Television's History

The history of television is a long and interesting one. The statue and Hall of Fame Plaza were conceived and overseen by production designer Jan Scott, winner of 11 Primetime Emmy awards more than any other woman in the history of television. In 1950 the second longest running comedy in the history of television first appeared on the air. The history of television is short, but compared to the telephone and the computer, it hasn't kept up with the advance of technology.

Broadcasting

The company also began broadcasting regular programs, including scenes captured by a mobile unit and, on May 17, 1939, the first televised baseball game between Princeton and Columbia universities. By 1941 the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), RCA's main competition in radio, was broadcasting two 15-minute newscasts a day to a tiny audience on its New York television station. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 1941 ruling that the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) had to sell one of its two radio networks was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1943. The second network became the new American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which would enter television early in the next decade. But full-scale commercial television broadcasting did not begin in the United States until 1947. James Aubrey, president of CBS television, doubled the network's profits between 1960 and 1966 by broadcasting simple comedies like The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 71).

Among the many special series produced for public broadcasting, The Civil War (1990), a five-part historical documentary, was particularly successful and won some of the largest audiences ever achieved by public TV. In Great Britain the British Broadcasting Corporation, the country's dominant radio broadcaster, established and retained dominance over television. In 1936, after several networks were formed, the British Broadcasting Corporation started the first television service. In 1942, television broadcasting was somewhat brought to a halt. In 1957, a news cast was videotaped instead of broadcasting live. At the same time, the Colombia Broadcasting System (CBS) began to develop its own color system, which was mostly composed of mechanical means. In late 1953, the FCC reversed its decision and approved the all electronic system of broadcasting color.

Color

Color TV was by no means a new idea, a German patent in 1904 contained the earliest proposal, while in 1925 Zworykin filed a patent disclosure for an all-electronic color television system. Color broadcasts are authorized to begin in January 1954. Color television in the United States had a protracted history due to conflicting technical systems vying for approval by the Federal Communications Commission for commercial use. Color television became available in Canada soon after regular color broadcasting began in the neighboring United States.

Albert Abramson, The History of Television, 1880 to 1941 (1987), is a comprehensive listing of every researcher who took out a patent during the early years of television. Learning a little bit about the history of television lends a bit of appreciation to owning a set. Abramson is a prolific author, who has written in both the professional and academic styles to document the history of television.