The Word “Television” Was Coined In 1900 By Russian Scientist Constantin Perskyi

There is an innovation that many of us take for granted every day. Whether we’re sitting at our computers, watching television with the family, or even playing with our handheld games, we are inundated with a bright parade of colors.  Color TV Day reminds us that this hasn’t always been the case, when Television was first introduced we had nothing but black and white images, really more of a myriad shade of grey. In 1951, an event came to pass that changed the future of broadcast entertainment forever.

• German inventor Paul Nipkow managed to achieve static black and white television transmission with his famous “Electric Telescope” in 1884.
• The word “Television” was coined in 1900 by Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi.
• First American television station started working in 1928, and BBC transmission began in 1930.
• Television became widely popular after the end of World War II. Over 1 million American homes had television in 1948.
• On January 12th, 1950, the general public was introduced to color television for the very first time when CBS demonstrated its “field sequential” color system on eight television sets in the Walker Building, in Washington [1]. Faye Emerson was the main attraction in the demonstration, which had been ordered by the F.C.C.
• The first commercial color broadcast took place at 4:35PM on Monday, June 25th, 1951, when CBS offered an hour-long program entitled “Premiere” to an ad-hoc network of five stations in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.
• Thousands were able to watch the first color broadcast in auditoriums, department stores and hotels in the five cities, but the general public was left in the dark — literally. Because the CBS color system was incompatible with existing black and white television sets, for the hour the color special was on the air, viewers tuned to CBS in any of the five cities saw only a blank screen
• 1960s brought great expansion of television. First TV satellite was launched in 1962 and in 1969 over 600 million people watched moon landings live from their homes.
• Average American family watches TV for eight hours per day.
• Commercials were not always expensive. In 1941 20 seconds of prime-time air time was $9. Today, prices can go up to $5.3 million for 30 seconds in the Super Bowl half-time break.
• First VCR was made by Sony in 1970, which enabled for the first time a cheap way to record television shows.
• First broadcasted TV commercial lasted for 20 seconds in 1941 during the game between Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, and was for a clock manufactured by Bulova Corporation.
• The first car commercial on television was for Chevrolet and aired on June 9, 1946.
• It is estimated that by the time average American child reach age 14, it sees around 11,000 murders on the television. By the age 18, that number goes to 200,000.
• Americans annually watch around 250 billion hours of television.
• Average 65 year old person sees over 2 million TV commercials during their life.
• The inventor of the television would not let his own children watch TV. He once said to his son “There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet.” – Philo T Farnsworth.
• On The Andy Griffith Show, Andy has upside-down maps of Idaho and Nevada behind his desk.
• Passengers paid thousands of dollars to be onboard The Love Boat while filming.
• Herb Tarlek actually did wear a suit made from Volkswagen seat covers on WKRP in Cincinnati.
• The Today show was first aired in 1952, and the host was Dave Garroway.
• I Love Lucy was the most famous television show in the 1950’s.
• Rabbit Ears are antennas for televisions.
• The first colored television was released in 1953.
• In 1951 CBS broadcasted the first baseball game in color. It was the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Boston Braves.
• In 1953 the first television guide was published.
• The first presidential ad was in 1952 by Dwight Eisenhower.
• The first year for the tonight show with Steve Allen was 1954.
• Visitors to the World’s Fair in New York on April 30, 1939 — opening day — were amazed to see moving pictures and hear sound coming from a small black-and-white screen built into a large wooden box.
• The first national TV broadcast in color was the 1954 Tournament of Roses Parade but most programming was black-and-white until 1965. Sales of color TVs surpassed black-and-white sets for the first time in 1972.
• The first successful daytime drama on television was Search for Tomorrow, which debuted in 1951 and ran until 1986. The series was sponsored by Procter & Gamble — hence the term “soap operas.”

Sources:

Days of the Year

Television-History

Kaplan International

ME TV

Television 50’s

Global News

TV Obscurities