Death by Television

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

The author, a television critic for the Halifax Daily News, estimates he
has spent 53,040 hours, or six years of his life, watching television.
These 44 essays are the distillation of much of that viewing time. The
inveterate boob-tuber reflects on a broad range of television-related
topics (racial discrimination, Christmas, beauty pageants, critics,
fictional and real-life violence, censorship, baseball, teenage angst,
and the actor’s life, to name just a few) and offers critiques of such
shows as Leave It to Beaver, Death Valley Days, Get Smart, All in the
Family, The Twilight Zone, The Partridge Family, Twin Peaks, The
Waltons, and Wojeck. Written in a casual, breezy style, his book
entertains more than it enlightens.