Right off the bat, JJ from GOOD TIMES comes to mind. There are also a few episodes of ROSEANNE where she discusses giving up writing to raise her kids and marry Dan. Joey from FRIENDS and JOEY is a struggling actor. ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT has Gob who is a frustrated and somewhat demented magician. SIX FEET UNDER has Claire an art student. Eldon from MURPHY BROWN paints houses instead of canvases. Caroline from CAROLINE IN THE CITY draws a comic strip. Rodney currently on RODNEY is an aspiring stand-up comedian. Finally, NORTHERN EXPOSURE has several characters you might consider Adam, Even and Chris. I'm not sure all of these fall into the tormented/demented category, but at the very least they do seem to be pursuing artistic careers. -chad ------------------------------------------------------------------- Chandler Harriss PhD Candidate University of Alabama On Monday, November 29, 2004, at 02:29 PM, Jeremy Butler 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