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| History of Television |
Television is one of the inventions that has had the biggest impact on American life today. Before 1947, there were thousands of homes in the United States that had televisions. At least one television was present in 98 percent of American homes by the late 1990s, and viewers watched television for an average of more than seven hours a day. The average American watches television for between two and a half and roughly five hours per day, depending on the study and the season. Not only is it notable that this time is being spent watching television, but it is also significant that it is not being spent doing other things like reading, going out, or socializing.
EXPERIMENTS
On September 7, 1927, the first successful demonstration of electronic television took place in San Francisco. Philo Taylor Farnsworth, a 21-year-old inventor who had lived in a home without electricity until he was 14 years old, created the technology. Farnsworth had started to imagine a system that could record moving images in a format that could be coded onto radio waves and then turned back into a picture on a screen while he was still in high school. 16 years before Farnsworth's initial achievement, Boris Rosing did some rudimentary tests in the transmission of images in Russia.
Additionally, John Logie Baird in England and Charles Francis Jenkins in the United States had previously in the 1920s exhibited a mechanical television system that scanned images using a revolving disc with holes organized in a spiral pattern. However, Farnsworth's innovation, which used an electron beam to scan images, is the origin of contemporary television. He sent a short line as his initial image across it. As soon as an investor inquired, "When are we going to see some dollars in this thing, Farnsworth?" he pointed his crude camera at a dollar sign.
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| EARLY DEVELOPMENT |
EARLY DEVELOPMENT
RCA, which controlled the American radio industry with its two NBC networks, contributed $50 million to the advancement of electronic television. The company's president, David Sarnoff, hired scientist Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, a Russian-born individual who had taken part in Rosing's studies, to lead the initiative. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a speech at the New York World's Fair opening in 1939, making him the first head of state to do so. A license to use Farnsworth's television patents was purchased by RCA later that year.
RCA started promoting televisions with picture tubes measuring 5 by 12 in (12.7 by 25.4 cm). The first televised baseball game was played between Princeton and Columbia universities on May 17, 1939. The firm also started airing regular programs, such as scenes recorded by a mobile unit. By 1941, CBS, the main radio rival of RCA, was airing two 15-minute newscasts each day on its New York television station to a very small audience.
Early television was incredibly basic. Due to the limitations of early cameras, the action at the first televised baseball game had to be captured by a single camera, and actors in dramas were forced to perform under extremely bright lighting while donning black lipstick and green makeup (the cameras had trouble with the color white). Early CBS newscasts featured "chalk talks," in which a reporter would move a pointer around a map of Europe that had just been decimated by war. It was challenging to distinguish the newsman from the map due to the poor quality of the photograph. Television's advancement was hampered by World War II as businesses like RCA focused on military production.
The conflict over wavelength allocations with the new FM radio and the fight over government control hindered the development of television even more. The Supreme Court affirmed the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 1941 order requiring the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to sell one of its two radio networks in 1943. The new American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which would enter television early in the following decade, was the second network. Throughout the war, six experimental television stations remained in operation: two in New York City, one each in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Schenectady, N.Y. However, the United States did not start broadcasting commercial television on a large basis until 1947.
THE INTRODUCTION OF COMMERCIAL TV
The Texaco Star Theater (1948), featuring Milton Berle, and the kids' show Howdy Doody (1947–60), among others, were available to Americans who lived nearby the country's expanding number of television stations by 1949. NBC's Camel News Caravan (1948), starring John Cameron Swayze, and CBS TV News (1948), hosted by Douglas Edwards, were the two 15-minute newscasts available to viewers (who were required by the tobacco company sponsor to have a burning cigarette always visible when he was on camera). Many early shows, like Amos 'n' Andy (1951) and The Jack Benny Show (1950–65), were adapted from network radio, the older, more reputable Big Brother of early television.
The majority of the new programs' forms, including newscasts, situation comedies, variety shows, and dramas, were also lifted from radio (see radio broadcasting and television programming). The money required to launch this new channel was taken from NBC and CBS' radio income. Network radio would all but vanish, save as a carrier of hourly newscasts, while television networks would soon start making large profits of their own. There occasionally seemed to be a lack of creative ideas for how to use the visual component that television offered to the radio. The temptation was to have as many "talking heads" or newsreaders merely reading the news as they might have for radio on news shows, in particular.
The newsreel companies, whose work had previously been displayed in movie studios, were first the networks' go-to sources for images of news events. By 1951, there were almost 12 million televisions in use, up from 6,000 in 1946. Black and white television sets were the invention that made their way into American households the quickest; by 1955, half of all American houses had one.
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| History of Television |
McCarthyism
Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy immediately began to rail against what he saw as Communist infiltration of the government as the House Committee on Un-American Activities started looking into the film business in 1947. The increasing national witch hunt had an effect on broadcasting as well. "Counterattack: The Newsletter of Facts on Communism" was written by three former FBI agents, and "Red Channels," a leaflet that listed 151 performing artists' purported Communist affiliations, was published in 1950. Violent anti-Communist groups put pressure on the network's revenue-generating advertisers.
Political convictions suddenly become a reason to get dismissed. The majority of the producers, writers, and performers who were charged with having left-wing sympathies ended up on a blacklist and were unable to find work. Even now, CBS requires all of its staff to take a loyalty oath. The illustrious former radio reporter Edward R. Murrow was one of the few people on television who was in a position and dared to speak out against McCarthyism. In 1950, Murrow launched a television documentary series called See It Now in collaboration with the news producer Fred Friendly. McCarthy was the subject of a report by Murrow on March 9, 1954, which exposed the senator's poor strategy.
McCarthy's error, according to Murrow, was confusing dissent with treason. CBS balked at promoting Murrow and Friendly's show. McCarthy responded when CBS offered him some free time, referring to Murrow as "the leader and the cleverest of the jackal pack which is always discovered at the throat of anyone who dares to expose Communist traitors." McCarthy made this statement on April 6. McCarthy revealed himself to be his own worst enemy during this TV interview, and it became clear that Murrow had assisted in ending McCarthy's reign of terror. McCarthy was condemned by the US Senate in 1954, and CBS's "security" office was shut down as a result.
THE GOLDEN AGE
The radio forms of television programming started to stray from them between 1953 and 1955. Sylvester Weaver, president of NBC television, created the "spectacular," of which the 1955 film Peter Pan with Mary Martin garnered 60 million viewers. Additionally, Weaver created the magazine-format television shows Today, which debuted in 1952 with Dave Garroway as host (until 1961), and The Tonight Show, which debuted in 1953 with Steve Allen as host (until 1957). With kid-friendly programs like The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–59; see Disney, Walt) and Disneyland, which started in 1954 and has since been shown under numerous names, the third network, ABC, made its first money.
In the middle of the 1950s, the two main networks featured a lot of theater-inspired programming. Such notable and well-regarded dramatic anthologies as Kraft Television Theater (1947), Studio One (1948), Playhouse 90 (1956), and The U.S. Steel Hour were aired by NBC and CBS (1953). Famous television dramas of the era included Paddy Chayefsky's Marty (1955), starring Rod Steiger (Ernest Borgnine also featured in the movie), and Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men, most of which were shown live (1954). 14 of these live-action anthology series were airing by the 1955–56 television season. The "Golden Age" of television is frequently referred to as this. But only one of these shows was still airing in 1960.
Although possibly less intellectual than other dramas or comedies, viewers seemed to prefer those that maintained a recognizable cast of characters week after week. Since its premiere in 1951, the wildly popular situation comedy I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, has been captured on film (lasting until 1957). It was widely imitated. The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason, debuted in 1955 as a film as well (lasting until 1956 with the original cast). Ampex created the first VHS recorder in 1956. (see video; video recording; video technology). A different format debuted in the middle of the 1950s: the big-budget quiz show.
Twenty-One (1956–58) and The $64,000 Question (1955–58) soon rose to the top of the ratings. Louis C. Cowan, the originator of The $64,000 Question and the president of CBS television at the time, was forced to leave the network in 1959 after it was discovered that game shows were routinely fixed (see Van Doren, Charles).
TELEVISION AND POLITICS
In 1952, the two main parties' presidential nominating conventions—then still at the center of American politics—were first televised by television news. Probably for the first time, the phrase "anchorman" was used to describe Walter Cronkite's pivotal position in CBS's convention coverage that year. Over the years, these conventions lost their spontaneity and finally their journalistic value because they were too preoccupied with appearing nice on television. With the introduction of the well-known broadcast The Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC in 1956, the influence of television news rose (see Huntley, Chet, and Brinkley, David). The networks started making their own news videos. They increasingly started to challenge newspapers as the main news source in the nation (see journalism).
The 1960 election of John F. Kennedy, a dynamic and youthful president, appeared to be proof of how drastically television would alter politics. Commentators cited the first broadcast presidential debate that year between Democratic contender John F. Kennedy and Republican nominee Vice President Richard M. Nixon. According to a survey of people who listened to the debate on the radio, Nixon had won. However, people who saw the debate on television were more likely to believe Kennedy had won since they could contrast Kennedy's poise and elegance with Nixon's awkward posture and uncleanly-shaven face. The assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and the events that followed were both covered on television, which further demonstrated the medium's influence.
The majority of Americans joined in on the live coverage of the startling and sad events, but they did it from the comfort of their own homes. The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, a news program that would quickly eclipse the popularity of Huntley-Brinkley, started in 1962. (and was broadcast until 1981). By the end of the decade, Cronkite had not only established himself as a highly esteemed journalist but also as "the most trusted man in America," per public opinion polls. It would be crucial for him to cover the Vietnam War.
While the vast majority of television news programs on the Vietnam War supported American policies, the conflict was occasionally depicted in a way that was unfamiliar, harsh, and unromantic to people at home. Many people thought it was a factor in the public's rising discontent with the war. Additionally, some of the rages of people supporting American policies in Vietnam were directed toward television news. A troop of American Marines was on a "search and destroy" mission in 1965 when CBS correspondent Morley Safer joined them. They were going to a collection of hamlets called Cam Ne. The Marines "wasted" Cam Ne despite encountering no resistance from the enemy. They did this by holding cigarette lighters to thatched roofs. Following significant discussion, Safer's videotaped report on the incident was broadcast on CBS.
The American president, Lyndon B. Johnson, called the president of CBS incensed the following morning, accusing the network of lacking patriotism. Cronkite traveled to Vietnam in 1968 to gather information for a documentary about the war at the time of the Tet attack. The documentary's conclusion, which Cronkite referred to as "a plainly labeled editorial," was broadcast on February 28, 1968. The only sensible course of action, he declared, "will be to negotiate," which was becoming more and more obvious to the reporter. Cronkite's story was seen by President Johnson. One of his press secretaries at the time, Bill Moyers, recalled that the president stormed off the set and declared, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."
AT THE HEIGHT OF THEIR POWER, THE THREE NETWORKS
Television in prime time began to broadcast in color in 1964. The FCC first approved a CBS color system, but after Sarnoff flooded the market with black-and-white sets compatible with RCA color, the FCC changed its mind (the CBS color system was not compatible with black-and-white sets and would have required the purchase of new sets). A nation that was becoming more and more intrigued with television in the 1960s and 1970s was restricted to watching nearly only what was broadcast on the three major networks: CBS, NBC, and ABC. Each of these networks bought airtime to broadcast their shows from around 200 affiliate stations in the country's major cities and metropolitan areas.
There may also be a few independent stations (mainly airing reruns of previous network series) and possibly a budding public broadcasting channel in the bigger cities. Each of the three networks' programming was developed with a large audience in mind. As a result, network programming catered to the lowest common denominator, according to critics. The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–71), one of the network's more straightforward comedies, helped CBS Television President James Aubrey treble the network's revenues between 1960 and 1966. Newton Minow, the FCC's chairman at the time, referred to television as a "vast wilderness" in 1961. With the introduction of more realistic situation comedies, starting with CBS's All in the Family in 1971, programming grew a little more daring (broadcast until 1979).
The one-hour drama, which follows the exploits of police, detectives, doctors, lawyers, or, in the early decades of television, cowboys, has long been a mainstay of network prime-time programming along with situation comedies, which are typically a half-hour long and center on either a family and their neighbors or a group of coworkers. Up until the 1980s, the majority of daytime television programming was made up of quiz programs and soap operas that dealt with previously forbidden topics like sexuality.
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| History of Television |
PUBLIC BROADCASTING
The establishment of a fourth, noncommercial public television network centered on educational nonprofit stations already running across the United States was suggested in a Carnegie Commission study from 1967. (see television, noncommercial). In that year, Congress established the Public Broadcasting System. PBS's primary stations are dispersed across the nation, unlike commercial networks, which are based in New York and Los Angeles and generate many of the shows that are shown on the whole network. PBS has more stations than any other commercial network—more than 300.
The drama series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971), one of PBS's most lauded productions, was imported from Britain, a country with a long history of making high-caliber television. Sesame Street, a popular educational program for young children that debuted on PBS in 1969, and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (1995; formerly The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, first broadcast in 1975; see MacNeil, Robert, and Lehrer, Jim), a thoughtful news program, were two of PBS's original contributions to American television that may have had the greatest impact. A five-part historical documentary called The Civil War (1990), one of the many special series created for public television was exceptionally popular and attracted some of the biggest crowds ever seen on public television.
PBS receives funding from three main sources: viewer donations, private business underwriters, and legislative expenditures, which saw significant decreases starting in 1982. All of these donations have some sort of issue. Government meddling is potential when receiving government assistance. Since the Nixon administration, conservatives have pushed PBS to make its programming less liberal. Long on-air fundraising campaigns have resulted from the search for audience money. Additionally, some detractors claim that programming that would question corporate principles is discouraged due to the necessity to attract corporate support.
THE RISE OF CABLE
The development of cable TV, a competitor to the three major television networks that would give Americans access to dozens, if not hundreds, of television channels, began covertly in a few remote areas. Everyone linked had the opportunity to get all the channels available in the closest city thanks to large antennas set up in high locations. About 640 of these CATV (community antenna television) systems existed in the US by 1960. But it soon became clear that those who were "television deprived" were not the only viewers who might desire access to more channels and content.
Cable companies in New York City signed deals to broadcast the hometown hockey and basketball teams' home games. In New York, there were more than 80,000 cable subscribers by 1971. The networks that were created specifically to be distributed by the cable system started to emerge, including Time Inc.'s Home Box Office (HBO) in 1975, Ted Turner's "superstition," which was soon renamed WTBS, in 1976, and C-SPAN, ESPN, and Nickelodeon, which all began broadcasting live coverage of the House of Representatives in 1979. The next year, Turner launched the Cable News Network (CNN).
INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
In other nations, the evolution of television took different paths. Most frequently, the major networks were owned by the government rather than by private companies. The British Broadcasting Corporation, which dominated radio in the country, also created and maintained its hegemony over television. With money from a tax on the sale of televisions, the BBC built a name for itself as a producer of high-caliber television. Some commentators applauded the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the seriousness of much of its news and public affairs programming, which was also liberated by government financing from many commercial constraints.
The government also provided funding to France's major television networks, although this support was viewed there as fostering a bias in news coverage in favor of whichever party happened to be in office. The influence of these publicly supported networks started to wane by the late 1980s and early 1990s as cable and direct-satellite television systems boosted the number of channels available. The majority of nations started to converge more on the American model of privately owned, advertiser-supported television networks.
POLITICS ADAPTS TO TELEVISION
Politicians and government officials were able to use television for their own purposes by the 1980s since they were familiar with how it worked. This was especially clear during the administration of Ronald Reagan, who had previously hosted a television program (General Electric Theater, 1954–1962). Reagan's shrewd advisers were experts at positioning him in the most alluring locations by releasing balloons and setting up flags. To maximize favorable publicity on television newscasts, they also learned how to write and distribute messages.
Television's influence was further demonstrated during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 when images of American bombs dropping on the Iraqi capital were televised live in the US. Leaders of both Iraq and the United States acknowledged watching CNN follow the war's developments. However, the U.S. Defense Department was able to keep the majority of reporters far from the action and the bloodshed thanks to the lessons acquired in Vietnam. Instead, the military showed images of "smart" bombs expertly striking their targets on television.
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