Television as a mass medium is just over sixty years old, yet it has become the most common mode in which we receive our news, entertainment, and advertising. By the time today's teens are 75 years old, they will have spent at least eleven full years of their lives watching television. Perhaps in part due to its popularity, television attracted many critics. The late drama critic John Mason Brown said that "some television programs are so much chewing gum for the eyes." Although television viewers from 1953 would likely be impressed with technological advances such as wide-screen, high-definition television, surround sound, and the multitude of channels to choose from.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
TELEVISION'S EARLY DAYS:
The late 1940's and 1950's saw the emergence of innovative programming that not only adapted programs from radio but introduced quality programs of a variety of types. Many of the programs of this period were performed and broadcast live, largely because the only effective recording medium was film, and film processing was slow and expensive. Much early TV programming came directly from radio, where talented actors and comedians such as Jack Benny had begun their careers. The Broadway stage also lent much to early television.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
The first decade of television programming is often referred to as the golden age of television because of the many successful programs that were produced then. Among the most memorable entertainment shows to emerge in television's age was the "The Ed Sullivan Show" originally called "Toast Of The Town" The show which debuted in June 1948, was seen frequently with 50% of all U.S. households. In 1964, the show featured the British pop group The Beatles
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Which attracted 73 million viewers nationwide.
Programming Envelope:
The 1970s saw a number of significant program developments. Among them were various formats that introduced more complex, realistic characters into formerly one-dimensional program genres. Other notable developments included the 1977 ABC airing of it's twenty-six hour miniseries "Roots," based on the novel by Alex Haley. The January 30 episode became the third most watched TV program in history.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Monday Night Football
Monday night Football, started in 1970, was a bold experiment in sports programming during prime time and became a cultural mainstay until it ended in 2005. It led to more televised sporting events outside of the traditional weekend programming and opened up a new revenue opportunities for sports franchises.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
The highest rated program of the decade was "All in the Family" a controversial situation comedy that used a bigoted character, Archie Bunker, to address many of the social, gender, and civil rights issues that were being discussed in society.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
The MTV Generation & Rise of Cable
The growing availability of cable and satellite television threatened the programming dominance the three networks had enjoyed since television first became a mass medium. Suddenly, viewers found themselves with programming choices far beyond three network channels and public television. The networks were generally slow to respond to this growing threat to their audience and did not introduce innovative programming of their own, choosing instead to offer variations of tried- and true formulas.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
One exception was a new genre of gritty police drama introduced by producer Steven Bochco in 1980 on NBC called "Hill Street Blues" The show had several prominent characters, all with various storylines, and a realistic, often chaotic quality that added dramatic elements of soap operas to the story. Bochco continued to evolve the genre in the 1990s with ABC's NYPD Blue.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Music Television, or MTV, debuted in 1981 as a cable channel, showing as it's first music video "Video Killed the Radio Star." The title was very prophetic. MTV has not only dramatically changed how music has been promoted, but it has continued to introduce innovative, although not always culture-enhancing, programs such as "Real World" "Jackass," "The Osbournes," and MTV's most viewed series ever, "Jersey Shore"
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Cable Television!
With the increased fragmentation of the television viewing audience, it is perhaps bitterly ironic to the networks to see some cable channels such as HBO, which is only in about 28 million homes, or a third of the number that get network television and the non-premium cable channels.
Attract more viewers for some original programming than many network shows.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) began in 1969, after being authorized by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, and in November 1969 launched "Sesame Street" one of the most influential programs for children on TV then and today.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
The Public Broadcasting Service operates as a private, non for profit corporation owned by its member stations. Public Television programming has consistently won more television awards for high quality than Television and Cable networks combined.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Types of Programming!!
In the early days of Television, several enduring television programming types were either refined from their radio formats or were developed originally for TV. These included hosted children's shows, variety shows, situation comedies, dramatic anthologies, Western series, sports and news talk shows. These various program types laid the foundation for the development of three broad programming categories, which eventually emerged as a formal divisions within the commercial television networks. These three divisions are entertainment, sports, and news.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Soaps!
Some programming has survived for decades across media, but because of the rise of the multichannel universe of cable, satellite, and other new media, many program types are now facing extinction or finding niche homes online or on cable. An example is the "Soap Opera" one of the staples of radio programming that has endured on television. Soaps, as they are called, were so named not because of the content of the programs but because, first on radio and then on television, the principal advertising was for soap and other house hold products.
one of the soap operas was, "Guiding lights" from 1937.
Soap operas were very successful, until the 1990's. One by One, soap operas were dying as women entered the workforce and audiences shrunk. After 8,891 episodes and 35 years on the air, NBC's "Another World" ended its run in 1999.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Welcome to the world of game & quiz shows
One of the greatest sensations in commercial television's first full decade was the game and quiz show. A format that had been successful in radio as well. Nearly everyone with a television set in their home tuned each week to their favorite quiz show. These shows drew enormous audiences partly because it was easy to identify with the contestants, many of whom came from ordinary walks of life, and the stakes were large.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Sports
Today, for many people sports and television go hand to hand. Some of the biggest television events involve sports, such as the Super Bowl, which annually draws one of the U.S. television's largest audiences. Every four years the World Cup, the quadrennial soccer tournament, draws large worldwide television audiences. Television commentator Les Brown explains that sports is considered by many the perfect program form for television. "At once topical and entertaining, performed live and suspensefully without a script, peopled with heroes and villains, full of action. Sports has also been an ongoing venue for technical experimentation. The introduction of the instant re-play in the early 1960's added a new dimension to televised sports, debuting in a telecast of an Army-Navy football game.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Professional wrestling offers a blend of sports and entertainment that has proved popular over the years, although it's popularity waxes and wanes in cycles. In the late 1990s and early 2000s it reached a peak of popularity and commercial success with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a company headed by Vincent McMahon. McMahon's genius was to more or less admit that the bouts were staged.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
And last but not least, Reality Television.
With the plethora of reality shows on many channels these days, it may be surprising to learn that the genre has it's roots in the earliest days of television. Games shows like Truth or Consequences that had contestants performing wacky stunts for prizes, or Alan Funt's "Candid Camera" a classic prank show, were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1980s shows like "COPS" and "America's Funniest Videos" were aired and continue to run today. Reality shows became much more popular from 2000, after "Big Brother" and "Survivor" were both hits in the United States. Today, "American Idol" which can trace it's lineage directly back to popular talent search shows in the 1940s such as "Arthur" "Godfrey's Talent Scouts" remains a top rated show and has launched singing careers for several of its finalists and winners.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
Reality shows have proved successful partly because of the versatility of the genre. Home Improvement channels have been able to capitalize on the format with shows like "House Hunters" and "Property Virgins" and lifestyle channels have had successful shows such as "Extreme Makeover" and "The Biggest Loser" Reality television is profitable for television networks because the cost of producing them is much less than that of scripted programs using actors and sets.
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004).
What are the most popular Reality shows?
References
Pavlik, J., & McIntosh, S. (2004). Converging media . New York: Oxford University press. DOI: www.oup.com/us/pavlik
