A brief history
September 16, 2010 (Thursday)
A couple of days ago I said in the blog that I was going to buy a new television set, and so I did. It’s a VIZIO 42″ LCD. After setting it up for me, Dwight tuned in to a High Definition baseball game broadcast from Minute Maid Park. I tell you, it looked like we were right there in that beautiful baseball park. Absolutely amazing.
I invite you to reminisce with me for a few minutes, and think about those days earlier in our lives when there was no such thing as television. But we had radio. Radio brought with it all sorts of programs and people enjoyed them very much. The homemakers had their soap operas, such as Stella Dallas and One Man’s Family. The kids had their serial dramas with their super heroes like Captain Midnight and Jack Armstrong, the All-American boy. In the evening there was Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, Lum and Abner, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and many others. During World War 2, there were the fireside chats by President Roosevelt.
Later came television. I remember watching a small screen through a store window. At first the broadcasts were only for a few hours at night, but gradually more shows were shown. Of course, it was all in black and white, and sometimes not very clear. Uncle Jesse and Aunt Helen got a set that looked like a big suitcase with a handle on top. The screen was about 4″ wide and the set came equipped with a magnifying glass about a foot wide. I recall one evening when about 15 of us huddled around that small screen to see what we could see.
Later came color. Like the black and white sets before them, the color programs were few and far between and were accompanied with much fanfare and publicity. Slowly but surely there were more color broadcasts and more color T.V. sets.
Now we have the LCD sets, the Plasma sets and the LED sets and even 3-D programs. Manufacturers are developing 3-D sets that will require no special glasses for viewing. Where will it all lead? Who knows?
At first there was one TV station in town and no networks. That has all changed now. Cable and satellite dishes have brought in so many channels that one would have to be wealthy to afford subscriptions to all of them.
If you don’t like the programs being beamed to you, all you have to do is rent or buy DVD’s or tapes of things that are morally acceptable to you and things you would prefer to watch and they are all available. The new TV sets make the whole experience pleasant.
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Click picture.