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Television. Television. Historical precedents: 1897, Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Karl Ferdinand Braun – German physicist 1880, Scanning disk Paul Nipkow – German inventor 1907, Scanning disk + CRT Boris Rosing – Russian scientist 1926 Mechanical Television
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Television • Historical precedents: • 1897, Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) • Karl Ferdinand Braun – German physicist • 1880, Scanning disk • Paul Nipkow – German inventor • 1907, Scanning disk + CRT • Boris Rosing – Russian scientist • 1926 Mechanical Television • John Logie Baird – British inventor • 1927, Electrical Television • Philo Farnsworth – Idaho teenager – farmer - fields
Mechanical Television – used a spinning disk with holes to trace an image.
Television timeline • Early television was not widely seen. Not until the 1950’s did it really become a mass medium. • 1950’s – Television’s Golden Age • TV borrowed from radio formats, but then realized the theatrical potential • Dramatic Anthologies • Weekly Drama show with VARIED plots each week and new characters. Similar to seeing a different movie each week. • Magazine Format • Borrowed from print magazine’s varied content. Daily. Topical segments, long length, multiple sponsors
Dramatic Anthologies • Weekly Drama show with VARIED plots each week and new characters. Similar to seeing a different movie each week. • Magazine Format • Borrowed from print magazine’s varied content. Daily. Topical segments, long length, multiple sponsors • Television Spectacular • Television specials – seasonal, special events • Quiz Show • New York grand jury probe in 1959 found many quiz shows were “fixed” so they went off the air for many years. • Domestic Comedy • Family 1950s blissful suburban life – white, middle class, heterosexual, housewives with only minor strifes in life. • Rare exception to white stereotype: “I Love Lucy”
Some hard hitting news programs • Edward Murrow broadcast “See It Now” – 1954 – Murrow calls out Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Investigatons Committee’s hearings as a possible violation of civil liberities. You can watch the feature film “Good Night and Good Luck” to learn more. • 1960s Television • Increasing violence and sexual content • Television coverage of Vietnam war, first televised war. • Escapist programming: The Situation Comedy • I Dream of Jeannie • Bewitched • Gilligan’s Island
1970s • A different kind of family • Maude • Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman • All in the Family • The Brady Bunch • 1980s • Return of the nuclear family (with more realism) • The Cosby Show • Roseanne • Family Ties
Artists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz used television and satellite technology to create artworks that questioned the role new mass mediums should take in society. Howard Besser writes of their work, “Hole in Space (1980)For their 1980 piece "Hole in Space", the Electronic Café set up video projection screens and hidden microphones in storefront windows in Los Angeles and New York, hooked these together via satellite, and waited to see how long it would take people to notice that they could communicate with people across the country, and how they would choose to use this (see illustration). People just stumbled upon this in surprise, and word spread quickly. Crowds played games, explored stereotypes between Californians and New Yorkers, and some even called relatives and arranged meeting times to give them their first look at their grandchildren.”