Television's Golden Age

Television's Golden Age

• FCC freeze 1948-52 - only 108 stations, 9% own set
• CBS TV News, with Douglas Edwards in 1948
  • began network TV news, produced by Don Hewitt
• Ed Sullivan's variety "big shew" & M. Berle's vaudeo
  • Ed Sullivan Show 1948-71 on Sun. nights
  • Texaco Star Theater 1948-1953 with "Mr. Television"
  • Your Show of Shows 1950-1954 with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner
• Lone Ranger 1949-57 - 1st telefilm western - national mythology
  • Clayton Moore never killed anyone, didn't smoke or drink
• Estes Kefauver Senate Crime Hearings
  • March 12, 1951 - Frank Costello's hands
• Edward R. Murrow See It Now 1951 - "indispensable"
  • Fred Friendly, Don Hewitt - Studio 41 - two oceans at once
• Billy Graham's Hour of Decision 1951-54 Sun. night
  • also 4 crusades 1957-59 - passive & internal
• I Love Lucy 1951-57 - Desilu 3-camera filmed sitcom
  • baby show Jan. 19, 1953 = 67.3% of 20m sets
• Today Jan. 14, 1952 at 7a.m. - a comfortable massage
  • D. Garroway, J. Fred Muggs, Saranwrap
• Marty May 1953 by Paddy Chayefsky on Philco TV Playhouse
  • Rod Steiger as lonely Bronx butcher - truthful
• Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet 1952-1966 - consensus
  • America's First Family - Ricky sang his 1st song 1957
• Father Knows Best 1954-63 - idealized
  • Robert Young and Jane Wyatt as Jim and Margaret Anderson
• Army-McCarthy Hearings Apr. 22 to May 24, 1954 - courageous
  • Joseph Welch and TV exposed methods of Joseph McCarthy
• Walt Disney since 1954 on ABC - idealized technocracy
  • Davy Crockett with Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen
• Tonight 1954-57 with Steve Allen
  • Jack Paar 1957-62, Johnny Carson 1962-92, Jay Leno 1992-
• $64,000 Question 1955-1958 - instant wealth & glamor
  • Hal March - Revlon - Robert Strom $192,000 - Quiz Show
• Queen for a Day 1955-64 on NBC
  • Jack Bailey - Spiegel catalog
• Edge of Night 1956 - daytime soaps - managed demand
  • protagonist not female but attorney Mike Karr
• Gunsmoke 1955-1975 on CBS - 1st adult western
  • Matt, Kitty, Doc, Chester, Festus, Quint
• James Garner in Bret Maverick 1957-62
  • male, white, violent, action
• Color videotape 1958-59
  • First NBC color videotape telecast October 17, 1958
  • Kitchen Debate 1959
• Twilight Zone Oct. 2, 1959 - 1964 on CBS
  • Rod Serling wrote live anthology series
• Many Loves of Dobie Gillis 1959-63
  • Dwayne Hickman as Dobie based on Max Shulman books
• Bonanza on NBC Sunday nights 1959-1973
  • the Cartwrights in color on the Ponderosa
  • 40m of 44m homes own TV - 88%
  • advertisers spending $500m per year
• Presidency of John F. Kennedy 1961-63
  • "renascence" (Barnouw p. 281) of the documentary
  • Years of Lightning, Day of Drums