TV History

As we look to the new year, it is interesting to look back on how TV has changed our lives, for better or worse.

Philo Farnsworth, Idaho, invented television and filed for patent in 1927.

The first commercial TVs were produced in the US in 1938.

RCA 12 inch TV, 1939. Cost $600 (that would be like $9,337.00 in 2009).

The first public broadcast was made in London in 1936 and 1939 (on a 6 inch screen) in New York.

The FCC declares 1941 as the actual first broadcast and declares anything before that as 'experimental'. Also, the first commercial, from Bulova watch was seen in 1941. Maybe that is what made the FCC change its mind.

TVs were not produced from 1942 - 1945, due to the war, and tv stations broadcast only 4 hours per week.

Howdy Doody premiered on TV in 1947, The Lone Ranger in 1949, and the first coast-to-coast TV broadcast was 1951.

Commercial color TV was first seen in 1953, but less than 1 percent of TVs could view color. Most of the country had 4 VHF stations to watch, and none were available 24 hours a day. They ended the day with the national anthem, or the following. Then they showed test patterns until the next day's broadcast.

Do you remember -  "Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of . . . " John Gillespie Magee Jr.

LINK to "High Flight" above from KSAT TV signoff. Poem begins at about 1 minute in.

Ronald Reagan was host of "General Electric Theater" from 1953 - 1961.

1955 ushers in the first TV remote control from Zenith. Whoopee!

NBC announced in 1965 that 96% of its programming was in color, but it wasn't until 1977 that 75% of TVs in homes could receive color. Color TV sales first outsell black and white in 1972.

First pay TV was 1972 and it caused an uproar.

Cable TV broadcasting came in during the 1940s and 1950s for stations owners, first home cable, 1948, and was deregulated in 1984. Cable reaches 50 percent of households in 1987. CNN is first cable 24 hour programming. UK produces first 24 hour broadcasts in 1987.

1991 begins the first real-time commercial broadcast of war (the Persian War) and most major advertisers pull their spots as they were not willing to sponsor war coverage. NBC lost millions in advertising. Viet Nam coverage was all from film, not live broadcast.

18 inch satellite dishes are introduced in 1996. First web TV is introduced in 1996.

98% of households have at least one TV in 1998 and 67% have cable.

In 2005 A 42" Plasma HDTV usually retails for $4,500.00 - $7,000.00, with regular plasma flat screen of 42' at about $1,400.

LCDs surpassed sales of old CRT type televisions in 2008.

All digital TV is the only type of TV available as of 2009. As of 2009 you can also watch TV on your cell phone.

Captain Kangaroo

It was the longest-running children’s program in the history of commercial network television. It ran from 1955 to 1992, first on CBS, then PBS.

Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo, died at 76 in 2004. He started his career as Clarabelle the Clown on the Howdy Doody show. He then created the low-keyed children's host that shows television need not be a wasteland. It was entertaining and educational, and ran for over 30 years.

Keeshan taught his young viewers two "magic phrases": please and thank you. Captain Kangaroo provided a safe place for children to start their day in a warm television Treasure House where bears danced, clocks read poems, and rabbits apologized for stealing carrots.

From the day the Captain made his debut on CBS in 1955, Keeshan took a different approach. There was no audience of screaming kids clamoring for prizes, no attempt to produce a kiddie version of vaudeville. Instead, there was just Keeshan, made up to look like everyone's ideal grandfather, interacting with a few TV friends: Mr. Green Jeans (the late Hugh Brannum), Grandfather Clock, Bunny Rabbit, and Mr. Moose.

The format changed over the years, but simplicity was always the watchword. The Captain would introduce a Tom Terrific cartoon or read a story. Mr. Moose would tell a joke as Ping-Pong balls dropped from the ceiling. Mr. Green Jeans would bring in a baby animal.

Rather than feed off children's nervous energy, as shows do today, Keeshan calmed his audience. He asked kids to slow down, sit for a moment and listen to a story. The effort earned him many awards and many more fans, even though he made no attempt to appeal to adults or older children.


The Captain was even mentioned in a song by the Statler Brothers a few years ago, "Counting Flowers on the Wall."

CBS dumped Kangaroo in 1984 to make more room for a morning news show that could compete with NBC's Today. Captain Kangaroo moved to PBS for a while and then disappeared.


Don't forget to say please and thank you, because I share all this stuff with you.