The pioneering, incisive, lavishly illustrated survey of noir on television—the first of its kind
Noir—as a style, movement, or sensibility—has its roots in hardboiled detective fiction by writers like Chandler and Hammett, and films adapted from their novels were among the first called “film noir” by French cinéastes. But film isn’t the only medium with a taste for a dark story.
Hundreds of noir dramas have been produced for television, featuring detectives and femmes fatales, gangsters, and dark deeds, continuing week after week, with a new disruption of the social order. In
TV Noir
, television historian Allen Glover presents the first complete study of the subject. Deconstructing its key elements with astute analysis, from NBC’s adaptation of Woolrich’s
The Black Angel
to the anthology programs of the ’40s and ’50s, from the classic period of
Dragnet
,
M Squad
, and
77 Sunset Strip
to neo-noirs of the ’60s and ’70s including
The Fugitive
Kolchak
Harry O.
, this is the essential volume on TV noir.