As far as I'm aware television ownership only became widespread in the fifties, I've spoken to my grandmother about it and she said her first memory of watching television was of the Queen's Coronation in 1953. Isn't it a bit pointless to have a board dedicated to forties TV? Why don't they just roll it into one Classic TV : The 50's and Before board.
shareGreat series of the 1940s included "The Goldbergs" (1949-1956), "Chesterfield Supper Club", "Studio One", and "Texaco Star Theater".
Poof! There Goes Perspiration!
Admiral Broadway Review
Toast of the Town
Speidel Show (Ed Wynn)
The Lone Ranger
Original Amateur Hour
"The Ed Wynn Show" which I've seen various episodes of during the last few years, is a very strange but entertaining show. I think it is significant as it broke the fourth wall a lot and had a lot of Hollywood stars in their TV debuts.
Poof! There Goes Perspiration!
The 40's is when primetime network programming began but because it always gets lumped into the 50's it's basically the forgotten decade, yet it's the most important one of all. I think a thread devoted to the 40's is appropriate. Although programming didn't really get going until around 1946, we have a few years to pay tribute to in the 40's.
shareBecause the 40s is it's own completely different, unique, and vast decade of TV. Totally separate from the 1950s. It was perhaps the most important decade in TV too, as its' formative, meteoric, and programming experimentative days.
Just because your grandmother didn't know much of it doesn't mean it didn't exist.
By 1949 there were approximately 3.6M TV set sold in the US. http://www.tvhistory.tv/Annual_TV_Sales_39-59.JPG
And there were already numerous networks in the US- ABC, CBS, NBC, DuMont, Paramount Television Network & Mutual Broadcasting System. And the BBC and others were already in existence in the UK.
For instance, by 1949 this was the number of DuMont network affiliates alone. CBS, NBC, & ABC all had their own similarly wide networks then too. I'm just using DuMont as a single example, the total number of all TV affiliates at that time was 3x times this image at least- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/DuMont_Affiliates_1949.png
And TV was widespread enough that the Emmys were formed to honor distinguished programming in 1949 as well.
The '40s classic series are numerous- The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jack Benny Program, Kraft Television Theatre, The Lone Ranger, The Ed Wynn Show, Texaco Star Theatre, Suspense, The Ruggles, Howdy Doody, Mary Kay and Johnny, Captain Video, Colgate Theater, Philco Television Playhouse, The Goldbergs, Pantomime Quiz, Studio One, Hopalong Cassidy, And programming so classic they're timeless and are on air now or until just recently like Meet The Press, Candid Camera, CBS Evening News, and special events like the Macy's parade & MLB baseball.
All pioneered in the 40s, the crucial "pioneering decade" of TV if you will. To the 1950's massive growth, "golden age" decade. Very separate, important eras.
*****
-A.C. Robinson, classic film historian
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