Television in Popular Culture

It’s hard to find anything worth watching on TV in 2018. The cable bundles are “one size fits all”. I don’t watch the Spanish or Chinese channels or programs that teach bad behavior. I don’t watch ads.  I don’t watch programs about midgets, naked people, housewives, lame sitcoms, game shows or left-wing propaganda.  I do watch documentaries, History Channel, PBS, Fox News, Fox Business and Bloomberg. I used to check the weather on TV, but those channels are gone.  I understand why the TV industry is trying to acquire content creators, but I have no evidence that TV would improve.  

Television in the 1940s and 1950s was full of kid’s shows, cartoons, game shows, musical variety shows, comedies, drama and westerns. In the 1960s and 1970s TV blossomed in color with musical variety and comedy shows.

Television became available in the late 1940s. In 1947, Howdy Doody and Kukla, Fran and Ollie were introduced as puppet programs for kids. Kraft Theater and Meet the Press joined as regular programs. The World Series and Tournament of Roses Parade were aired.  In 1948, The Ed Sullivan Show, Texaco Star Theater and the Perry Como Show began. In 1949, the Lone Ranger, Crusader Rabbit and Mama aired and the first Emmy Awards were given. In New York, we got Milton Berle, Ernie Kovics and other local shows.

Television began to blossom in 1950 and new show were added each year starting in 1950 with Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows, Jack Benny, Bob Hope and George Burns and Gracie Allen.  In 1951, we added I Love Lucy, Dinah Shore, Roy Rogers, Dragnet, Hallmark Hall of Fame and Hockey Games. In 1952, we added Liberace, American Bandstand, Ozzie and Harriet and Guiding Light. In 1953 we aired the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1954 we added the Tonight Show, Father Knows Best and Lassie. In 1955 we added the Lawrence Welk Show, the Honeymooners, Mickey Mouse Club, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Gunsmoke and Captain Kangaroo.  In 1956 we got Edge of Night, As the World Turns, Playhouse 90 and the Price is Right.  In 1957 we got Perry Mason, Have Gun Will Travel and Leave it to Beaver. In 1958 we got the Donna Reed Show and Huckleberry Hound. In 1959 we got the Twilight Zone, Rocky and His Friends, the Untouchables, Rawhide and Bonanza.

Color TV was introduced in 1953, but was too expensive at $1000.  By the 1960s the price came down and more families got color TV sets. There were 3 Network channels (ABC, NBC and CBS) plus a few local channels accessed by rooftop antennas until cable TV was introduced in the 1970s.

TV in the 1960s and 1970s included entertaining musical variety and comedy shows like Andy Williams 1962, Carol Burnett 1967, Dean Martin 1967, Carpenters 1968, Rowan and Martin Laugh In 1968, Benny Hill 1969, Monty Python Flying Circus 1969, Sonny and Cher 1971, Donny and Marie 1976 and Saturday Night Live 1975.

In the 1980s, cable TV expanded the channels from 9 to 30 and had 80 channels by 1990. Now in 2018, the average number of channels is 190.  

Cable TV was local until the 1980s. MTV arrived in 1981.

 HBO was introduced in 1983. Cable began to show movies to compete with HBO.

We now in 2018 have more channels with shows like Jerry Springer.  Bad behavior is apparently entertaining for a large segment of the TV watching population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_years_in_television

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader