Television-p4

Television in the 1950's-** By the late 1950's almost 90% of American families had a television set, and the average family watched around six hours of television a day. The television industry was booming. Shows such as //I Love Lucy// and //Gunsmoke// are example of things people watched. In 1953 about 44 million viewers watched //I Love Lucy// to watch as they gave birth to their new son. Nearly twice the amount of Americans watched that one //I Love Lucy// episode than President Eisenhower's Inauguration. America was a changing nation.
 * Landon

Of course with America changing, there were only a few things that were left to make a television set perfect, a remote and color television. The remote came first in about 1950 by a company called Zenith. This was a new step to the business but this was still a very early stage of the remote. With a wire running on the floor from the TV to the remote, it still had a long way to go. This remote only let you change the channel, but that all changed in 1956 Zenith created a remote to turn on the TV, change the channels, and mute the television.

From 1953-1954, all televisions were in black and white. That all changed when 200,000 color televisions were made, changing the television business even today. Along with the new color there was a new cost. Before the color television came out, televisions cost around $700, but when the color was added, the cost rose three hundred dollars causing it to be around $1000. In the series of //I Love Lucy// the stars, Characters Desierio Alberto Arnaz and Lucille Desiree Ball were an automatic hit. From the hilarious plot to the great actors, America couldn't resist. This show was also powered by the publisher Jess Oppenheimer and the writers Pugh-Davis and Carrol helped make this show one of the most memorable ever.

Not only was the show top of the charts in six months but it had around 50 million viewers every Monday night. In 1954 the show did something no other show had ever done. It timed Lucilles real pregnancy with the characters pregnancy which nearly got more than 1/5 more viewers on one show when Lucy actually gave birth to their new son, Ricky.

Not many people understand the importance of the television being invented and how it impacted people, not only in the 1950's but even today. But the television changed the world and how people look at it. Even in the 1950's television changed the views of people and how they thought of other people, countries, and politics. The television helped the American people watch news, sports, and other things which have dramatically changed the world and the way people think about it.

Bibliography:

Text Book: Deverell, William, and Deborah G. White. United States History. Austin: Holt Rinehart Winston. 860.

Online: “Television (1953) back in time” World Book Online Reference Center. 1953. 05. Feb. 2007 

"Television History." __Remote Controls for Televisions__. 13 Feb. 2007 <[|http://www.tvhistory.tv/Remote%20Controls.htm>.]

Picture: Family Watching Televison in the 1950's. 12 Feb. 2007 .

Book: Edwards, Elisiabeth. I Love Lucy Fifty Years. Philadelphia: Running P Book, 2001.