1950s DramaThe “Golden Age of Television”

Why Should We Study TV?

• T.V. is a reflection of culture or social reality • a ‘social ritual’ in which we all share

• Produced for mass audience = ‘popular culture’• Capable of satisfying the cultural needs of a diverse

group of viewers• An ‘agent’ of socialisation - we construct our identities

based on different representations and role models

Let’s Discuss

In the US the average television set is switched on for between five and six hours a day, and the average American adult watches for approximately three hours. Recent research has shown that the average child born in the mid‑1990s, when 18 years of age, will have spent more time watching television than any other activity except sleep.”

• In what ways does TV affect your life? How often do you watch?

• Write down your ten favourite programs from childhood. Compare your list with a partner.

TV AS POPULAR CULTURE

• A new era of mass media led by television emerged in the 1950s

• In 1948, only 9% of homes had T.V

• In 1950, 55% of homes had T.V.

• By 1960, 90% of American homes had T.V.

HD?1950 Cost: B & W = $130 - $300Color = $500 - $1300(on an avg. salary of $3000/yr/household)

Todays Cost: Standard Def = >$100 HD = $300 - $3000(avg. salary of $54,000/yr/houshold)

1928 - Television is introduced in the United States - CBS was founded by William S. Paley- Charles Jenkins broadcasts the first TV commercial

1934 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was established by

the Communications Act of 1934

1936 - The first experimental" coaxial cable lines were laid by AT&T

between New York and Philadelphia

1946 - Peter Goldmark, working for CBS, demonstrated his mechanical color

television system to the FCC - the first to introduce a broadcasting color television system

1948: - Cable television is introduced in Pennsylvania- Louis W. Parker patents a low-cost television receiver

1950 - The FCC approves the first color television standard which is soon

replaced by a second in 1953

1951 - Color television introduced in the U.S.

1962 - AT&T launches Telstar, the first satellite to carry TV broadcasts and

television broadcasts are relayed around the World.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION

• The 1950s was known as the “Golden Age of Television”

• Comedies were the main attraction as Milton Berle, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were very popular

Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball starred in I Love Lucy

I LOVE LUCY (1951-1957)

The show was praised as “a complete synthesis” of TV comedy because it had

- first sitcom to be filmed in front of a live audience. - Lucille Ball

- comedic talent & ambitious in this time when domesticity was being held up as the be-all and end-all.

- a forerunner to the feminist movement of the next decade when millions of women were too bright and too ambitious to want to “stay in the kitchen.”

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I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy

Amos n’ Andy

Milton Berle

TELEVISION EXPERIMENTS WITH VARIOUS FORMATS

• Television innovations like on-the-scene-news reporting, interviews, westerns and sporting events offered the viewer a variety of shows

• Kids’ shows like The Howdy Doody Show and The Mickey Mouse Club were extremely popular

New Entertainment Formats

Mickey Mouse Club

New Entertainment Formats

• Ed Sullivan • Price Is Right

THE ARRIVAL OF TV?

• When television first arrived, people had dire predictions:• NO ONE WOULD READ BOOKS.• NEWSPAPERS WOULD DIE.• RADIO WOULD DISAPPEAR.• AND SO WOULD MOVIE THEATERS.

• BUT, WHAT HAPPENED?

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TV ADS, TV GUIDES AND TV DINNERS EXPAND

• TV advertising soared from $170 million in 1950 to nearly $2 billion in 1960

• TV Guide magazine quickly became the best selling magazine• Frozen TV dinners were introduced in 1954 – these complete

ready-to-heat meals on disposable aluminum trays made it easy for people to eat without missing their favorite shows

Alfred Hitchcock

Tennessee Williams

• American writer who worked as playwright in American theater.

• Wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs.

• Williams adapted much of his best known work for the cinema.

Popular Films and Film Stars of 1950s

Vertigo

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

A SUBCULTURE EMERGES

• Although mass media and television were wildly popular in the 1950s, dissenting voices emerged

• The “Beat Movement” in literature and rock n’ roll clashed with tidy suburban views of life

BEATNIKS FOLLOW OWN PATH

• Centered in San Francisco, L.A. and New York’s Greenwich Village, the Beat Movement expressed social nonconformity

• Followers, called “beatniks”, tended to shun work and sought understanding through Zen Buddhism, music, and sometimes drugsBeatniks often performed poetry or

music in coffeehouses or bars