Blacklisting
Selecting people that are suspected to be Communists or aid the Communist party. Being blacklisted pretty much signified the end of your career.
Deficit Financing
An arrangement in which the network pays the studio that make a show a license fee in exchange for the right to air the show, but the studio retains ownership.
Independent Station
A broadcast television station that is not affiliated with one of the Big Four networks.
Insulated Funding
funds would remain solely dedicated to broadcasting and thus be insulated from any kind of interference by Congress or other groups
Intertexuality
The process of knowingly borrowing and referring to other texts, or interpreting one text in the light of other related texts.
Least Objectionable Programming
Programming created by networks that audiences would find most entertaining. LOP tended to stay away from controversial topics so that the viewer would keep watching the program.
Magazine Concept
The network would produce and control the program and sell portions of time within it for commercial messages to advertisers. Each program would have a number of different advertisers.
Network Affiliate
A local station that has a contractual relationship to air a network's programming.
Network O&O
A station owned and operated by one of the three commercial networks. Each Network could own up to 7 TV stations (5 VHF, 2 UHF), usually in the largest national markets.
Oligopoly
A situation in which a particular market is controlled by a small group of firms.
Quality Demographics
A network programming strategy that believed more educated people had better taste which therefore improved the quality of television shows. This was the first time that networks started to appeal to different groups.
Quality Television
Pushed into place by Minow's "vast wasteland" speech. Networks began making shows that would appeal to more educated audiences.
Relevant Programming
Programming the related to what was actually occurring at that time. Ex: Civil Rights
Residual
something left after other parts have been taken away.
Subscription Television
Refers to an early form of pay cable that hollywood film studios developed to transmit films to people's television sets.
Syndication
sale of radio or television content to stations on a market-by-market basis.
Theater Television
A technique for broadcasting television signals onto movie screens in theaters
Time Franchise
...
Charles van Doren
Quiz show scandals. Contestant on "21" that replaced Herbert Stemple. Found a job on "The Today Show" due to his success on the show. Went to court and convicted of perjury along with many other indivuduals involved in "21".
Desi Arnaz
Co-star of "I Love Lucy". Married Lucille Ball and started Desilu Productions with her.
Edward R. Murrow
Began working at CBS in 1933 with no previous journalism experience. Stories include "Visiting Buchenwald" and took on McCarthy live on the air.
Fred Silverman
Appointed head of Daytime programming at CBS in 1963.Replaced the quiz shows and sitcom reruns with soaps. Also revitalized CBS's Saturday morning children's hours.
Frederick Ziv
Ziv Productions. "I Led 3 Lives.
Grant Tinker
Husband to Mary Tyler Moore. Headed MTM Enterprises.
Herbert Stemple
Contestant on "21". After being payed off and replaced by van Doren, he tried to out the fradulent activities on the quiz shows, but no one took his allegations seriously.
Jean Muir
Accused of being part of the Communist party and blacklisted in the industry.
Joseph McCarthy
Leader in the attack on communism in America. Falsely accusing many individuals to being communists and put them on trial for their accusations.
Karl Freund
Cinematographer for many famous Hollywood production including "Metropolis" and "I Love Lucy
Mark Fowler
Head of FCC.
Newton Minow
Television is a "vast wasteland". Accused the networks of producing trash television.
Norman Lear
Responsible for many shows such as "All In the Family", "Maude", "The Jeffersons", and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show".
Paul Klein
...
Robert Wood
...
Sylvester "Pat" Weaver
NBC network programming head. "The Today Show". Mimiced women's magazine-style radio shows by featuring numerous guests and feature segments and news coverage.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents...
...
All in the Family
Product of Norman Lear/Tandem Production. 1970s TV show that introduced controversial topics as integration and Civil Rights.
Amos 'n' Andy
Popular radio show. Featured two white men portraying black men. When it moved to television, they had to find an all black cast for their show. Presented African Americans as dumb and stupid.
An American Family
12-part documentary the essentially started the television reality show. Focused on the Loud Family.
The Beulah Show
Show about an African American housekeeper. Glamorized domestic work for African American women. Problematic because it showed her paying more attention the the white children rather than her own.
The Beverley Hillbillies
#1 show on television for first two seasons. Started the "rural sitcom" trend. Example of Least Objectionable Programming.
The Bob Newhart Show
...
Dallas
...
Davy Crockett
...
Disneyland
ABC's first top ten series. Series created to help promote Disney products such as the theme park and recycle old material created by Disney studios.
Dragnet
Radio show turned into television series. Law Enforcement drama. Producers worked closely with LAPD to make show as accurate as possible.
East Side/West Side
Controversial television show that showed the reality of race and civil rights issues in America. Only lasted one season.
Father Knows Best
Sitcom that portrayed the typical "American" family.
Good Times
...
I led 3 Lives
Television series during the Cold War. Based of the true story of Herbert Philbrick who was a FBI agent who successfully infiltrated the American Communist Party while posing as an advertising executive for the Boston branch of Paramount Pictures.
I Love Lucy
Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Shot in Los Angeles. Shot on film. Dise and Lucille kept full ownership of series which in the longrun turned out to be a very profitable move.
I Spy
Spy show with Bill Cosby that falsely portrayed the acceptance of black in American society.
Julia
Diahann Carroll. Featured Carroll as a single, black mother that was successful and well-liked among the white society. Controversial because African American women saw her as a "sell-out", an "oreo-cookie", a black white woman.
Leave It to Beaver
Started the suburban sitcom. Showed a very much "Utopian" society. No blacks, no crime, typical nuclear family.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
First television show to feature a successful, independent, single woman as the leading role
Maude
Tandem Production series. Spin-off of "All in the Family." A top 10 show for its first 4 seasons. "Maude's Dilemma" was a very controversial episode dealing with abortion. CBS affilliates refused to air the episode.
The Nat King Cole Show
Controversial show that falsely portrayed the acceptance of black in the white society. Pulled off the air because they couldn't find a sponsor for the show.
Roots
...
See It Now
News show hosted by Edward R. Murrow. Weekly half-hour show devoted to in-depth documentary coverage of a variety of subjects.
Sesame Street
PBS kids television show. Used The Muppets. Educational programming for children.
The $64,000 Question
First popular quiz show. Everyone would be watching this show when it came on. They would pretty much give the contestants the answers to the questions being asked. Schoolteachers being boxing experts...children being experts on the stock market. Contesta
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Variety show featuring Tom and Dick Smothers that featured many controversial people and dealt with many controversial topics such as war and drugs.
21
Quiz show that resulted in a very large scandal. Herbert Stemple was given answers, but after being on the show for a few episodes, the producers wanted a new contestant so they replaced him with Charles van Doren. Outraged by the situation, he tried to o
Desilu
Production company owned and operated by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball
Three Camera Film Method
3 cameras position on three sides of the set. One on the left, one in the middle, and one on the right.
Innovations of "I Love Lucy
Shot in LA, shot on film, Arnaz and Ball had complete ownership of the series.
Why the shift from live to recorded TV?
Becuase too many problems came with live television. Too many acting, mechanical, and electrical malfunctions. Recorded TV gave time for editing and the correction of the mishaps.
Red Channels
Pamphlet listing individuals that were supposedly associated with the Communist Party.
The blacklist and TV
Actors that were blacklisted and put in "Red Channels" could rarely, if ever, find work after they had been blacklisted.
McCarthy vs. Murrow
Edward Murrow called out Joseph McCarthy live on the air questioning his methods of finding "communists" in America.
The Suburban Sitcom
Portrayed the "utopian society". Nuclear family. No crime or troubles. Mom, dad, and kids. Always had the latest appliances and furnishings in the homes. Ex: Leave It to Beaver.
The Suburban Sitcom and reality
The suburban sitcom along with other TV shows gave a false reality to what society was really like. There was no such thing as the "perfect" family and "perfect" neighborhood.
Urban Ethnic Sitcom
Showed characters of a foreign background. No kids, apartment living, and set in the city rather than suburban America. Ex: The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy.
Hollywood and TV in the 1950s and 1960s
...
Why "Disneyland" important to Disney and ABC.
It gave ABC its first top ten show. The show allowed Disney to advertise their products as well as the theme park they we planning.
The Functions of Disneyland
Advertisement of Disney products and allowed Disney to reuse old materials for his show.
Kennedy vs. Nixon Presidential Debate
While Kennedy visited the set previously and figured out what wardrobe, lighting, etc... would best fit the set, Nixon did not and ended up drab and pretty much blended into the background of the set.
Why Minow called TV a "vast wasteland
Minow saw that the programs being run by the networks were a bunch of garbage. None of the programs had any sort of value to them. It was just mindless entertainment.
Educational Television Facilites Act
In 1962, Congress gave the first major federal aid to public broadcasting.
All Channel Receiver Act
Required all television set made to be equipped with UHF receivers.
Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
a congressional act that established the Public Broadcasting Service.
Fairness Doctrine
Federal Communications Commission policy that required holders of radio and television licenses to ensure that different viewpoints were presented about controversial issues or persons; largely repealed in 1987
Rural Purge
A series of cancellations between 1969 and 1972, the majority of which occurred at the end of the 1970-71 television season, of still popular rural-themed shows and shows with demographically-skewed audiences.
Fin-Syn Rules
Kept networks from profiting from production and sale of programs.
PTAR
Prime Time Access Rule. Restricted the amount of network broadcast programming that a local television station, Owned-and-operated station (O&O) by or affiliated with a television network may air during "prime time",
MTM Enterprises
Headed by Grant Tinker (Husband to Mary Tyler Moore).
Tandem Productions
In conjunction with Norman Lear, Tandem Productions. Responsible for programs such as All In The Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Sanford & Son, etc...