Week 1: Radio and Television, Golden Age of TV: Dramas

Phonograph

• Early record player

• Edison invention

• Very expensive

• Records would get scratched up and had to be manually cranked

Radio

• Invented in late 19th century

• Initially used for military purposes

• Private broadcasting became available after WWI

• 600 stations in the US by 1922

• Began as an expensive status symbol

• Less expensive during the Great depression

• Supplemented through advertising

• Ended with the Golden Age of Television

KDKA

• First commercially licensed radio station

The Golden Age of Radio

• Democratized the entertainment industry

• Exposed talent to the entire country

• Represented most genres

• Advertisers saw radio as a highly effective medium

The Cuckoo Hour

• First radio comedy program

• 1930

• Starring Raymond Knight

Soap operas

• Predate television

• Get their name from being sponsored by soap companies targeting housewives

• Started as 15 minute serial dramas broadcasted daily

Guiding Light

• Radio soap opera that transferred to TV

• Lasted 57 years

Birth of Television

• Demonstrated as early as 1924

• Took years to become practical and widely used

John Logie Baird

• Scottish inventor

• First person to demonstrate that TV is possible

• Sent a weak signal with image and sound in 1924

• Created first working TV system in 1926, mechanical and not electronic

• Sent transmission from London to NY in 1928, proved that transatlantic transmission was possible

Vladimir Zworykin

• Left Russia for the US during the Russian Civil War

• Invented the Iconoscope in 1932 which transmitted images electronically using cathode ray tubes

• Much stronger signal than John Logie Baird’s

• Practical and used in several early TV cameras

Philo Farnsworth

• Called “the father of television”

• Created first all-electronic television

The Octagon

• 1928

• Produced by General Electric

• Screen was 3 inches long

• Never sold publicly

• Showed The Queen’s Messenger, the first TV broadcast

• Wasn’t fully successful due to technical limitations

The Television Ghost

• One of the first TV series

• Possibly the first televised dramatic anthology series

• 15 minute episodes

• George Kelting played a spirit who said how people had been murdered

• Aired on NY’s W2XAB which became part of CBS

• Audio simultaneously broadcast on radio stations

• Now lost since broadcasts weren’t recorded

Kinescope

• Solved problem of recording TV broadcasts

• Pointed camera at modified TV monitor

• Only became standard and reliable in late 40s

• Varied in quality

• Magnetic videotape emerged in the 50s as the superior recording technology

The Golden Age of Television

• Started with the invention of the Kinescope in 1947

• Post-WWII US

• Only a few hours of programming per day at the beginning

• Remote control invented in 50s

• Antennae were needed for signal

• Working in TV was difficult, hot lights and lots of cables

• Many shows were filmed live

• Considered a “step down” from theatre, film, and radio

• Adapted radio shows to TV to keep existing audience

Gertrude Berg

• Creator and star of The Goldbergs

• Showrunner, produced and scripted thousands of episodes

• Sometimes considered the first TV star

• Won first Emmy for Lead Actress in a Television Series

• Won Tony Award

• Acted out roles in pilot pitch when executives couldn’t read her handwriting

Dramatic anthology series

• Brought top writers, actors, and directors to television

• Standalone stories

• Aimed to bring live theatre experience to people’s homes

• Up and coming playwrights and actors, legitimized medium

• Drew in film producers to adapt TV anthology films to theatrical features, like Marty and Twelve Angry Men

• Elevated careers of Rod Serling, Paddy Chayefsky, and Reginald Rose

Milton Berle

• Contributed to television’s popularity

• Known for costumes

• Known as “Mr. Television”

• First entertainer to be featured in Time and Newsweek in the same week

• Pushed to integrate Texaco Star Theater

• Often did “man in dress” comedy

Sid Caesar

• Sketch comedian, wasn’t a writer

• Originally a saxophonist

• Served in the Coast Guard

• Hosted Your Show of Shows

• Hosted Caesar’s Hour

• Helped start Mel Brooks’ career

• Writers included Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Selma Diamond, Larry Gelbart, Joe Stein, and Mike Stewart

• Struggled with monologues

• Disappeared from public life after the Golden Age due to addiction

• Returned occasionally to make appearances

NBC, ABC, and CBS

• Big 3 TV networks

• All started as radio networks with established talent

DuMont Television Network

• Forgotten pioneer network

• Didn’t start with a radio station

• Competitive for the decade

• Created to sell TV sets

• Used talent from Broadway

• Multiple sponsors for shows instead of just one

• Aired first TV soap opera and first American TV sitcom

• Picked up The Goldbergs from CBS

• Created shows for audiences of color starring Hazel Scott and Anna May Wong

• Eventually unable to compete with three major networks

• Many shows were recorded on kinescope and weren’t preserved, most is now lost

Allen B. DuMont

• Inventor and businessman

• Invented cathode ray tube that could last for 1000 hours

• Manufactured and sold his own line of high-quality TV sets

• Created DuMont Network to sell sets

• Became philanthropist and gave a lot of his money away

• Funded non-profit that would turn into PBS

Phil Silbers and Nat Hiken

• Executives paired them together

• One was comedian, one was writer

• Nearly derailed career when one was revealed to be a communist

Felix the Cat

• Star of the first commercial broadcast

• Real actors weren’t available due to hot lights

• Popular animated character

• Considered mascot for television

The Queen’s Messenger

• First television broadcast drama

• Broadcast on the Octagon

• Technical difficulties, faces and hands didn’t line up

The Goldbergs

• Radio show successfully adapted to TV

• Gertrude Berg sold show to NBC, transferred to CBS when it began airing on TV

• Possibly first radio and TV show to portray Jewish people and culture in a positive light

Dragnet

• First TV police procedural

• Adaptation of radio show

• Jack Webb was inspired by audience’s response to his film He Walked by Night

• Based on real police stories

• Ran for 8 years on radio,TV adaptation with 3 spin-off shows

Perry Mason

• First ever weekly hourlong TV drama

• Courtroom procedural adapted from successful radio show, detective novels and films

• Starred Raymond Burr defending unjustly accused

• Created by attorney and novelist Erle Stanley Gardner

• Insisted on legal accuracy

Requiem for a Heavyweight

• Heightened Rod Serling’s career

• Live broadcast TV anthology drama film

• Won multiple Emmys

• Serling won first Peabody Award for a teleplay

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

• Alfred Hitchcock told suspenseful stories

• Popular anthology series

• Helped add prestige to TV medium

• Writers included Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, and Roald Dahl

Texaco Star Theatre

• First successful comedy and variety show on TV

• Sponsored by oil company Texaco (Chevron)

• Highest rated show of 1950

• Helped solidify television medium

Your Show of Shows

• Hosted by Sid Caesar

• Ensemble cast included Carl Reiner and Imogen Coca

• Won Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series

• Influenced SNL

The Hazel Scott Show

• Starred singer and jazz pianist Hazel Scott

• Live music

• First US TV show with a Black host

• Refused to perform in segregated venues

• Critically acclaimed but cancelled after the HUAC accused Scott of being a communist

The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong

• Drama about art gallery owner/detective

• Starred Anna May Wong

• First TV show to feature an Asian American lead actor

Pinwright’s Progress

• World’s first regular half-hour TV sitcom

• British

• Ran for 10 episodes

• No surviving footage exists today

Mary Kay and Johnny

• First American TV sitcom

• Starred real life married couple

• Aired on DuMont Network

• First show where a couple shared the same bed

• Pregnancy was acknowledged on-air, baby was written into the show

The Honeymooners

• Short run but strong legacy

• One of the few DuMont shows with many surviving episodes

• Bickering married couple

• Very popular

• Starred Jackie Gleason after using the concept on his variety show

• Filmed before live studio audience

• Never fully rehearsed

• Gleason would mess up lines on-air

• Successful while having no big guest stars and low production value

• Show survives because Gleason kept copies of kinescope recordings

• Template of foolish husband and struggling yet smart wife trope

I Love Lucy

• Popular

• Starred actual married couple, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz

• Executives were initially reluctant due to interracial relationship

• First scripted TV show to be shot on 35mm film

• Developed multi-cam technique so live studio audience could produce natural reactions without sitting through multiple takes

• Pushed for rebroadcasting rights, revolutionized reruns

The Phil Silvers Show

• Workplace sitcom

• Inspired future workplace sitcoms

• Set in the army

• Successful

• Often includes at least one character of color, don’t have many lines but aren’t stereotyped

Crusader Rabbit

• First cartoon made specifically for television

• First Saturday morning cartoon

• Kids’ show that appealed to all ages

• Loosely based on Don Quixote

Howdy Doody

• Children’s show centered around a puppet

• Western-themed variety show

• Purely for kids

• Popular and wholesome

Captain Kangaroo

• Starred Bob Keeshan

• Featured variety of puppets

• Warm and imaginative

• Surrogate grandfather figure

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie

• Most revolutionary kids’ show of the Golden Age

• Influential to Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and Mystery Science Theater 3000

• Starred Fran Allison with two puppets

• Appealed to all ages

• Created by Burr Tillstrom who played most of the puppets

• Self-aware about being a TV show

• Covered topics that weren’t specific to kids

• Rehearsed but largely ad-libbed