RTF 302D Exam Study Guide Part 2

Anticipation of TV’s emergence since radio; lots of experimentation, but mostly paused during WWII

Radio was deliberately killed by the television. Networks like NBC and CBS had long prepared for the arrival the television. To ensure their ownership in the emerging industry, networks ripped off radio revenue to build and maintain TV operations. 

Television really begins to take off 1945-1955

A post-war economic boom that made TVs affordable, the development of diverse programming, and a shift in population to the suburbs.

FCC decides…

In favor of radio networks running TV (instead of allowing in other companies). There could have been a hundred local channels but FCC decides there will be only three – NBC, CBS and ABC

Early Sponsorship Model

A single company/advertiser funding and controlled production/program. Integrated ads or cutaway direct ads usually all from the same sponsor. 

Licensing Freeze 1948-1952; concentrates power of the three networks

A four-year period during which the FCC stopped processing applications for new commercial television station licenses.

The freeze was implemented to address severe technical problems, primarily signal interference, that arose from the after World War II.

Result= sponsor + network domination, one mass audience = an even tighter oligopoly than the movies
or radio

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Social context of TV after World War II; baby boom, emphasis on the home and the suburbs; uptick in American consumerism after Great Depression and WWII, boundless promise of TV

After the war, ex-soldiers wanted to start a family, so they got married, moved to the suburbs, then had children (baby boomers). No fin…

TV 1945-1950s called the “Golden Age” of live drama, new sitcoms, and variety shows

• 90% of programming was filmed live and based in NYC.

• Programs produced by sponsors + ad agencies

• Anthology dramas – LIVE, Broadway flavor, individual plays, 30-60 mins; LOVED by critics;

• Intimate, dark, edgy; ultimately inefficient

• Sitcoms – conformist, focused on suburban household and family, domestic “problems”

Quiz Show were…

a top TV genre in primetime in the mid-1950s. Huge prizes, huge audiences amassing 50 million viewers

How could quiz shows build drama?

• Producers would selected contestants based on their telegenic qualities and life stories.

• Contestants would extensively rehearse answer. Producer would prearrange outcomes; which contest win and loses.

•  stressful answer booths created a physical representation of the mental solitary struggle, heightened by dramatic camera angles and the visible stress of the person inside.

Biggest Outcome of quiz show scandal

TV Networks gained back control of program production from sponsors and ad agencies.

Another important outcome includes government regulations that prevent networks from prearranging outcomes of quiz shows.  

How did networks allow sponsorships to advertise after the scandal? (1960s)

Networks produce the programs, and sell 30- and 60-second ads in the program, (called ‘magazine format’) rather than let the sponsor create the whole program and be the only advertiser in the program.

I Love Lucy and how Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz created a sitcom on FILM (not live), leads to telefilm and syndication

• I Love Lucy was the first sitcom created on FILM (high-quality motion picture film, like 35mm), which was new to film industry.

• I Love Lucy stood out for technical innovations such as the three camera setup and the live audience. 

Shooting on film was more profitable because

• The image quality was higher

• The film was more easily preserved

• No need for kinescope

• Could be re-broadcasted on TV

Concentration of production among few Hollywood studios, greater collaboration between Hollywood studios and network television

idk…

Three Network era 1960-1980 “classic network era” CBS, NBC, ABC

o Like old Hollywood film industry– small number of powerful networks
o Buy programs cheap from producers, own syndication rights for reruns

Genres: Sitcoms, “escapist” sitcoms, westerns; very little diversity/ minorities,
o Frustration of FCC head Newton Minnow and critics, who called TV “the vast wasteland

Why were sitcoms heavily criticized in the 1960s?

Sitcoms could be viewed as stupid and dull, or as subtle cultural criticism.

Ex: The housewife witch in Bewitched who actually had powers or happy sitcom monster family The Munsters. (shows that challenged the norm)