Many Americans today go home and flip on the television, but many do not take the time to think about the complexity of this great invention that is common to us. Nearly sixty years ago television barely existed and was not thought to be used as a broad communicator like it is used in today’s generation. Through its starting, stopping, then restarting in the 1940’s, television took off and expanded greatly in just a few short decades and had great technological breakthroughs to allow it a widespread range of uses. Though technologies existed in the forties, the great advancement and possibility that television would have, were not yet explored. Just as the radio, television was a process being experimented with, worked, and transformed into a sufficient idea. What was television for in the early 1940’s? How was it used? How did it progress into the 1960’s? What great advancements that took place between the two decades? These are questions many people may think of, but never quite get the answer to how we got the great television advancement we have today.
In the early 1940’s, television was something not many Americans had heard of. During this decade television had one basic goal: development. At this time World War II was coming to an end, having a few months left in 1945. In this period, the government only used the use of television’s limited resources in the terms of research and development for communicating the war. “They wanted to be able to use the technology for many different things such as guided missile systems using an ‘electronic eye’ that broadcasted images to a remote location where an operator was stationed (Television in the 1940s)”. The greatest lasting impact the war had on television was the development o...
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...many Americans received the chance to watch something amazing take place before their eyes that would leave a great impact on America forever. Whether it is the family sitcoms, Westerns, soap operas, or even daily news, we as a people received one of the greatest forms of technological communication and entertainment of all time, the television.
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(Goldberg, 2004) The 1950’s was a decade of fear, but it was fear that came with hope that peace and prosperity should never be taken from the people again. A shift from families crowding around their radio trying to hear the news, they began sitting down in front of their television watching their favorite shows that only aired once a week on either CBS, ABC, or NBC. Richard Powers said, "There have always been inter-family conflicts between parents and their adolescent children, but this cultural division was larger.” (Powers) he went on to say “A significant proportion of the adult generation disapproved of the values and lifestyle of the teens, and was doing something about it, including setting new rules, restrictions and prohibitions.” (Powers). This quote ties directly into the movie. This decade had many ups and many downs. It launched the
As this suburban sprawl of the fifties took America by storm, Spiegel discusses how television provided a necessary means of escapism for frustrated families. The first television show, broadcast in 1949, was a very simple program in which a man and woman sit watching and discussing the TV. Although by today's standards this would be seen as unsurpassingly boring to audiences, this simple show provided a stress relief and easy entertainment; it seemed as though audiences enjoyed watching programs which, similar to their own situation, seemed more rewarding.
Many of the technological advancements in entertainment helped people live a much happier and exciting life. The television was wanted by almost every average American family in this decade and overwhelmed millions of baby-boomer children who’s relationship with TV has influenced the United States’ culture and politics. Television
The many evils that exist within television’s culture were not foreseen back when televisions were first put onto the market. Yet, Postman discovers this very unforgiveable that the world did not prepare itself to deal with the ways that television inherently changes our ways of communication. For example, people who lived during the year 1905, could not really predict that the invention of a car would not make it seem like only a luxurious invention, but also that the invention of the car would strongly affect the way we make decisions.
The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The three main innovators were Niplow - who first developed a rotating disk with small holes arranged in a spiral pattern in 1884, Zworykin - who developed the Iconoscope which could scan pictures and break them into electronic signals (a primitive form of the Cathode Ray Tube) in 1923, and lastly Fansworth - who demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to transmit an electrical image in 1927. (Rollo, 2011) However, one of the many reasons why this medium was successful in the 50s was due to the fact that it became more accessible to the public. Television sets were more affordable to middle class citizens which created further interest in the new technology. Through an historical account of the medium, the spread of television across America throughout this particular decade will be examined.
Obviously the television isn't a new technological development; it's been around since at least the turn of the 1920’s and was readily available for public sale by the late 1930’s (Stephens). After the Second World War, the television expanded with its introduction into the commercial mainstream, and by 1955 it was estimated that roughly half of all American homes had at least one (Stephens). Although certainly impressive, this statistic would only continue to burgeon throughout the decades with the rise of color TV and cable b...
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The early 1960s saw the expansion of television. The television had become a common household
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News coverage from the CBS Network showed many Americans the awful reality of things going on in the country (Brinkley), and when big things unfolded on TV, the whole nation was affected (McLaughlin). For example, live broadcasts of events for during the civil rights movement really helped Americans see the issues more clearly and put more emphasis on their importance (Ganzel). Also, to bring war into homes, some networks covered the Vietnam War, and when Kennedy was killed, many people’s first instinct was to turn on the TV and check the news (Ganzel). TV became a paramount resource for Americans to stay updated and connected as a
Before analyzing the history of Rock n’ Roll television, the history of how watching television came to become a popular must come into question. To summarize briefly, the invention of television was in development since the 1870s, however the first demonstration of live transmitted images in motion was in 1925 lead by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird (Radio Shows Far Away Objects in Motion). The image was of Baird’s business partner Oliver Hutchinson (Television), showing a mere five frames per second, it was an impressive sight for the time. With perfection of the invention, electronic televisions had been developed by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin with the help of the RCA radio...
Up until 1935, televisions were not electric as they are today. They were mechanical, powered by a small motor with a spinning disc and a neon lamp. The picture projected was very small, sometimes half the size of a business card, and only showed shades of orange and red. From 1935 up until World War II, the electric television was perfected and made ready for public distribution. The electric television provided a much larger, clearer screen with a full range of colors. In 1948-1949, during the post-WWII spending craze, the television became a must-have item for every American family, bringing a world of information and entertainment into living rooms across the country and changing the way Americans viewed many things.
The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The three main innovators were Niplow - who first developed a rotating disk with small holes arranged in a spiral pattern in 1884, Zworykin - who developed the Iconoscope which could scan pictures and break them into electronic signals (a primitive form of the Cathode Ray Tube) in 1923, and lastly Fansworth - who demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to transmit an electrical image in 1927. (Rollo, 2011) However, one of the many reasons why this medium was successful in the 50s was due to the fact that it became more accessible to the public. Television sets were more affordable to middle class citizens which created further interest in the new technology. Through an historical account of the medium, the spread of television across America throughout this particular decade will be examined.
Before television existed people had to depend on Radio stations to receive their little bit of entertainment and news. But in 1878, the invention of TV began. The first TV made didn’t look anything like the way TV’s look today. It was a mechanical camera with a large spinning disc attached to it (Kids Work). But as over the years, of course, inventions of different TV’s progressed and by the 20th century about 90 percent of our population had a TV in their household (MGHR). Television today is mainly used for people take a break from their life by relaxing and enjoying some entertainment.