Editing Pulp Fiction (section)

==== Television ====
Robert Miklitsch argues that "Tarantino's telephilia" may be more central to the guiding sensibility of ''Pulp Fiction'' than the filmmaker's love for rock 'n' roll and even cinema:

<blockquote>
Talking about his generation, one that came of age in the '70s, Tarantino has commented that the "number one thing we all shared wasn't music, that was a Sixties thing. Our culture was television." A random list of the TV programs referenced in ''Pulp Fiction'' confirms his observation: ''[[Speed Racer]], [[Clutch Cargo]], [[The Brady Bunch]], [[The Partridge Family]], [[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]], [[The Three Stooges]], [[The Flintstones]], [[I Spy (1965 TV series)|I Spy]], [[Green Acres]], [[Kung Fu (1972 TV series)|Kung Fu]], [[Happy Days]]'', and last but not least, Mia's fictional pilot, ''Fox Force Five''.{{sfn|Miklitsch|2006|loc=pp. 15, 16: Note that while the Three Stooges did have an original TV series that ran briefly in the mid-1960s, they were most familiar from their cinematic [[Short film|shorts]] that were [[Broadcast syndication|syndicated]] to television}}
</blockquote>

"The above list, with the possible exception of ''The Avengers''," writes Miklitsch, "suggests that ''Pulp Fiction'' has less of an elective affinity with the cinematic avant-gardism of Godard than with mainstream network programming."{{sfn|Miklitsch|2006|p=16}} Jonathan Rosenbaum had brought TV into his analysis of the Tarantino/Godard comparison, acknowledging that the directors were similar in wanting to cram everything they like onscreen: "But the differences between what Godard likes and what Tarantino likes and why are astronomical; it's like comparing a combined museum, library, film archive, record shop, and department store with a jukebox, a video-rental outlet, and an issue of [[TV Guide]]."<ref name=Profusion/>

Sharon Willis focuses on the way a television show (''[[Clutch Cargo]]'') marks the beginning of, and plays on through, the scene between young Butch and his father's comrade-in-arms. The Vietnam War veteran is played by Christopher Walken, whose presence in the role evokes his performance as a traumatized G.I. in the Vietnam War movie ''[[The Deer Hunter]]'' (1978). Willis writes that "when Captain Koons enters the living room, we see Walken in his function as an image retrieved from a repertoire of 1970s television and movie versions of ruined [[masculinity]] in search of rehabilitation&nbsp;... [T]he gray light of the television presiding over the scene seems to inscribe the ghostly paternal gaze."{{sfn|Willis |1997|p=195}} Miklitsch asserts that, for some critics, the film is a "prime example of the pernicious ooze-like influence of mass culture exemplified by their bête noire: TV."{{sfn|Miklitsch|2006|p=16}} Kolker might not disagree, arguing that "''Pulp Fiction'' is a simulacrum of our daily exposure to television; its homophobes, thugs and perverts, sentimental boxers and pimp promoters move through a series of long-take tableaux: we watch, laugh, and remain with nothing to comprehend."{{sfn|Kolker|2000|p=250}}