Cult TV Times: Old-fashioned long-form journalism for those who love TV
July 29, 2013 7:36 AM   Subscribe

Cult TV Times: Old-fashioned long-form journalism for those who love TV
About six months ago, a bunch of journalists (including myself) drunkenly decided we should stop moaning about the lack of good long-form writing in magazines about television and do something about it. Cult TV Times is the result. There you'll find both free content like Sir Mortimer Wheeler - Archeology's forgotten TV hero, and our very first official issue: CTVT #1: Mummy, Can Men Be Prime Ministers Too? - just £2 (about $3) for over 80 pages of content.

The overall goal with CTVT is to publish both a website and magazine that moves away from short puff pieces and the need to break exclusives - something that has come to dominate mainstream television journalism - and concentrate on writing in detail about the people and shows that make television, past and present, interesting.

Website content is published almost daily, whilst the magazine itself (digital-only at the moment), will be published every other month. Both include everything from features to reviews, and cover all aspects of Cult TV - Sci-Fi, Anime, Scandinavian Noir, classic drama, comedy and even the odd bit of wrestling.

Online Now:

- Sir Mortimer Wheeler: Forgotten TV Star (as mentioned above, written by me)
- Panzer Vor! A Beginner's Guide to Girls und Panzer
- Cleaning Up: A look at the new short firm starring TV greats Mark Gatiss and Louise Jameson from Big Finish
- Lots and lots of reviews for everything from The Stone Tape, to Falling Skies, to British comedy masterpiece Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Meanwhile in CTVT #1: Mummy Can Men Be Prime Ministers too? (Buy/Download here):

- A detailed look at Danish political series Borgen, its influence and what makes it great
- My history of Mortal Kombat: Conquest (and interview with star Jeff Meek), the nearly-forgotten action adventure series that's so nineties it almost hurts
- A look at the life and work of Bryan Fuller (of Star Trek, Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies fame)
- Lots more features and reviews

And if the above wasn't enough... we even put together a free teaser issue which includes:

- An unpublished interview with the late Gerry Anderson
- An in-depth look at Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, Kenji Kamiyama’s forgotten masterpiece
- A profile of TV Horror legend Mick Garris and his classic Masters of Horror series

We don't expect CTVT to make us millionaires, but we're hoping that enough people will enjoy what we write enough, and buy the downloadable issue, to break even. If we can do that then we'll be a happy bunch of writers. Although it will mean we'll have to find something else to moan about in the pub...
Role: writer, developer
posted by garius (3 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

Well, guess I have my airport reading taken care of! Awesome!
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:14 AM on July 29, 2013


Thanks! I enjoyed the piece on Sir Mortimer Wheeler. There's a very entertaining interview with David Attenborough (here, with transcript) where he reminiscences about working with Wheeler on 'Animal, Vegetable, Mineral':

He was an extrovert! He had a moustache - very useful for an expert because you can do a certain amount of twiddling with it - and he played the game to absolute perfection. Presented with an object he would say 'My goodness, what on earth can that be?' Then he would go through the whole process. Eventually it would turn out, of course, that he himself had actually excavated it and that he knew it backwards.
posted by verstegan at 3:06 PM on August 4, 2013


Huh! Thanks for your efforts, I'll have a look!
posted by JHarris at 3:37 PM on August 15, 2013


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