Professor Sampson is by far the best speaker and instructor I have had at UCLA. Every lecture was engaging and impactful; I legitimately felt like I left class every day having learned something worthwhile and interesting. You can tell that he enjoys both the content and teaching students. I would recommend this class to anyone, no matter what major!

I took this class because I'm interested in minoring in film, and I thought it was pretty interesting for the most part. To be honest though, this class was the least of my prioritizes during this quarter, so I have to admit that I slacked off quite a bit when trying to keep up with the work. I didn't watch all the lectures and definitely didn't watch all the screenings just because I didn't have the time. The midterm and final were still manageable though, but only because we were allowed to refer to lectures and readings. They were both pretty hefty in terms of length, but we were given plenty of time to do both (it definitely was hard for me to manage while having other exams and papers to do though). The final paper wasn't necessarily difficult, but it was very time consuming. I wouldn't recommend taking this class if you want an easy GE, but if you're interested in the history of the TV/entertainment industry or just love watching old TV shows/film, I'd recommend. (Had Marianna as a TA and definitely recommend!)

If you are not an FTV major, I do NOT recommend you take this class to satisfy a GE. I'm a very studious person, but this class was a ridiculous time drain (Many students took it for a GE but it was definitely designed as a pre-req in TFT). First, the lectures were anywhere from 30min to 3 hours, and were pre-recorded so students could not engage with the professor and ask questions (he did have office hours.) Despite their length, the lectures gave us ~30% of the material we were actually tested on, so our knowledge came mostly from readings. We were usually assigned 2 or 3 readings each week (from textbook and academic articles); be prepared to read 70-100 dry textbook pages each week. Third, be ready to watch about 4 hours of television each week - while this might sound fun, it will get boring very fast if you don't love old tv shows. Next, the midterm was ridiculously long. It ended up being about 10 pages single spaced for most students; the professor made the midterm span over three days because of remote instruction, taking advantage of the circumstances in a manner wholly unsympathetic towards students. The first paper was easy, but be prepared to write the final paper while studying for the final exam. Because of nationwide protests, he made the final exam shorter than the midterm (that's not saying much.) Again, I do not recommend taking this class for a GE - you will find easier, less stressful, and more engaging classes than this.

The grade:
Discussion participation and weekly homework prompts ~ 1 page (25%)
short 3-4 page paper (10%)
midterm (20%);
final paper (7 pages) (25%)
final exam (20%).

This was without a doubt my favorite class I've ever taken. Sampson was funny, interesting, and engaging. Each lecture taught me so much about history, television, and society.