TV: A Forgotten History
The invention of television was a dynamic process that represented the convergence of many technological innovations and …
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"Harmony in Every Heartbeat
November 5, 2024
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I'm 86 now and I still remember my parents, sister and I seated around that little TV and one of us always had to play with the attached "rabbit ears" antenna to try to stabilize the picture. Now my wife and I watch YouTube and Netflix on a TV that is almost half the width of our living room.
My parents purchased our first TV set in 1947. The cost was $500.00. We had the only TV within blocks and neighbors would stop by and ask to see it. I forget the brand, but the screen was 5" around.
In the UK the BBC started broadcasting a regular television service in 1936. They broadcast a whole range of programmes… Plays, Talks, Music, Variety, Cartoons, Hobbies, Sports etc either from their studios or from Outside (Remote) Broadcast units that covered football matches, circuses, and London West End Theatres for example. Programme listings were printed in the Radio Times and some newspapers. By the outbreak of WW2 in September 1939 it was estimated that there were about 19,000 TV sets in use in people's homes in the UK, all within about a 50 mile radius of London as that was the sole transmitter until the service began to expand post WW2.
TV technology was used to remote-control "drones" for special bombing runs in WW2, Operation Aphrodite. A long time ago i read a book that had a chapter on cable TV. They attributed it to (wealthy) New Yorkers who "summered" up in the Catskills and missed their TV shows. ALso, "poor man's color tv" was still available in the 1980s, a sheet with 3 or 4 horizontal bands of color, supposed to mimic color tv
RCA president Sarnoff was a lowlife hack and that ripped off and destroyed many inventors lifes Farnsworth with TV and Armstrong with AM/FM radio just to name a few. 😢
Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the first publicly demonstrated colour television system and the first viable purely electronic colour television picture tube.
I started watching tv when I was about 7 years old, when my father bought our first colour Tv in 1991. Before we had black&white television with only 2 channels. I don't actually have any memories with watching tv when I was a little kid, before I turned 7.
America was raised on free TV paid for by advertisers. All of these streaming services complaining that they aren't profitable and yeah, cause you're not free and you don't have advertisers. That's why you lose money.
John Logie Barid based his invention on the writings of Henry Sutton of Ballarat Australia who came up with the idea in the 1890"s
When i think of classic TV I listen to
The Tubes – Remote control album
classic TV and it rocks!!
I didn't spend 40 years waiting for the big flat screens to watch TV on my cell phone.
A small voice? A SMALL VOICE? You, sir, are the loudest voice in the area of easily accessible and understandable history content. Please continue your crusade to remind future generations of the most important knowledge, our past.
Britains’ tv coverage history must read as a horror story to any youths whom can’t do without a screen even if for non interactive time because aged 16 in Britain during 1980 , one had 3 whole terrestrial channels & unless you knew someone earning above average wages whom could fork out £ 1200 for a VCR , 3 channels were it – unless your home was in an overlap of Regional iTV & this again generally depended on the owner gaining a 2nd bigger masts & ariels still depending on your location. Things were grim on cold miserable winter days & making our own entertainment wasn’t a choice but a necessity ! 😁👍
I remember the TV repairman coming to the house every few months to replace tubes and realign the channel dial with the station numbers!
yep 3 channels and a coat hanger !
Wow… I’m watching this on a phone.
Thanks for this insightful video on this topic that always interests me. Being a 90s kid, I know how we have grown up from satellite to OTT but was enchanted of who did the inventions and how it all started like we know of telephone. Some say Sony, some say ATT did and I know they are saying BS so i had to go further than a simple search on TV history and invention. And glad to find this. Subscribed.
ok here tis..1957. oldr bro sis and I turned on the TV at 6:45 AM..at first it was hissss.. then a in few months it was the test pattern.. Indian relief to the left with headdress. WE had a VHF & UHF dial two dial one under the other WE Also had total of 3 stations..YEP NBC, ABC, & CBS. static on all other clicks on dial..same for VHF. At 6 AM.. N Anthem played, followed by morning farmer showing combines and such. On the hour news from ALL 3 stations. At midnite.. BEEP test pattern til 6AM> and we then ignored it. Bro was 8 sis was 7 and I wuz 6. Do REm Dave Garrowway on CBS news trying new pin fed instant news printout..and waited and waited. he then got that monkey to keep him company.
Born in 1947, I certainly remember those 3-channel days. Living a little north of Baltimore, we'd sometimes get a station out of D.C. too. Wowzers … And there's more: My father worked all his life for Bendix Radio. He had his own TV radio repair business on the side, and sometime's he'd bring a "set" home to tinker with. With the back removed, I got to see what was actually in the box – The picture tube, other tubes, resistors, capacitors, and lots of wire : )
One of the outstanding channels, THG, is so appreciated! Thank you, THG!!
My parents had one of those fancy console color tvs that they used in their living room from 1979 to 1992. Screen was 26", and speaker had a good sound. I am surprised it was able to use basic cable all those years. Zenith was the best brand , which my parents had. I am 63, and even at age 18, 1979, my parents only got 3 channels and a roof antenna. They got basic cable 1980.
I wasn't very old but I remember getting our 1st tv. It was in the fall of 1952 and there was a contest on where the first prize was a 1953 Chevrolet.
How many recall shows like "My Friend Irma ", " Mama " and Milton Berle's "Texaco Theatre ". Even Amos and Andy were on tv early on but didn't last. Their best medium was radio.
Growing up in the 60's our family had the big cabinet t,v i think it was a R,C,A t.v ,of course no remote control, myself and my 3 brothers would take turns turning the channels which back than we only had three stations, ABC,NBC,AND CBS
OMG! PLEASE Do A History Guy about CAMERAS!!! #Kodak
Plasma tv ?
Great production, but please talk slower.
Thanks!
I owned my own house on Gulfstream Bay Court in Orlando, Florida from 1997 until 2005. During that time I NEVER connected the cable television! In fact, I installed and RV roof antenna on my house. I got the typical 4 channels, and a few odd UHF stuff. I didn't care, since I hardly paid attention to television. I had a cheap 20 inch CRT on top of my stereo set, and that was good enough for me. I prefered books. I still prefer books, though I have to say, YouTube videos have kind of caught my attention…..
-I remember in the 1970's when I was a little kid that we had channels 2 [CBS], 4 [NBC], and 7 [ABC] in Detroit. We also had WKBD, channel 50 which was unaffiliated. That later was the BEST! And of course, we had CBC on Channel 9, since Canada was less than a kilometer away from my parents house in Grosse ile.
I enjoy your videos, and I've always liked history.
Damm
Wonderful telly using your finite life entertaining us.
i HAVE HAVE AN ANTENNA ON THE ROOF OF MY CONDO SINCE 1990.
Great channel!
Paying for TV is against my principles, and while everyone else in my apartment building has cable or FIOS, I hooked up my TV to an antenna. I get over 50 stations, and 7 of them are PBS stations, which I watch the most.
I had that tv.
Good video, filled in a lot of gaps in my understanding of the history of TV. The great thing about youtube versus traditional TV is not only the vast number of potential subjects but the fact that there are dozens of voices you can choose from to tell you about them.