When I teach my entertainment unit in my high school Women's History course this book has been really helpful. I have used examples and excerpts from the book to show different examples. It is also like re-watching my childhood shows under a new lens.

I requested this book not noticing that it was released in 2018. The cultural discussion around equality has shifted even in the past three years, but this is still an interesting read.

This was good, though I didn't always agree with the author's conclusions. If you're a TV head, though, it's probably worth checking out.

This review originally appeared in Herizons Magazine (Canada), print only.

Many critics and fans say we are living in a Golden Age of television. The TV landscape has certainly seen an unprecedented rise in seriously-considered, critically-lauded shows that seem to support this assertion. Some may even say we are living in a Golden Age of women in television; there are more female-run shows and more female-centric storytelling than ever before. But the term “Golden Age” suggests a pinnacle, a glowing marker of quality that is doomed, sooner or later, to tarnish.

Stealing the Show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television is, ultimately, a positive and hopeful look at the state of women in television, beginning with the profound influence of Roseanne and Murphy Brown in the late 80s and early 90s and tracing their seismic effect on the female creators that would follow in their wake. Writer and television critic Joy Press uses individual profiles of women in television to create a larger picture of women’s growing—but still unequal—role in shaping the way we tell stories on the small screen.

Separately, each chapter tells the story of a creator (or creators)—writers, producers, showrunners—that have, in some way, made a significant impact on television and the way we see women’s stories represented. From Amy Sherman-Palladino and Shonda Rhimes to Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, and the ladies of Broad City, all of these women have created television that is not just focused on presenting realistic female characters, but on centering female experience as something both messy and worth exploring. What Press does best in Stealing the Show is not just highlighting individuals, but demonstrating the domino-effect of women mentoring, influencing, and opening doors for other women in the industry. After all, there would be no Gilmore Girls without Roseanne, no 30 Rock without Murphy Brown.

Women in television have made enormous strides in representation and have reshaped the industry. Press, in her final analysis, is ultimately torn between optimism and the knowledge that this kind of progress is always met by a certain level of backlash. Ultimately, however, this isn’t about a Golden Age of women in television because this isn’t the peak—we’re just getting started.

I read this a while ago I just forgot to write the review, sorry about that. This book obviously gave me a new insight of what is actually going on in this certain industry, I really liked it. I hope it will inspire more writers to really create what they want!

This is an important book for anyone, especially women, in television. Not only does it chart our history, but it does so in readable, memorable prose. TV fans, too, will dig this book.

"History is a giant tease: it jerks around our hopes and assumptions, it ebbs and surges and doubles back on itself. The long arc of history may bend toward justice, but when you're living through a reactionary period, it feels as if progress were being forced treacherously backward."

As soon as I saw this book up for reviewing at NetGalley, I grabbed it. I did a stint in the film industry way back when, and while it was exciting to be around creative people, it was depressing and even degrading to be a woman in an industry already lethally competitive.

I don't just mean sexual harassment (back then, that was pretty much what any woman got any day of the week anywhere you went, any job you did), but the terrible ways in which women's talent was exploited, underpaid, never promoted, and outright pirated, but if you dared to complain, you were told bluntly that you play the game and smile, or you can be replaced in ten seconds flat by a hundred women hungry for your job.

Not being a fighter, unlike some of the women described in this book, one screw-over too many and I turned to writing books.

But I was eager to read about the women who did make it.

Press's stylish, tightly written, often sharply funny piece is an interesting blend of interview journalism, research piece, and essay. To me, the most interesting chapter was the first, which talked about the groundbreaking women in television, a notoriously male preserve.

The chapters go on to focus on different female show runners and executives, focusing on their difficulties in getting where they are now. In each chapter there are also close looks at their most famous shows. This interested me increasingly less as the chapters progressed, as the focus began to shift from breaking the boundaries in including women (POC, different ages and abilities, etc) as lead characters to breaking boundaries in content.

That's where I have the least interest, as I am not enamored of shows that focus on the degrading aspects of being human, but of course others disagree, and what makes art is a vital, vexing, sometimes indefinable question. I'm glad challenging art is out there, but most of it I don't want to see; many of these shows in the last few chapters were ones I tried an episode or two of and turned off.

But that's a taste thing, not a jab at Press, who I thought did a good job of focusing on her mission.

She also did a great job in conveying just how rough it is working in an industry that can include twenty-hour days for weeks at a stretch.

Altogether a fascinating glimpse into the gritty side of glamourville.

I got an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Joy Press' survey of women-led sitcoms, starting in the 80s with Murphy Brown and Roseanne and going up until today with Broad City and Transparent does an excellent job of showcasing the drivers behind all of these fantastic shows, and the battles that were won in the process of telling these stories. This felt like a great, TV-centric companion to Anne Helen Petersen's fantastic _Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman_ in terms of its tone and goals in covering the shows it did. As someone who's really into TV history, this was a great peak at how these shows got made and continued to revolutionize the genre. If you're a fan of any of the shows this book covers, it's a great, thoughtful read.

This book looks at how these women fought to get where they are and to be treated as equals with the men who are primarily running television/film. 

While I thought the book started out strong and ended strong, the middle was little more than telling us about the series episodes and what they meant.

While I enjoyed reading about the women, I felt like this book was more about the shows themselves. Much of this information everyone knows, so it wasn't shocking or even surprising. 

If you are a fan of one of these shows, you will probably find it interesting.  I did not.

Netgalley/Atria   March 06, 2018

Stealing the Show.

I thought I was going to love this book. I am pro-female, ever rooting for a woman to make her mark in the world. I am thankful to the women how have struggled to making groundbreaking t.v. and film come to my screen. However except for a few of the women mentioned in this book, I don't feel that some of these women deserve being talked about or are revolutionizing television in an uplifting way. I am not into lewdness, so I don't get Lena Dunham, nor Amy Schumer and Jenji Kohan's Orange is the New Black. Although I get that their shows produce the ability to talk about tough topics, I just don't see it as needful, I'm not into shock and awe sex.

I love being reminded of the strength that Rosanne Barr had in putting her show out during a time where women were still seen as demur and helpless. Amy Sherman-Palladino is my Hollywood kindred spirit, so reading about her and her mark on Television and reading more about Gilmore Girls was awesome.
I mean, who doesn't love a Shonda Rhimes show? That girl is tough as nails! Talking about the tough issues like a 12 year old Black child being shot be cops when he is only trying to get into his own upper class neighborhood house when he doesn't have his key to get in. The Doctor's reactions were real and intense. I admit, I cried when the little boy died.

I was wishing that we got more stories about Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers and other women who helped these modern day women to have a slightly easier go at it.

I guess, I learned alot about the women in the book through Joy Press's interviews and exchanges and still had to bite my tongue on how some of these woman who just don't represent "strength" to me. Not every book is for everybody. This book was just not what I expected. I guess I am not as feministic, or open-minded as I thought.

I gave this book 3 stars for a well written format. Couldn't give it more, because Revolutionizing Television isn't about an abundance of sex and swear words in a sitcom. However, that is my opinion. Just keeping it real folks.

I was given Stealing the Show by Atrial Books via NetGalley in lieu of my honest opinion.

Immensely interesting interviews with various female entertainers/producers/show runners like Amy Schumer (always outspoken), Tina Fey, MIndy Kayling, Roseanne Barr or Amy Sherman Palladino. I don't like all their shows but still I enjoyed getting their perspective on how thoseshows developed. Gives you an overview on how the role of women developed or stayed the same over the decades. Smart book about smart females...

I felt like I'd fallen down a rabbit hole...a completely different world than the one I live in. I admire strong women who control their destiny and make change happen; but the women portrayed in this book, particularly the last half, seemed to be grabbing at a change that I don't think is going to improve the world we live in. I don't want them defining my role as a woman. I vote for dignity and respect, not in-your-face degradation.

This was a fascinating examination of the recent growth and evelopment of women’s roles in tv. Several shows I love dearly are looked at in this book and I found it really interesting and still frustrating to see the progress that has been made as well as the lengths that still need to be gone through. I really enjoyed it.

Brilliant! Great pace, I couldn’t put it down. The author reminds you of all the women (characters) you already love and gives you behind the scene insight into the real happenings on set with casting, writing, etc. A true TV junkie would love this book!

How are your favorite shows made? The women behind them, what do they go through? This book answers these questions and so much more. I love feminist literature and this book has given me something entirely unique at just the right time. A new perspective of an industry I have given little thought to before #metoo took over and we all suddenly realized every industry across the board has work to do. Women are already there, doing work, but this book illustrates just how difficult that is.

This book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. Thought it was going to be about female showrunners and their stories, but really it was just a description of their shows. The first chapter was the strongest, describing how groundbreaking the show was and the life of the woman behind it and how she got there, with some recapping of particular episodes of the show.
. Subsequent chapters generally had a very shallow description of the women behind the shows and spent much more time recapping individual episodes. If I wanted an episode guide, I would just watch the shows or read tvline. I hoped for more, and really only got advertisements for tv shows I already watched.

The Amy Sherman Palladio and Roseanne Barr were some of the weakest chapters in the book due to just giving recaps of episodes, but the second half of the book had a bit more success with Amy Schumer and Mindy Kahling.

The final chapter was lovely, describing the ‘club’ of female showrunners and how they meet periodically and share their experiences. I would have loved for the whole book just to be these women describing their struggles and successes, instead of episode by episode reviews

If you’re a fan of Orange is the New Black or Scandal or Grey’s Anatomy or Broad City or Transparent or 30 Rock (among others discussed in these pages), this nonfiction book about the struggles and strides of the women behind the camera should be interesting to you.

With the exception of Murphy Brown that came out in 1987, it was rare to have women head writers or showrunners (if you saw 30 Rock, Tina Fey’s character played a showrunner—basically in charge the writers and making sure everything came together). The major broadcast networks ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox have not made great strides in this area. (CW is an exception). Variety found that of the new scripted shows being made for the 2017/2018 season, just 29 percent of the broadcast showrunners were female and thirty-five percent of the actors were.

Thanks to streaming channels and cable, there are many more opportunities for women to get experience—and hire other women so they, too, can get experience. Directing TV is a Catch-22—you won’t get hired if you don’t have experience, but you can’t get experience because no one will hire you.
I like history and paying attention to the role women have played in it, including the history of the entertainment industry. I found this to be readable, fun look at women in TV.

RELEASES 3/6/18. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to review this book.

I received an advanced copy of Stealing the Show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television by Joy Press from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Stealing the Show came as a surprise to me. It never occurred to me to look for a book telling us the history of women in television (or the struggles they face behind the scenes). As somebody that’s always been curious about the industry, I found this to be both fascinating and shocking at times. It’s a compelling read right through to the end, and I’m happy for every moment I spent reading it.
Joy Press did a wonderful job balancing information and understanding. Before reading this novel there were some terms about television that I did not know beforehand (for example while I had heard of a showrunner, I didn’t know what their actual purpose was), but that has changed along with my understanding about how TV has changed for and by women.
I’ll confess that I haven’t seen every show that was discussed, so there were times that I felt that there were references going over my head (considering the complexity and humor of some of the shows, this isn’t really that surprising). Even without having the context about the show itself, I still greatly enjoyed reading about the show’s workings behind the scenes; what the director/showrunner had to go through to get her creation out there. That was the important part for me (though I’ll confess to an increased amount of enjoyment when Press talked about some of my favorite shows, such as Gilmore Girls).
There are so many shows covered in this novel, I guarantee you that you’ll find at least one (if not more) that you’ve personally loved. Series discussed include: Murphy Brown, Rosanne, Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomies, 30 Rock, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Girls, Inside Amy Schumer, Broad City, Weeds, Orange Is the New Black, and Transparent. Many more shows are covered as well, but those are the ones that stood out to me the most.
I loved how Joy Press dedicated her Epilogue into talking about television in movies in context with today; how things may change for the better or worse. Personally, I was left feeling hopeful; looking at how much has changed already; it’s hard not to appreciate all that. Her use of the alien story also helped (what would aliens think of women today versus 30-40 years ago, if they were basing us solely off of a TV representation?) add full context to the situation, and really brought to light all the changes that have already been made.