Perhaps the reason you're having trouble finding these characters is that you're only looking at leads and continuing characters. I can think of dozens of examples where romantic artist-types have been brought in for guest shots on popular series--particularly comedy series, where their moodiness and highfalutin rhetoric is inevitably punctured by the "regular folks" of the recurring cast. In particular, remember the experimental filmmaker who was a friend of Rob Petrie's on The Dick Van Dyke Show? The faux-Gaugin painter who the castaways found in residence on Gilligan's Island? Any number of pretentious art-world denizens who met their comeuppance on The Beverly Hillbillies? You might be more likely to find such romantic/byronic/artistic characters on teen serials (wasn't David on 90210 a musician?) or other soap-y fare (and I use the term lovingly, not disparagingly) since these characters can come in, entangle a more stable lead in a destructive affair, and then exit without significantly changing the structure of an ongoing ensemble. Susan McLeland On 11/29/04 2:29 PM, "Jeremy Butler" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I'm currently working on a revision of the textbook, Television: Critical > Methods and Applications. Specifically, I'm revising/enlarging the chapter > on critical methods. Although I think the auteur theory has very limited > application to television, I have a small section discussing it. > > This has led me to thinking about the Romantic, Byronic conception of the > artist--meaning both painters and poets, novelists, musicians, et al.--as a > tormented and usually demented individual. While it's easy to come up with > dozens of examples of FILMS about such poor souls (e.g., POLLACK, BASQUIAT, > etc. etc. etc.), I'm struggling to think of a single television series. > > I suppose there's THE MONKEES and FAME. And LOVE, SIDNEY did cast Tony > Randall as an artist. But surely there are better examples than that. > > Or does episodic television not favor the Romantic artist as a stereotype > the way that the cinema does? > > I have been thinking mostly of U.S. television since that is where the > textbook is principally distributed, but I'd be curious to hear about any > instances of television series (and not just one-time documentary-style > biographies) centered on an artist, author, or musician. > > Thanks. > > > Jeremy Butler > [log in to unmask] > ======================================================== > Resources for film/TV educators and students: > www.ScreenSite.org > Television: Critical Methods and Applications: > www.TVCrit.com > > ---- > Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the > University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.ScreenSite.org