Horace Newcomb

In his three-hour interview, Horace Newcomb talks about his early life and his impressions of television in his youth. He describes his involvement with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and his opinion that the television of the era made society more socially aware. He recounts how he started writing about television with his first book, TV: The Most Popular Art, and his articles on television for the Baltimore Sun. Newcomb discusses several television shows he feels had an impact, including M*A*S*H, Hill Street Blues, The Sopranos, and Magnum P.I. He speaks of the anthology collection Television: The Critical View and his book The Producers Medium, which includes interviews with several successful television producers, and he expands on the power of the producer or showrunner in television. He details his time as a juror, then as chair, of the Peabody Awards, as well as his involvement with the Museum of Broadcast Communications. He concludes by giving his opinion on the 2016 presidential election, and Donald Trump’s relationship with the press. Adrienne Faillace conducted the interview on February 22, 2017 in Austin, TX.