“So Long, Dental Plan!” Unions, Labor Relations and Class Struggle…As Seen On TV
Edited by Shaun Richman
Subject Fields
Labor Studies, Film and Film History, American Studies, Humanities, Political Science, Popular Culture Studies, Social Sciences
Synopsis
Stories about unions and class struggle are notoriously under-represented in corporate media. Sometimes, though, storylines make it out of Hollywood writers’ rooms and onto your television screen. The purpose of this collection is to explore how labor unions, union organizing, and strikes and job actions have been portrayed in mainstream, scripted episodic television shows. How do such episodes reflect their times, and how do they shape them?
We have a contract with SUNY Press, and aim to publish in 2026. We’re looking for 10-15 articles, drawing on a number of academic disciplines, to focus on less obvious episodes and programs to critique and, most importantly, to have some fun with the project.
Ideas for chapters/topics (for brainstorming purposes; not required or limited to)
- The A-Team farmworkers union episode as an anachronism in the Reagan era.
- Contrasting presentation of top-down vs. bottom up expressions of worker power in 1990’s sci-fi (specifically Star Trek: DS9 and Babylon 5).
- What the strike episode of Battlestar Galactica (reboot) has to say about GW Bush-era liberals and class struggle vs. class mobility. [Note: This topic has been claimed by a contributor.]
- Succession on digital newsroom organizing; Are billionaires “serious people?”
- What NBC’s Superstore had to say about union organizing and retail work in the Obama era.
- Classic (i.e. 1990’s) Simpsons as an artifact of Clinton-era liberal ambivalence about unions. [Note: This topic has been claimed by a contributor.]
- The changing attitude of 35 years of The Simpsons towards unions and what it says about public opinion.
- Tony Soprano, union business manager.
The Deadline for proposals is January 15, 2025. Submissions for accepted proposals will be due July 1, 2025