View from Highway One — Michael J. Arlen

With The View from Highway 1, Michael J. Arlen continued his original and valuable efforts to evolve a new criticism for the still-young medium of television. In the process he has produced an impressive commentary on the passing life and times of this communications-conscious nation.

The View from Highway 1 is television critic Michael J. Arlen's second essay collection, originally published in 1976. In twenty-one diverse and perceptive essays, he ranges over such matters as Howard Cosell's sports-announcing style and Tom Snyder's intriguingly abrasive news delivery. He discusses the odd combination of anger and comedy that animates All in the Family and the buried eroticism in certain detergent commercials. He provides a masterful analysis of the diminished role of foreign news on television, and also a fascinating study of TV's often inept interviewers and their "How do you feel...?" interviewing techniques.