TV- the TELEVISION
“He thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept your head you could still outwit them. With all their cleverness they had never mastered the secret of finding out what another human being was thinking.” George Orwell 1984
On March 25, 1925, the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird made the first-ever public display of moving visuals on television.
Jun 28, 2023
The first “television” system broadcast was a straight-line by Philo Farnsworth on September 7th, 1927.
Television’s popularity grew because of the visual component that was missing from the radio. This visual component provided another dimension of entertainment for the American people that beat the radio by a landslide.
RCA introduced television to the American public at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. Before the fair, they published a brochure for their dealers to explain television. The opening ceremony and events at the fair were televised, and NBC began regularly scheduled broadcasts.
Television swept the nation during the 1950s, with the number of sets increasing from one million in 1949 to fifty million ten years later.
World War II had ended and this new popular form of media literally took over the United States!
Perhaps no phenomenon shaped American life in the 1950s more than TELEVISION.
At the end of World War II, the television was a toy for only a few thousand wealthy Americans. Just 10 years later, nearly two-thirds of American households had a television.
The first Golden Age of Television is an era of television in the United States marked by its large number of live productions. The period is generally recognized as beginning in 1947 with the first episode of the drama anthology Kraft Television Theater and ending in 1960 with the final episode of Playhouse 90 (although a few Golden Age shows and stars continued into the 1960s). The Golden Age was followed by the network era, wherein television audiences and programming had shifted to less critically acclaimed fare, almost all of it taped or filmed.
A black and white (monochrome) TV is much simpler than a color set. It only has to process and display a single, luminence stream. A color set not only handles the luminence, but also the chrominence (RGB) information, which adds to complexity. Because of that, B&W TV came first, followed years later by color TV.
The first RCA color TV set, the CT-100, was produced in early 1954. It had a 12-inch screen and cost $1,000, as compared with current 21-inch black-and-white sets selling for $300. It was not until the 1960s that color television became profitable.
I was born on September 7th 1954. Yes I’ll be the big 7-0 next year! Baby Boomers were born from 1946 at the end of World War II to 1964 so I was right in the middle of the Baby Boomer era.
The first TV that I really remember was a color TV set that you had to get up out of your chair to change the channels on a knob that was on the TV set.
I believe it was somewhere in the mid-1960s.
My first traumatic encounter with our television set took place on November 24th 1963. I remember it was a really nice Sunday and we were going to go to Selkirk Shore State Park in New York on Lake Ontario for a nice picnic and a time of swimming.
A man who had been accused of shooting John F. Kennedy was being transported to another location when a Dallas nightclub owner by the name of Jack Ruby pulled out a gun and shot him dead right on live TV! My eyes probably got as big as saucers and I ran to tell my parents!
Since those early days I have truly loved television and probably like every other American since then have lost track of the amount of time that I have been in front of one.
My brother Mike who is older than I, was a big influencer in my life. He always seemed to have spending money and I didn’t. One day I realized it was because he had a paper route and I didn’t. So when I turned 12 I started to deliver the Post Standard which was the Syracuse, New York local paper.
My father was good buddies with the owner of the Zenith TV store in town Elwood Kenny and after I saved up the whopping amount of $16 Mr. Kenny sold me a old old 1950’s TV which took about 2 to 3 minutes to warm up before you got a picture.
In those days TV was still very innocent and most of the present day evil had not found its way into the American airwaves so my parents allowed me to have the television right in my bedroom upstairs.
I will never forget on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. on September 8th of 1966 I turned on my used 1950’s tube television and behold there was the first ever episode of Star Trek it was entitled,” The Man Trap.”
I was hooked.
Television had sunk its deep tentacles into my soul and not only did I become a Sci-Fi buff later but also a virtual connoisseur of the new form of entertainment that had invaded the United States.
Let me start by saying this is not another, “throw away your TV article!” Nor am I out to curse the present day darkness that appears in regular fashion on our screens.
This essay is simply to allow the reader to do a few things:
1- recognize the Wonder of the era that we live in with advanced technology on steroids!
2- understand that the television itself is just a medium that reflects the society that is broadcasting on it.
3- consider new viewing habits
Television in the 1970s:
Commercial television of the 1970s was awash with references to sex. In the wake of the sexual revolution and the women’s liberation and gay rights movements, significant changes were rippling through American culture.
Television in the 1980s:
Although the era of network television dominance was coming to an end, it was replaced by cable analog. Along with it, multimedia technology began to develop. The first remote controls, home theaters, and VCRs appeared in the homes of many Americans. Cable television was becoming the most popular source of information. Together with the remote channel changer, it revolutionized the world. It was in the 1980s that the so-called TV “surfing” came into being. It’s about quickly switching between channels in an attempt to find interesting content. Nowadays, the term is more often applied to searching for information on the Internet.
Television in the 1990s:
The programming of the 1990s is not easily categorized. Many complained about the increasing amount of violence, sex, and profane language on television during the decade. Few would argue the point, but there were also more documentaries, instructional shows, news, and religious programs on TV than ever before.
Although the number of cable channels and cable subscribers continued to climb in the 1990s, network TV actually made a resurgence. The networks grew in numbers, adding FOX, WB (Warner Bros.), and UPN (United Paramount Network) to the big three of ABC, CBS, and NBC.
Television in the 2000’s:
More than anything else however, it was the growth in popularity of reality television with shows like Survivor and Big Brother that challenge players in both mental and physical endurance and shows like the Amazing Race and American Idol that keep the audience rooting on contestants to finish strong and strike it rich. America’s fascination with television, fame and riches had completely taken over American society and our television sets.
I must say that for me up until a few years ago I would never want to admit that TV didn’t really affect me very much. When the reality was quite the opposite.
What do I mean?
When we think of TV we normally don’t think of why it exists in the first place. I know for years I just thought about the entertainment aspect of it and the shows and the sporting events that I was going to be watching.
But television, like just about everything else on the planet can be summarized in this one small phrase when it comes to why it exists, MONEY.
Yes I know it can be a hard pill to swallow but money is more important than television!
I hope you agree with that statement because it’s true.
In Great Britain they call them adverts.
In the United States we call those things that we love to hate commercials.
Why?
Well simply said because they interrupt our beloved entertainment.
I remember in the ’80s and in the 90s going to my in-laws and it was so cool because they actually had cable and paid for HBO.
Why did I like HBO so much?
Two big reasons:
1- no commercials
2- the racy R rated shows
Unfortunately for me it’s taken a very long time to figure out this one overriding concept about television.
The producers of television do not care so much about my personal well-being and wants as they do about making money!
No I know that last statement does not come as a shock to any well-adjusted intelligent American, but it’s easy to forget that truth especially when you’re watching something like Network News.
After watching it for so many years I watched a growing tendency in me after the 6:30 to 7:00 pm daily dose, that I would easily become irritable, negative, critical cynical and complaining about the state of the affairs of our nation and just about everything else!
Why?
The simple answer is because that kind of content sells.
The not so simple answer is because the people and the corporations who own network television have also an agenda that does not necessarily coincide with nice family values.
All of it simply amounted to the realization that I had to turn it off, if I wanted peace in my life, especially after the last election that got verbally brutal and abusive by both parties.
Back to George Orwell’s 1984:
“The rise of smart home devices and personal assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and even Siri, have become the modern version of a telescreen. With these devices being willingly brought into one’s home, privacy which was once considered a fundamental right has become a luxury that is increasingly difficult to attain. Nonetheless, while there are significant differences between the surveillance systems in 1984 and those in today’s society, the similarities are cause for concern. So, the next time your Siri goes off for no apparent reason, it might be a slight reminder that Orwell’s ideas in 1984 are nearer than ever before.”
The rise in streaming services, including specialized services that only stream one network’s content, such as NBC Peacock or Disney Plus, forces services to compete on experience and catalog. Today, there are nearly 300 streaming services available in the United States, focusing on everything from telenovelas (Pongalo) to horror movies (Shudder) and even content targeted at equestrians (Horse Lifestyle).
Choices that I’m making now to improve the quality of my life are ones that you may want to consider:
1- Less TV and more time outdoors
2- Less TV and more time with other people
3- Less TV and more time reading. I’m talking about fun reading, page turners!
4- Less TV and more time traveling
5- Less TV and more time for cooking a homemade meal, writing other articles that I would like to do, finding new hobbies like disc golf and learning how to draw people’s faces.
6- Less TV and more time for that one real special person in my life that person’s name is Cecilia.
7- Less TV and more time to invest in having my faith grow in Christ the Lord and taking time to really worship Him and see Him at work all over the place and be involved in that work.
davidallport 