Established in Fall 2017, the Department of Film, Television, and Media’s speaker series creates a space for film and media scholars and artists/practitioners to engage in dialogues about past and contemporary topics that influence media industries, audiences, and society at large. The September 19, 2019, event will focus on the topic of “Television Comedy,” paying particular attention to new writing, thematic, and stylistic trends in contemporary television comedies. The participants are writer/producer Jennifer Celotta (THE OFFICE, MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE; THE NEWSROOM) and Professor Ethan Thompson, who has written several books on satire and television comedy (PARODY AND TASTE IN POSTWAR AMERICAN TELEVISION CULTURE; co-editor of SATIRE TV: POLITICS AND COMEDY IN THE POST-NETWORK ERA; HOW TO WATCH TELEVISION).