THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION

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 In the Beginning
 Early Inventors working on the television:
-Charles Jenkins/John Baird
-Philo Farnsworth
-Vladimir Zworkin
Early Development of the TV: Zworykin
and Farnsworth

An Internet series focusing on the early days of

television.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAJ19XeIn1g

Zworykin (left)
Farnsworth (right)
 Two early possibilities:
 Mechanical Television
VS.
 Electronic Television

 Mechanical TV- first broadcast crude images

such as stick figures and Silhouettes
 Electronic TV- First broadcast by Farnsworth was
of a straight line (he later changed it to a dollar
sign as an investor asked “when are we going to
see some dollars in this thing Farnsworth?”
 The History of Television
 Heading into the Great Depression, few
families owned television sets and many
technical issues were left to be resolved. This
slowed the diffusion of television.
 The History of Television
 In 1941, The National Television Standards
Committee, formed by manufacturers,
produced an agreement setting standards for
home picture quality. The age of commercial
television in the United States dawned on July
1, 1941, when WNBT (now WNBC) in New
York began broadcasting. CBS went on the air
that same month.
 The History of Television
 With the dawn of World War II, television’s
development was slowed once again as
materials and efforts were directed toward the
war.
 The History of Television
 With the end of WWII, several factors came
together to launch a “golden age” of television
(roughly 1945-1960).
 Returning veterans.
 David Sarnoff of RCA uses his political power and
connections to reduce the cost of receivers.
 The emergence of the suburb.
 30s-50s
 Earliest television broadcasts needed to be
combined with Radio
-Images could be sent but sound could not,
therefore you would watch the video and tune
into the radio channel broadcasting the sound
 After the end of World War II the television
took off
 http://transition.fcc.gov/omd/history/tv/193
0-1959.html
 First ‘Meet the Press’ photo
December 4, 1947: The earliest photograph in existence of the longest running
television program in history. Sen. Robert Taft was the guest on "Meet the Press" that
day, less than a month after the program debuted on NBC television at 8 p.m.,
November 6, 1947. James A. Farley, the former postmaster general and former
Democratic National Committee chairman, was the guest on the first broadcast. (Meet
the Press)
 The History of Television
 Popular programs of television’s golden age
included:
 Milton Berle
 Howdy Doody
 Leave it to Beaver
 Father Knows Best
 I Love Lucy
 The History of Television
 Another Freeze on Development in 1948
 The FCC stopped issuing licenses to study video and
color standards, interference, frequency allocation,
and educational use.
 One result of the FCC study of 1948 was the
allocation of portions of the broadcast spectrum for
noncommercial broadcasting. This was due in large
part to Frieda Hennock who was commissioner of
the FCC at the time.
 The History of Television
 All television programs were originally “live,”
meaning that they were seen as they were
being received as they were currently
unfolding in front of the television cameras.
Before the invention of videotape in 1956, early
television was recorded via kinescope in which
35mm film recorded the readout of a television
screen.
 The History of Television
 Edward R. Murrow brought journalistic
integrity to the screen his news documentary
series titled See It Now (1951), but most
television was geared directly for
entertainment purposes.
 Murrow’s crusade against Senator Joe
McCarthy is dramatized in the recent film Good
Night and Good Luck.
 The “Today” Show: Premiered Jan. 14,
1952

The Today show is a morning news and talk show. It was the first of
its genre when it signed on with original host Dave Garroway, above.
Dave,
a former radio personality, was host of the series until 1961. The show
was the idea of, then NBC-TV vice-president Sylvester “Pat” Weaver,
the father of actress Sigourney Weaver. The Today Show is the fourth-
longest running TV series.
 Americans Embrace the Television

Listen to some interviews with

people who witnessed the early
days of television.

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s
/life_27.html
 The History of Television
 The introduction of videotape in 1956 had an
enormous impact, permitting the editing of
high resolution images and allowing the visual
language of television to become much more
complex.
 Elvis Presley also appeared on The Ed Sullivan
Show in 1956.
 The History of Television
 The 1958 quiz show scandal (Twenty-One, The
$64,000 Question). This is often seen as an
emblem of how the business of television
places profits above the integrity of
broadcasting.
 The History of Television
 The assassination of John F. Kennedy on
November 22, 1963 was a demonstration of
television’s power to serve as a window on
world events. ABC anchor Ron Cochran noted
“Television had actually become the window of
the world so many had hoped it might be one
day.”
 The History of Television
 Television as a “national hearth?”
 “These galvanizing events supported the
theory that television would become a national
‘hearth’ where, now and then, we could gather
to watch, worry, and recover – together” (p. 33).
 How much did a television cost?
Compare prices from the 1930’s to the
1990’s and click on the television listed
to see the original advertisement!
http://www.tvhistory.tv/tv-prices.htm

1940: $395 (about

$4,500 in today’s
money) for a
RCA TRK-12
 The History of Television
 In the 1970’s, the FCC forced the television
industry to loosen its grip on content by
mandating that they “farm out” program ideas
to other independent content creators.
 The History of Television
 “When the CBS documentary The Selling of the
Pentagon exposed government efforts to win
bigger military budgets through expensive
public relations campaigns, it infuriated war
supporters and widened political gaps.
Fortunately, the comedy show Laugh In and
comic Flip Wilson made silly slogans such as
‘Sock it to me’ and ‘Here come da judge’ as safe
way to laugh off stress” (p. 35).
 The History of Television
 24 hour cable news channels
 The pioneer cable news channel was CNN (Cable
News Network) introduced in 1980.
 Key News Stories Covered by Early
Television
As news channels expanded,
technology improved, and more
people could afford a television,
the use of the Television to bring
news to the people become a more
popular and to some, preferred.
They followed newsreels as the next
form of audio and visual news.
Read this article on the early days of
television newscasts, and the
coverage of the Korean War.
http://jfredmacdonald.com/trm/11
Cuban Missile Crisis-
(10/22/1962)
Dr. MLK’s “I have a Dream Speech
JFK, MLK and RFK
Assasinations
The Moon Landing: Watch Video (1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
p7c-PbfnQuw
The Vietnam War(first widely televised
war in the 1960’s-1970’s)
Watergate: (1973 Hearings begin)
Watch Video
http://www.newseum.org/century/
movies/watergate.htm
Shuttle Challenger Explodes (1/28/86)
Berlin Wall Falls (11/9/89)
 The History of Television
 Beginning in the 1980s, “big three” television
networks (NBC, CBS and ABC) faced major
competition from several sources:
 Cable and Satellite Television
 Syndication
 VCRs
 Financial interest and syndication rules
 The History of Television
 The increased competition weakened the major
networks and lead to an eventual buyout by
larger holding companies.
 ABC by Capital City Communications
 NBC by General Electric
 CBS by Viacom
 Hours You Watch TV
 The beginning of Television had one of the greatest
influences on the History of the United States. Since
its beginning it has increased the speed of
information, entertained, influenced policy, and
elections. Think about this for a moment, grab a pen
and paper, go ahead, they won’t bite.
 Now lets do a little math, lets assume for a moment
that you represent the average American. Figure out
about how much TV you have watched or plan to
watch this week.
 Now multiply that by 52, that’s how much you the
average American are likely to watch in a year.
 Let’s Compare
 First and foremost lets compare the number of
hours you just calculated for TV with how
often you read. Go ahead and do that math
again for your reading patterns.
 For other statistics such as the actual amount of
time your average Americans spend in front of
the tube visit the following site:
http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/t
v&health.html
 Color TV and the Satellite Era
 Use the link below to read about the expansion
of the color TV and the transition into the
Satellite Era
http://transition.fcc.gov/omd/history/tv/196
0-1989.html
24 Hour News Networks
With 24 hour news networks, may people
began to watch news stories unfold as
they were happening.
• Challenger Disaster (1986)
• Gulf War (1991)
• OJ Simpson Chase and Trial (1994)
• September, 11th 2001
• Invasion of Iraq (2003)
• Hurricane Katrina (2005)
• Haiti Earthquake (2010)
• Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010)
• Earthquake/ Tsunami Crisis in Japan
(2011)
 The History of Television
 The Present state of Television
 High Definition Television
 Digital Video Recorders
 Video on Demand
 MS Vista and the concept of convergence
Broadcasts and Television Programs that
changed the world
 Take a little time and research one of the following
programs with special attention to how it affected or
reflected culture:
 1968 Olympic Games
 See it Now (Murrow vs McCarthyism)
 Father Knows Best
 Broadcasting during 9/11
 I love Lucy
 MASH
 The Moon Landing
 Kennedy Assasination
 Kennedy vs Nixon Debates
 History of television in INDIA
 Terrestrial television in India started with the experimental
telecast starting in Delhi on 15 September 1959 with a small
transmitter and a makeshift studio. The regular daily
transmission started in 1965 as a part of All India Radio. •
The television service was extended to Bombay (now Mumbai)
and Amritsar in 1972. • Up until 1975, only seven Indian cities
had a television service and Doordarshan remained the sole
provider of television in India. Television services were
separated from radio in 1976. • National telecasts were
introduced in 1982. In the same year, colour TV was introduced
in the Indian market. Indian small screen programming started
off in the early 1980s. At that time there was only one national
channel Doordarshan, which was government owned.
The Ramayana andMahabharata

 Both being Hindu mythological stories based on religious

scriptures of the same names) were the first major television
series produced. This serial notched up the world record in
viewership numbers for a single program. By the late 1980s
more and more people started to own television sets.
Though there was a single channel, television programming
had reached saturation. Hence the government opened up
another channel which had part national programming and
part regional. This channel was known as DD 2 later DD
Metro. Both channels were broadcast terrestrially.
Thank you..