Juan Monroy — Outline: Week 6: Coming of Television

1 Mechanical Television
- 1.1 Nipkow Disk
- 1.2 Baird Television
2 Electronic Television
- 2.1 Vladimir Zworkin
  - RCA engineer
  - iconoscope
- 2.2 Philo T. Farnsworth
  - Idaho amateur inventor
  - image dissector
3 World’s Fair 1939
- 3.1 New York
- 3.2 RCA Pavilion
- 3.3 David Sarnoff
- 3.4 introducing electronic, radio transmitted television
4 National Television Standards Committee
- 4.1 electronics firms, including RCA
- 4.2 formulated interoperable standard for television
- 4.3 analog TV standard
  - 1941
  - 525-lines
  - 60 Hz (field per second)
  - 30 frames per second (later 29.97 for color)
  - interlaced
5 FCC Freeze
- 5.1 unexpected demand for television licenses
- 5.2 VHF licenses running low
- 5.3 institute Freeze on new licenses in 1948
- 5.4 three major issues
  - adopt a color system
  - find additional channels on UHF
  - allocate space for educational television stations
- 5.5 Freeze lasted until 1952
- 5.6 pre–1948 VHF stations affiliated with either NBC or CBS
6 Color Format War
- 6.1 CBS system, 1951
- 6.2 RCA system, 1953
- 6.3 CBS was not compatible with black and white TV, but RCA color was
- 6.4 NTSC adopted RCA color, 1954
- 6.5 first national color broadcast was 1955 Tournament of Roses Parade
7 Ultra High Frequency
- 7.1 FCC chose intermixture of VHF and UHF
- 7.2 VHF
  - Channels 2–13
  - higher power (wattage)
  - greater geographic reach
  - most network stations were on VHF band
- 7.3 UHF
  - Channels 14–69
  - less power
  - require less channel separation
  - stations would often be less-watched independent or educational
- 7.4 FCC did not mandate TVs to receive both VHF and UHF until 1960
- 7.5 UHF stations did not thrive like VHF stations
8 Popularity of Television
- 8.1 Sales of TV would be strong throughout the 1950s
- 8.2 less than 10% of American households did not have TV in 1950
- 8.3 about 90% of American households had TV in 1960
9 Live vs. Recorded Programming
- 9.1 television is the only medium that could broadcast live pictures instantly over great distance
- 9.2 networks preferred live television
  - kept stations dependent on networks for content
  - kept movie studios out of television
- 9.3 recording technology did not exist
  - videotape would not be invented until 1958 (Ampex)
  - kinescopes were of low fidelity, inferior to live television
10 Live Anthology Dramas
- 10.1 U.S. Steel Hour (1945–1953)
- 10.2 Kraft Television Theater (1947–1958)
- 10.3 Playhouse 90 (1956–1960)
11 News
- 11.1 Camel and Plymouth News Caravan (NBC, 1948–1956)
- 11.2 Alcoa See It Now (CBS, 1951–1958)
12 Situation Comedy
- 12.1 imports from radio
  - Amos and Andy (1951–1966)
  - Burns and Allen (1950–1958)
- 12.2 I Love Lucy (1951–1961)
  - original for television
  - three-camera 35mm film camera
  - high-fidelity recording
13 Hollywood and TV
- 13.1 movie studios were kept out of television by radio networks
- 13.2 movies thought TV was a threat to attendance
- 13.3 smaller movie studios sold movies to television
  - Disneyland (1954) on ABC
  - Disney was a minor studio
  - ABC was third to CBS and NBC
- 13.4 other major studios followed suit
  - 20th Century Fox Hous (1955)
  - MGM Parade (1955)
- 13.5 major movie studio revenues came from television by the end of the 1950s
14 Quiz Shows
- 14.1 popular after postwar affinity of intellectuals
- 14.2 rigged quiz shows
  - 21 (NBC, Geritol)
  - $64,000 Question (CBS, Revlon)
- 14.3 after Herb Stemple congressional investigations against the television industry
15 Sylvester “Pat” Weaver
- 15.1 head of NBC
- 15.2 developed expensive “spectaculars”
  - Today (1952)
  - Peter Pan (1955)
- 15.3 magazine sponsorship
  - networks took control
  - more profits
16 Networks take control
- 16.1 under single sponsorship, networks were “dumb pipes”
- 16.2 convince FCC and public to be sole custodians of television
- 16.3 three network oligopoly
  - CBS
  - NBC
  - ABC