- Home
- Courses
- History of Broadcasting
- History of Broadcasting: Television, 1945-1955
- Harry Truman’s Postwar Fair Deal
- expansion of Social Security benefits
- higher minimum wages
- housing subsidies
- GI Bill
- interstate highway system
- Corporate Liberalism
- postwar governing ethos
- “interests of democracy could be best served by experts”
- FCC adopted such a posture
- television would be administered by the radio networks
- Cold War
- polarization between US and Soviet Union
- Soviet Union’s intention to spread communism throughout the world
- “Un-American values”
- support for labor
- civil rights for African Americans
- women in the workplace
- liberal values were considered seditious
- Red Baiting
- House Committee on Un-American Activities
- trails by Senator Joseph McCarthy
- blacklisting
- Red Channels report
- Communist influence in radio and television industries
- Hollywood Ten
- screenwriters and directors
- held in contempt of Congress
- considered dark period in American history
- Postwar Race
- Truman convened commission to investigate civil rights
- NAACP petitioned to the newly formed Human Rights Commission of the United Nations
- Truman’s commission released To Secure These Rights report
- rejected “separate but equal”
- called for end to segregation in the military
- set up school desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education case
- radio would feature African American culture after introduction of television
- Postwar American Culture
- return to active consumption
- new families
- growth of suburbanization
- demand for cars and durable goods
- rising wages and prosperity
- beginnings of youth market
- Paramount Decision
- anti-trust decree, 1948
- major movie studios
- MGM
- Warner Brothers
- RKO
- 20th Century-Fox
- Paramount
- forced to divest of theater chains
- reduce vertical integration
- End of the Studio System
- lost guarantees for first-run theaters
- reduced contractual commitments
- rise of independent production companies
- influx of European films
- Hollywood vs. TV
- film studios could not own stations
- anti-trust violators
- FCC unsympathetic to Hollywood studios
- introduced wide screen formats
- produced 3D movies
- built drive-in theaters in suburbs
- introduced Technicolor and Eastman Color
- Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
- Early Concepts for Hollywood TV
- theater television
- broadcast television signals
- movie screens
- subscription television
- early form of pay cable TV
- FCC intervened
- threat to free over-the-air TV
- Postwar Radio
- changed from national networked medium
- locally-oriented
- music-dominated
- fragmented
- Hilmes: “DJs, black radio, and rock ’n’ roll”
- number of AM stations grew
- FM radio slowly emerged
- non-commercial radio was set aside on “left side” of FM band
- growth helped by postwar Freeze on new TV stations, 1948–1952
- Here Comes Television
- established corporate owners in radio networks
- similar regulatory structures to radio
- programming imported from radio
- movie industry would be kept away
- Radio Comes to Television
- early programming was live made-for-TV fare
- radio hits would come to radio
- The Goldbergs
- Texaco Star Theater
- Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge
- radio stars came to television
- Jack Benny
- George Burns and Gracie Allen
- Frank Sinatra
- sports programs
- Gillette’s Friday Night Fights
- National Television Systems Committee
- electronic television: “video”
- standard adopted 1941
- interlaced
- 60 Hz, fields per second
- effectively 30 frames per second
- 525 lines of resolution
- The Freeze
- not enough station capacity on VHF band
- FCC imposed a freeze on new stations, fall 1948
- RCA vs. CBS in dispute over color TV
- how to utilize the UHF band
- pressures over educational TV
- freeze persisted until 1952
- Effects of Freeze
- existing stations owned or affiliated with networks
- this made networks more powerful
- allowed AT&T time to complete coaxial network for carrying video
- FCC adopted UHF intermixture to expand channels
- this set up two tiers: first-class VHF and second-class UHF
- FCC approved RCA color standard, December 1953
- B&W TV programming persisted for another decade
- Live TV
- three-camera live system
- long shots and establishing shots
- medium shots
- close ups
- director ordered camera changes via a switcher
- no post-production
- recording required kinescope recording
- motion picture camera
- film chain to covert between 30 fps and 24 fps
- helped broadcast networks retain control of television
- The Story of Television (1955)
- industrial film produced for RCA
- credits RCA for the invention of television
- fulfilling long-standing fantasy of pictures through the air
- Live TV Programming Forms
- Network Programming
- Anthology Drama
- News/Public Affairs
- Soaps
- Variety Programs
- Quiz Shows
- Sports
- Local Programming
- news
- discussion
- kids
- sports
- Anthology Drama
- original screenplays written by theater-trained authors
- standalone play
- performed and broadcast live
- adapted for the televisual medium
- “good taste, high art, and serious content” for television
- Philco Television Playhouse (NBC)
- Studio One (CBS)
- Kraft Television Theater (NBC then ABC)
- Marty (1953)
- written by Paddy Chayefsky
- telecast live May 24, 1953
- part of The Philco Television Playhouse
- starring Rod Steiger and Nancy Marchand
- adapted to a motion picture in 1955
- perhaps the most famous live anthology drama ever broadcast
- Filmed Entertainment
- Network Programming
- Dramatic series
- Sitcoms
- Westerns
- Imported Series
- Local Programming
- Syndicated Series
- Movies
- Cartoons
- Telefilms
- filmed serials for television
- film extended lifespan of broadcast programming
- outside of network distribution
- syndication market
- international markets
- major film studios producing primetime filmed television series
- Disneyland (1954)
- Warner Brothers Presents (1955)
- 20th Century Fox Hour
- MGM Parade
- “American TV is Hollywood TV”
- Disneyland USA (1954)
- anthology television series
- premiered on October 27, 1954 on ABC
- featured excerpts of older Disney films
- produced to finance and promote the 1955 opening of Disneyland in California
This outline is based on material from Michele Hilmes, Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States. 4th ed. Boston: Cengage, 2014.