FanCollector
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2006
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- Lee
You are certainly right about the publisher. They were literary agents or publicists or something and this is their first publishing venture. The project was actually funded via a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign. It's probably a publish-on-demand deal. (That also explains the minimal advertising.) The reason that doesn't worry me so much is that the specialized nature of the material means there is no way a major publisher would ever have done this book. Which brings me to your other logical question...I think Solow and Justman were writing a book that had a chance as a popular title, i.e. a 300-or-so-page book covering the history of a popular television series and peppered with a few primary document excerpts to illustrate their points. They surely had access to all the archival material Cushman is using, and if they wanted to do hundreds of interviews, no one was stopping them. But in my rare rational moments, I am forced to accept the fact that most readers, even most Star Trek fan readers, are not as interested as you and I in studying call sheets from each episode. A three-volume, 1500-page study that goes into daily shooting detail about each episode was not going to be a popular title, so I can see why Justman and Solow went another way.Cushman's book on I Spy was similar in nature, although about a third of the length of this set. The level of detail regarding the making of each episode was copious. I especially appreciated the ratings information about individual episodes (promised for Star Trek also) because it is so har to come by and provides important context.The two criticisms I have seen of the I Spy book are: a) an abundance of authorial opinions and b) the book being told too often from Robert Culp's perspective. The first didn't bother me at all because the author's opinions aren't hidden. They are easily identified, as when in the excerpt of this one he calls The Alternative Factor the worst episode of the season. Many of the greatest books about television shows (e.g. The Twilight Zone Companion and The Columbo Phile) include authorial opinions.The second criticism is more valid, although certainly not anything that ruined the book. I am hoping that in this case, there was no one person whose interview was extensive enough to dominate the work.I ordered mine, so I will let you know how it is when I receive it. (Although it might take a few extra hours to read all 600 pages...)