On Jan. 26, 1926, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird presented the first demonstration of his mechanical television to members of the Royal Institution in his laboratory in London. In the 90 years since, the world has basked in the electronic glow of the television's warm light. Love it or hate it, the television is one of the most important inventions of the Twentieth Century, and has influenced humanity tremendously.
Color
In the beginning, moving images were transmitted by a Nipkow disk, a spinning disk with small holes drilled at equidistant points in a spiral pattern. Each hole allows a bit of light through the disk where it stimulates a photo cell, converting that light into a signal that can be transmitted over the airwaves. A similar mechanism in the TV set would interpret the signals and project them on the screen.
Howver, one drawback of this method was that the photo cells could only measure relative brightness, meaning that only greyscale images could be transmitted.
By 1953, broadcasts of color images were made possible by encoding the brightness values separately from the color values, broadcasting three separate images in rapid succession: one image with only the red components of the image, one with the green, and one with blue. When played together in this manner, the human eye interprets the images as one moving full color image.
Censorship
Regardless of your feelings on the matter, it's no secret that TV censorship has relaxed over the years. Believe it or not, in 1957, the pilot of "Leave it to Beaver" was censored by CBS. The episode's plot revolved around Wally and Beaver hiding a baby alligator from the parents, stowing it in the toilet tank. CBS would only air the episode if there were no shots of the seat or bowl.
This was during a time when a married couple could only sleep in separate twin beds and "pregnant" couldn't be said on air, according to a CNN article.
Must-see TV
The earliest programming on TV was far and few between. In the 1930s, most television programming was either news, boxing matches or political events like presidential elections. During World War II, TV proved to be a useful tool for disseminating government propaganda.
Once things calmed down in the late 1940s, stars like Ed Sullivan and Milton Berle began to emerge. Then in the 1950s, a television renaissance occured. Shows like "I Love Lucy," "Father Knows Best" and "The Lone Ranger" became wildly popular. Now that a boom economy was in play and demand for consumer goods had reached a major high, television production really kicked in.
Reality TV
There's something raw and interesting about unscripted television. From the beginning of motion picture technology, there has been a strong urge to document real-life experiences. This manifested early on with documentaries and newsreels.
In the late 1940s, shows like "Candid Camera" and "Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour" began to tamper with the documentary style and inject manufactured conflicts to the mix with elements such as pranks and talent competitions. Over time, many reality shows especially those that weren't competition-based became more exploitative, accomplished by throwing a mix of people with volatile personalities into stressful circumstances and recording the results.
Do you like all the advances of TV programming or do you miss the style of the old shows? Let us know in the comments.
Color
In the beginning, moving images were transmitted by a Nipkow disk, a spinning disk with small holes drilled at equidistant points in a spiral pattern. Each hole allows a bit of light through the disk where it stimulates a photo cell, converting that light into a signal that can be transmitted over the airwaves. A similar mechanism in the TV set would interpret the signals and project them on the screen.
Howver, one drawback of this method was that the photo cells could only measure relative brightness, meaning that only greyscale images could be transmitted.
By 1953, broadcasts of color images were made possible by encoding the brightness values separately from the color values, broadcasting three separate images in rapid succession: one image with only the red components of the image, one with the green, and one with blue. When played together in this manner, the human eye interprets the images as one moving full color image.
Censorship
Regardless of your feelings on the matter, it's no secret that TV censorship has relaxed over the years. Believe it or not, in 1957, the pilot of "Leave it to Beaver" was censored by CBS. The episode's plot revolved around Wally and Beaver hiding a baby alligator from the parents, stowing it in the toilet tank. CBS would only air the episode if there were no shots of the seat or bowl.
This was during a time when a married couple could only sleep in separate twin beds and "pregnant" couldn't be said on air, according to a CNN article.
Must-see TV
The earliest programming on TV was far and few between. In the 1930s, most television programming was either news, boxing matches or political events like presidential elections. During World War II, TV proved to be a useful tool for disseminating government propaganda.
Once things calmed down in the late 1940s, stars like Ed Sullivan and Milton Berle began to emerge. Then in the 1950s, a television renaissance occured. Shows like "I Love Lucy," "Father Knows Best" and "The Lone Ranger" became wildly popular. Now that a boom economy was in play and demand for consumer goods had reached a major high, television production really kicked in.
Reality TV
There's something raw and interesting about unscripted television. From the beginning of motion picture technology, there has been a strong urge to document real-life experiences. This manifested early on with documentaries and newsreels.
In the late 1940s, shows like "Candid Camera" and "Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour" began to tamper with the documentary style and inject manufactured conflicts to the mix with elements such as pranks and talent competitions. Over time, many reality shows especially those that weren't competition-based became more exploitative, accomplished by throwing a mix of people with volatile personalities into stressful circumstances and recording the results.
Do you like all the advances of TV programming or do you miss the style of the old shows? Let us know in the comments.
