into reality TV as well. I used Big Brother Four as a specific examples and said it was wrong to film people constantly like that, since it broadcasted two contestants having sex and also revealed another contestants nose-picking habits to the world.

Thanks to Tarheel for sending me to this thread. I didn't even know it was here.

My first TV-related paper was on the Murphy Brown-Dan Quayle controversy, for my History of American Pop Culture class during my senior year of college. I got an A (I think...it was pretty much our only big grade, and I got an A overall). I started a master's program in film studies three years later, and wrote several papers about TV shows en route to my degree, including a discussion of whether Trading Spaces qualifies as cult TV (I said it did).

My current project (as I watch the mailbox for news about my PhD applications) is a study of the relationships between women on Law and Order: SVU. It focuses primarily on the homoerotic subtext of Olivia and Alex's relationship: how/why Olivia became tougher and more masculine after Monique's departure and Alex's arrival, how the show's cinematography emphasizes the subtext, how fans have responded to it, etc. I attended a panel about homoeroticism in TV at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference last weekend in Atlanta, and was blown away by the overt homoeroticism in shows like Smallville and Xena (neither of which I watch/ed). The homoeroticism in SVU is much more subtle, and I like that. Anyhoo, I'm planning to have an article-length manuscript ready for submission by this summer.

man, this stuff is hard core. All I can claim is doing a presentation on the groundbreaking use of the live "Electronicam" filming method in The Honeymooners when I was in high school....

nothing to see

Wow. This thread is awesome and makes me feel better about the television papers and projects I did. The first one I remember is in high school where we had to do a 10 minute oral presentation in my honors literature class. We had to use books or poems and I wanted to do the themes of classic Star Trek. So I got around the book rule by using the Blish books that are novelizations of all 79 episodes. I picked three themes (actually I go them from the book The Nitpickers Guide to Classic Trek) and used three episodes for each theme. I got an A. Then for my AP Government class I did a presentation on TV censorship and how it has evolved through the years. That was the funnest project I ever did for school.

In college I was a psych major and I used Data and The Doctor from Voyager in some of my response papers to argue for or against a psychological theory. I also used Get Smart and Bewitched dreams I had when I had to write papers interpreting my dreams.

And I once wrote about a Barney Miller episode in my Anthropology of Religion class when I was writing about Obeah (a type of voodoo).

In my senior year of high school, I had to write a paper relating a science fiction or fantasy television show, book, or movie to the class I was taking. The class in question was called Future Studies, which is exactly what it sounds like; tying in environmental, social, and political concerns to discuss what might happen in the near future in regards to overpopulation and natural resources and a whole slew of things I can no longer remember because my brain is fried at the moment. Anyway, I knew my teacher was a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, and since I was too, I managed to write a ten-page paper relating the show to aspects of the course. It got me an A. Best damn paper I ever wrote.

Now, if only I could remember what it was actually about, because what I just said was incredibly vague.

I wrote a 20 page paper about the changing politics of race, gender, identity and sexuality in soap operas (specifically focused on Y&R).

I ended up with an A. I was so happy about that paper, I went about myself a cute new pair of strappy sandals and a skirt (self rewards are fun)!

For my major presentation for Writer's Craft, we had to focus on a poet, writer, or screenwriter, so who did I do it on? Joss Whedon.

20 minutes of me blabbing about how much I love Buffy, Angel, and Firefly; complete with highly detailed collages of Buffy characters plus showing tiny little scenes from "Innocence" and "Doppelgangland" courtesy of my DVDs.

The class loved it, but my teacher didn't. Because he's an ass. :)

DeeeDee, I wouldn't expect anything less than an A from you if you're writing about Y&R.

Awww thanks Custom. I got my A and I was just so happy. The professor was all indulgent because he knows that Y&R is my show.

Last week I wrote a short essay on the theme of emotional burdens in "Waiting for Godot," and much of my thesis was based on something God said on Joan of Arcadia that week. Got an A, and attracted the attention of a fellow fan in the class. :)

I love using tv references in my essay but since I'm a microbiology student the opportunities are kinda rare.

Three years ago in my psych class we were asked to write an essay about the evolution of men or women behavior in the modern society. I did an essay on Sex and the City about how the show reflected modern women, friendships between women and how that every woman is a combination of Samantha, Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte. I got an A (I have to admit it kind of helped that the teacher was a Sex and the City fan).

However my favorite all-time essay was when we were asked, in a molecular biology class, to write a 15 pages essay about the impact of genetic in science and life. I wrote about the how paternity tests and DNA test have had huge impact on soaps. Having watched Days if our Lives nearly all my life I made great use of it: I went on and on about Sami switching her son's paternity test in order to I have Austin be the father so she could marry him and how Lucas and Carrie found out he was the real father before Sami's wedding to Austin. I also talked about Hope and Lexie baby switch. I also wrote about One Life To Live and how Viki's twin daughters Jessica and Natalie shared the different fathers and how thanks to genetic, Natalie was able to prove that she was a Buchanan. All of my friends thought I was totally nut and that I should do the typical essay aka do research in books and basically write the same things as everybody.

The teacher praises me (in front of the whole class composed of 115 students) for going on a different and unusual road and called my essay refreshing. I guess he or his wife was a soaps fan! I got an A+ (the average was B-!!!)
So thanks to OLTL and DOOL I got an A in that course!

We just got assigned to write a thesis paper yesterday. It can be on anything that interests us. I think I'll do mine on soap operas, but I'm not sure what about soap operas.
I'm afraid that my paper will turn into 7-10 pages of me just recanting storylines.

Any ideas?

Weezer, have you had a look at Television Culture by John Fiske? There's a bit in there about feminine v. masculine TV. It's complete BS now, if it was ever true, and you could do 7-10 pages on soaps and how the "feminine" style of storytelling that is supposedly unique to soaps is, in fact, all over the place--serial storylines, multiple point of view, etc.

Is anyone going to the PCA/ACA conference next week?

Weezer, one of my old professors wrote something about soap opera directors that might be of interest to you - The Book is called TV Genres: A Handbook and Reference Guide (Chap. 8 "The Soap Opera")
by Brian G. Rose, Robert S. Alley.

Also check out this site for book recommendations.

Ooh, soap operas!

If you want to recant storylines, make sure you have evidence. I know many posters weren't allowed to write their papers because the professors didn't trust their memories alone.

If anything, compare a soap opera character with something from literature, or history. A while back I compared the "strong woman" attributes of Penelope from The Odyssey (she was only hiding her strength) and Blair from One Life To Live (okay, she's not strong at all now, but she was in, like, 1994).

oh I am so glad to find this topic, I don't feel so [s]dorky[/s] alone.

My HS junior year I-search paper was all about fans of Star Trek and what is the appeal they find in both the show and in the "fandom" aspects of it--convention, fanfic, ect. It was the most fun I have ever had on a research paper, I remember watching a Sci-Fi Star Trek :TOS marathon all day and then counting it towards research hours for the paper. muhaha, it was excellent. It also helped that my Lit teacher was majorly into Star Trek when she was younger.

One of my college entrance essays was sort of like an "everything I need to know in life i learned from X-Files" but more in-depth, from respecting the Elders and always remebering to carry a flash light to proclaiming your idenity (Scully's helpful reminders that yes, she is a medical doctor) and not always accepting the status quo. I was accepted at one college i sent it to and not the other. consipiracy theory anyone?

Weezer, if it's not too late, I'd like to contribute an idea I had for a paper I never wrote [long story]. It was to be called "From Villainess to Sympathetic Vixen: The Evolution of the Sexually Aggressive Woman as Presented on Daytime Television". I was going to focus on particular characters from different soaps, highlighting the change in the dynamic from the days when the sexually assertive female characters were demonized and humiliated while the demure, prim characters won love and approval, [the original Rachel/Steve/Alice triangle on AW, Lorie & Leslie Brooks on Y&R were two examples] to modern times, where you have characters like GH's Brenda showing a zesty [and dare I say healthy?] sexuality and usually finding love.

I ended up doing my paper on another topic so this one's yours if you want it.

I've decided on a topic, but it could change at any minute. (Which it probably will.)

Soap Operas vs. Reality Television: Soap Operas are more reality than Reality Television.

Weezer, that's a great idea for a topic! I don't know if it will help you any, and it's not one of my best works, but in terms of sources you might be able to use, last summer I wrote an article in which I said that the characters on Ryan's Hope were acting more like real, multidimensional human beings than the "real" human beings on a lot of the reality shows that were on at the time. Good luck and keep us posted!

I agree. Ryan's Hope would be the best evidence in going the "Soaps are more reality" route. I'd also look into As The World Turns and Guiding Light pre-1981.

College sophmore publishes book on the Simpsons.

Oh Lord, this a good thread. I'm not the only dork! Yay! When I was still in high school, I recall writing many a vocabulary paper on The X-Files. (We had to incorporate all the week's words into one story.) Oh yeah! My first year of college I also wrote a paper comparing and contrasting heros in classical literature to modern heroes in television. I had a lot of XF, Xena, and Due South in it, if I recall correctly. I know I got an A on it!

Well, I'm handing in my paper tomorrow. I think it's pretty good, but that's just my opinion. My main soap references were to Passions, One Life To Live, Days of Our Lives, Guiding Light and All My Children.

Okay, I admit, my paper sucks. Just ignore me from now on.

Edited: Because even I don't know what the hell a sope is.

I guess the soap references would be good or invalid based on what period you're getting them from. Now if you're referencing One Life To Live's "different walks of life" beginning story plan, with the Jewish family and Carla passing for white, I could buy that, but if you're going on about Todd and Blair and Tea, that would pretty much invalidate your paper, I would think. What time periods did you pick for those shows, and what did you say about them?

Well for my paper on The Great Gatsby I'm going to do a compare and contrast on those characters vs The OC characters. I first noticed the similarities on the OC vs Great Gatsby thread on The OC board, so that was the inspiration. It is quite scary how close the two are. I mean The Great Gatsby could be like an OC slightly AU future fanfiction, haha.

All but two of my college papers were about films (Comm major here). The first TV one, for my TV Theories class, was about Homefront. If you don't remember it, it was a really great ensemble drama about a small town right after WWII. It was on for two years in the early 90s, used and abused by ABC. The characters were from a broad spectrum of age, race, class and religion which made it good for analysis. The paper was about its characters representing three basic female archetypes-- the Great Mother/Career Gal/Wicked, Wanton Woman and how the show called upon symbolism and women as the subject of the Male Gaze to reinforce these images. Got an A on the paper, but as an ardent fan of the show I'm willing to credit how thoughtful the show was as much as my work on the paper. It was way fun to write, though.

The other was a group-oral project on the representation of women on 24 for a Gender Images in the Media class and how all the women (Seasons 1 and 2) were Evil/Smart and Powerful or Good/Boring Dolts. (Except for Teri Bauer- but this is nullified by the fact that Evil Nina shoots the pregnant woman in the stomach. God, 24 hates women.) I got to talk specifically about Kim and Nina, and I really let Spawn have it. The presentation was really well done, I must admit. We had visual aids. We had multimedia. We even handed out the Washington Times article (that cites TWoP) about how moronic Kim is. Unfortunately, by the time our group went the class had run overtime at least 2 hours. Our group of four gave a presentation to the prof and another girl, neither of whom had ever seen 24. We got an A for pity's sake as much as anything I believe.

A few months ago I wrote a law review article about the rapid increase of shaming punishments in America. I used this episode of The Simpsons and the movie The Super as stepping stones for my analysis, arguing that representations of shaming punishments in popular culture may suggest public acceptance of the practice.