Robert Stone directed the new PBS series "Chasing the Moon." It's chock full of new archival footage from the period. And behind all that footage – some fascinating stories.Stone tells Emily VanDerWerff about a very famous, very recognizable p

How Nixon’s TV strategy paved the way for Trump

Jun 13th, 2019 23m 59s

Richard Nixon’s political career paralleled the rise of television. He discovered how TV could make or break a politician. His successes and flops set a precedent for politicians who came after him, especially Donald Trump. Both men used televi

The TV Presidents: Reagan and Obama

Jun 6th, 2019 19m 31s

While they had radically different styles and politics, Presidents Reagan and Obama had at least one thing in common: They were both masters of the small screen. We’ll explore how both presidents used the medium to communicate their message dir

When the vice president took on a sitcom character

May 30th, 2019 20m 41s

In May 1992, the TV character Murphy Brown gave birth to a baby boy. The following day, Vice President Dan Quayle publicly blamed Brown for "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice

The fictional presidencies of Hillary Clinton

May 23rd, 2019 19m 20s

Fictional women in power on TV have a lot in common with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Characters on The Good Wife, Scandal, House of Cards, Commander in Chief — the list goes on and on. On this episode, we examine these characters to find out what t

24's twisted relationship with the war on terror

May 16th, 2019 23m 6s

24 premiered less than two months after the 9/11 terror attacks. That timing — and the show’s subject matter — affected the way a lot of important people, at the highest levels of United States government, think about terrorism, torture, and Am

Why Washington can't escape The West Wing

May 9th, 2019 25m 35s

When The West Wing was on the air, during the Clinton and Bush years, a lot of liberal viewers were pining for a Democratic president with a strong sense of right and wrong — someone like President Bartlet. His fictional administration made for

Trailer

Introducing Primetime

Apr 29th, 2019 2m 13s

Welcome to Primetime, a podcast about the power of television and how it affects and reflects our culture. In the first season, host Todd VanDerWerff, Vox’s critic at large, explores the American presidency on TV: stories about how presidents h