COM 320, History of the Moving Image
Television and Film: A System of Co-Influence
Television: The planned industry/entertainment medium
I. What took TV so long?
-Poor technology--originally mechanical scanning (Felix the Cat; revived for 1969 moon shot),
later electronic scanning
Baird demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6O_I9l1kok
British television 1937:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nRZ85OWr-8
German television 1935:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suCaJ0IUw8
-Lack of agreement on a single standard--a type of new “patent wars”!
II. Landmark years:
1939: Camden team of General Electric, Westinghouse, RCA demoed their system at the World’s
Fair.
RCA 1939 video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jApD3VIZu_4
1948: Year of major growth, from 17 to 48 stations, from 8 to 23 cities; motion picture industry
begins prohibiting new films from being shown on TV; The Freeze by FCC (no new
stations)
Admiral TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxpohFYs9Io
http://antiqueradio.org/Admiral19A12Television.htm
1952: Freeze lifted with the “Sixth Report and Order” by FCC that added UHF to VHF, more
channels, and inadvertently set up 3-network system by its placement/allocation of
channels (DuMont Network eventually died)
1961: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953; 20th-Century Fox; first to be shot, second to be
released, in CinemaScope) shown on “NBC Saturday Night at the Movies,” first 1948+
movie on TV; also, by technical fiat, the first pan & scan movie on TV
Pan and Scan explanation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWi0YiyrqzY
III. Golden Age of TV:
-The “Live Decade” (1948-57)--no videotape, kinescopes show us what remains
-Filming of episodes not widely used, for several reasons:
-Single-camera film-style method too time-consuming and expensive
-Technical difficulties in merging the two forms (TV’s lower contrast range, lower
resolution, limitation to B&W)
-”Superior attitude” of those in movie industry
-Viewers who were high SES, largely urban
-Talent that was often local and readily available (“Talent seemed to gush right out of the cement”
wrote Jack Gould in the NYT)
-Formats that flourished. . . and later, vanished:
A. Dramatic anthologies that exceeded in quality the “films of merit” attempted in
Hollywood, e.g.:
-Kraft Television Theater (Rod Serling’s Patterns, Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones,
A Night to Remember (Titanic story) directed by George Roy Hill, Romeo & Juliet with
Susan Strasberg)
-Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse (Paddy Chayefsky’s Marty)
-Studio One (Mary Poppins with Mary Wickes, 12 Angry Men, Macbeth with Charlton
Heston)
-U.S. Steel Hour (No Time for Sergeants with Andy Griffith)
-Hallmark Hall of Fame (The Petrified Forest with Humphrey Bogart, Thornton Wilder’s
The Skin of Our Teeth with Helen Hayes and Mary Martin, Dodsworth with Fredric
March)
-Playhouse 90 (Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Days of Wine and Roses
directed by John Frankenheimer)
-DuPont Show of the Month (Cervantes’ Don Quixote with Lee J. Cobb, Dickens’ A Tale of
Two Cities with George C. Scott, Swiss Family Robinson, Henry James’ The Heiress, The
Devil and Daniel Webster with Edward G. Robinson, Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw
with Ingrid Bergman, Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and Sixpence with Laurence Olivier)
-Twilight Zone (a little later—1959 through 1964)—Rod Serling’s filmed anthology brought
TV drama to a new level
B. Variety/Comedy Shows that were more entertaining than radio, e.g.:
-Colgate Comedy Hour
-Your Show of Shows (Sid Caesar)
-Texaco Star Theater (Milton Berle)
-Ernie Kovacs specials--he played with the very medium of television
3
A Model of Co-Influences
FILM
STAGE
RADIO
(inc. Broadway, vaudeville,
the Catskills/Borscht Belt)
-Art of visual communication
-Filmed productions
-Content (e.g., Disney, movie serials,
sale of feature films)
-Writers and talent1
-Formats (see above)--dramatic
anthologies, variety
Writers and talent2
-Many formats--e.g., soaps, sitcoms
-Immediacy!!
-Network structure (3 of 4 made it
into TV; Mutual did not)
-A “living room medium”
-Commercials--but quickly moved to
spots rather than single-sponsor
structure of radio)
-Writers and talent3
TELEVISION
Unique features of TV:
-No “shoestring operations” like early radio
-Moved slowly west during 1950's, except for
news, soaps, talk shows
-Proliferation of channels via CATV/cable
-TV-made stars4
1 - From film to TV--e.g., Abbott and Costello, Danny Kaye, Dodsworth
1 - From TV to film--John Frankenheimer (Manchurian Candidate, Seconds), Arthur Penn (The Miracle Worker, Mickey
One), Marty, The Days of Wine and Roses, Patterns, Requiem for a Heavyweight
2 - From stage to TV--e.g., Jimmy Durante, Martin & Lewis, Eddie Cantor, Martha Raye, Red Buttons, Mary Martin (Peter
Pan), 12 Angry Men, No Time for Sergeants, The Emperor Jones
3 - From radio to TV--e.g., Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Edgar Bergen, Rod Serling
4 - TV-made stars--e.g., Ernie Kovacs, Rod Serling (although he started in radio, but TV really “made” him), Ed Sullivan,
Milton Berle, Sid Caesar
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