Television history
United States
Television broadcasts begin in the USA
• In 1939 RCA sells television sets with the promise of 15 h of
broadcasts daily through NBC
• NBC and CBS begin regular TV broadcasts in New York in 1939
• National Television System Committee (NTSC, 1940): 525 lines
• FCC: commercial broadcasting may begin on 1.6.1941→
Commercial television broadcasting begins in the USA
• 22 permits are granted but only 7 companies begin operation
• War halts all but technical development
• After the war 15 television stations begin broadcasting
The expansion of television in USA
• Newsweek in1948: “Television is spreading like
a disease”
• 1949: two million sets sold
• 1951: twenty million sets sold
• 1959: fifty million sets sold, more than 600
television stations in operation
Live or recorded?
• At first live broadcasting is thought of as the essence of the medium and
”telefilms” as bastard forms (their production is outsourced)
• Recording is at first inhibited by the need to store great quantities of
information.
• Workable video equipment available from 1956
• Lightweight cameras gradually become available
• Proper editing equipment available from 1963
• Hollywood procedures adopted allowing for serial production and synergy
with film industry
• Soap-operas are broadcast live as late as 1975
• Certain programme formats retain live (or as if live) quality
• “Awkwardness” in shooting soap operas and sitcoms still functions to
maintain the impression of live broadcast (Jeremy Butler)
Development and adaptation of technical
standards – colour technology
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RCA (NBC) held several VHF patents
CBS could offer a UHF colour system already in 1946
Sarnoff makes a big issue about compatibility
In 1950 FCC approves of CBS colour standard
CBS had no manufacturing capacity →CBS’s first colour broadcast is
seen only through some two dozen sets – “invisible show”
1953 FCC reversed its decision in favour of a NTSC standard for
which RCA controlled most patents
Technical problems prompt Time to call colour- TV the most
resounding industrial flop of 1956.
Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Colour becomes a hit in 1961 →
next year RCA announces a million dollar profit from sales of colour
sets
RCA makes a million dollar profit selling colour TVs
The three colour systems
• NTSC (National Television System Committee
): USA, Japan
• PAL (Phase Alternation Line) Western Europe
• SECAM (Système Électronique Avec Mémoir)
France, Eastern Europe
Social and cultural role of television
• Networks promote the idea of commercial broadcasting as a
guarantee of individual freedom comparable to democratic
elections
• “Advertising on television will be a potent educational force,
and consequently will be almost as much value to our
American way of life as the entertainment itself.” (NBC
director)
• “First we have an obligation to give most of the people what
they want most of the time. Second, our clients, as
advertisers, need to reach most of the people most of the
time. This is not perverted or inverted cause and effect, as our
attackers claim. It is one the great strengths of our kind of
broadcasting that the advertiser’s desire to sell his product to
the largest section of the public coincides with our obligation
to serve the largest cross section of our audience.” (William
Paley, CBS)
Guarding morals
• Programmes were to be“domestically acceptable”
• “Because the visual impression is apt to be more vivid and detailed
and because to be understood it requires less imaginative response
on the part of the observer than does an auditory impression,
television must be much more carefully supervised if it is to avoid
giving offence. This means that vulgarity, profanity, the sacrilegious
in every form, and immorrality of every kind will have no place in
television. All programmes must be in good taste, unprejudiced,
and impartial.” (NBC guidelines, 1945)
• Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters (1951)
• “The Communist Party – through its secret members, its fellow
travellers, its dupes and sympathisers – will have control of every
word that goes out over the air waves.” (Martin Berkley: ”Reds in
Your Living Room”,1953)
Trash or ….
• ”Only occasionally … does the entertainment seem almost
mediocre.” (Life, 1947)
• ”I hate what they’ve done to my child. I would never the let
my own children watch it.” (Vladimid Zworykin, TV pioneer)
• “We seem to be watching, for the hundredth time, the
traditional development of an American art-enterprise: an
incredible ingenuity in the mechanism, great skill in the
production techniques – and stale unrewarding, contrived and
imitative banality for the total result.” (Gilbert Seldes, 1949)
• “I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland …. a
procession of game shows, violence, audience participation
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.”
(Newton Minow, 1955)
• ”The problem with television in this country is that
commercial television makes so much money doing its worst,
it can’t afford to do its best.” Fred Friendly
… a golden age? (R.D: Heldenfels)
• Comedians such as Lucille Ball, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Bud
Abbott ja Lou Costello
• Disneyland’s Davy Crocket
• Annie Oakley, “the first TV western starring a woman.”
• Medic, “A classic medical series much admired for its realism”
• Father Knows Best (according to Heldenfels one of the all time
best television comedies)
• Quality TV drama
• Leonard Bernstein’s TV appearances
• Edward R. Murrow and Joseph Welch disclose the
outrageousness of Joseph McCarthy’s claims
Ideas about television drama
• Script writers should take into account the limitations of the
shooting: scenes should take place almost exclusively in small
interiors and include max. 3-4 actors.
• Directors should limit themselves to close-ups. [NB: the most
common framings in TV production are medium shots and
medium close-ups]
• Many critics noticed that television drama was characterised
by intimacy which allowed for character development.
• ”The style of acting in television is determined by the
conditions of reception: there is simply no place for florid
gesture, the over projection of emotion, the exaggeration of
voice or grimace of movement inside the average American
living room.” (Gilbert Seldes,1950)
Practices of American television broadcasting
• Prime time / fringe hours
• Series /serial
• Target group / programming: Saturday morning cartoons for
children, afternoon soap operas for housewives etc.
• Least objectionable programming: attempting not to alienate any
part of the audience
• Block programming: similar programmes one after the other on the
same evening
• Hammocking: a less popular programme inserted between two
popular ones
• Counter-programming: broadcasting different kind of programme
than the popular programme of another network
Networks and affiliates
• The network pays for the afifliates for
broadcasting programmes (network
compensation)
• The network collects the advertising revenue
for this broadcasting time
• The affiliate
– is payed for broadcasting the network
programmes
– is able to have quality programming
– can sell advertising time for local business
(1 min/h)
National Association of Television
Program Executives - NATPE
• “A global, non-profit organization dedicated to the
creation, development and distribution of televised
programming in all forms across all mature and emerging
media platforms.”
• “develops and nurtures opportunities, both commercial
and educational, for buying, selling and sharing of
content and ideas.”
• Agenda at the first formal meeting in 1964
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The Network’s Relationship to Local Programming
Where Do You Find Talent?
Government’s Influence on Programming
Successful Formats for Handling Politicians & Political Issues
Practices outside the networks
• Syndication: the practice of selling rights to the presentation
of television programs, especially to more than one customer
such as a television station, a cable channel, or a
programming service such as a national broadcasting system –
can be a worldwide operation
• Off-network syndication: The first run of a program has been
on a national network, then the program is marketed for
subsequent runs to other programmers.
• First run syndication: shows produced specifically for the local
stations and not seen on the networks. (Bay Watch failed
after its first season on NBC but became enormously
successful as a FRS production)
The main genres on American television
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Variety shows
Television drama
Talk shows
Game shows
Westerns
Police & detective series
Sitcoms
Soap
Miniseries
Docudramas
Famous American television serials
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The Ed Sullivan Show (originally Toast of the Town, CBS 1948-1971)
I Love Lucy (CBS, 1952-57)
The Flintstones (ABC, 1960-64)
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (NBC, 1962-92)
The Monkees (NBC,1966-68)
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (NBC, 1968-73)
60 Minutes (CBS, 1968- )
The Mod Squad (ABC, 1968-73)
All in the Family (CBS, 1971-79)
M*A*S*H (CBS, 1972-83)
Saturday Night Live (NBC, 1975-)
Charlie’s Angels (ABC, 1976-1981)
Soap (ABC, 1977-81)
Roots (ABC, 1977)
Holocaust (NBC, 1978)
Hill Street Blues (NBC, 1981-87)