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Friday 24 August 2018

Television show

A television show (or program) is any content viewed on a television set, excluding breaking news, commercials, or trailers.



HISTORY

The first television shows in the UK were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within a very short range from the BBC broadcast tower starting in the 1930s. The first piece of television drama ever to be produced in Britain was a production of Luigi Pirandello’s play The Man With the Flower in His Mouth, which was broadcast as a test by BBC to the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street in 1930.

The first ever TV show was broadcast by NBC/RCA on July 7, 1936. It was seen by only a few hundred people who had access to the new television. The first ever program featured newsreel items, as well as a variety show of sorts, which included female dancers performing a water lily dance, a fashion show and some comic bits. 


The BBC began transmitting a regular television service at 3pm on November 2, 1936 from a converted wing of the Alexandra Palace in London. They broadcast to a hundred very expensive television sets that had been bought by wealthy Londoners. After formal introductions and a news bulletin, the first show Here's Looking At You! was a hotpotch involving comedy dancers Buck and Bubbles, some jugglers, the BBC television orchestra and the singer Adele Dixon who performed a specially composed song. The show was retransmitted several times over the coming weeks, making them the first repeats.


In 1937 Marcel Boulestin became the world's first television cook when he presented the first of the Cooks Night Out programs on the BBC.

Meet the Press debuted on NBC on November 6, 1947. It is Network television's oldest show.

In 1948, the popular radio comedy-variety show Texaco Star Theater made the move to the television and became the first weekly televised variety show. It is remembered as the program that gave Milton Berle the nickname "Mr Television". The popularity of Texaco Star Theater demonstrated that TV was a stable, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers.



The first TV daytime soap opera, These Are My Children, was telecast from NBC in Chicago in 1949. 

The first all-black-cast variety show was presented on WENR-TV in Chicago in 1949. The show was called Happy Pappy.

In 1956, when African-Americans were rarely seen on television starring in acting roles let alone hosting, jazz pianist and singer Nat King Cole became the first black person to host a TV series with The Nat King Cole Show, which featured other black performers including Count Basie and Sammy Davis Jr.


Guyanese actor, musician, writer and poet Cy Grant was the first black person to be featured regularly on television in the United Kingdom in the 1950s, mostly due to his appearances on the BBC current affairs show Tonight.

Coronation Street is the world's longest-running television soap opera. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on December 9, 1960.

The first couple shown in bed together on prime time US TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

On July 20, 1969, an estimated 530 million people watched the live global broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing. This constituted around 14% of total population of the world at the time, despite the fact that the first moonwalk took place in the middle of the night in Europe.

On October 5, 1969, Fuji Television started an anime comedy series, Sazae-san, which is still on the air today and currently in production, making it the longest-running anime and non-soap opera scripted TV series in history.


The shortest run for a TV series was 11 minutes. In 1969, a sketch show called Turn-On, by the creator of Laugh-In, was deemed so risqué that at the first commercial break of the debut episode, the network announced it would no longer play the show and instead aired organ music over a black screen.

Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii, transmitted via satellite in 1973, broke records for the largest worldwide television audience in the history of the medium. The show was the most expensive entertainment special at the time, costing $2.5 million. Later released as a double album, it became one of Elvis' best selling releases of the '70s.

Roots, a mini-series based on the Alex Haley novel of that name became the most watched TV (non-comedic) drama program in history when it was aired on ABC-TV in 1977. The final episode was watched by 100 million viewers and an average of 80 million viewers watched each of the last seven episodes.

Wikipedia

In 1967 72% of American TV viewers watched Dr. Richard Kimbal catch up with the one-armed man on The Fugitive. It was a record proportion that stood until 76% watched Dallas to find out who shot J.R. on November 21, 1980.

M*A*S*H became the most watched television comedy or drama program in history, as the final original episode of the fictitious, but uncommonly real, 4077th M*A*S*H (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit of the Korean War aired on February 28, 1983. An estimated 125-million people in the U.S. tuned in to see the broadcast on CBS.

M.A.S.H. cast Wikipedia


The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson became the first network program to be telecast in stereo in 1984.

The Miami Vice soundtrack was already at the summit of the US album chart when the show's theme tune topped the Hot 100 on November 9, 1985. US chart history was made, as it was the first time a TV show generated both the US #1 single and album.

RECORDS

According to Nielsen Media Research, 4.7 billion viewers worldwide tuned into some of the television coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, making it the most watched TV broadcast of all time.

Talk and game show host Regis Philbin holds the world record for most hours on U.S. television: between 1958 and 2011, he racked up 16,746.50 hours in front of the camera--an average of one hour per day for 52 years.

The CCTV New Year's Gala, also known as the Spring Festival Gala, is broadcast annually on the eve of Chinese New Year. The Gala is recognized by Guinness World Records as the most-watched television show in the world, with one billion viewers in 2018.

On April 20, 2015, the second episode of the fifth season of the TV drama series Game of Thrones was broadcast simultaneously in 173 different territories around the world. This broke the previous record for the largest simulcast of a TV drama series, which was also held by Game of Thrones for its fourth season premiere, shown in 170 territories.  The episode, titled "The House of Black and White," was shown in 40 languages across a range of different platforms, including cable, satellite, and online streaming services. The event was organized by HBO, which produced the series, and it was a major achievement in the history of television broadcasting, demonstrating the global popularity and impact of the show.

As of December 25, 2017, 840 episodes of the British BBC science fiction television program Doctor Who have been broadcast. The show's high episode count resulted in Doctor Who holding the world record for the highest number of episodes for a science fiction program.

At a cost of £2.5 million (US$3.2 million), the opening scene for "The Holy Trinity", the first episode of The Grand Tour, was the most expensive scene in television history.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May greeting the audience in The Grand Tour. Wikipedia


FUN FACTS

The creators, directors and writers for Parks and Rec, Bob’s Burgers, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Silicon Valley, Modern Family, The Good Place, American Dad, and Rick and Morty all got their big breaks on King of the Hill.

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