Esopus 15

The 15th issue of ESOPUS is devoted entirely to television, which Paddy Chayefsky famously called "the menace that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to live without." Contents include artists' projects by Alex Bag, Dara Birnbaum, and Johan Grimonprez, as well as an interview with Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King relating to their short-lived but groundbreaking HBO series "The Comeback"; Norman Lear's hand-notated script notes from an episode of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman;" 100 frames from Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "World on a Wire," a science-fiction film the director made for German TV in 1974; a re-presentation of the late conceptual artist Keith Arnatt's "Self-Burial: Television Interference Project," 1969; materials from the MoMA archives related to an NBC show about modern art hosted by Alfred Barr in 1955, and essays on sitcom sofas and the demise of the American soap opera. The issue closes with an audio CD featuring new songs inspired by specific TV shows; participants include Stephin Merritt ("Meerkat Manor"), Cloud Nothings ("Golden Girls"), and Freelance Whales ("My So-Called Life").