Acting for the Camera: Revised Edition

Lee Mendelson

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic

Trick-or-treating has never been more fun--with scary costumes, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Sally, Schroeder, Linus, and, of course, the Great Pumpkin. Since its first airing forty years ago, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" has become synonymous with Halloween. This collection of remembrances and behind-the-scenes treasures celebrates the timeless television classic with: A full script illustrated with screen art from the showNever-before-seen photographs, storyboard excerpts, and production materialsInterviews with the original child actors who were the voices of the Peanuts gangReminiscences and insider tidbits from executive producer Lee Mendelson and animator Bill MelendezAnd much more

Paul Sammon

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner

The 1992 release of the "Director's Cut" only confirmed what the international film cognoscenti have know all along: Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's brilliant and troubling SF novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, still rules as the most visually dense, thematically challenging, and influential SF film ever made. Future Noir is the story of that triumph. The making of Blade Runner was a seven-year odyssey that would test the stamina and the imagination of writers, producers, special effects wizards, and the most innovative art directors and set designers in the industry. A fascinating look at the ever-shifting interface between commerce and the art that is modern Hollywood, Future Noir is the intense, intimate, anything-but-glamerous inside account of how the work of SF's most uncompromising author was transformed into a critical sensation, a commercial success, and a cult classic.

Drew Pinsky, S. Mark Young

The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Endangering Our Families--And How to Save Them

The face of entertainment has changed radically over the last decade--and dangerously so. Stars like Britney, Paris, Lindsay, Amy Winehouse--and their media enablers--have altered what we consider "normal" behavior. According to addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky and business and entertainment expert Dr. S. Mark Young, a high proportion of celebrities suffer from traits associated with clinical narcissism--vanity, exhibitionism, entitlement, exploitativeness--and the rest of us, especially young people, are mirroring what we witness nightly on our TV and computer screens. A provocative, eye-opening study, The Mirror Effect sounds a timely warning, raising important questions about our changing culture--and provides insights for parents, young people, and anyone who wonders what the cult of celebrity is really doing to America.