By Shawna Bellis
There were many types of entertainments in the 1950’s but one of the newest and popular ones was television shows. At first many people couldn’t afford televisions but as soon as it came to a price they could afford, almost everyone had already bought one. There were almost over 6 million televisions around the world in 1950.
Televisions during the 1950’s were nothing like our televisions today. In the 1950’s televisions had what some people called, “rabbit ears” which were antennas. Some people would even call the remotes “Lazy Bones”. The first ad was aired in 1955 and it was a 70 second ad for Gibbs Sr. Toothpaste made by AB-Pathe. The top show that everyone fell in love with was first shown in 1957 called “I Love Lucy”, which starred Lucille Ball.
The top television show during the 1950’s was “I Love Lucy”, this show was shown on CBS. This show was about a couple living in New York City. The wife was a involved in show business and she was always trying to get her husband to join her. They would always get into funny situations. This show was popu...
The Andy Griffith Show and I love Lucy have been two of the most watched shows in the history of television aired on CBS. I Love Lucy was a scripted sitcom recorded in front of a live studio audience with multiple cameras to give it better comic energy. It took place in an apartment in New York and her husband was an upcoming Cuban American who sung in a band. Although this was a black and white film, Lucy and Ricardo had colorful personalities. Lucy was always dressed nicely and Ricardo was always in a suit or business like attire. The house was always spotless as she was a housewife and an excellent mother later on. Lucy had a way of getting into trouble but Ricky somehow managed to get them out. She also displayed some traits that women were stereotyped for such as not showing or looking your age, being careless with money, and other secretive things. Ricardo on the other hand was the total opposite of Lucy which in the end balanced out their relationship. He has more patience than most and when he gets extremely mad, he would speak reall...
The early 1960s saw the expansion of television. The television had become a common household
During the 1950’s the musical genre of rock and roll was becoming vastly popular (Charlton). The television helped increase this genre’s fame by broadcasting new rock and roll music to the country. By 1954 about 83.2 percent of American households owned a television set (Baughman). TV was a fast and effective way of reaching millions of people which became quite useful to up and coming musical artists. Two television shows that dominated the air in the 50 's were, American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show. These two shows greatly influenced rock and roll, because they changed the perception of rock and roll, provided performers with a large TV audience, and left a
In the early fifties, young people watched TV more hours than they went to school, a trend which has not changed greatly since that time. What was portrayed on television became accepted as normal. Shows like What's a My Line debut on CBS, Your Hit Parade premieres on NBC in 1950. In April of 1950 5,343,000 TV sets are in American Homes. In May of 1950, 103 TV Stations in 60 cities were operating. In September 7,535,000 TV sets in USA. In October there were 8,000,000 TV sets.
A family has always been expected to be a loving and caring environment with support and communication, but this sometimes does not come naturally to soon to be parents. Some get caught up specifically in bad things, perhaps their upbringings are to blame or maybe the individual could take all of the responsibility. When a society chooses what is to be socially acceptable, that limits relatives to only one kind of family and the object becomes destroying all other kinds. The 1950s was a time when technology wasn’t a big distraction from loved ones. Joyin Shih feels her true self being targeted by others, even her own family, in attempt to destroy her true self in her article, “Chyna and Me”. Alex Williams may also be missing the 1950s an article by Stephanie Coontz called “What We Really Miss About The 1950s” because he finds that families may not be as caring as they used to be in fact he argues that families are becoming more isolated than ever in his article “Quality Time, Redefined”. Good gives people a lot of frustration, more the division than the “good” because not all families coming from different cultures, different religions, and different ideas can fit into one mold that is called “acceptable”. The more connected individuals are to the Internet the fewer individuals are connected to each other. Technology should not be the biggest tool of communication in a family.
Television networks used these types of shows to protect themselves from any accusations that they were sending out “Communist messages”, but these shows subsequently influenced a generation into a new way of thinking and living. Families moved in rapid numbers to suburbia and wanted to be just like the Cleavers or the Andersons. The American public would never be the same, always reflecting on the perfection played out nightly on television and setting their goals to reach that level of traditionalism. The Hollywood Blacklisting that followed the Red Scare of the 1950’s forced the media to change in order to survive the scrutinizing committees of the HUAC and various congressional committees that pushed for the social “purging” of America in hopes of searching out the “Reds” which they believed were hiding among them. This change in media came at a time when the public had become extremely receptive to such influences due to the spread of the television and the growth of the middle class who had extra money to spend on luxuries such as going to the movie theatres.
I love Lucy was a very popular sitcom in the 1950s. Through humor and plot it brings out more of positive aspects and less of negative aspects for the 1950's that Coontz described in `What we really missed about the 1950s.'
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.
For television viewers of the fifties, Lucy and Ricky could have been familiar neighbors from down the street. People could relate to this young couple, the Ricardos, who were experiencing the trials and tribulations of marriage as typical Americans were. They lived in a modest brownstone in Manhattan with common worries such as paying the rent and affording new household commodities. The humor came when ordinary situations were exaggerated as Lucy managed to get herself into trouble time and time again, and proceeded to untangle herself from the mess. Ricky, her husband, would often discover -- and thwart -- her numerous schemes, and the best friends, Fred and Ethel Mertz, somehow managed to get involved as well. The zany redhead and the thick-accented Cuban were an oddly-matched pair, not only as a comedy team but as a married couple too. The combination of these factors yielded a television show that portrayed situations that average Americans could identify with.
In American memory, the image of the 1950s is characterized by clean cut, all American families living in suburban neighborhoods without a worry in the world. Because Europe needed American goods to help rebuild their losses from war, the American economy boomed and began to shape into a material world. Homes became affordable to apartment residents, which exploded the suburb population, and new toys, such as televisions, convertible automobiles, and fancy kitchen appliance became well known in the American household. Furthermore old television shows such as I Love Lucy and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet portray the 1950s family life style as pure bliss and suggest that this decade is filled with leisure activities and cherished moments.
This video allowed for large themes of I Love Lucy, which was the top TV show on at the time, to be recognized, and it gave a view of television programs at the time.
The morals and values in 1950 were had similarities and differences to the moral values of today. In 1950, the idea of a loving marriage was something that Americans yearned for. Today, everyone looks for someone to love but marriage is not necessarily as important as it used to be. Also, promiscuity and sexual references were not proper under any condition in the 1950‘s, however today, housewives can be respectable women yet still have a promiscuous side to them. In essence, “I Love Lucy” and “Desperate Housewives” are concurrent within their time periods. In other words, the shows reflect our society's norms and moral values.
The 1940's and 1950s Cable Television originated in 1948 as a service to households in mountainous or geographically remote areas where reception of over the air television signals was poor. Antennas were erected on mountaintops or other high points, and homes were wired and connected to these towers to receive the broadcast signals.
I Love Lucy aired from October 1951 till April 1957. However, October 15 was not technically the first episode. Directed by Ralph Levy and recorded as a kinescope, the pilot did not air until 1990. A kinescope is a 16mm film taken from an extremely bright cathode ray tube, often times they are fuzzy and distorted, for this reason they did not want to air it. The sitcom stared Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as an all American couple. Co-starring Vivian Vance and William Frawley as their next door neighbors and friends. Together they set a stage for family related sitcoms to come. The show centered around marital issues, women in the workplace, and suburban living. I Love Lucy dominated television at the time and paved the way for future
First of all we are going to go back in the past, talk a bit about “television” history, and how television became something necessary in a household.