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Television By mws For many younger people, the Internet is a more important medium than television. But television is still the dominant medium for the majority of Americans. Television as we know it was invented and developed in the 1920s, largely by Philo T. Farnsworth and Russian immigrant Vladimir Zworykin. Television is on in the average American household for over eight hours a day. The average American watches about five hours a day. The amount watched varies by season. We tend to watch more in the winter and less in the summer (when the weather is nicer and we are more likely to be out and about). The amount watched varies by age. Kids and seniors watch the most. In regard to sex and age, older women tend to watch the most and female teens the least. The amount watched varies by race. AfricanAmericans tend to watch the most (over seven hours a day on average) and Asian-Americans the least (about three and a quarter hours a day on average). Most people watch during prime time (8:0011:00pm). The most watched half hour tends to be 8:30-9:00 pm. Sunday night tends to be the most watched night and Saturday night the least. (As of January, 2014 an average of 124.2 million people are using their television set during prime time on Sunday night. This number gradually declines each successive night of the week, bottoming out on Saturday. Also of note in January, 2014 is that, in this era of DVRs, five of the fifteen most time-shifted shows are on Sunday night.) There are more television sets in the United States than there are bathtubs and showers. The average American home now contains more television sets (about four) than people, so folks can typically watch whatever they want. People can also usually watch when they want. Over half of all households contain a digital video recorder (DVR). We can also now watch online and on our cell phones. Studies show that many people actually watch online at work. Despite all this viewing there has actually been a decline in the percentage of households that have a television set. A few years ago almost 99% of households had a television. Now the figure is below 97%, mostly because an increasing number of younger people are foregoing television sets and relying on their laptops or tablets for online videos, movies, and programs. Television shows have been one of the biggest American exports. It was once said that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Now it never sets on I Love Lucy. The average American living to age 80, at present levels of television viewing, will have spent fifteen full years of his/her life (24/7) watching television. A few years ago children were surveyed with the question: “Which do you like better, TV or your daddy?” Fifty-four percent said “TV.” Twenty-seven million people watched the first inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower on television on January 20, 1953. But this was upstaged the night before when forty-four million tuned in to the birth of “Little Ricky” Ricardo on I Love Lucy. That same week the real Lucy gave birth to her son, Desi Arnaz, Jr.

Their picture shortly thereafter appeared on the cover of TV Guide, which would become the best selling magazine in the country. Americans are not the only ones who watch a lot of television. The Japanese watch almost as much as we do. Sesame Street was so popular in American Samoa that the government there once considered naming the island’s main street after the show. A United Nations study found that one consequence of television ownership is that occupants of households that have a set tend to spend less time sleeping than those without. One survey asked people how much money it would take for them to give up television for one year. Almost half refused to do so for anything less than one million dollars. Another survey asked how much it would take to give up television for forever. Fifty-two percent said that no amount would be sufficient. Television is such an important part of and driver of our culture. In that capacity, down through the decades, television has added such memorable phrases to our language as: “Thanks, I needed that.” (Mennen Skin Bracer commercial) “Dynomite!” (Good Times) “To the moon, Alice.” (The Honeymooners) “Who loves ya, baby?” (Kojak) “What a revoltin development this is.” (The Life of Riley) “Nanu! Nanu!” (Mork and Mindy) “You bet your sweet bippy.” (Rowen & Martin’s Laugh-In) “Sock it to me.” (Rowen & Martin’s Laugh-In) “Very interesting.” (Rowen & Martin’s Laugh-In) “Cowabunga!” (The Simpsons) "Won't you be my neighbor?" (Mr. Rogers) “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.” (Alka-Seltzer commercial) “Don’t have a cow, man.” (The Simpsons) “Master of your domain.” (Seinfeld) “Well doggies.” (The Beverly Hillbillies) “How sweet it is!” (The Jackie Gleason Show) “Now let’s be careful out there.” (Hill Street Blues) “And away we go!” (The Jackie Gleason Show) “The devil made me do it.” (The Flip Wilson Show) “Up your nose with a rubber hose.” (Welcome Back, Kotter) “Just the facts, ma’am.” (Dragnet) “Va-va-va-voom.” (The Honeymooners) “I don’t mess around, boy.” (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) “Yabba-dabba-doo!” (The Flintsones) “Doh!” (The Simpsons) “Smarter than the average bear.” (The Yogi Bear Show) “Stifle yourself, Edith.” (All in the Family) “A really big shew (sic).” (The Ed Sullivan Show) “God is going to get you for this.” (The Flip Wilson Show) “Well kiss my grits.” (Alice) “Come on down!” (The Price Is Right) “Jane, you ignorant slut.” (Saturday Night Live)

“We are two wild and crazy guys.” (Saturday Night Live) “Where’s the beef?” (Wendy’s commercial) “Yada, yada, yada.” (Seinfeld) “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” (Seinfeld) “Oh my god! They killed Kenny!” (South Park) “I’m not fat. I’m big boned.” (South Park) “Final answer?” (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) “The tribe has spoken.” (Survivor) “Maybe the dingo ate your baby.” (Seinfeld) “My boys can swim.” (Seinfeld) “Get out.” (Seinfeld) “Bada Bing.” (The Sopranos) “You’re fired.” (The Apprentice) “You’re all fucking mad.” (The Osbournes) “Why are there so many great unmarried women, and no great unmarried men?” (Sex and the City) "Bazinga." (Big Bang Theory) "Lucy, you got some 'splainin to do." (I Love Lucy) "Waahhh." (I Love Lucy) "Did I do that?" (Family Matters) "Whatchu talkin about, Willis?" (Different Strokes) "Exit, stage right." (Snagglepuss) "Sit on it." (Happy Days) "I feel verklempt." (Saturday Night Live) "Well, isn't that special?" (Saturday Night Live) "Here's Johnny!" (The Tonight Show) "Big bucks, no Whammies!" (Press Your Luck) "Missed it by that much." (Get Smart) "Book 'em, Dano" (Hawaii Five-0) "But Noooooo! (Saturday Night Live) "Bam." (Emeril Live) "Never mind." (Saturday Night Live) “What you see is what you get.” (The Flip Wilson Show) "Legend…Wait for it…Dary." (How I Met Your Mother) "How you doin'?" (Friends) “EGOT.” (30 Rock) “Zoinks.” (Scooby Doo) “The answer is…” (Jeopardy) "Suit up." (How I Met Your Mother) "The Possimpible." (How I Met Your Mother) "Here's what happened." (Monk) "Winter is coming." (Game of Thrones) "You are the weakest link, goodbye!" (Weakest Link) "Cabs are here!" (The Jersey Shore) "Gym. Tan. Laundry." (The Jersey Shore) "That's hott." (The Simple Life) "America has voted." (American Idol) "I only have one photo in my hands." (America's Next Top Model) "Bible." (Keeping up with the Kardashians)

"As if." (Clueless) "Did I do that?" (Family Matters) “Hhheeeyyyyy." (Happy Days) “Challenge accepted.” (How I Met Your Mother) “Lawyered!” (How I Met Your Mother) “You know you love me.” (Gossip Girl) "It's Chrismukkah!" (The O.C.) "Penny can!" (Cougar Town) "I need Big Joe." (Cougar Town) “We were on a break.” (Friends) “Burn!” (That 70s Show) “That's what she said.” (The Office) “You got it dude.” (Full House) “Have mercy.” (Full House) “Cut it out.” (Full House) “How rude.” (Full House) “Treat yo (sic) self.” (Parks and Recreation) “True story.” (How I Met Your Mother) “Riiiiicky.” (I Love Lucy) “Lucy, I'm home.” (I Love Lucy) "Make it work!" (Project Runway) "No soup for you." (Seinfeld) "Ohhhh, Rob." (The Dick Van Dyke Show) "Eat My Shorts." (The Simpsons) “Darn, darn, darn!" (The Munsters) "Live long and prosper." (Star Trek) "I'd Walk a Mile for a Camel." (commercial) "'De Plane! De Plane!" (Fantasy Island) "Pivot." (Friends) "I want to go there." (30 Rock) "Her?" (Arrested Development) "He's her lobster." (Friends) "Smelly Cat." (Friends) "A baby's got to do what a baby's gotta do." (Rugrats) "Gotta catch 'em all!" (Pokemon) "I do what I want." (South Park) "Welcome to the OC, bitch." (The O.C.) "Excellent." (The Simpsons) "Going commando." (Friends) "There's always money in the banana stand." (Arrested Development) "I just blue [sic] myself." (Arrested Development) "Coolwhip." (Family Guy) "Smize." (America's Next Top Model) “Fierce." (America's Next Top Model) "Hey you guys!!!" (The Electric Company) "That's all, folks." (Bugs Bunny) "Ruh-roh." (Scooby Doo) "Auf Wiedersehen." (Project Runway)

"New York's hottest club is..." (Saturday Night Live) "Sorry." (Saturday Night Live) "Don't make me dance. Don't make me sing." (Saturday Night Live) "It's not gay when it's in a three-way." (Saturday Night Live) "Pretty, pretty, pretty...good." (Curb Your Enthusiasm) "It's business. It's business time." (Flight of the Conchords) "The humans are dead." (Flight of the Conchords) "I've made a huge mistake." (Arrested Development) "Come on!" (Arrested Development) "Next stop, the Twilight Zone." (The Twilight Zone) "Beam me up, Scottie." (Star Trek) "Come aboard, we're expecting you." (Love Boat) "I'm so glad we had this time together." (Carol Burnett Show) "It's Finger-lickin' good." (Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial) "Why is it always me?" (House) "Yes, Master." (I Dream of Jeannie) "Good night and God Bless." (Red Skeleton Show) “Come on down!” (The Price is Right) “Danger, Will Robinson!” (Lost in Space) “Do you believe in miracles?” (1980 Winter Olympics) “God'll get you for that.” (Maude) “Good night, John Boy.” (The Waltons) “Holy ______, Batman!” (Batman) “Holy crap!” (Everybody Loves Raymond) “I know nothing!” (Hogan's Heroes) “It keeps going and going and going...” (Energizer Batteries commercial) “It takes a licking, but keeps on ticking.” (Timex commercial) “Mom always liked you best.” (The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour) “Nip it!” (The Andy Griffith Show) “Schwing!” (Saturday Night Live) “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!” (Trix cereal commercial) “Smile, you're on Candid Camera!” (Candid Camera) “Tastes great! Less filling!” (Miller Lite Beer commercial) “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.” (ABC's Wide World of Sports) “This is the city...” (Dragnet) “Two thumbs up!” (Siskel & Ebert) “Would you believe?” (Get Smart) “Yeah, that's the ticket.” (Saturday Night Live) “You look mahvelous!” (Saturday Night Live) “You rang?” (The Addams Family) “Oh, just one more thing.” (Columbo) “And that’s the way it is.” (The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite)

Television has been the medium from which most of us receive most of our news, sports, entertainment, cues for civic discourse, and marching orders as consumers. Television has brought us together to share real life tragedy and grief (e.g., 9-11 and the Boston Marathon bombings). The revocation of television watching privileges has been widely considered, after the electric chair, the most severe punishment that

can be inflicted on the nation’s prison population—or on any adolescent in a middle-class home. Television is also, perhaps, our one steady, loyal, reliable companion. Many Americans keep it flickering even when they are not watching. (Surveys show that as many as a fifth of American sets play to empty rooms.) Before children can identify specific programs they know television as a baby sitter beaming light and warm sound, making the world a little less lonely and forbidding when parents are away. Television serves much the same purpose for the elderly and isolated and insomniacs. The box is a hearth with a laugh track—a “cool fire” it has been called. The basic equation of television entertainment has stayed fairly constant since the early 1950s—a potpourri of sitcoms, game shows, dramas, movies, ball games, kiddie TV, and hit parade plugging music and dance videos. Money has always come ahead of art and public service. Weather and crime have always trumped the rest of the news. The basic formats may be the same, but instead of three networks dictating the menu and schedule, you can now have any flavor you want as often as you want in helpings as large as you want—and with DVRs and the Internet, at any time you want—from a vast array of channels. And yet…so many say that it is terrible for us. But as the old ad goes, “It TV’s so bad for you, why is there one in every hospital room?” The first real television transmission occurred in 1925. The first experimental license for broadcasting was given to RCA in 1928. That year the first drama was broadcast on television in Schenectady, New York. Experimentation continued throughout the 1930s. By 1937, 17 stations were operating under experimental license. The first major public demonstration, which featured President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, occurred at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. Commercial telecasting began in 1941. RCA ran the first commercial (for Bulova watches) that year. By the end of 1941 there were ten commercial stations serving 10,000-20,000 homes in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. Everything was put on hold during World War II, and the television industry slowly got started after the war’s end. The Federal Communication Commission set aside channels 2-13 on the very high frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum for broadcast television. In 1948 over one million television sets were sold. Genuine nationwide programming began on November 18, 1951 with the first broadcast of Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now series. He showed a live, split-screen image of the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges and said, “We are impressed by a medium through which a man sitting in his living room has been able for the first time to look at two oceans at once.” The east and west coasts of the United States had just been linked by co-axial cable, an event compared in importance by some to the driving of the golden spike in the transcontinental railroad. So in 1951 the networks were able to offer the entire country the same programs simultaneously. During the late 1940s and the early 1950s color television was invented and UHF channels (14-83 on the ultra high frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum) were added. Station allocations were reserved for educational (public, non-commercial) television, representing the civilized conviction that not everything of value can be popular. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was started in 1961. The American Telegraph and Telephone Company (AT&T) installed inter-city coaxial cable, linking stations throughout the country and making networks possible. The networks (parent companies responsible for producing content) owned stations in the country’s largest population centers. The network-owned stations are referred to as O&Os (owned and operated by the networks). The number of stations that the networks could own was strictly limited by the government, which did not want the networks to become

too powerful. (The actual stipulated number has changed through the years.) The O&Os in the big cities provided the networks with significant revenue and insured that their programming would be aired there. The networks had programming to attract large, nationwide audiences. This was of great interest to national advertisers and was key to the networks’ profit potential. To reach the nationwide audience the networks needed an alliance with other stations that were owned by someone else. These non-networkowned stations are called affiliates. They are similar to franchises. Through association with approximately 200 affiliated stations that would show the networks’ programming, each network could cover the whole country (and bring in a great amount of advertising revenue). The first television networks derived from three of the four major radio networks: CBS (the Columbia Broadcasting System), NBC (the National Broadcasting Company), and ABC (the American Broadcasting Company). Each had a sound parent company and enough money to make a go of it. Television’s relationship with radio was very important. Most of the original content of television shows came from radio. The original programming formats on television, including quiz shows, suspense programs, Westerns, variety shows, soap operas, and comedies, were all direct descendents of programs on radio. Television adopted other traditional radio programs such as newscasts, sports events, and live coverage of special events like political conventions. The Federal Communications Commission treated television like radio—radio with pictures. The rules applied were basically the same. The financial base of television was clear from the start. The commercial structure of radio was used whereby contractual agreements were made with sponsors. The networks supplied the bulk of the programs that were seen on television, but local stations had to provide additional programming to fill in scheduling gaps. Much of this programming was poor, which gave rise to the syndicator (a company that makes programming available to whomever wants to purchase it) as an important source of television content. Theatrical films were an important component of the syndication market. Much early viewing of television occurred in taverns and bars, which used the exciting new technology to attract customers. In 1949 sports comprised thirty percent of all sponsored network evening programming. In 1947 the first televised baseball World Series drew 3.9 million viewers, and 3.5 million of those were watching in bars and taverns. As television moved into the home during the 1950s, women’s, children’s, and family entertainment became more important. The 1950s was the decade in which most American households acquired a television. In 1950 fewer than ten percent of homes had a television set. By 1960, ninety percent did. During the 1950s the television networks saw a huge increase in profits. CBS and NBC were the dominant networks (ABC did not yet have a full array of affiliates). The first color television sets (quite expensive early on) were manufactured in 1954. Because of cost and competitive factors (most patents were held by RCA, NBC’s parent company), color took a while to establish itself. All three networks had a complete color schedule for the first time in 1966. By 1972 fifty percent of American households had a color television.

Videotape was developed in 1956. In the early days of television the only effective recording medium was film. This was expensive and processing was slow. Most of television was live. It was not until videotape came along that recorded television programs became the norm, and live telecasting, for the most part, receded. By 1960 virtually all network, prime-time programming was recorded. This was significant for two major reasons. First, it would let programs avoid the errors all-too-common on live television. When television was live there was immense pressure. Performing coast-to-coast in front of millions of people created a sense of excitement and electricity. Anything could happen, but this included much that was bad. Actors could forget lines. Some stars could get out of hand. Unexpected events could occur. One guest keeled over dead on a talk show. On Romper Room one toddler announced on camera, “I have to go potty, and I’m dong it right now.” Second, with recorded shows reruns were possible. With a show in the can repeated airings were cheap and easy. This became very important for the profit structure of the television industry. Now the only television programs that are live are sports, news, Saturday Night Live on the East Coast, and some special events like the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards. But do note that such special events have become increasingly important. In December of 2013, NBC aired a special live performance of The Sound of Music, starring Carrie Underwood...