"TREotM": Drama, Comedy, Sports, News & Ads

This is a work in progress Go here to read the previous chaptersThe 1950amp8217s found television programming growing upamp160 While some formats sitcoms The Shadow and others made the transition to the tube a cathode ray tube containing electron emitters with a fluorescent screen and garnered audiences other forms of entertainment flourished in the new land of videoamp160 Everybodyamp8217s favorite uncle Milton Berle was really a vaudeville performer sans the strippersamp160 He was TVamp8217s first superstar amp8230 city water levels suddenly dropped during commercials on his showIn 1950 9 of US households or almost 39 million had a TV set amp8230 most TV households TVHH probably hosted more neighbors during the next five years than at any other time in human historyamp160 By the end of 1955 some 307m boasted TV sets or 645 of US householdsamp160 Note peak penetration was hit in 2011 with about 989 of US households or about 116m TVHHsamp160 Weamp8217ll get to why that dropped but in a nutshell more people watched more on more devices than ever before when we get to todayamp160 Figures are the Television Bureau of Advertising courtesy of NielsenBack in the early amp821650s theater owners were panickingamp160 TV will kill movie theaters they cried amp160Theater owners and some movie studios even banded together to try and prevent television from showing moviesamp160 That didnamp8217t workamp160 TV did initially eat into theater goingamp160 But in June of amp821615 HBOamp8217s Game of Thrones and the NBA finals couldnamp8217t stop Universalamp8217s Jurassic World from breaking all US and world box office recordsamp160In 1949 television advertising added up to a little more than 12millionamp160 That grew tenfold in 1951 to 128million amp8230 and it grew another tenfold by 1955 to 1billionamp160 TV continues to lead all other media in advertising revenue amp8230 for nowEarly advertising was sold in half hour blocks to companies both the advertisers themselves and advertising agencies which produced or licensed their own showsamp160 The man who did the most to shift ad buying from those blocks toward single or multiple minutes was NBCamp8217s Pat Weaver whom weamp8217ve mentioned beforeamp160 He called it a amp8220magazine formatamp8221The first amp8220Golden Ageamp8221 of TV thrived in the 1950s as dramatist began writing directly for televisionamp160 Live drama from writers such as Paddy Chayefsky Rod Serling Tad Mosel Horton Foote JP Miller and Reginald Rose glued viewers to their TV sets week after weekamp160 Some of the live drama shows were Playhouse 90 Studio One and US Steel Houramp160But it wasnamp8217t all seriousamp160 Comedies and game shows proliferatedamp160 Some like You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx were bothamp160 Milton Berleamp8217s vaudevillian approach gave way to more sophisticated sketch comedy such as Sid Ceasaramp8217s Your Show of Showsamp160 Live programming gave way to filmed situation comedies including Burns and Allen The Honeymooners and Father Knows Bestamp160As studios gradually began allowing major stars to appear on television production began moving west as wellamp160 Walt Disneyamp8217s Davy Crockett proved lots of cash could be made from both motion pictures and televisionPerhaps the biggest innovation was the notsosimple talk showamp160Next week Chapter 10 Part 3 amp8211 The SixtiesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage management or associated bloggers

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"TREotM": Drama, Comedy, Sports, News & Ads

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Paul S. Maxwell

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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