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

Return to Recording Technology History Notes | this page revised 11/23/05