Books About TV: 16 Staff Picks

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Starting to feel bloated from bingeing too much actual TV? Looking for a quieter, TV-related escape? Here, TVLine staff members — not professional book critics by any means! — share some of their favorite reads about TV and/or by those in the business.

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Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View

Ramin Setoodeh

Even if you've followed the daytime gabfest's every catty remark or sudden departure, chances are you'll still be shocked by what Variety editor Ramin Setoodeh unearths in this page-turner of a tell-all. Interviews with nearly every co-host from the show's 23-year history reveal alliances made and broken, queendoms threatened and one co-host whose dressing room was so gross, vermin moved in. (BUY IT)

Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must-See TV

Warren Littlefield with T.R. Pearson

This book — written in part by NBC's former president of entertainment — is an essential oral history of one of the most successful lineups in TV history. The story is told through the words of the network executives, writers, producers, creators and actors — including cast members from 3rd Rock From the Sun, ER, Frasier, Friends, Mad About You and Will & Grace — who made it all possible. (BUY IT)

Billion-Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson's Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing

Jeffrey Stepakoff

On top of serving as an easy-to-follow explanation of how the TV business works, Billion-Dollar Kiss will really appeal to Dawson's Creek fans, with its behind-the-scenes stories from Stepakoff's days as a writer/producer on the hit WB series. And yes, as the title implies, that includes how Pacey and Joey's iconic Season 3 smooch came to be. (BUY IT)

Inside Inside

James Lipton

What better way to honor the Inside the Actors Studio host, who passed away earlier this month, than by reading this autobiography, which chronicles Lipton's extensive career, dating back to his radio/TV actor and Broadway lyricist days. Lipton's life story might also surprise you in unexpected ways. (He repped a Parisian bordello!) (BUY IT)

Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN

Susanne Daniels and Cynthia Littleton

A must-read for any self-respecting The WB aficionado, Season Finale is a fascinating look at the netlet's heyday (Buffy! Dawson's! Felicity!), with plenty of insider insight, thanks to co-authors Daniels (The WB's onetime President of Entertainment) and Variety's Littleton. And while UPN may not have had as many iconic shows as The WB, the story of its birth and eventual merger with its competitor is equally interesting. (BUY IT)

Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind the Lanai

James Colucci

The juicy and comprehensive love letter to the classic '80s sitcom takes readers behind the scenes of many of the series' most memorable episodes, and boasts candid interviews with nearly all of the main players (including Betty White and, prior to their deaths, Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan). It's as entertaining as it is enlightening —and even better when paired with a slice of cheesecake. (BUY IT)

Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live

As told to James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

This book is a lot, and even more so since its update in 2015. A super-dense collection of anecdotes from dozens of former cast members, writers and producers, plus behind-the-scenes insight into the long-running sketch series, it's a helluva deep dive for those curious about how the original Not Ready for Primetime Players were assembled, Avengers-style, and the many obstacles the show navigated to get on — and stay on — the air. (BUY IT)

TV (The Book)

Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz

Need to know what to watch next? This indispensable guide to all things TV is a great place to start, with a highly subjective ranking of the 100 greatest shows of all time. Sepinwall and Seitz are two of the very best TV critics in the biz, and they add in sharp analysis to justify their picks, including a fun back-and-forth debate about which show deserves to be #1. Throw in dozens of honorable mentions and mini lists like TV's all-time best apartments, and this book should give you more than enough TV recommendations to last you through any quarantine.  (BUY IT)

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Presidential Debates: Fifty Years of High-Risk TV

Alan Schroeder

Election season is bearing down on us, so what better time to brush up on the history-making face-offs that came before? Schroeder — a television producer himself — walks readers through decades of these on-screen meet-ups and breaks down exactly how much candidates' performances on the debate stage, from message to wardrobe choice, can make or break their shot at the Oval Office. (Disclosure: Schroeder was one of TVLine Managing Editor Kim Roots' journalism school professors.) (BUY IT)

Tick... Tick... Tick...: The Long Life and Turbulent Times of 60 Minutes

David Blum

Released back in 2005, Tick... Tick... Tick... does not cover the CBS news journal's Jeff Fager controversy, nor the recent deaths of some of its most prominent reporters. But it does offer a captivating, well-sourced tour through the most-watched series in TV history, replete with personality conflicts, hard-to-make news calls and the occasional — though egregious — error. (Full disclosure: Blum was one of Kim Roots' journalism school professors.) (BUY IT)

Most Talkative: Stories From the Front Lines of Pop Culture

Andy Cohen

Imagine Watch What Happens Live's fun frothiness applied to a biography, and you've got this quick read about the rise of host/former Bravo exec Andy Cohen. If you can, get the audiobook: Hearing Cohen explain, in his own voice, his dizzying rise from CBS News intern to Real Housewives Svengali makes it all worth it. (BUY IT)

Wake Me When It's Funny: How to Break Into Show Business and Stay There

Garry Marshall

When the creator of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and TV's adaptation of The Odd Couple speaks, you listen. Marshall spins some great yarns about his work as a writer, producer and director (of films including Beaches and Pretty Woman), dropping along the way some fun tidbits (such as how they managed to put Fonzie in a leather jacket more than the network ever wanted to). FYI: The first words of the book title come from what Marshall would tell his writing staff before heading off for an office nap. (BUY IT)

The Late Shift / The War for Late Night

Bill Carter

You will not find a better insiders' account of David Letterman and Jay Leno's tug-of-war for Johnny Carson's throne. (The made-for-TV movie, featuring Kathy Bates' memorable turn as Leno's pushy agent, Helen Kushnick, is available to stream on Amazon Prime.)

Carter's 2010 follow-up — which chronicles Conan O'Brien's short-lived Tonight Show stint, and Leno's equally short tenure in primetime — is equally engrossing, and includes details of Leno and O'Brien's almost-moves to competing networks over the years, including ABC and Fox. (BUY 'LATE SHIFT' OR 'WAR')

Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN

James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

If you're missing sports right now, this extensive oral history of ESPN may help ease your withdrawals a bit. Boasting more than 500 interviews with ESPN personalities and athletes past and present, Those Guys charts the Worldwide Leader's meteoric rise from a tiny Connecticut cable network back in 1979 to the sports media behemoth it is today, with lively and raucous commentary from the people who built it from the ground up. (BUY IT)

Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad

Brett Martin

This Peak TV page-turner chronicles the birth of the prestige TV era, viewed through the lens of the male anti-heroes we watched on screen... and the complicated men who dreamed them up behind the scenes. Martin conducts in-depth interviews with the likes of David Chase (The Sopranos), David Simon (The Wire), David Milch (Deadwood) and Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) and peppers in his own analysis of the era's cultural impact to give us a historical perspective on TV's creative boom. (BUY IT) 

Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg

Barry Williams with Chris Kreski

Upon reading his TV son's memoir — first published in 1991, and for which he wrote an insightful foreword — Robert Reed's reaction was, "Was I really that difficult?" That speaks to the fun, sometimes fascinating backstage details Williams shares about the classic sitcom. In a terribly breezy read comprised of short chapters, Williams covers it all, from backstage romances to bad script logic to the plastic backyard "grass" that was pure pain to roughhouse on. Here's the story... Brady Bunch fans shouldn't miss.    (BUY IT)