Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
1971 Timex Torture Test Commercial with John Cameron Swayze
John Cameron Swayze- Live Timex Commercial
The Television Phenomenon
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| RCA TELEVISION |
Decades after WWII, the television phenomenon had taken America by storm becoming the main mean of mass media and changing the way peoplelived their lives. The first public demonstration of television took placein San Francisco on September 7, 1927 by the inventor Philo Farnsworth. In the 1930's, his invention had become competition to the corporate giant RCA( the Radio Corporation of America). RCA wanted to buy Farnsworth's patent for his unique invention, however he refused the sell.  |
| Philo Farnsworth, Inventor of first television in 1927 THE FCC ROLE IN TELEVISION PHENOMENON The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions. (http://www.fcc.gov/aboutus.html) The proceeded cautiously in its determination of technical and regulatory standards. Several television proposals were placed before the FCC to consider, for example CBS wanted color television. However, the FCC did not act on television until 1941 after WWII.  EARLY TELEVISION CONTENT Early Television content was influenced by the radio and movie industry. Radio had developed a full array of content such as news, drama, comedy, music, and lectures. Also, early filming was done live so therefore if anything went wrong the audience would know for sure. For example, John Cameron Swayze was a radio journalist turned television pitch man for Timex watch commercials. In the live commercial he put the Timex through a series of rigorous test, he held the watch up the watch up to the camera and exclaim the slogan, "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking!" Once though, a Timex was lashed to an outboard motor propeller and thrashed about in a barrel of water. When the propeller emerged from the water, the Timex had disappeared, leaving Swayze speechless.  I love Lucy was the first television series to be filmed a the same time it was being broadcasting. I Love Lucy debuted on CBS in October 1951, starred Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley and was an immediate sensation. It spent four of its six prime-time seasons as the highest-rated series on television and never finished lower than third place. Eisenhower's presidential inauguration in January 1953 drew twenty-nine million viewers, but when Lucy gave birth to Little Ricky in an episode broadcast the next day forty-four million viewers (72% of all U.S. homes with TV) tuned in to I Love Lucy.(http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=ilovelucy) |
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