Television in the Antenna Age A Concise History [Paperback]

Television in the Antenna Age is a brief, accessible, and engaging overview of the medium’s history and development in the US. Integrating three major concerns--television as an industry, a technology, and an art—the book is a basic primer on the complex, fascinating, and often overlooked story of television and its impact on American life.

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• Covers the entire history of American television, from its urban, middle-class beginnings in the late 40s, to the contemporary impact of new technologies and consolidated corporate.
  
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  Includes interview segments with industry insiders, pictures, and sidebars to illustrate important figures, trends, and events

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

1 No Small Potatoes 1

Communication and Transportation: The Divorce 1

Water, Water Everywhere 6

Electrical Bananas 9

Here Comes the Judge 10

Say What? 11

2 A Downstream Medium 21

The Show Business 22

Radical Consumerism Occupies the Middle 27

Networking 31

Quality Control 34

3 A Burning Bush? 37

Broadcasting: Love It or Need It? 38

A Vertical System of Culture 44

Compatible Software 46

4 Staging and Screening 53

Sets 53

Getting with the Program 55

The Origins of ABC 58

5 Corruption and Plateau 66

Technology 66

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