Section: Cover
It mentored us and mirrored us. Now, as network television explodes, is our very identity at risk?
We often wonder if we lead technology or technology leads us. In fact, each is true. We invent something, then it develops a life all its own. Thomas Edison foresaw nothing of the musical explosion initiated by his phonograph (he thought it would be used to keep oral records of wills); Henry Ford imagined the auto as a farmer's tool (the Model T doubled as a tractor); radio was at first thought to be useful at best for communication between ships at sea; television was just radio with pictures--visual radio. No one saw it for what it became: the most powerful instrument of social transformation in the latter half of the 20th century.
Television was America's great equalizer. Radio and Hollywood had begun to break down barriers that divided the country into regions, and TV accelerated the process by codifying the imagery of desire (through advertising), of behavior (through the classic sitcoms), of the world around us (through an electronic town green, the news). When people in Maine looked at the same thing as people in California night after night, a different sense of nationhood was imprinted on our consciousness. Television reflected us, and directed us. One could chart a social history of the past 60 years with shows such as Lucy (married to an immigrant, she lived in the city but pined for Connecticut), to the suburban Dick Van Dyke (he even worked in television!), to All in the Family, with its intolerant Archie Bunker (the fractured '70s) and, finally, to Seinfeld (the absurdist, cynical '90s).
The awareness of television's impact came slowly. Asked in 1960 to name the most powerful journalistic enterprise covering his presidential campaign, John Kennedy picked Time magazine, even as he prepared for televised debates that many think clinched his victory. Civil rights struggles were beamed into our homes, and the brutal Birmingham police, seen alongside dignified Montgomery bus boycotters, impressed upon viewers the righteousness of Martin Luther King's campaign. Would America's commitment to the Vietnam war have proceeded without objection if war had not become dinnertime fare in Iowa? Just as it forged a national identity, network TV at its peak forced consensus upon a nation.
The technology of communication describes an arc across this century. The telegram allowed us to send a single message to a single person. Then came broadcasting--a farming term for the casting of seeds. The arrival of cable television gave us narrowcasting--niche markets--and now, with the advent of the Internet, we are again in an age of two-way messaging among the like-minded. It is possible once more to ignore the national culture or to transcend it in favor of individual taste. If so, then the heyday of network television may someday be seen as a seminal moment in America's cultural identity, a time when 200-some million could gather together, hold hands and, in the flicker of the omnipresent tube, be a nation.
The Early Years
AMERICA COMES HOME
No one believes in it. Television, since its invention in the 1920s, has been goofing around: scenes from a play, man-on-the-street interviews. Certainly this can never supplant radio, can never be important like radio is, can never force us to rush to the living room as radio does each and every evening. All homes have a radio, and the stars of that medium--Jack Benny, Ozzie and Harriet--aren't going to be toppled by the nobodies on these small screens in--what?--a thousand households? But, suddenly, "programming" on the "networks" starts to be "regularly scheduled," and some of it is good. War slows TV's progress, but then the tube flickers--and flames. Burning brightest is Milton Berle, Uncle Miltie, whose 1948 debut creates a sensation. "Mr. Television" makes us laugh. He makes us buy TVs. He makes us rush to the living room.
In the Beginning . . .
. . . there is NBC, boldly going from radio to television (below), placing a bet on the future. Before having a regular schedule, NBC transmits special shows from its Manhattan base to viewers in and around New York City. The 1938 telecast of scenes from the Broadway play Susan and God, starring Gertrude Lawrence, generates buzz, as does The Mysterious Mummy Case (bottom), offered that same year.
CBS Comes Next . . .
. . . and then the DuMont network, which has a '40s hit in radio's old warhorse The Original Amateur Hour, hosted on TV by Ted Mack (below, with horn). Kazoos and ukuleles are big, and so is kiddie TV. Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob Smith blaze the trail on NBC in 1947, and television soon becomes a second home for animated characters who have been around for years, like Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat (bottom). In 1948, meanwhile, the fourth and newest network, ABC, brings New York's grand Metropolitan Opera to the little screen, for Mom and Dad.
A Battle Is Joined
Whenever one of the weaker nets, DuMont or ABC, has a hit, the big guns steal its star with money. At decade's end, DuMont loses Ted Mack to NBC and a red-hot comic named Jackie Gleason to CBS. Who will survive the network wars?
Three Make the Cut
Not DuMont. It is a wounded animal by the late '40s and will struggle on only until 1956, when it will leave the field to the alphabet boys, who will rule television virtually unchallenged for three decades.
Really Big Shews
Early programmers have more faith in events than series. All four networks cover the 1948 elections and Truman's 1949 inaugural. NBC hires Arturo Toscanini to conduct the NBC Symphony, while CBS hits back with the Golden Gloves boxing championships. And then there are programs dedicated to being big shows week in and week out--the variety hours. What will become The Ed Sullivan Show debuts in 1948 on CBS as Toast of the Town (below).
The 1950s
FAMILY AFFAIRS
Moolah to be made, radio stars come crashing in. Whereas they had once entertained us, they now define us. The moderately dysfunctional Kramdens are kin in their laughter, pain and sorrow. Ozzie and Harriet are so real--they are the Nelsons--we have only to breathe to imitate them. Most popular of all is I Love Lucy, a huge hit in 1951 and the dominant show of the decade. Lucille Ball, a loud but sweet postwar woman, has a tonic effect on her countrymen: She makes them funnier than they'd been before.
Must-see TV
First, Berle makes us rejigger our Tuesdays, then Ed Sullivan messes with our Sundays. Now the Today show, starring Dave Garroway and the chimp J. Fred Muggs (below), becomes TV's first early-morning program in 1952, hoping to establish another pattern of behavior. Today's midtown Manhattan window is a hit; folks at home can see their friends waving. It will be abandoned, then brought back for the 1990s. Good TV ideas never die, they're recycled.
Other Patterns
Ozzie and Harriet Nelson have been regulars on radio since 1944; Jackie Gleason and Art Carney are vaudeville and Broadway stars. In the '50s, they all hit big on TV (below). Jack Benny comes over to the new medium, as do Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, appearing on Walt Disney's first television production. Suddenly, there's an audience--and real money.
Flexing Its Muscles
In broadcasting the Kefauver Crime Commission hearings (1951), Richard Nixon's Checkers speech ('52), the arrival of POWs from Korea ('53), the Army-McCarthy hearings ('54) and an Edward R. Murrow special entitled Statehood for Alaska and Hawaii? ('58), TV influences events by covering events.
Round the Clock
NBC's The Tonight Show, with host Steve Allen (below), begins broadcasting from New York City in 1954; networks blanket the day from dawn to midnight.
The 1960s
SEE IT NOW
Edward R. Murrow's See It Now, television's most influential public affairs program, ends its run in 1958. But its spirit perseveres during television's See It Now decade. Every time you turn on the set, there is another extraordinary event being presented, live. Alan Shepard is shot into space, and then John Glenn. The crowd in New York City's Grand Central Terminal (seen here) gathers for that great moment, brought to them, of course, by CBS News, Murrow's home and now also Cronkite's, Rather's and Sevareid's. By decade's end, CBS goes from Murrow to 60 Minutes--and we travel with them, to race riots, assassinations, raucous conventions and so much war.
In with a Bang
In 1960 there are 30 westerns on the air, from Gunsmoke and Rawhide (with Clint Eastwood) to Cheyenne and Stagecoach West (with Wayne Rogers, later of M*A*S*H). In '61, Congress holds hearings on TV violence. By '65, seven westerns survive.
Different Strokes
For sports fans, ABC offers Wide World of Sports (below) in 1961, with an early menu of lumberjack contests and cliff-diving. For sitcom fans, CBS provides The Beverly Hillbillies (bottom left) in 1962. For kiddies, PBS's Mister Rogers' Neighborhood bows in 1968 (below). For hippie-dippies, NBC provides Laugh-In that same year (below, center). All are big hits; all spawn copycats.
Out with a Hush
The world holds its breath as Neil Armstrong takes a giant leap for mankind: July 20, 1969.
The 1970s
TALKING AND TEACHING
TV makes a difference. Race is a nightly topic on the commercial nets, and each day PBS's Sesame Street teaches children how to count, read--and think. Available to all, the show democratizes learning. Its style and pace not only change education but also alter the way boomers and their kids take in information and view the world.
All-Americans?
Two gutsy Norman Lear sitcoms hit the air: All in the Family in 1971, Sanford and Son in '72 (below, top and bottom). Each says much about bigotry in America. Interestingly, each is based upon a hit British series: Family was inspired by Till Death Do Us Part, Sanford by Steptoe and Son.
Funny/Not Funny
Even comedy is relevant. Sitcoms Bridget Loves Bernie, Maude and M*A*S*H (below) deal with issues like interfaith marriage, abortion and war. Variety shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (bottom, with guest Bob Hope) carry forth political-satire traditions established earlier on TV by Hope, George Carlin and the notorious Smothers Brothers.
Meanwhile
In rebuttal to relevance: Happy Days (1974), Laverne & Shirley ('76), The Love Boat ('77) and Fantasy Island ('78).
Whither Women?
Popular sitcoms early in the decade--That Girl, Julia, The Mary Tyler Moore Show--concern the lives of independent women. This is a refreshing new direction, but short-lived. The big show late in the decade concerns three gun-toting babes without bras. Charlie's Angels (below) is a herald of the vacuous '80s.
The 1980s
THE BOOB TUBE
To make sense of the '80s proves difficult. Is Dan Rather losing it? Why do more people care who shot J.R. in Dallas than cared who shot JFK in Dallas? Isn't "music video" an oxymoron? To make sense of the 1980s is to make sense of apparent nonsense, unless you delve deeper. Perhaps more than ever, the tube is giving direction to society. Dallas predates cowboy Ronald Reagan's ride to Washington and the decade-long dominance of white-male Republicanism. Dynasty anticipates a soaring Dow and the credo that greed is good. (Indeed, Oliver Stone's 1987 film Wall Street and Tom Wolfe's '87 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities seem tardy when you consider that Dallas bowed in 1978 and Dynasty bobbed to the surface in '81.) Network TV does more than sanction the money-for-nothing '80s; it helps invent them. Meanwhile, to those who are paying attention, non-network television offers glimpses of the future. MTV is born in the '80s, and so is CNN. Soon--very soon--any viewer will be able to watch anything at any hour of any day. Even as the nets are racking up their highest-ever ratings with stunts like Who Shot J.R.? the bells are beginning to toll.
Unreal
"Reality-based TV" is an '80s buzz term, but the product often seems as real as bionic women or those pro wrestling bouts over on the new cable stations. (Jesse Ventura, future governor of Minnesota, applies a headlock, below.) Real People doesn't seem terribly real, and neither does That's Incredible! or Ripley's Believe It or Not (bottom). To the women, programmers offer little but soaps, as Dallas begets Dynasty, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing. For the men, it's escapism: Magnum, P.I., The A-Team, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy.
The Real Deal
The shows that most closely approximate true life in the '80s are not the stranger-than-fiction anthologies but verite dramas like Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere, which present the precinct house and the hospital in a way never before seen on TV. (Their legacy will be carried into the '90s by NYPD Blue and ER.) In comedy, Cosby and Roseanne (below) redefine our idea of a functional family--they are Father Knows Best and The Donna Reed Show brought up to date. And they ring true.
The 1990s
TWILIGHT OF THE NETS
The Simpsons have a noble lineage. Nelsons, Petries, Partridges, Huxtables: the American family. This latest generation is different, of course. Dad is a trial, the boy is a trial, Mom is burdened. The girl, a sharp one, is bound for glory. They are the millennial family unit: struggling, skeptical, disrespectful, ironic, hopeful. Bart, a savvy cynic and a bad boy--an anti-hero--readies us for Bill Clinton. The Simpsons verify our country's strength: If they can make it in today's America, who can't?
The Last Stand
NBC, the network that was there first, is there last--with its dominant Thursday night slate of shows like Seinfeld (below), ER and Friends (bottom). Nevertheless, the handwriting is on the wall for all the networks, prompting NBC execs to dangle $5 million an episode in hopes of keeping Jerry Seinfeld for one more year. The offer is refused, and NBC's Thursday lineup is must-see no more.
The New Networks
On top of cable's assault, the Big Three face challenges from upstarts Fox (The Simpsons and, below, The X-Files), the WB (Buffy and Dawson's Creek) and UPN (a wing and a prayer). Suddenly, where there had been a universal language of television, everyone's speaking a different tongue, reaching for a different audience--kids, oldsters, science freaks, computer geeks. An American evening finds Suzie wanting her MTV (bottom center) while Johnny grabs the remote to watch South Park (bottom right). Mom and Dad are already in bed, watching Emeril on The Food Network.
1939
On April 30, regularly scheduled network TV is born when NBC airs President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech at the opening of New York's World's Fair.
1940
TV casts about for "event" programming. Pontification by pompous politicos on Capitol Hill is an early staple--and with us still, more's the pity.
1947
Meet the Press debuts. Herbert Hoover, left, is an early guest on "America's Press Conference of the Air," which by 1999 is TV's longest-running series.
1947
NBC's first broadcast of baseball's World Series draws a big audience--to the neighbors' house, to the bar, to wherever there's a set. It starts a run on TVs at stores.
1954
Disneyland, linked to a prospective theme park, is ABC's first hit series. The show undergoes eight name changes in its 29 years on three networks.
1954
Sen. Joe McCarthy's war on commies is a regular series via the Army-McCarthy hearings. Audience decides Tailgunner Joe is evil; his downfall ensues.
1956
Elvis Presley has makeup applied before one of his appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. His lips will show; his pelvis, say the censors, is a no-no.
1960
JFK's Addison's disease makes him look ruddy-faced. Richard Nixon, meanwhile, develops a bad case of the sweats. On such turns history--in TV land.
1963
Film shot by professionals and amateurs makes for gripping television when Kennedy is shot in Dallas and passersby run for cover.
1964
Television, again in the form of The Ed Sullivan Show, remakes the national culture once more as the Beatles' appearance starts an overnight craze.
1968
Walter Cronkite and other journalists broadcast nightly from Vietnam. With the horror brought home, public sentiment turns against the war.
1970
Phil Donahue's show spurs trends: daytime talk TV, often trashy, and the success of syndicated shows. Oprah, Jerry, Geraldo, will owe Phil big-time.
1973
Seven months in the lives of the Louds of Santa Barbara--breakups, makeups, more breakups--are distilled to 12 hours of eerie, prurient TV on PBS.
1974
We interrupt this program to bring you the President's resignation (after months of televised hearings have turned Sen. Sam Ervin into a star).
1977
A 12-hour adaptation telecast over eight nights on ABC rivets a nation. An astonishing 130 million Americans see at least part of the miniseries Roots.
1980
As ratings rule all, TV gets strange. Even the news makes you wonder: Dan Rather goes undercover in Afghanistan; sting operations proliferate.
1980
Who cares? On Nov. 21, 83 million viewers do--care who shot J.R., that is--as a Dallas episode is the top-rated show to date. (M*A*S*H's 1983 finale beats it.)
1982
Late Night with David Letterman, marrying Carson to Saturday Night Live, introduces TV's age of irony. Cybill Shepherd, moonlighting, wears a towel--nicely.
1985
60 Minutes plus tabloid journalism equals 20/20. Geraldo Rivera (left) quits ABC when a piece on Marilyn Monroe's love life is killed. Standards!
1991
It doesn't get more postmodern than America rushing home to watch a war start--live--on the nightly news. Bomb flights are shown on replays. Scud studs are born.
1994
Maybe it does get more postmodern than that: On June 17, prime time, U.S. watches L.A. cops chase O.J.'s Bronco. Kato: I'm ready for my closeup, Judge Ito.
1997
More postmodern still: A million in London, billions elsewhere, attend Di's funeral via TV. Elton John eulogy tops "White Christmas" as all-time best-seller.
1999
Most post, so far: President stands trial--live. Supreme Court chief sports robes modeled on garb from Gilbert and Sullivan. No modernist, he.
PHOTO (COLOR): Big Bird
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Milton Berle
PHOTO (COLOR): NBC going from radio to television
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The Mysterious Mummy Case
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The Original Amateur Hour, hosted on TV by Ted Mack
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Felix the Cat
PHOTO (COLOR): The Ed Sullivan Show debutes in 1948 on CSB as Toast of the Town
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Lucy in candy factory
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Ricky and Lucy from I Love Lucy
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The Today show, starring Dave Garroway and the chimp
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Backstage of show
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): HERE COME THE NELSONS
PHOTO (COLOR): Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): NBC's The Tonight Show with host Steve Allen
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The crowd in New York City's Grand Central Terminal to see Alan Shepard and John Glenn shot into space.
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): ABC offers Wide World of Sports in 1961
PHOTO (COLOR): The Beverly Hillbillies
PHOTO (COLOR): Mr Rogers' Neighborhood
PHOTO (COLOR): Laugh-In
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): First step on the moon
PHOTO (COLOR): Sesame Street
PHOTO (COLOR): All in the Family in 1971
PHOTO (COLOR): Sanford and Son in 1972
PHOTO (COLOR): M*A*S*H
PHOTO (COLOR): Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour
PHOTO (COLOR): Charlie's Angels
PHOTO (COLOR): Dynasty stars
PHOTO (COLOR): Jesse Ventura applying a headlock
PHOTO (COLOR): Ripley's Believe It or Not
PHOTO (COLOR): The Cosby Show
PHOTO (COLOR): Roseanne
PHOTO (COLOR): The Simpsons
PHOTO (COLOR): Kramer from Seinfeld
PHOTO (COLOR): Friends
PHOTO (COLOR): The X-Files
PHOTO (COLOR): Mtv
PHOTO (COLOR): The Food Network
PHOTO (COLOR): The WB Television Network
PHOTO (COLOR): South Park
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The opening of New York's World Fair
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): "Event" programming
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Meet the Press
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): First broadcast of the World Series
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The Wonderful World of Disney
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Sen. Joe McCarthy's war on commies is a regular series via the Army-McCarthy hearings.
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Elvis Presley
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): JFK and Richard Nixon on TV
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Film of passersby running for cover from when Kennedy was shot
PHOTO (COLOR): The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Broadcasts from Vietnam
PHOTO (COLOR): Phil Donahue in 1970
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Louds of Santa Barbara
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Sen. Sam Ervin in 1974
PHOTO (COLOR): The miniseries Roots
PHOTO (COLOR): Dan Rather goes undercover in Afghanistan
PHOTO (COLOR): In 1980 a Dallas episode is the top-rated show to date. Who shot J.R.?
PHOTO (COLOR): Cybill Shepherd on Late Night with David Letterman
PHOTO (COLOR): Geraldo Rivera on 20/20
PHOTO (COLOR): Television screen with Kuwait on it
PHOTO (COLOR): O.J.'s Bronco being chased by police
PHOTO (COLOR): Di's funeral via TV
PHOTO (COLOR): Trial of the President on CNN
~~~~~~~~
Essay by Todd Brewster
Copyright © Time Inc., 1999. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be duplicated or redisseminated without permission.