It’s Showtime!
After a couple of initial live event broadcasts in 1930s Europe, television came onto the scene in the United States in 1939 with a demonstration at New York’s World’s Fair. Soon after that, what would have been glorious regularly scheduled programming was preempted by a little something called World War II. So instead of an early 1940’s version of Seinfeld or The Situation Room, people sat by their radios for their entertainment and news, with pictures to go with those reports when visiting the movies for an afternoon matinee.
The phenomenon of TV would have to wait.
Later, the 1947 World Series with rookie player Jackie Robinson made television ownership mainstream as domestic purchases hit a then all-time high. We began adjusting our rabbit ears (look it up kids) in unison and haven’t looked back since.
TV’s humble beginnings — after taking viewers to baseball stadiums in New York — included becoming a newsroom, vaudeville stage and babysitter. We now have CNN, The Masked Singer and Nickelodeon. Look how far we’ve come!
Hell, TV increasingly doesn’t involve an actual television anymore. (Whacking the side of your phone when a video is buffering doesn’t provide the same old-school satisfaction as swift contact with a running-too-hot tube-based unit.) And aside from live sports, there’s not much left in terms of real-time communal viewing. We can’t agree on the news and wrap ourselves in nostalgia cocoons, feeling sentimental and dialing-up our time machines of MeTV and TCM.
For the last couple of decades, the best shows have had stories, sets and effects that rival anything coming out of Hollywood. In fact, they’re increasingly being made by the same people as streaming services and their deep pockets take center stage. (We could name names, but our lawyers advised us it would jeopardize several pitches we have in progress. Platforms, you know who you are. *Wink*)
In our episode 25 we talk about a couple of shows we love and the opening titles that make them so special. We admit we got a bit nostalgic ourselves. We discuss time limitations, the Dust Bowl, a semi-dead tree and tarot cards.
Just like the subject matter in our latest story, TV has always been a grab bag. It’s the good, the bad and the ugly. Occasionally great sneaks onto the scene and viewers get treated to something truly special. The kind of thing where from start to finish everything just falls into place – like our episode on great TV opening credits. That’s something worth celebrating.
Television is dead. Long live TV.