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What Television Has Been

One can obtain as many opinions about television as there are people with eyes. No two people see it in exactly the same way. But whatever you think of television - whether you like it or loathe it or just tolerate it; whether you are grateful for it or scornful of it; whether you watch it a lot or a little - whatever your attitude is toward it, television has become a part of you.

You may not be aware of it, but up there, in that compartment of your brain where memories are stored, all sorts of strange images are stockpiled. They are greyish rectangles, sort of, but with rounded edges, and inside them are people and places and things of every description. Some of them can be recalled merely by twisting a mental dial; others lurk there patiently, waiting for an external stimulus that will pull them out of their dusty corners and into your mind's eye. These are your memories of television past.

Try to coax those memories out of their hiding places and bring them front and center, where you can savor them anew. The memories are populated by thousands of people. Some of them you will recognize immediately; others will be vaguely familiar; many will be total strangers. You will find programs you remember with affection, and others you recall with distaste; programs that lasted for years, others that disappeared after a few weeks; significant events from television's history, and trivial moments; brilliantly talented performers, and inept clods. Some of the memories will make you smile fondly, some will make you laugh derisively, some will bring back solemn recollections, some will draw a complete blank.

The programs and people were not always "good" or "popular" or "successful," but each contributed, in some large or small way, to the progress of television. Theirs may not necessarily have been a beneficial contribution, just as the progress of the medium has not necessarily been in the direction of higher quality. For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, this is what television has been.

The wonderful world of television for the early years will be the antics of Milton Berle as Mr. Television, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, Ed Sullivan, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Bob Hope, Martin and Lewis, Arthur Godfrey, Groucho Marx, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Garry Moore, Loretta Young, Bing Crosby, George Gobel, Red Skelton, Walt Disney, Jack Benny, Perry Como, and a host of other old-timers.

Many brilliant figures from the arts are had their television debuts, among them Helen Hayes, the Lunts, Julie Harris, Ed Wynn, Noel Coward, Tallulah Bankhead, Eddie Cantor, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Mary Martin, Paul Newman, Jimmy Durante - the list goes on and on.

As television grew in stature a multitude of talented actors and actresses joined its parade of stars, with programs that stayed on the air year after year: “All in the Family," "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," "Leave It to Beaver," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Perry Mason," "Bonanza," "Hawaii Five-O," "Gunsmoke;" "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "The Odd Couple," "Sanford and Son," "The Waltons," "Kojak," "Hollywood Squares," "Little House on the Prairie," "The Jeffersons," "M*A*S*H," and many others.

Two categories of local programing are the late-night horror movie hosts and the other is public access cable programming, which exploded in the early 1980s. Late-night horror movie hosts in many cases were the same actors who hosted traditional children’s shows in the morning or afternoon time slots.

The fortunes of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) have always been closely tied to those of its parent company, Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Unlike CBS, which was formed as an independent programming enterprise, NBC came into existence as the subsidiary of an electronics manufacturer which saw programming as a form of marketing, an enticement to purchase radio and television receivers for the home. The power and influence of a national network aided RCA as it lobbied to see its technology adopted as the industry standard, particularly during the early years of television and in the battle over color television.

RCA was formed after World War I when General Electric signed an extensive patents cross-licensing agreement with Westinghouse, AT and T, and United Fruit. The product of this alliance, RCA was owned jointly by the four companies and was created for the purpose of marketing radio receivers produced by G. E. and Westinghouse. As the alliance unraveled during the late 1920s and early 1930s, due to internal competition and government antitrust efforts, RCA emerged as an independent company. In November 1926, RCA formed NBC as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Shortly thereafter, RCA added a second network, and the two networks were designated NBC-Red and NBC-Blue.

RCA, which had been merely a sales agent for the other companies emerged in the 1930s as a radio manufacturer with two networks, a powerful lineup of clear channel stations, and a roster of stars who were unequaled in the radio industry. From this position of power RCA research labs under the direction of Vladimir Zworykin set the standard for research into the nascent technology of television. NBC began experimental broadcasts from New York's Empire State building as early as 1932. By 1935 the company was spending millions of dollars annually to fund television research. Profits from the lucrative NBC radio networks were routinely channeled into television research. In 1939 NBC became the first network to introduce regular television broadcasts with its inaugural telecast of the opening day ceremonies at the New York World's Fair of 1939. RCA's goal was to produce and market receivers and programs, to become the driving force in the emerging industry.

The network CBS, traditionally referred to as the "Tiffany network" among major television broadcasting systems, has in recent years come more and more to resemble Wal-Mart. Ironically, this often prestige-laden television institution began almost as an afterthought. In 1927, when David Sarnoff did not see fit to include any of talent agent Arthur Judson's clients in his roster of stars for the new NBC radio networks, Judson defiantly founded his own network---United Independent Broadcasters. Soon merged with the Columbia Phonograph Company, the network went on the air on 18 September 1927 as the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting Company. Within a year heavy losses compelled the sale of the company to Jerome Louchheim and Ike and Leon Levy, the latter the fiancee of the sister of William Paley. Paley, who had become enamored of radio as a result of advertising the family's La Palina brand cigars over a local station, bought the fledgling network, then consisting of 22 affiliates and 16 employees, for $400,000 on 18 January 1929, and renamed it the Columbia Broadcasting System.

The American Broadcasting Company, more commonly referred to as ABC, has been a forerunner in the evolution of television network history. Although often recognized as the third-place network in ratings, behind CBS and NBC, ABC has several times been a "first," with bold decisions and changes that often served as catalysts to its competitors.

ABC grew out of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "monopoly" probe. The 1938-41 radio-network investigation resulted in a highly publicized and controversial report which included specific proposals for reform. The FCC reported cited several problems with CBS and NBC, the two then-existing radio networks. The first problem cited was that NBC owned two networks, NBC-Blue and NBC-Red. The report proposed "divorcement," and on 12 October 1943, ABC was born, the offspring of the separation of NBC. As a result of the FCC report RCA sold the Blue Network Company, Inc. for $8,000,000. The buyer was the American Broadcasting System, Inc., owned by Edward J. Noble, who had made his fortune with Lifesavers candy.

The National Educational Television Center (NET) played the dominant role in building the structure on which the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) rests. Funded primarily by Ford Foundation grants, NET was established in 1952 to assist in the creation and maintenance of an educational television service complementary to the entertainment-centered services available through commercial stations. NET initially was designed to function simply as an "exchange center," most of whose programming would be produced at the grassroots level by member stations. This strategy failed to attract a substantial audience because programming produced by the affiliates tended to be overly academic and of poor quality.

Educational broadcasters began to look to the government for financial assistance. Government involvement in this issue led to the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the subsequent creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and the eventual demise of NET. In the words of the Carnegie Commission in 1967 - "the clearest expression of American diversity, and of excellence through diversity." The United States Congress amended the Public Broadcasting Act in 1988. By 1988, however, many saw PBS as neither independent nor diverse.

The FOX Television Network was established, amidst shock, controversy, legal wrangling and uncertainty in 1985. The historic significance of this event may be judged by six interrelated factors, the daring prime mover, Rupert Murdoch, the economic environment at the time, the complacency of the major television networks, disenchanted affiliate stations, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the volatile nature of television programming.

The founding of the FOX Broadcasting Company must be placed within a context of the general economic uncertainty and decline of network television. According to Sydney Head and Christopher Sterling, 1985 was the first year that network revenues fell slightly. By 1987, total revenues of ABC, CBS and NBC had dropped to $6.8 billion. For the first time ever, CBS recorded a net loss for the first quarter. As a result, all three networks adopted austerity measures, cutting budgets, laying off personnel and dumping affiliates.

Television is the educator and the communicator, the informer, the thing that can inspire and enrich man as he makes his greatest transition from what he is today into the first genuine adult human being.

-Sylvester L. Weaver

Television is now recognized everywhere as a vehicle for education and information, a force to arouse and unify developing nations, and a symbol of national status and prestige that soars above the home-grown airline.

-Robert E. Kintner

Television is a triumph of equipment over people, and the minds that control it are so small that you could put them in the navel of a flea and still have enough room beside them for a network vice-president's heart.

-Fred Allen

It is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.

-T. S. Eliot

The speech by the then current Federal Communications Commission chairman, is properly titled "Television and the Public Interest". It was a landmark speech for the medium of television, at a time when there were only three networks in the United States, May 9, 1961, and when the realm of television was much less vast than it is today. Nonetheless, it is counted as one of the one hundred best American speeches of the 20th century by several authorities.

When television is good, nothing - not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers - nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit and loss sheet or rating book to distract you - and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland.

-Newton N. Minow

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