In the 1800s there were two technological advancements that played big roles in the making of television. One was the cathode ray tube, which was invented in 1897 by a German physicist named Karl Ferdinand Braun. The cathode had a bright screen that projected visible light off when hit by electrons. The other advancement was the scanning disk that was also invented by a German man by the name of Paul Nipkow. This disk was used as a rotating camera and was flat and metal. The scanning disk was used transit visual images for many decades . The first sound and picture surprised many people watching and advanced us into the new age. Before the radio and other technological advancements, TV was one of the first things to influence Americans. When people tuned into television, they were receiving important information or updates going on around them. Broadcast stations were a big hit on TV because people were looking for information any daily life things.

Television reflects on how our culture has changed values since it first gained views after World War II. There was a huge amount of stress and press in the 1960s. The Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which caused people to turn towards television to relax and to clear their minds. Around the 1999s and 2000s this is where many networks had to cater to the needs of the audiences because TV networks were becoming popular. Television has a big impact on our cultural values. Many shows have ways to shape the viewers outlook on different kinds of shows. Television has the potential to create positive and negative effects, specifically towards children who watch tv at young ages. Most studies show negative effects on children watching television at young age.

Throughout the 1950 and 1970, television was one of the main influences on the American public. Americans tuned in daily to television to receive important updates and information from news broadcasts. ABC, CBS, and NBC, (The Big Three) received 95% of prime-time television and added Fox in 1986 to create the Big Four. All channels continue to focus on one main topic like news, cartoons, comedy etc. With network television having a competition with cable, they had to start letting go of restrictions that regarded sex and violence on shows. This forced networks to start narrowcasting so that they could keep their audience. Competition against prime time viewing, has caused audiences of the Big Four networks to decrease in 1994 to 43 percent and in 2009 it was 27 percent.

After watching Rod Serling: Submitted For Your Approval, Rod was born on December 25, 1924 in Syracuse New York. Growing up Sterling served in the United States Army and fought in World War II. After leaving the Army, Rod was attracted to the elements of writing live television scripts. Rod was a professional screenwriter, television producer and more. Serling liked to create characters and give them certain attributes for different roles. Sterlings two best accomplishments were Playhouse 90 and The Twilight Zone. Playhouse 90 was a television drama that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1961. One of the biggest hits was his episode that aired was Requiem for a Heavyweight. The show was full of drama and about how the fall of a professional boxer and his journey began after fighting. Towards the end of Rod Serling’s life, he found that he was to hard on himself at times. In my opinion, Serling was an extremely talented writer and had an natural gift in his field. He later died of a heart attack on June 28, 1975. Serling left this world too soon and young in my eyes. But his work within the television industry won’t be forgotten.

Question for the class : Do you think having children watching what they want on television at young ages has an effect on them in the long run?

Televisions were first created in March of 1925 by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird. The television was so revolutionary because for the first time people could watch motion pictures and silhouette images. As the years pasted the television was constantly being re-created and you want from regular black and white images to now color. Having theses images in color created a new realm for the television and with the never-ending advances in technology you saw the constant innovation being placed into televisions. Look at modern day now, you can literally speak to these machines and they will listen. You have pre-installed applications, downloadable content, internet access, global access and etc. The innovations within televisions are amazing but why do it seem to a certain extent that the use ‘regular’ television is dying? When I say regular I am referring to the use of digital television not streaming services or subscriptions.

I remember growing up as a child and checking the daily television guide to see when my favorite TV show was coming on so I could tune in. Now I don’t even think to pick up a remote unless I’m watching a live sporting event. The reason for that is the society that we live in today.

The above chart shows that digital antenna television is soon to be non-existent with the access to streaming services and subscriptions. Especially with the rise of generation Z and millennial’s, they have created a want for an instantaneous society. With gen Z and millennial’s being the future of the world, society must adjust to the desires of them. People no longer have the patience or desire to wait! You see this across everything in life now. E-commerce has become the biggest market in the world thanks to the laziness of us. Streaming services and subscriptions allows users access to hundreds maybe even thousands of shows at just a click of a button, you no longer have to wait for a specific time for a show of your choosing to air.

Television has come along way since it was created in 1972. The first purpose of the tv was to just take videos and broadcast them to the world so you did not have to necessary be at that place to see something happen like a concert, or the space shuttles at NASA take off. But, it has now also become a source of entertainment more than anything. It has become much more than pictures on a screen.

For one thing, tv is used as a source of bonding between families. For things like movie night or just sitting on the couch around the day, your entire family can be watching something you all enjoy and laugh about it, or maybe it is something relatable specifically to your family.

Another thing that the television has helped aid is the communication across the world. You can turn on the news or any type of informational show and learn about what is going on in the world or in your country or in your state, or even just in your county. Television can also be knowledgeable in the sense of learning. There are lots of different programs about nature documentaries, history shows, even children’s shows implement some kind of learning for the child. A tv might also not be used for just watching shows. They have come to develop tv’s that you can hook up other devices with to project them onto the tv to make it bigger like in a classroom setting. Making it easier for a class to learn.

Television has come such a long way in only 50 years and is one of the most useful tools we have as people. Who knows what the future might have in store for what the television might be capable of.

Thought out history there has been many different Tv shows and movies made and some of them were amazing and some of them aren’t even worth the space in the shelf. But Tv is undeniably one of the most popular past times around the world. Growing up I loved watching tv and movies, I would watch tv every chance that I got I would watch a movie and it could even be the someone many times in a row it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I was watching a story taking place. I didn’t watch normal kids shows though, I would watch Animal Plant, Discovery channel, and travel channel. I was enamored with anything to do with the outdoors and animals, this made it so I was watching nature documentaries instead of watching Dora the explorer. But don’t get me wrong I still watched all the normal kids shows like iCarly, Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, Neds Declassified School Survival Guide, and SpongeBob Square Pants. The coolest part about TV is that you can tell how old someone is by the tv they watch. For example, if you asked someone that is around 20 years old what kind of tv shows they watched as a kid I would be willing to bet that they say a list simpler to the one that I gave earlier. On the other hand, if you asked someone that is around the age of 30 they would give a much different list, it would be shows like Boy Meets world, and Full house. Not only did we watch the same shows as people around our own age, the Tv shows have a direct connection to how we act in real life.

When I was a kid I would religiously watch Steve Irwin the Alligator hunter, this was my favorite show of all time. This wasn’t just a show to me, this show showed me really how delict nature really is and how it’s our job to take care of it. Steve Irwin thought me to respect our earth and every animal that lives on it, this makes me think if everyone watches his show what our earth would look like today, would people respect nature?

Knowing how much tv has infused me throughout my life makes me wonder what will be the next thing to influence the next generation. Will it be youtubers like Jake Paul and Logan Paul? I really hope that’s not the case, but it will probably sadly be the case.  

The 2010s have brought lots of changes into our daily lives, for example, everyone owns a smartphone, everyone has a laptop, and we are using the internet to take classes for school and work. The internet has changed everything and T.V is no exception, since the internet was created and put in the power of the public, it has fought with T.V for the attention of viewers. Youtube was the first of many to butt heads with Hollywood because of people posting full movies, T.V shows, and clips, and snippets of scenes for free. This didn’t last long as many companies sued YouTube for allowing illegal streaming on their site but it did help start a new revolution of videos on the internet that still compete with T.V to this day. 

` After YouTube came Netflix and their “brand new” service that mails movies to your door… yeah late 2000s Netflix was weird and not at all juggernaut it is today. They did introduce streaming later and that’s when it got huge but initially, Netflix was made exclusively for renting movies through the mail which posed no threat to TV at the time. Most big corporations thought it was gonna fail, for example, Blockbuster had a chance to buy Netflix for a fraction of its cost today and now look where each of them is today in 2020. Netflix now has grown to be the biggest threat to T.V since the beginning of the internet because not only do they have old properties such as “The Office” or “Breaking Bad”  but they have made their own critically acclaimed shows such as “BoJack Horseman” and “Stranger Things” that actually have won T.V show awards such as the Emmys. This year according to CNBC.com Netflix got 160 nominations for the Emmys which is an insane number given that T.V used to dominate the award. 

After Netflix hit it big with its streaming service big companies such as Disney started to hop on the streaming bandwagon. Now the industry has become oversaturated with streaming platforms such as HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and many, many more. Each of these entails a subscription you must pay monthly just to access these videos but this is the problem with having too many services. No one wants to pay for these many streaming services each month as it can get extremely costly, so T.V does have the upper hand here but as of late T.V has been merging with these companies so, not only do you get to watch on-demand, you also can watch live T.V anywhere. This has caused the tension between streaming and T.V to cool off because of the partnerships they have but this doesn’t mean the war is over since TV is still fighting for the audience. 

One question I would like to pass to the reader is, do you believe that T.V will be obsolete and we will all use streaming services or does T.V have it’s niche audience to keep it running for a while.  

Tv is a very different form of entertainment in my mind. While one can argue tv came from radio, which it was an evolution on radio, Tv really stands only. Having a general access to television has been available for less than a century and it has evolved into a completely new form.

The textbook does a good job explaining how tv’s work without making it confusing. I also didn’t know that there were two different types in mechanical and electronic. This just adds to the fact the tv has changed rapidly even from the start of the technology in the 1800’s

The textbook then goes into the golden age of television and I think I would argue that this wasn’t the best time in tv.

The chart from the textbook talks about the number of tv’s per household and how it jump drastically. While this was probably the golden age for the companies that sell tv’s I think the art behind tv hadn’t hit it’s stride yet.

These restriction in the art of tv was talked about with the Twilight Zone. On the side note growing up I loved watching the Twilight Zone, the twists at the end and the thought you had to put into always intrigued me. This thought into the show wasn’t something you saw back then, which they talked about in the interview. TV back then was supposed to be family friendly and only show good Christian values where now artist have more liberty with what they create. A good example now is Black Mirror, it follows Twilight Zone to a tee. Different actors and plots in each episode, has the use of black and white when needed, Metalhead, and the use of technology and the unknown as a driving force of most plots.

In these two promo pictures of the show it’s clear to see the parallels between the two.

The Twilight Zone paved the for shows that question more things like black mirror does. The struggle that the Twilight Zone had getting on the air and staying back then shows how tv has changed since then. I would say we are living in the golden age of tv now. Many different companies producing shows of all sorts and multiple different platform it has never been easier to find something one connects with.

What do you think was the golden age of tv? What shows were on then that sets that age apart?

Most people know who invented the car and the airplane, but how many people know who invented the TV?  Yet, according to google most Americans spend approximately 4 hours in front of the TV a day and they spend far less time in a car or on an airplane.

 Perhaps people don’t know who discovered TV since it turns out the TV was not invented by one or two people, but by many individuals. TV started with the German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun who invented the cathode ray tube in 1897.  It was later that German inventor Paul Nipkow created the scanning disk. Later, in 1907, Russian scientist Boris Rosing combined those two discoveries in an experimental television system.

Mechanical television was later developed by British inventor John Logie Baird. At the same time and separately Charles Jenkins was working on an electronic television system based on the cathode ray tube. An Idaho teenager by the name Philo Farnsworth realized that the electronic beam could scan a picture in horizontal lines reproducing the image almost instantly.  Presto the TV was invented.

Remarkably, the first TVs were as small as 5-inches and as large as 12-inches.  Compare that to the 80-inch or larger TVs of today!

TVs became available in 1950s and took off in 1955. During this time shows, a couple of which still exist such as the Today Show and the Tonight Show. Others have come and gone but remain with us, such as my favorite I Love Lucy. Initially TV shows were 15 minutes in length and grew to 30 minutes. Television then and  now reflects cultural standards and also influences cultural. Language on TV is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. Networks had sponsorship initially from a single sponsor but later from multiple sponsors. Advertisers brought one to two-minute spots on a show. It is interesting to note that public television, which was paid for by the government, was initially for people in rural areas who could not afford to pay for a private television service. Now adays PBS receives very little government funding. However, in the UK the BBC has been and remains financed by the British government. Other countries, such as France, have similar government funding.

   Between 1959 and 1964 the popular and engrossing Twilight Zone was broadcast. Rod Serling the writer and star of the show. Serling wrote stories about the common man with adages examining themes such as “Be careful of what you wish for” and around punishment or comeuppance such as having people where mask showing their true feeling that cannot be removed. It was a creepy, surreal, and highly engaging show. Rod Serling not only created a great show but he  forced people to think about the repercussion of their behavior. Its impact led to other similar type shows but none could replicate The Twilight Zone. This was the first time a television writer became a celebrity.

The sixties also brought about bringing news into your living room. We saw the first man orbit the globe, the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam War, and the man on the moon. TV began to change policy and the killings in Vietnam made people question why we were there. The sixties also brought about the first satellite television signal but, it was not until the 1970s that we began utilizing satellites for broadcasting purposes.

The 1980s brought about the explosion of cable TV this led to a sudden increase in news and entertainment channels. In the 1990s and 2000s networks became more specialized catering niche markets in order to meet the needs of a diverse and fragmented audience.

It was the 21^st Century that brought about digital TV. Again, TV changed radically. Outlets such as YouTube could broadcast whatever they wanted. The 16-year-old with no script, producer, or director could have his own TV show and suddenly become a celebrity.  Other outlets such as Netflix were able to move beyond the mailing of CDs to producing their own content. All of a sudden anyone could be a producer and develop a wide audience, and content could be viewed on one’s phone. This is the TV we know today.

This weeks topic of television is an interesting one. My views on television have changed from my childhood years to now. I used to watch a lot of television growing up. My favorite shows included Drake and Josh, Suite life of Zach and Cody, and Wizards of Waverly Place. I did not read much growing up and in fact every time I got bored I would just watch TV. I don’t know if it is because I got bored of it or what but I don’t spend much time anymore diving into shows on TV or a streaming service. If i want to watch something it is typically a movie and a documentary that is informative to something that interest me.

As a young child I often spent time trying to emulate those “cool” characters I would see on television. I can recall a show on Disney, Zeke and Luther. I thought those guys were the coolest thing since sliced bread. The show was about two teenage boys who would skateboard. I fell in love with the show and would spend my summer inside watching these episodes all the time. I finally got my mother to buy me a skateboard and a mini ramp. This started my little skateboarding phase. I started to try to dress like these characters and attempted to skate like them. I was no skateboarder. This shows how television can make an impact on a childs life.

Today I don’t seek out that influence I was did. This is mostly due to because I am becoming my own man and do not need to try to be like some character on television. Who mind you, isn’t even a real person. The character is created by the directors and producers and writers of LA. I think television can be very damaging to kids. Kids that have grown up with television in its prime don’t even know what it is like to naturally gravitate towards what you actually like. They are told what they like and how they should be by the shows they are watching. The young mind is so undeveloped to see the difference. You grow up wanting to be like other people and the whole time your parents are telling you that being yourself is cool thing to do. You don’t even understand that until your in your 20s most of the time.

The Doogie Howser, M.D. show is clearly a fictional show, having a kid doctor as the main character. They took a real life non-fictional event and put it into a fictional show to explain how it would have been to be working in a hospital during the LA riots. The show is targeted towards kids in their teen years and the episode could have been a way to dumb down the event and explain it to a younger audience without it seeming overwhelming.

The Twilight Zone episode with the dead Rod Sterling and his wife narrating was interesting and it explained his death to the people who were consistent watchers. I have only heard about The Twilight Zone never actually watched them. I think it was also a bit morbid as well but that is kind of how the show is.

You’re sitting at the dentist’s office or eating a double cheeseburger at Burger King or pumping gas into your car—and what do you see?  Boom.  It’s a screen.  Another one.  Almost everywhere you look, you can find a TV.  Television has saturated the culture, and it has not even been around for that long.  In many ways, television has expanded ideas and been used as a tool to educate people and inform them about current events in the world.  It has acted as an entertainment device, bringing family and friends together with the most recent episode of whatever the popular show is at the moment. Because television is so prevalent and holds a lot of power over society, it helps to understand it and to ask the question, what is the purpose of television?

               Understanding Media and Culture says that ideas for the television sprouted as early as 1876 (350).  Then, “In 1907, Russian scientist Boris Rosing used both the CRT and the mechanical scanner system in an experimental television system” (350-351).  Interestingly enough, even though now almost everyone has access to a TV, it used to be that only the rich could afford to have a TV (353).  During World War II however, the technology to be able to mass produce things was developed, and after the war, that technology was applied to the production of TVs, making them much more affordable to the average person (354).  Television slowly, bit by bit, replaced the spot that radio used to hold.

               When television started gaining popularity, a decision had to be made—what was it going to be used for?  The United States decided to take it in the direction of commercial broadcasting with NBC and CBS (352-353).  Some people wanted more out of television than for it to be just entertainment.  The documentary, Rod Sterling: Submitted for Your Approval, brings up this point by telling about the life and career of Rod Sterling, an early and famous television writer.

               Rod Sterling is probably most well known for his writing of The Twilight Zone, but he originally started his career by writing live television dramas, which brought the theater to television (Rod Sterling: Submitted for Your Approval).  Rod wanted to write things that had social impact—that made a difference in lives.  His wife, Carol Sterling in the documentary says that “He felt that television had a responsibility to not only educate and entertain, but to illuminate the social conditions” (Rod Sterling: Submitted for Your Approval).  Rod knew that television had power and that it had a purpose.  He used his influence to write “morality tales” to get people thinking and to make TV more than just a way for the sponsors to make more money. 

Understanding Media and Culture reminds that “The symbiotic nature of television and culture is exemplified in every broadcast, from family sitcoms to serious news reports” (360).  It’s important to recognize that what is on TV will impact the culture and vice versa.  Rod Sterling know this, and we are left to ask ourselves the questions: What can we do to influence what is on television?  How can we become more aware of the impact of television in our lives?  What is television’s purpose, and is it fulfilling that purpose?

By 1950, around 6 million people owned television sets, and by 1960 more than 60 million television sets had been sold (Understanding Media, Ch. 9.1) Color television hadn’t become available until the 1950’s. Television between the 1940’s and 1980’s was known as the Golden Age. At a time when the radio was still a popular medium for getting news and entertainment, newscasters and broadcasters were still treating the television like it was the radio. Broadcast times were lengthened from the standard 15 minute radio segment to a 30 minute which increased advertising costs. In the 1950’s the major networks tried to appeal to a family audience, ignoring social and political events portraying White middle-class family structures. There was always a morality story and the shows of that time gave a “feel good” impression that you can solve any problem in a half an hour. Many American families aspired to be like the families portrayed on these shows. By avoiding topics like racial segregation, war, and poverty, shows like Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best blanketed over the deprivation and injustices a good majority of Americans were experiencing.

Walter Kronkite, a news journalist of the 1960’s brought hard-hitting news to the living rooms of Americans by reporting news events as they occurred, such as the JFK assassination. He built the trust of Americans and people relied on him to report the facts. This notion of stopping everything when the news came on or making certain that you were in front of the TV at 6:00pm because that’s when the news came on. At the time of the Vietnam War, news crews were capturing vivid images of the war. Some images reached the screen as well as the newspapers and magazines, such as images of children that were burned by napalm. Many Americans felt immense stress during these times and turned to television. In particular, and one of my favorite: fantasy television. Shows like I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched provided a way to escape from the horrors that were happening in real life. These shows provided comedy and a way to escape from everyday realism. For awhile in the 1960’s, television was either hard-hitting news or escapism.

A popular series that premiered on October 2, 1959 was The Twilight Zone. It took the art of live tv and bridged several different genres like horror, drama, and sci-fi. The actors on Twilight Zone were doing live television during a time when radio was still a way to get news and televisions were just starting to gain popularity.

The documentary American Masters, is based on the career of Rod Serling, one of the main writers on the hit TV show. Live television is something that the actors on the set of Twilight Zone described as exciting and unpredictable. If you messed up, it was curtains for you! Their passion for the excitement of being on stage and the spontaneity of the moment was evident in their voices. You get the impression that they are well aware that they had been a part of something truly rare and great. It was these live performances and shows that paved the way for sitcoms and comedies that are so popular even today.

“I don’t have any background. We WERE the old days!!

-John Frankenheimer

Rod Serling passed away in 1975 at the young age of 50. Serling was a passionate writer who according to his wife, Carolyn tried to continuously live up to his success like he had something to prove. He wrote a lot of episodes based on morality lessons and he saw the human condition as something to think about. He often portrayed characters in realistic and simplistic manners, which helps his audience identify with the story lines. A lot of Serlings writings came from having PTSD and war memories. Serling wasn’t afraid to tackle political issues or highlight social injustices. He would face backlash from the network because the networks didn’t want to cover these issues like racism and war and they were concerned about the ratings. Other television shows of that time steered clear of such issues. He would have to defend his writing to CBS execs. Still, Serling felt the need to write about real life situations and found it frustrating and stifling that he wasn’t allowed to just ….write.

In the documentary, they recreated a Twilight Zone episode based around Rod Serling’s death. Rod had entered…..the TWILIGHT ZONE!

Question: Do you have a favorite show from the 1950’s and 1960’s? What is it?

Works Cited:

Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, online text, M Libraries Publishing

Rod Serling: SUBMITTED FOR YOUR APPROVAL (GOOGLE DRIVE)

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-first-episode-of-the-twilight-zone-premiered-in-1959