The Sun on TV
October 12, 2023This month Sun readers wrote to tell us about their experiences with “Television,” but that’s not the first time we’ve explored the little — or perhaps big — black box that resides in (most) everyone’s living room. In fact we’ve printed Readers Writes on “Television” and “Watching TV” in 1979 and 1996, respectively, and have published poems, essays, interviews, and photo essays on the subject. Below are just a few memorable examples of when The Sun and its contributors crossed paths with the small screen.
August 2011 cover of The Sun
© Lloyd Wolf
Readers who watched the Claire Danes spy-thriller Homeland might have recognized an image of a girl wearing a lion mask in the show’s opening credits: that same photo, by Lloyd Wolf, also served as the cover of our August 2011 issue. (It’s even been the cover of an album, by Danish group Gnags.)
Longtime Sun contributor Doug Crandell received a surprising call from an acquaintance in 2017: his 2007 novel The Flawless Skin of Ugly People appeared in the background of an episode of the popular comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black. He says, “I received many more emails about my book being on TV than I did when it was published.”
Numerous Sun contributors have had their work adapted for the screen, though few have been the subjects of a documentary themselves. Not so with Sun regular Poe Ballantine, who is the narrator/guide of director Dave Jannetta’s documentary Love & Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, which explores Ballantine’s investigation of the mysterious death of a mathematics professor.
Poe Ballantine
© Dave Jannetta
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