Television's Influence On American Culture

Television has had a profound impact on American life and culture since its inception in the mid-40s. Television has changed the way Americans process information, entertain, themselves, advertise and has even influenced how we schedule our lives. The movie industry was also greatly influenced by television. Television was instrumental in changing how the film industry operated in response to the growing popularity of television, changing the type of films that would be shown for almost a decade.

In 1946 the film industry had reached its zenith with thousands of Americans going to movies of various genres from comedy, to film noir (Annenberg Learner). In the same year Television would begin daily broadcasts and in only a short period of time would begin to seriously compete with the film industry for dominance in American entertainment. At first television would

3D films and smelovision were some of the tricks that were used to attract audiences (Annenberg Learner). Different presentation techniques such as cinorama and cinemascope were also utilized, ensuring that most films would be shot in widescreen format from then on (Annenberg Learner). Films were also shown increasingly in color in order to continue to attract audience attention (Annenberg Learner). The types of films that were made were also attempts to attract more customers with large epics and musicals attempting to replicate previous success but to no avail (Annenberg Learner). Unfortunately, for the film industry anti-trust legislation combined with the ever increasing popularity of television would end up nearly destroying the film industry and by 1960 almost ninety percent of Americans would own a television (Annenberg