Television in the 40s and 50s.

Television has existed since the 1930s but until world war II it was never commercially viable and most televisions programs were experimental broadcasts to test proof of concept for broadcasting moving images.

The cheapest of the pre-World War II factory-made American sets, a 1938 image-only model with a 3-inch screen, cost $125, the equivalent of about $1,800 today. The cheapest model with a 12-inch screen was $445 or about $6,600). With the Start of World War II the production of televisions was halted and broadcasts were suspended.

This would prove beneficial to the television industry as it gave them time to advance their technology and with the return of troops from the war, the baby boom and the rise of consumerism it was a perfect time for television to really launch.

In 1947 Motorola introduced the VT-71 television for $189.95, the first television set to be sold for under $200, finally making television affordable for millions of Americans. While only 0.5% of U.S. households had a television set in 1946, 55.7% had one in 1954, and 90% by 1962.

June 19th 1946 -- The first televised heavyweight fight (Joe Louis vs Billy Conn) was viewed by a record 140,000 people. One year later, 1,000,000 people viewed the Louis-Walcott fight.

Sports were an early way to showcase television, for the first time people could see the event without being there. Early Sports Director Harry Coyle said of sports and television:

"Television got off the ground because of sports. Today, maybe, sports need television to survive, but it was just the opposite when it first started. When we (NBC) put on the World Series in 1947, heavyweight fights, the Army-Navy football game, the sales of television sets just spurted."

September 30th 1947 -- The opening game of the World Series is the first World Series game to be telecast. The 1947 World Series brought in an estimated 3.9 million people, becoming television's first mass audience.

The relationship between sports and television is one of the reasons we have millionaire athletes and sports franchises worth over a billion dollars.

November 16th 1947 -- Meet the Press makes its television debut; it is a weekly news and interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television show in worldwide broadcasting history. It is still on the air 50 years later. Eleven moderators have hosted it in its history. It specializes in interviewing national leaders on issues of politics, economics, foreign policy and other public affairs.

Ned Brooks Moderator 1960.

October 15^th 1951—I Love Lucy premieres. One of the first shows shot using 3 cameras and a live studio audience, a practice that is still popular today. It was also one of the few TV shows shot in Hollywood, as most shows were shot live in New York City.

Television executives originally were against the idea of having Ball and the Latino Arnaz portray a married couple on television because they thought his Cuban accent and Latin style would not be agreeable to American viewers. It was the top show on television for 4 of its first 6 years.

1952 -- The first political advertisements appear on US television. Democrats buy a 30-minute slot for their candidate, Adlai Stevenson. Stevenson is bombarded with hate mail for interfering with a broadcast of I Love Lucy. Dwight Eisenhower buys 1-5 minute long commercial spots and wins the election.

1954 – ABC broadcast the Army-McCarthy hearings in their entirety. This is credited as the moment where McCarthy began to lose his power and influence, as the hearings were broadcast on TV and people got to see how McCarthy behaved. In this video McCarthy has just accused a member of Head Attorney for the Army Joseph Welch's law firm of having been involved in a communist organization.

September 9, 1956 – some 55–60 million viewers saw Elvis Presley’s first Ed Sullivan appearance.

On the third Sullivan show, in spite of Presley's established reputation as a "gyrating" performer, he sang only slow paced ballads and a gospel song. Presley was still only shown to the television audience from the waist up.

July 24, 1959 -- The Kitchen Debate, an impromptu debate between then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, takes place at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. For the event, an entire house was built that the American exhibitors claimed anyone in America could afford. It was filled with labor saving and recreational devices meant to represent the fruits of the capitalist American consumer market. Helped Nixon gain popularity and he ran for president in 1960. This is a good example of a politician using television to boost their image.