Brief History of TV
1939 World’s Fair: TV’s Public Debut
Key changes to TV since 1939
• Shift from NYC to LA (early 50s)
• Rise of videotape (early 50s)
• Rise of cable (60s and 70s)
• Rise of satellite (70s)
• Rise of VHS (early 80s)
• DVR (1999)
• Addition (and subtraction) of networks
(all the time!)
Life of Riley (NBC)
•
Radio: 1944-51
•
TV: 1949-50, 53-58
Amos N Andy
•
Radio show, 1928-60 (NBC)
•
TV show, 1951-53 (CBS)
•
Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll (creators and stars of
the radio show) in blackface as Amos and Andy 
 (L to R) Spencer Williams (Andy),
Alvin Childress (Amos), and Tim
Moore (George “Kingfish” Stevens)
•
TV’s First Golden Age: 1940s-50s
• Live
• Anthologies
• NY-based
• Great
writing
 Rod Serling
 Reginald Rose
 Paddy Chayefsky
Newton Minow – FCC Chairman
“Television and the Public Interest,” May 9,
1961
“"When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or
newspapers — nothing is better.
"But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in
front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there,
for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a
profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to
that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is
a vast wasteland.
"You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally
unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder,
western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and
cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending.
And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they
will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it."
The Quiz Shows
Top 10 TV shows for the 1955-56 season
1. The $64,000 Question
2. I Love Lucy
3. The Ed Sullivan Show
4. Disneyland
5. The Jack Benny Show
6. December Bride
7. You Bet Your Life
8. Dragnet
9. The Millionaire
10. I’ve Got A Secret
The TV Western
Top 10 TV shows for the 1958-59 seaason
1. Gunsmoke
2. Wagon Train
3. Have Gun Will Travel
4. The Rifleman
5. The Danny Thomas Show
6. Maverick
7. Tales of Wells Fargo
8. The Real McCoys
9. I’ve Got A Secret
10. The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Untouchables (ABC, 1959-1963)
1960s
Reality
Television
•
Vietnam War
•
Rural sitcoms
•
Civil Rights Movement
•
The Beverly Hillbillies
•
Student Protest Movement
•
Green Acres
•
Assassinations
•
The Andy Griffith Show
•
Urban riots
1970s: TV gets Woke
• Fin-Syn
rules  Rise of two great independent
production studios
 Tandem Productions, headed by Norman Lear
 MTM Enterprises, headed by Mary Tyler Moore and
Grant Tinker
The Rise of Cable
•
Originally, a way to get TV service to remote locations
•
Expanded in conjunction with the rise of communications satellites
•
Global reach
•
Niche programming
 Magazines : Newspapers :: Cable : Broadcast
•
1979—ESPN
•
1980—CNN
•
1981—MTV
Meanwhile, at the Broadcast
Networks…
•
Broadcast networks still dominant through end of century
•
NBC as case study: external pressures lead to experimentation
 Some truly awful shows
 Other truly classic shows—a Second Golden Age of TV