The Acceptance Of TV In The 1950's

Today, Film and Television are among the most internationally supported commodities. Financially, their contributions are enormous: both industries are responsible for the circulation of billions of dollars each year. Since their respective explosions into the new media markets during the mid-twentieth century, film and television have produced consistently growing numbers of viewers and critics alike. Sparking debate over the nature of their viewing, film and television are now being questioned in social, political, and moral arenas for their potential impact on an audience. Critics claim that watching films or television is a passive activity in which the viewer becomes subconsciously

How many people today watch family sitcoms to imitate or compare values with their own? Probably not as many as there were in the 1950s. In Stephanie Coontz's "What We Really Miss about the 1950s", she discusses why people feel more nostalgic towards growing up in the 1950s, and how she disagrees that 1950s wasn't the decade that we really should like or remember best. Apart from economic stability, family values played an important part then. Through television sitcoms, such as "Leave it to Beaver", "Father knows Best", families watched them to make sure they were living correctly. It was like guidance and somewhat reassurance. However, values of families have changed, and this is shown on sitcoms today. We watch sitcoms today for

By the 1960s the studio system was all but over. Many cinemas were closed down and several of the production back lots sold. Society had changed dramatically particularly with the rise of youth and the youth market, and the old Hollywood product seemed stale to the rising youth audience. Times were changing and the industry had to change with it. The studio system had declined rapidly in the 1950s and by the late 1960s was all but over. The audience had segmented into different social groups with increased leisure options rather than the mass habit audience of the golden age. Many of the films the studios produced to compete with television seemed to many people old fashioned and part of a different world which led to a significant drop in

The 1960’s was and important time in American history. Television became popular. John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president and a few years later was assassinated. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced. The psychedelic movement 1960’s. The Vietnam War. Despite all the things that was happening in the 1960’s it was still a great and bad time of that era.

The Supreme Court ruled against the Hollywood’s monopoly of the film industry of the United States, directing that the production and distribution of movies be separated from movie exhibition practices. The ruling marked the death of studio era and led to numerous changes in film industry decades later. The paramount decision pushed the Twentieth century fox, Big Five studios, MGM, Paramount, RKO and Warner Bros companies to sell some of their theatre chains. The ruling went ahead to outlaw the price discriminatory and purchasing arrangements, fixing of admissions prices, block booking and

Thirdly, in 1905, “Nickelodeons,” or 5-cent movie theaters, began to propose an easy and inexpensive way for the public to watch movies. Nickelodeons helped the film industry move into the 1920’s by increasing the public appeal of the film and create more cash for movie producers, nearby the broad utilization of theaters to screen World War I publicity. After World War I finished and introduced the United States into an economic boom, another new focus was on the ascent: Hollywood, the home of movement films in

Television has changed a lot since the 60s. There are better graphics now then there

The film industry has always been somewhat of a dichotomy. Grounded firmly in both the worlds of art and business the balance of artistic expression and commercialization has been an issue throughout the history of filmmaking. The distinction of these two differing goals and the fact that neither has truly won out over the other in the span of the industry's existence, demonstrates a lot of information about the nature of capitalism.

In 1930’s the television was only available to the worthy people. RCA produced four models of television receivers, which were sold in department stores. The high prices of TV set made the product inaccessible to the population. Many unsold television sets were put into storage and sold after

The continuing success of the film industry and the subsequent ticket sale receipts proved that the American public was interested in motion pictures and willing to pay for it. The introduction of sound and an ever increasing production value was putting customers into seats. “The idea was to get the public out of the house and into the theater, give them what they wanted and thus help them forget the Depression and the anxieties caused by the events leading up to the Second World War” (Barsam 427). What better way to make the most money out of movies than to control all aspects of the industry, thus making money each step of the way. This was the studio system in the golden age of Hollywood, a relatively brief, but influential time period

The competition within the television market over the past eighty years or so has driven firms to create cheaper and higher quality televisions. Now, better quality televisions are more accessible

Both the rise in popularity of cinema going and its spectacular decline are not only well documented and discussed, but surprisingly, have generated little general disagreement among historians. Eddie Dyja states categorically that cinema popularity is easily explained, ‘it is cheap accessible and glamorous’1. Where as most of the blame for the decline is attributed to the advent of television.

“Rentals, driven by popular theatrical releases, accounted for 80% of the home video market…while sales, also dominated by popular films, such as Paramount’s ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ accounted for the remaining 20%” (Broadcasting 43). With the increase in demand for VCR’s, the price for consumers has gone down significantly. While the average price of a VCR was $1,200 in 1978, it dropped to around $500 in 1984. The necessary component of the VCR, the VHS cassette tape, was priced anywhere between $60 and $80 (“VCR’s” 43). The VCR was an obvious advance for the film industry, but how would the world of cable and broadcasting react to such an invention? There arose VCR enthusiasts, skeptics, and (as always) undecided as the VCR’s growth become quite apparent.

First and foremost, Lotz provides valuable insight into the distinguishable eras of television development. The resulting three eras are defined as the ‘network’ era, ‘multi-channel transition’ and ‘post-network’ era (7). Each developing upon the last, the industrial changes which occurred in the earlier eras had direct effects on the formation of the current ‘post-network’ era.

Before the 1950s even though television was in existence, the average models for home use were not able to create the type of entertainment experience that one would get when going to the movie theater. In fact, even when home theater systems did start becoming available, they were not via television. Instead, they were through projector equipment. Of course back then the technology was only limited to showing ‘home movies’ or more infamously silent stag films, but it was still establishing a trend that would continue even until today. This trend would involve turning one’s bedroom, basement or even a backyard into a movie theater of sorts. Granted, there doesn’t exist any home theater